Google’s parent company Alphabet and its affiliate Sidewalk Labs, along with the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, have launched a new infrastructure company to invest in high-tech urban infrastructure across North America.
Sidewalk Labs has been working in partnership with the tri-government agency Waterfront Toronto to design a district in Toronto’s Eastern Waterfront called Sidewalk Toronto, according to the company. Sidewalk Toronto aims to “tackle the challenges of urban growth” and “make Toronto a global hub for urban innovation.”
The new company, Sidewalk Infrastructure Partners, would invest in the Sidewalk Toronto project, along with other high-tech urban infrastructure projects, such as traffic-monitoring systems that utilize multiple sensors, according to The Globe and Mail.
The 12-acre mixed-use neighborhood would be called Quayside, and feature a zero-emissions microgrid, adaptable common spaces, and tiles capable of absorbing stormwater and melting snow, according to an article in City Lab. Sidewalk Labs has called it “the world’s first neighborhood built from the internet up.”
The Sidewalk Toronto project has been stalled by controversies regarding proposed data-gathering plans. The project is still subject to final approvals and will be shelved if Waterfront Toronto and Sidewalk Labs cannot iron out the kinks by Oct. 31.
