►
Description
Docket #1465 - A hearing to accept and expend a grant from the James L. Knight Foundation in the amount of $200,000.00 to fund the deployment of sensors in urban environments.
A
My
name
is
Boston
city
councilor,
Matt,
O'malley
and
I
am
the
chair
of
the
council's
Committee
on
the
environment
and
sustainability.
Today
we
are
here
to
discuss
docket
number
one,
four,
six
five.
This
is
a
message
in
order
authorizing
the
city
of
Boston
to
accept
and
expend
the
amount
of
$200,000
in
the
form
of
a
grant
for
the
betablox
grant
from
the
state
from
the
John
S
and
James
L
Knight
foundation
to
be
administered
by
the
mayor's
office.
A
This
matter
was
sponsored
by
Mayor
Walsh
and
referred
to
the
Committee
last
month
on
November
29th
of
2017,
we're
obviously
having
a
hearing
today,
because
we
need
to
take
action
on
it
by
tomorrow.
At
the
final
council
hearing
of
the
year,
as
I
mentioned,
this
grant
would
fund
experiments
that
aim
to
improve
civic
light
by
supporting
the
city
of
Boston's
effort
to
create
a
process
for
deploying
sensors
and
urban
environments.
Deploying
sensors
have
been
proven
to
help
identify
environmental
issues
and
air
quality
concerns.
A
As
the
chair
of
the
council's
Committee
on
environment
sustainability,
I'm
always
looking
for
new
ways,
our
city
can
barn,
be
more
sustainable
and
combat
the
efforts
of
climate
change.
As
I've
said
far
too
often
over
these
last
11
months.
There
is
an
utter
lack
of
leadership
coming
from
Washington
as
it
relates
to
combating
climate
change.
So
it's
really
up
to
cities,
towns
and
states
to
lead
in
this
space
and
I've
been
grateful
to
partner
with
the
administration
on
a
whole
host
of
issues.
A
It's
also
imperative,
as
we're
getting
into
in
a
moment
that
the
information
that
we
collect
shall
be
presented
aggregated
in
an
anonymous
unidentifiable
form
the
Advisory
Council
for
this
effort
should
include
representatives
of
privacy
and
civil
liberties
groups
and
should
have
oversight
of
projects
that
involve
identifiable
and
sensitive
data
collection.
So
we'll
get
right
to
it.
We
joined
by
two
gentlemen
from
the
administration:
Chris
Artur
was
the
co-chair
of
the
mayor's
office
of
urban
mechanics
and
Stephen,
wet
I'm,
sorry,
Stephen,
Webster,
Walter,
Walter,
I'm.
Sorry,
I
can't
read
my
right.
A
Alias
Webster
Webster
Walter,
Webster,
Stephen,
Stephen
Walter,
the
program
manager
for
the
office
of
new
urban
mechanics
as
well.
Gentlemen,
welcome
do
you
wanna
just
give
an
overview
and
then
we'll
just
get
into
some
QA
and
before
you
do
that,
as
I
mentioned,
we
have
several
folks
in
the
audience.
If
anyone
would
like
to
testify,
we
will
be
happy
to
stay
here
as
long
as
needed.
Please
sign
up
in
the
back.
This
is
being
taped
and
broadcast
streamed
on
the
internet,
as
well
as
on
Comcast
channel
8
and
RCN
82
and
I.
A
C
Counselor
thank
you
for
having
us
here
today
and
making
sure
we
get
this
on
the
agenda
for
the
council
meeting
tomorrow
before
the
end
of
the
year.
We
appreciate
that
I'm
gonna
give
just
a
quick
overview
of
sort
of
the
landscape
that
this
grant
sort
of
takes
place
in
and
then
Stephen
who's
been
instrumental
and
applying
for
this
funding
and
and
helping
us
think
through
how
we're
going
to
utilize.
It
we'll
give
sort
of
a
little
bit
more
detail
as
to
the
grant.
C
All
these
things
work
for
the
residents
of
Boston,
the
visitors
of
Boston
and
how
we
sort
of
improve
our
city,
whether
it's
environmentally
or
whether
it's
for
social
needs
or
for
displays
of
public
art
or
otherwise.
We've
been
building
a
body
of
work
sort
of
in
this
smart
cities
space
over
the
last
few
years.
Everything
from
experimentation
with
how
we
use
camera
technology
as
a
new
way
to
understand
intersections
right.
C
So
we've
done
a
pilot
on
at
the
intersection
of
Beacon
Street
and
Mass
Ave
with
Verizon
last
year,
where
we
sort
of
use
cameras,
we
used
other
sensors
to
understand
the
movements
of
people
through
that
to
try
make
that
a
safer
space
we've
done
experiments
with
sort
of
people's
own
data,
submission
right
sort
of
this
idea
of
a
citizen
scientist
through
the
Boston
safest
driver
campaign,
an
app
you
can
download
that
sort
of
explores
and
ask
people
to
reflect
on
their
own
driving
experience
again
sort
of
a
personalised
sensor.
That
is
then
aggregating.
C
This
data,
as
you
said,
anonymously,
and
providing
submit
information
not
only
to
that
user,
but
back
to
the
city
as
a
whole
to
understand.
Where
is
distracted,
driving
taking
place
across
the
city
and
the
mayor's
office
of
newer
mechanics
in
collaboration
with
department,
innovation
technology
have
put
together
a
playbook
on
smart
cities
as
well
as
sort
of
a
framing
of
where
we
think
things
are
headed
right
now
and
what's
the
conversations
we
should
be
having
with
this
community
with
our
residents
about
smart
cities.
C
So
all
of
this
is
sort
of
funneled
into
a
series
of
questions
about
how
do
we
move
forward?
How
do
we
make
the
experimentation
easier
and
how
do
we
make
sure
we're
experimenting
with
the
right
things
by
having
the
right
conversations
and
robust
conversations
with
community
members?
So
to
that
end,
the
the
mayor's
office
in
your
mechanics
submitted
to
the
knight
foundation
to
apply
for
funding
to
sort
of
begin
those
conversations
so
well,
let's
even
talk
a
little
bit
more
in
depth
about
what
we're
hoping
to
accomplish
with
this
okay.
Thank
you.
Thanks.
B
C
So
in
cotton
Square
last
night
we
brought
in
some
smart
city
technology
providers
from
across
the
space
that
are
that
are
doing
kiosk
type
work,
members
of
government
members
of
the
research
community
and
then
members
of
the
common
square,
neighborhood
and
and
the
ACLU
as
well
to
have
a
debate
about
what
this
means.
I
would
should
the
city
be
thinking
about
kiosks,
what's
the
trade-offs
that
we're
gonna
make
where
the
trade-offs
and
privacy
that
people
maybe
aren't
aware
of
that,
we
should
have
a
really
thoughtful
conversation
about
those
types
of
things.
C
You
know
we're
feeling
like
we
need
to
bring
more
structure
to
is
to
even
set
and
make
sure
that
we're
being
thoughtful
about
who
has
access
to
the
streets.
How
are
we
sort
of
thinking
about
the
permitting
process
behind
this,
even
though
so
sort
of
nuts
and
bolts
governance
and
those
privacy
discussions
with
the
ACLU
at
the
table,
with
residents
at
the
table
with
libraries
at
the
table
to
make
sure
that
we're
doing
this
in
a
thoughtful
way?
C
A
You
so
in
full
disclosure
I
have
to
announce
that
I
worked
with
the
Smart
City
initiative
and
some
residents
and
business
owners
in
Jamaica
Plain
last
earlier.
This
year
actually
began
last
year,
but
were
able
to
secure
funding
for
the
sidewalk
Butler
project,
which
has
been
a
resounding
success
and
would
love
to
see
that
grow
across
the
city.
It's
it's
disposal
system
for
discarded
cigarette
butts
and
a
safe.
A
Sort
of
to
where
they
would
smolder
out
any
see
any
chance
of
fire
and
then
they'll
be
recycled.
So
it's
you
know.
We
hope
we
can
get
people
to
not
smoke,
but
at
least
we
can
recycle
the
cigarette
butts
until
until
they
quit,
and
the
smart
city
initiative
was
really
helpful
with
that.
So
this,
so
this
is
a
two
hundred
thousand
dollar
grant.
So
is
this
going
to
hire
staffers?
This
explain
exactly
what
the
sort
of
nuts
and
bolts
of
the
grant
will
go
towards.
I.
Think.
B
So
what
does
that
mean
so
throwing
there
were
certain
face-to-face
convenings
that
we
want
to
have
happen
at
certain
branch,
libraries,
potentially
throughout
the
city
where
people
can
meet
face
to
face,
but
also
thinking
about
what
an
online
presence
looks
like
if
I'm,
a
community
member
and
I
want
to
I
don't
put
in
sensors
on
my
blog
to
measure
the
pollution
or
measure
speeding
levels,
maybe
I
think
people
we
need
some.
You
know
traffic
calming
measures.
A
Money
will
be
you
I'm,
sorry
to
cut
you
off
I'm
fascinated
by
this,
and
you
know
think
they
really
think
I
love
it
when
cities
embrace
technology
to
address
many
of
these
issues.
So
you
have
me
with
this,
but
would
this
be
the
city
contracting
with
a
firm
to
create
a
platform
that
would
work
with
the
city
or
is
this?
Would
we
do
it
in-house
it
do
it,
and
this
would
sort
of
help
offset
that
cost?
It's.
C
We
said
that
we
would
use
some
of
this
for
staffing,
some
of
that
$200,000
for
staffing
and
whether
that
is
a
whether
we're
contracting
for
a
service
and
a
design
service
and
facilitation
service,
or
whether
we're
using
some
of
that
as
a
part-time
program
manager,
we're
sort
of
flushing
out
those
details,
depending
on
which
direction
we
end
up
going
sort
of
initially,
with
the
grant.
It.
C
A
You
know
in
Center,
Street
and
Jamaica
Plain
and
we're
gonna
we're
gonna.
You
know,
study
smog,
emission
air
emissions
from
cars.
This
is
we're.
Gonna
decide
how
we're
gonna
use
these
beta
blocks
and
sort
of
what
and
in
who's
gonna
make
that
decision
isn't
going
to
be
a
sort
of
community
driven
conversation,
yeah.
C
A
What
would
you
sort
of
see
is
a
worthwhile
piloted
program
that
perhaps
some
other
cities
have
done,
that
you
think
we
can
do
I
mean
that
the
Boston,
safest
driver
I
think
is
great.
The
I
know
there
was
some
talk
about
one
that
would
an
app
that
would
discover
potholes
and
then
sort
of
immediate
immediately
generate
a
report
to
the
Public
Works
yard.
So
what's
something
that
you'd
like
to
see
come
out
of
this
program.
B
So
you
know
we're
constantly
thinking
about
how
we
can
make
the
city's
sidewalks
more
accessible,
or
you
know,
and
for
across
many
many
audiences,
many
people
who
use
them
and
they're
there
they're
the
street
furniture
for
instance
that
that
you
know,
has
a
technology
component
to
it
that
we've
experimented
in
the
past.
There's
a
company
called
sofa
that
we've
worked
with
they're
based
out
of
Cambridge.
They
make
solar-powered
benches
I
just
wanted
to
make
a
pond
exactly
it's
a
great
one.
I've
used
it
many
times.
B
You
know
so
thinking
about
a
small
little
acts
of
convenience
that
also
play
a
big
role
and
and
the
the
quality
and
well-being
of
people
walking
in
the
city
streets
to
thinking
about
the
research
community
and
how
difficult
it
is
for
them
to
do
experiments
that
require
power
or
internet
connectivity
or
simply
just
a
place
to
latch
on.
You
know,
there's
there's
a
very
iniquity
process
right
now.
When
you
know
a
large
software
or
large
hardware
company
has
the
means
to
do
these
things
to
to
deploy
technology.
B
B
C
There's
been
some
researchers
that
have
been
interested
in.
Can
we
deploy?
You
know
a
sensor
network
in
a
gridded
area
to
understand
is
that
actually,
true,
is
that
accurate
and
if
you
are
changing
the
policies
around
parking
in
those
areas
like
the
performance-based
parking
project,
that's
going
on
in
the
Back
Bay
or
the
Seaport.
Can
you
measure
that
impact
in
the
circulation
of
vehicles
in
that
area,
so
that
that
type
of
thing
and
there's
a
whole
bunch
of
conversation?
C
We
need
to
have
around
privacy
and
what
happens
to
that
data
and
how
is
it
collected
and
how
do
people
sort
of
feel
about
it
before
we
would
do
something
like
that.
But
there
are
cities
that
have
ventured
down
that
path
with
researchers,
and
that
type
of
thing
is
interesting
and
has
a
nice
environmental
component
to
it
as.
A
I'd
even
take
I
think
that
I
take
it
one
step
further
in
terms
of
parking,
primarily
when
you
talk
about
driving
around.
That
seems
to
more
the
downtown
neighborhoods,
but
certainly
one
thing
that
we're
dealing
with
increased
frequency
and
some
of
the
more
far-flung
neighborhoods
like
where
I
represent,
is
that
you've
got
parking
restrictions
during
the
day
resident
only
parking,
usually
because
of
close
proximity
to
a
train
station
or
commuter
rail
station,
and
you
know
many
of
these
sit
empty
during
the
day.
A
So
it
could
be
some
good
data
collection
in
terms
of
perhaps
coming
up
with
a
better
system
in
place
as
we
talk
about
the
Complete
Streets
program
and
you
know
encouraging
more
people
to
do
not
use
cars
and
not
park
cars
and
use
public
transit.
So
so
this
is.
My
question
is
how
a
question
I
prepared
was
how
many
sensors
are
planned
for
deployment.
But
it
sounds
like
we
don't
know
the
answer
to
that.
Yet
we.
B
Don't
one
thing
I'd
like
to
add
too:
is
you
know
when
it
comes
to
deploying
sensors
or
smart
City
tech?
You
know
there
are
the
sort
of
usual
suspects
for
the
neighborhood's
in
Boston.
B
They
get
this
stuff
yeah,
and
one
of
the
things
we
really
want
to
focus
on
in
this
grant
is
expanding
it
to
different
neighborhoods
and
but
contextualizing
it
so
not
just
throwing
in
kiosks
that
we
think
people
could
use,
but
working
with
those
and
I
wouldn't
even
say
neighborhoods
oftentimes
its
block-level,
what
what
they
need
or
what
they
could
use,
what
they
don't
want
to
see,
and
so
that
is
like.
Probably
the
number
one
goal
of
this
project
is
to
bring
them
into
the
conversation
and
contextualize
these
technologies
on
that
level
of
granularity.
When.
A
You
know
advancement
in
the
neighborhoods
that
may
not
have
had
it.
This
is
this
is
this
is
terrific
so
and
then
the
other
question
is
what
kind
of
data
will
be
collected
from
these
sensors,
but
I
assume
that
two
is
to
be
determined?
What
the
on,
what
the
projects
going
to
be?
Yes,
so
there
was
an
article
today
in
the
local
in
the
Boston
Herald
some
concerns
from
some
privacy
rights
organization
that
this
would
potentially
capture
some
information
and
in
an
unfair
and
sort
of
untransparent
way.
So
can
you
address
how
you're
going
to
address?
C
C
We
we
want
to
have
that
conversation
with
residents
and
we
want
to
bring
you
know,
people
that
are
maybe
either
researchers
or
or
you
know,
technology
providers
through
the
table
to
say
what
are
you
actually
collecting
and
why
and
where
does
it
go
and
who
owns
it
and
how
does
it
get
redistributed
or
resold?
If
that
happens
in
your
sort
of
current
deployments,
and
how
do
we
sort
of
create
a
you
know,
there's
public
privacy
policy
that
Stephen
sort
of
alluded
to,
so
that
everyone
is
very
clear
about.
C
You
know
if
you're,
if
you're,
providing
this
information
you're
collecting
this
data.
This
is
what
happens
to
it,
and
this
is
what
the
city
will
use
it
for
and
at
what
level
of
aggregation
it's
being
collected,
I
I
mean
the
ACLU
and
others.
You
know,
there's
there's
other
community
groups
that
have
been
really
out
front
on
this
and
I
think
we
see
them
as
a
strength
in
Boston
right.
C
A
C
C
And
and
interviewed,
30
or
40
of
those
just
to
sort
of
understand
business
models
and
practices.
Out
of
that,
it
was
really
just
to
sort
of
get
a
picture
of
the
landscape
of
smart
cities
and
and
then
pick
off
the
things
that
maybe
seem
the
most
interesting
for
us
to
sort
of
go
a
little
bit
deeper
on.
So.
A
Perfect,
so
just
so,
I
have
this
right,
because
I
will
vote.
Ask
my
colleagues
for
a
favorable
vote
tomorrow.
This
is
a
two
hundred
thousand
dollar
grant.
It's
going
to
be
used
to
primarily
it's
going
to
be
used
to
fund
the
process
of
administrating
the
betablox
grant.
What
that
means
is
it's
going
to
help
fund
a
robust
community
process
in
every
neighborhood
or
I,
don't
want
to
say
every
neighborhood,
because
we
have
many,
but.
A
C
A
A
C
C
A
Indeed,
more
ways
than
one
well,
gentlemen:
I
cannot.
Thank
you
enough
again.
I
will
be
asking
my
colleagues
to
vote
favorably
on
this
tomorrow.
I
am
very
interested
in
this,
so
I
we
don't
have
to
do
it
as
a
formalized
council
hearing
but
I'd
like
to
ask
you.
If
maybe
we
could
do
if
you
would
both
be
willing,
maybe
in
the
spring,
to
sort
of
meet
with
counselors
and
myself
and
just
sort
of
doesn't
give
us
an
update
on
where
we
are
and
obviously
would
publicly
notice
that
so
that'd
be
alright.
A
Any
people
wishing
to
testify
speak
now
or
forever
hold
your
peace.
All
right.
This
hearing
is
hereby
adjourned.
We
will
ask
for
a
favorable
vote
tomorrow
on
docket
number
one,
four,
six
five
and
thank
you
Kate
Sullivan
for
the
final
City
Council
Committee
on
Environment
and
sustainability,
hearing
of
2017.