San Antonio Launches ‘Community-driven’ Smart City Roadmap

In 2017, the City of San Antonio’s Office of Innovation launched its Smart Cities team to advance the city’s use of innovation, data, and technology in an effort to improve quality of life. That same year, the City Council designated three Innovation Zones and shortly after, the SmartSA Partnership was established. 

This week, the city released its Smart City Roadmap as a strategy for how it does business, manages data, and connects with residents. This Roadmap charts a path forward and aims to bring the world’s best technology tools to bear on a people-centered approach to smart city development. 

“This Roadmap identifies our process for taking risks, learning, and growing, as well as how we translate lessons learned into real-world outcomes for those we serve. It includes a survey of residents who live, work, and play in the Innovation Zones was conducted,” said Mayor Ron Nirenberg. “The Smart Cities Team’s Smarter Together Initiative lays out a people-centered vision and strategy that is directly responsive to the needs of San Antonio residents.” 

Key lessons cited in the roadmap from work so far include that many city departments share the same challenges, and that “technology that is looking for a problem” often fails to address the real challenges faced by residents. Projects highlighted that city staff on the frontlines of public service delivery are essential stakeholders and collaborators for digital transformation, and that “anyone in our community can innovate.”