Smart Cities or Gateway to Hell?

As inflation soars across the State of California, most cannot afford the cost of a home mortgage. Californians continue to seek rental properties as the expansion of low-income housing has aggrandized across the state. Mr. Roger Valdez, Director of the Center for Housing Economics, published a 2020 article in Forbes titled Prediction For 2030: A Government Take Over Of Rental Housing. As cited by Mr. Valdez, “by 2030 we could see a housing economy in which federal, state, and local government set such limits on rental housing – its financing, development, and management – that, in effect, government will own and operate most rental housing in the United States.” How does this tie to the United Nations (U.N.) Sustainable Development Goal 11, “Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable”? Is government housing in the best interest of the general public, or a method of establishing a surveillance state?

Vallejo, California is a melting pot as one of the most diverse communities in the nation. According to the 2020-2021 Census, Hispanics comprise 28% of the local population; 23% are White; 19% are Black; 23% are Asian; and 10% are of mixed or other heritage. While the community presents a wide variety of cultures, discrimination and misconduct are prevalent within the rental sector. Bridge Property Management, a well known housing company for low- and moderate-income individuals and families, includes properties such as The Meritage within Vallejo city limits. Tenants report raccoon infested walls, illegally towed vehicles and removal of storage contents without consent. Meritage residents Melissa Washington and Italia Roberts fear for the future condition of rental units.

Ms. Washington and Ms. Roberts told me, “The Meritage Apartments has been the place we call home since 2015, but since December 2021, when Bridge Property Management (BPM) bought the property, it has become the place that keeps our blood pressure high. As a tenant under BPM, you can expect disorganization, predatory constructive eviction tactics, material changes to your lease agreement without signing a lease addendum, and illegal possession of your storage unit without any responsibility for your personal property. So, don’t move to a Bridge Property Management complex unless you are prepared for a fight, or you are okay with having your tenant and civil rights violated.”

According to a case study conducted by Bridge Investment Group, “Bridge has lowered its management fee by 25 basis points a year and works with a not-for-profit partner, Project Access.” As cited on their website, the charitable organization’s mission is “to be the leading provider of vital on-site health, education, and employment services to families, children, and seniors living in affordable and workforce housing communities.” Project Access “trusted partners” include not only Bridge Investment Group, but Bridge Housing, Oakland Housing Authority, Eden Housing, and several others. From the listing of programs offered, social and emotional learning for youth and mental health workshops are included within the suite of services amongst many others.

The question at hand is if this partnership serves the genuine interest of the community or is an arm of indoctrination perpetuated by left leaning donors.

Eden Housing, a partner to Project Access, was previously featured in The Press Democrat (PD) regarding their unconstitutional COVID-19 vaccination mandate for staff. Mr. Shelby Dodson was featured on the cover of the publication as he was denied an employment offer with the organization for refusing to be inoculated. This stipulation was not pre-disclosed within his initial offer letter agreement, nor the employee handbook. As cited from The PD, “Dodson’s reluctance to get vaccinated comes from many angles. He’s 38, 6-foot-5 and 240 pounds, and, as he put it, ‘super athletic and very healthy.’ A 14-year military veteran who contracted COVID-19 at least once over the past 18 months, Dodson feels protected. Reports of negative responses to vaccine shots trouble him, and he believes vaccine mandates are created for political cover, not safety. Also underlying Dodson’s unease is an abiding suspicion of the U.S. government and how it has treated Black Americans in the past. He is biracial. ‘I’ll be very blunt,’ Dodson said. Our country has built most of its medical field on the backs of people who are African American. They spent a lot of time developing and processing things, and testing them on people of color.”

As cited by the Public Policy Institute of California, “in 2019, the Latino homeownership rate stood at 44.1%, or 19.2 points below that of white households. The Black homeownership rate was even more worrisome at 36.8%, or 26.4 points below the rate for white households.”

While communities of color remain reliant upon affordable housing in this Democrat-dominated state, one may be concerned with what the future holds for these individuals as outlined in Agenda 2030. Pursuant to the UN-Habitat, a division of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme, “The People-Centered Smart Cities framework…aligns with the New Urban Agenda Shared Vision #11 of ‘cities for all, referring to the equal use and enjoyment of cities and human settlements, seeking to promote inclusivity and ensuring that all inhabitants, of present and future generations, without discrimination of any kind, are able to inhabit and produce just, safe, healthy, accessible, affordable, resilient and sustainable cities and human settlements.”

“Smart Cities” will be reliant upon data and emergent technology to improve citizens’ lives, but at what cost? The Smart City propaganda appears to be spreading via local governing bodies which help implement the U.N.’s Sustainable Development Goals. As the United States mirrors the efforts of our foreign partners, one may inquire if there is validity to “conspiracies” surrounding an impending global government. According to Azadeh Akbari, Assistant Professor in Public Administration & Digital Transformation, the University of Twente, the Netherlands, Smart Cities resemble an authoritarian society.

Ms. Akbari’s paper titled Authoritarian Smart City: A Research Agenda discusses the political narratives driving these initiatives. As cited from the abstract, “Despite the prevalence of  smart  city discourse across many disciplines, governance systems, and policy-making bodies, its conceptual foundations are based either on semi-/democratic political constellations or deemed apolitical. This research agenda highlights the embeddedness of any smart city agenda within a more extensive political regime. Furthermore, the research agenda focuses on the authoritarian socio-technical imaginaries and their role in shaping smart city policies, implementation, and governance. The research agenda also highlights the research on authoritarian surveillance and its interconnection with authoritarian smart city conceptualisation. Furthermore, it offers three research areas for authoritarian surveillance: authoritarian practices in democratic contexts, the use of surveillance technologies  for  maintaining autocratic power, and authoritarian structure and governance of platform corporations. Finally, similar to critical voices in critical data studies and the field of information and communication technology for development, the research agenda aims to demystify the prevalent assumption of the good smart city that fixes all injustices that socio-political endeavors have not achieved. It argues that every technologically enabled tool or platform reflects the political constellations in which it is embedded and affects and produces new socio-technical interlinkages that could never be apolitical.”

The World Economic Forum (WEF) is driving the necessity of a technology based world as referenced via the G20 Global Smart Cities Alliance on Technology Governance, the largest global initiative aiming at ensuring responsible and ethical use of smart city technologies. As the Founder & Executive Chairman of the WEF, Mr. Klaus Schwab holds a tremendous influence across the globe. Per Arup, “we are now in what Klaus Schwab of the World Economic Forum has termed the ‘fourth industrial revolution’ – a revolutionary merging of the physical and digital realms. In this emerging era, Schwab foresees that combinations of information-powered and networked technologies will transform the way entire industries work.”

As author of The Great Reset, Mr. Schwab’s intentions worry United States citizens as their individual liberties are at risk. While the Great Reset’s motives are portrayed in a positive light, approaching policies portray the appearance that individuals will soon own nothing and have zero privacy. A “Smart City” gives the impression that society will be within arm’s reach, but what are the associated consequences?

“The theory of Communism may be summed up in the single sentence: Abolition of private property.” —  Karl Marx