Date/time: 3:30 p.m. Sunday, March 13.
The panelists: Mayors from six of the seven Smart City Challenge finalists, including Austin Mayor Steve Adler; U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx.
The gist: $50 million in grants ($40 million from the U.S. government; $10 million from the company Vulcan) plus partnerships is at stake for mid-sized cities Austin, Columbus, Ohio, Kansas City, Pittsburgh, Portland and San Francisco. Mayors at the presentation made the case for their cities, but also focused on problems in common; transportation congestion, the problem of balancing fostering tech innovation with doing what's right for their cities. Foxx said the Challenge is geared to creating innovating new ways to deal with longer commutes and infrastructure gridlock, raising quality of life. Mayor Adler touted Austin's place in Texas as a disproportionately great place for venture capital, patents self-driving Google cars and creativity. But the mobility issues, which lead to inequity problems, could ruin Austin. "The reason that keeps me up at night is for all the things that are going incredibly well, we stand to lose all of them if we cannot solve this issue," Adler said.
The takeaway: All the cities are facing many of the same problems in regards to transportation. The solutions offered by the cities may not be winner-take-all. Said Kansas City Major Sly James, "it's a very friendly competition. Every mayor knows that if one city finds the golden key, then we all get to walk through the door.
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