Lubna Alli

The Draft Master Innovation and Development Plan, also known as the MIDP, is a 1500+ page document that was released by Sidewalk Labs in June 2019. It is one that has brought about lots of tension amongst Torontonians, most of whom have concerns with the privatization and lack of public control in the city building space. In the heat of all of the Sidewalk drama, I was lucky to be an active follower of the issue as part of smart city research I was conducting under Professor Andre Sorensen for GGRC54: Field Exchange in Tokyo, Japan. I would like to think I got a pretty decent perspective of the issue from all angles of the major actors, but with an issue as dense as this one, I am sure there will always be some component to follow. To give some context of my knowledge on the issue, I attempted to sift through the dense 1500+ page MIDP, I read through the 45 page RFP, read the Open Letter from Waterfront Toronto Board Chair attended the information sessions  

Under Volume 2: The Urban Innovations, Chapter 3: Buildings and Housing and Chapter 5: Digital Innovation provide some pretty attractive plans for developers and investors alike. For those in the political space, this raises more concerns around the land grab and the power grab, as was categorized by Swerhun Facilitation when they led the public meeting for Block Sidewalk (an anti-Sidewalk Labs organization) in the summer.