Building a Resilient Boston: How Technology is Reshaping City Life - The Futurist Society

Can technology make a city more livable? Boston’s Office of Emerging Technologies is tackling this challenge head-on through innovative solutions in climate monitoring, traffic management, and urban planning.

Michael Lawrence Evans and Abigail Menendez share how Boston is using AI-powered traffic signals to reduce congestion, deploying environmental sensors to monitor air quality in real-time, and preparing for climate challenges like coastal flooding. Learn about Project Greenlight’s impact on traffic flow, community-led initiatives measuring air quality in Blue Hill Ave, and how the city is building resilience through data-driven decision making.

Join Dr. Awesome and his guests as they discuss current efforts, cities and technologies that inspire them, and their hopes for a brighter and more resilient Boston.

Key topics covered:

How AI and machine learning are improving government operations
Community-driven environmental monitoring
Traffic optimization through Google Maps data and signal timing
Climate resilience strategies for flooding and heat management
The future of Boston’s transportation and climate infrastructure

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About Michael Lawrence Evans

Michael Lawrence Evans is the Director of Emerging Technology at the City of Boston. He leads the City’s exploration and adoption of new technology to support more responsive and equitable services. Previously, he directed Boston’s Mayor’s Office of New Urban Mechanics and led their civic technology portfolio. Michael cut his teeth as a design technologist at Stamen Design and Code for America, where he was a member of their inaugural class of fellows in 2011 and served as a Google Summer of Code mentor.

The Emerging Technology Department’s project portfolio includes developing generative AI pilots, using machine learning to improve traffic congestion, and testing internet-connected sensors for curb management and climate planning.

About Abigail Menendez

Abigail is the Climate Technology Strategist in the City of Boston’s Office of Emerging Technology. She serves as the City’s point person on a National Science Foundation-funded project, Common SENSES, exploring the use of climate sensor technology’s role in community planning. In this role she also helps the City build and maintain a strong relationship between Boston’s residents and the City’s evolving climate tech agenda, while developing a standard process for implementing new climate technologies.

Previously, she worked as the Climate Policy Project Manager collaborating with teams within the Environment Department and across the City of Boston to inform legislative and State agency policies and programs to ensure the alignment and support of the City’s climate goals, as well as support initiatives within the City.

Prior to joining the City, Abigail identified and analyzed trends in state disaster resiliency policies at the National Center for Disaster Preparedness, Columbia Climate School. She also worked in education as a science teacher and served as an Arabic linguist in the United States Navy. Abigail earned a BA in Environmental Science and Health from the University of Southern California, an MA in Urban Education with a concentration in Policy and Administration from Loyola Marymount University, and an MA in Climate and Society from Columbia University.

Data Collection and Analysis

Data collection and analysis play a crucial role in Boston’s smart city initiatives. From granular environmental sensor data that helps make better decisions about public health programs, to fresh traffic data enabling responsive signal timing changes, to flood sensors providing detailed water level information for weather forecasting, data drives the city’s decision-making processes. The city is moving away from relying on limited data points – like using only Logan Airport temperatures for heat notifications – to implementing denser networks of sensors that provide more accurate, neighborhood-specific information. This granular approach, described by Northeastern professor Dan O’Brien as “The Pointillistic City,” enables more precise and effective responses to urban challenges.

Climate Initiatives and Environmental Monitoring

Boston is taking significant steps to address climate challenges through innovative technology. A major initiative includes a dense network of environmental sensors in Blue Hill Ave that measure air quality, heat, and noise levels. The project is community-led and will expand to 50 sensors in a three-square-kilometer area.

Key climate concerns for Boston include:

Coastal and inland flooding
Heat management, particularly challenging since New England infrastructure isn’t built for extreme heat

Transportation and Traffic Management

The city is implementing Project Greenlight, a collaboration with Google that uses AI to optimize traffic signal timing. Traffic engineers receive regular recommendations based on Google Maps driving trends, allowing for more responsive traffic management based on current data rather than outdated information.

The program is particularly cost-effective as it doesn’t require expensive equipment installation and operates under a no-cost license agreement with Google. Traffic engineers assess these AI recommendations for feasibility and safety before implementation.

The transit signal priority programs and enhancements in the visibility of traffic issues have enabled the city to start reducing traffic delays and made intersections less chaotic.

Building a Resilient Boston Through Collaboration

Building a more resilient Boston requires extensive collaboration across multiple stakeholders and organizations. The Office of Emerging Technologies works closely with many stakeholders. One example is helping the Public Health Commission and Early Childhood Office to make data-driven decisions about community programs.

The MBTA and city departments coordinate on critical infrastructure projects, such as implementing flood walls at vulnerable stations like the Aquarium T station.

Community engagement plays a vital role, as demonstrated by the Blue Hill Ave sensor project, where residents helped determine priorities for environmental monitoring and sensor placement.

The city is also actively engaging with architects, startups, and incubators to explore new resilience technologies, though implementation often requires navigating permitting and state regulations.

This multi-stakeholder approach ensures that resilience efforts are both technically sound and responsive to community needs, while the data collected helps prove the effectiveness of new interventions to regulatory bodies.

Future Vision for Boston

City officials are working toward several key goals for Boston’s future. Some of the hopes for the future expressed by the guests were:

Net zero carbon emissions
Lower utility bills through heat pumps and electrification
Improved flood barriers to prevent flooding
Reliable transit system
Affordable housing
Enhanced public education

Call to Action

The future of Boston depends on community engagement and support. You can get involved by:

Checking the public dashboard for environmental data in your neighborhood
Participating in community events and providing feedback on climate initiatives
Staying informed about new technological implementations in your area

Visit the fantastic boston.gov website to learn more about these initiatives and how you can contribute to building a smarter, more sustainable and resilient Boston.

Boston really is a fascinating city and a hub of innovation that is pushing for a brighter future for everyone. We plan to have several more episodes highlighting the amazing work being done here. In the meantime, why not check out our episode with Sam White, CEO of GreenLabs Recycling and Co-Founder of Greentown Labs.

Links

Transcription

This interview has been transcribed using AI technology. While efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, the transcription may contain errors.

Hey, everybody! Welcome back to the Futurist Society, where, as always, we’re talking in the present but talking about the future. As always, we’ve got an amazing panel of guests for you. Today, we actually have two people from the Department of Emerging Technologies in the city of Boston.

We have Michael Lawrence Evans and Abigail Menendez, who are doing some really amazing things with the city of Boston. As a person who lives in the area, I was really excited to talk to them. So thank you, guys, for coming on the podcast.

Tell us a little bit about what you guys are doing.

Oh, yeah. Well, so I’m Michael. Basically, we started a new Emerging Technology office in Boston about a year ago. And we’ve been slowly building up the team. Abby leads our climate tech work. But in general, we’re focusing on three areas.

There’s one area just generally around AI, just because it’s so much part of the zeitgeist right now, and how AI and machine learning can improve government operations, both internally and externally. There’s a second piece that Abby leads around climate tech that we can get into. And then there’s a third piece around transportation technology.

And so we have a portfolio of projects in those three buckets. And we’re just trying to deliver on those on a day-to-day basis.

So tell me a little bit more about the climate side of things. Because when I think about climate goals, I don’t really think about it in the city aspect. I think about it in the world. What are we trying to achieve in the city of Boston?

Yeah, that is a great question. The city of Boston actually is redoing their climate action plan to create a roadmap of specific things we can implement in the next five years. And I think technology plays a part in this, because that means we have to do things quickly and at a cost that is reasonable and low, since we’re the city.

Yeah, so I have two main projects. My main project is a sensor project in Blue Hill Ave that measures air quality, heat, and noise. And it’s community-led and community-driven.

And then the other aspect is trying to pilot new innovations and connecting with different departments to create an environment where they want to use innovative technology within their own departments.

I know that I saw a documentary about how the levels of water are rising in East Boston. What are some other things that we have to worry about from a climate aspect? Is it just rising water levels, because we’re so close to the water?

Is it just overall general temperatures? What is the city of Boston concerned about?

Yeah, I think there’s two main aspects when it comes to resilience. One is flooding. So coastal flooding obviously is very big.

But inland flooding as well. And they kind of compile and make each other worse. So you need to address both coastal and inland flooding.

I think inland flooding is something that we’re trying to do a little bit more of because we’ve focused a lot on coastal flooding. And then the second is heat. So sometimes you think, oh, we’re in New England.

It doesn’t get super hot here. But we’re not built for heat. So our infrastructure, the people, we’re not used to that. Some people don’t have ACs. So heat is also another big aspect and focusing on green infrastructure and ways we can mitigate heat island effects in the city.

Interesting. And I know that you had spoken a little bit about traffic, which I feel like is on everybody’s mind and kind of goes part and parcel with the whole climate issue with all the pollutants and everything like that. How are we doing better from a traffic perspective?

So, I mean, I think a lot of this revolves around, you know, making better use of data. So, you know, a lot of—to backtrack just a little bit—you know, a lot of what Abby’s doing… there have been environmental sensor projects in the past that have been, you know, really great. But I think the thing that Abby’s trying to do is that this is like a rather extensive, you know, environmental sensor project. I think we’re talking… I mean, right now we’re at like 10 or 11 locations.

It will be 50 in like a three square kilometer area. So pretty dense.

Yeah. So, this is really granular data. Abby’s brought in the Public Health Commission and the Early Childhood Office. I think they’ll be able to make better decisions about how they run programs based on this data.

On the transportation front, we just needed better data about how cars move on our streets. We do have a network of traffic cameras, and our traffic engineers are watching that movement. But how do you actually equate that to delays at signalized intersections? And if you’re going to make interventions, how do you actually assess their impact? So we’ve been working on getting better data about it and actually getting our Traffic Management Center to adopt workflows that use this data to do more analytics and assess the impact.

The thing that probably made the most headlines last year, and that we’re continuing to work really hard on, is something called Project Greenlight. This is a research project from Google where they’re using Google Maps driving trends and applying AI to that data. They’re basically sending us signal timing recommendations. Every week or two, our traffic engineers get new recommendations on signal timing, and they just see whether it makes sense. They need to see whether the signal is actually connected to our Traffic Management Center.

It gets a little bit wonky, but basically, if we’re going to make a change, we have to be able to make it remotely. They’re basically assessing the recommendation for feasibility, for safety, all the things that a traffic engineer does before they’re implementing a change.

Basically, the benefit to this program is that we’re making changes based on fresh traffic data rather than data that was maybe collected two or three years ago. The benefit is that we can assess the impact pretty quickly, weeks after, and we don’t have to install any equipment. A lot of times with some of these more adaptive signal programs that you’ll see in other cities, they’re installing really expensive equipment. Whenever you’re doing a technology project like that, it just takes a really long time to implement. The benefit with Greenlight was we could really spin this up rather quickly and not spend a lot of money on it. I mean, we basically have a license agreement with Google that we don’t pay for. And so, it’s been really cost-efficient for the city so far.

So, you’re in the implementation phase for that? I feel like with the climate stuff, you’re still acquiring data, correct? Like, it’s not quite in the implementation phase for any of that stuff yet.

I think like half-and-half. So, the half for the sensor project, we have 10 sensors up. We’ve done a lot of like community events prior to that to get like feedback on what were the priorities to like measure in regards to climate and where things should be placed.

And then, so we are currently collecting data on PM 2.5, PM 1, PM 10. There’s a dashboard.

What is that? What are those acronyms?

So, that is particulate matter.

Yeah.

So, the main one that is the one that community members should look out for the most is PM 2.5 because that’s what can like get into your lungs. And if you have asthma, if you are a child, if you’re like elderly, that’s what affects you the most. So, we have a dashboard and you can actually see spikes when there’s traffic in Blue Hill Ave in the morning and at night.

So, it is collecting data. And then, the next step would be like analyzing that data and seeing what the community members want the data used for and then implementing the data and the community voice within city departments. Like Michael said, I’ve been talking to BPHC, Office of Green Infrastructure, like what can we do with this data to develop solutions to address that.

And then, the second half is those other unique innovative climate tools that, yes, I think that’s where we’re like beginning that. So, we released the request for information and got input from so many different companies within Boston and outside of Boston, like an Estonia climate tech company responded, which is pretty cool. So, we’re taking all that data and seeing how those companies can work with the city and then areas we could support that ecosystem to make Boston an even bigger like climate tech hub.

Oh, I was going to just add one thing if I could. Yeah, of course. I think the kinds of things that we’re collecting with the sensors is really interesting, especially there are a couple of things that are on my mind.

So, Abby, you’re going to have to correct me as I kind of work through this. So, my understanding is that most of the air quality data that we’re getting is pretty much sensors at the airport. Is that right?

So, that is like another great input for the heat. So, like you were saying, in Boston for the city, when we release like heat notifications, that it’s too hot, it’s based out of the Logan Airport, but that temperature doesn’t match like streets in inland communities. It gets hotter there faster than the airport. So, there’s kind of a lag between that alert system.

So, like some of the basis for this project that Abbey’s working on. So, this is also a collaboration with Northeastern. There’s a professor named Dan O’Brien who collaborated on the NSF-funded project.

And to community park.

Oh, yeah. So, Project Ray.

And the Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative.

Right. And so, he has this concept. He has a new book called “The Pointalistic City” that maybe your listeners would be interested in.

But just this idea of getting more granular data where you can make better decisions on the ground. So, anyway, I think it’s kind of an interesting thing, just letting people know how air quality data and heat data are being collected and that they’re not necessarily in the spot where you need them. The second thing I was thinking about was that Abby and I were looking at some videos about the air quality effects of the LA wildfires.

And apparently, like, some of the sensors aren’t—I mean, in general, people are following the air quality index numbers to figure out whether to wear a mask on a particular day. But some of these sensors basically don’t pick up a lot of the particles that are being released. The particles are basically too big for the sensors. And so, that’s probably beyond PM 2.5, right?

Yes, we do measure PM 10, though, too. So, we do measure, like, larger ones.

Yeah.

And also, just because your audience is, like, people that love technology, I think another big thing with that project is, like, what is a sensor? And part of the community events, they, like, took apart sensors and showed it. Because if you open, they’re all over Blue Hill ave, but if you actually open them, it’s, like, basic equipment that you could find in, like, your house almost. So, it’s nothing, like, super crazy.

So, coming from a layperson’s understanding of it, I get a notification on my phone for what the air quality is. And that’s separate from what you guys are doing. You’re doing a more localized evaluation so that people who are in these communities where you have these sensors can have a better understanding of what their air quality is. Is that correct?

That’s right. Yeah. And so, Abby and the team also launched, like, a public dashboard. So, you can go to our website on boston.gov and, I mean, actually kind of dig into every single one of the sensors and, you know, on a particular block, you know, see what the, you know, air quality is. And, you know, over time, we’ll be adding more metrics.

We’re working on creating, like, an alert system too if you sign up just so that you get it for your street, not for all of Boston.

I got to come back to the traffic because, like, that’s something that’s so top of mind for everybody, right? Like, are we getting benefits from this stuff? Is this something that you can say, like, oh, well, because of our systems that we’ve put in place, traffic is down 10%?

Well, so, it turns out that traffic is down 10%. I’m not going to necessarily say that that’s because of Project Greenlight. It’s a very, very complicated problem because we’re getting a lot of traffic coming in from the suburbs, a lot more people coming in to, you know, work in the office.

You know, the T’s, so our public transit system, the MBTA, has been working through a lot of issues, you know, signal issues, a lot of deferred maintenance, and they’re making serious strides. So, I think that’s helping a lot. And, you know, there’s a lot of other work around mode shifts.

So, you know, making sure that we have a more robust, you know, bus system, dedicated bus lanes, you know, where the city is just starting to work with the T on a concept called transit signal priority. So, this is, they just had a press release last week where we piloted transit signal priority at three intersections on Brighton Avenue and saw, you know, saw, you know, more reliable bus, you know, you know, faster travel times, that sort of thing. And so, the way I think about, you know, improving traffic is sort of, you know, all of the above type of approach.

It’s, you know, I don’t think it’s necessarily like, okay, we’ll perfectly optimize all of our signals and then traffic will go down X percent. So, I think that’s the thing that you need to keep in mind. But, you know, whether our signals are optimized or not is like a decent piece of, you know, the delays that people experience.

I mean, I don’t know whether to believe this number or not, but I did see an analysis that, you know, said it’s about, you know, 30 percent of the delay that people experience. Now, I mean, I don’t know what the exact number is, but that was their estimate.

Yeah, you know, that 90 percent of statistics are made up on the spot.

So, I will say that, you know, the analysis that we have done at the intersections where we’ve, you know, done, you know, more kind of not necessarily like real-time, but closer to real-time optimization, you know, is, you know, seeing anywhere between like an eight to 24 percent reduction in delay at those intersections. And so, the thing with traffic engineering, and I’m not a traffic engineer, but, you know, it gets really complicated really fast. You know, all of the metrics that they’re talking about that they’re in a press release that we put out, you know, when we announced Greenlight, you know, last August, we sort of talked about this concept of split failures.

And so, what a split failure is is that when you’re at an intersection, let’s say you’re taking a left turn, and you’re the fifth car in line, and the left turn light goes green, and only three, you know, cars get through. That is considered a split failure where it wasn’t able to fulfill all the demand on a particular phase. And so, you know, you can imagine that that, you know, leads to delay at the intersection.

You know, sometimes it leads to things where, you know, you’ll see certain cars trying to, you know, make the light right in time, but they get stuck in, you know, in the middle of the intersection. And that causes, you know, additional delays, additional traffic hotspots. And so, you know, when we implemented this at one intersection, I think actually right next to Northeastern, you know, we were seeing, you know, over a, you know, 50% reduction in a split failure, you know, at that intersection.

And so, yeah, I mean, we’re definitely seeing, you know, a lot of benefits there. And, you know, I think from, you know, something I’m sort of hearing anecdotally for the places where we’re implementing this is that people just feel like the intersections are less chaotic, you know, less people stuck in the middle. It’s just working a little bit better.

So, yeah. So you guys both live in the city of Boston, and how do you interact with the technologies that you guys are working on? Like, how does it affect you personally?

Well, we both breathe air.

Don’t drive, though.

Are you checking, like, your app to check air quality? Is that something you’re doing?

I mean, yeah, I mean, on particular days where I know that there’s you know, maybe a local wildfire. I think there was one a few months back. Yeah.

Yeah.

So, I’ll check that daily. I was just thinking about, you know, especially over the summer, when we’re holding community events. Many of the planners that work in City Hall will check the environmental metrics just to make sure it’s safe to have a community event outside.

That’s kind of going back to our work-life, going back to our day-to-day lives. I mean, I actually don’t drive, so a lot of the work that I’m doing around traffic may not necessarily affect me. But yes, certainly, the work that we’re doing around transit… We’re starting to get more involved in the transit signal priority work. I take transit, so if that’s working better, that’s going to benefit me.

How do you think that the Transit system… actually just in general, like the technology that we have in Boston, compares to other cities? Like, what would be the gold standard for you guys?

You guys are in the field, like I’m an outsider looking in. What would you point to as the gold standard for what we want? And it might not just be in one category. It might be in climate. It might be in traffic. It might be in artificial intelligence. What are some cities that you look to for inspiration?

I mean, I will say I think, you know, Boston is doing a great job across those areas. You know, especially with climate, in terms of transportation. When I think about transit, when I think about a city like Tokyo, you know, you have incredibly reliable service. I mean, the other thing is, in a city like Tokyo, just the sheer demand for public transit and the standards that they have are really inspiring. So, I think a lot of what they’re doing is really cool.

There’s actually a lot of great stuff that’s happened in London. My mom is from the UK, and so I would go to London every summer growing up, and I remember just how bad the air quality was. I was watching news reports when I was like 9, 10 years old, when I was overseas, talking about how it was like some of the worst air quality in the world, and now it has some of the best air quality in the world.

They’ve done a lot of incredible work around raising environmental standards, and one of the things that has had a lot of impact is congestion pricing in the city. So, just fewer cars and trucks going around city streets to improve air quality. I think what they’ve done on that front has been really cool.

Yeah, Tokyo is pretty cool. London’s pretty cool. How do we stack up in regards to air quality from these different cities? Are we pretty clean in comparison, or do we have a ways to go?

I think we’re pretty clean in regards to building out a larger sensor network. That is where I could see Boston going, like Chelsea and Brookline actually have a lot, but they’re smaller cities. So I think replicating what’s happening in Dorchester and Roxbury to different cities would be good so you know what’s going on on your street. And then just like climate innovation.

I know we talked about this in the beginning, but New York and Long Beach have programs kind of like what we’re trying to do with implementing new tech. So yeah, I would say those are kind of cities that we’re looking at to replicate a little bit.

Yeah, how do we make cities more efficient and more responsive to the people that live there?

I feel like the technology that you guys are focusing on is great and all, but sometimes, like when I go to the DMV, I have to have an appointment like three weeks out, you know, which I feel like is a logistics problem; it’s a technology problem, and it’s not individual to me. I think that many people who live in big cities—I wouldn’t even say Boston is the only one—but many people who live in big cities feel like it’s not as responsive as a smaller town where you have a little bit more local flair to it, you know? Would you agree with that, or is that something that you would disagree with?

I mean, I think it depends on the city. It’s a very big topic. I mean, this is basically what the whole field of civic technology has been grappling with for many years at this point. And it also kind of depends on the bureaucracy that you’re talking about—state versus federal versus city. I would say, in general,

I know the most about Boston, so I can mostly just talk about Boston. I think Boston’s doing a great job with it in terms of being responsive to constituent questions and that sort of thing. We were one of the first cities to implement a 3-1-1 system.

We didn’t actually call it 3-1-1 at the time. It was called the mayor’s hotline, and this was a number that people could call to report a pothole or graffiti, or to get a sidewalk fixed—that sort of thing. And now it’s called BOS:311, and so whether you want to email us or give us a phone call, or report something on an app, it gets fixed pretty quickly. I think the standard for a pothole is that it gets fixed within 48 hours, and people are kind of shocked at how quick that is.

There’s a very robust basic city services team in Boston that responds to a lot of this. I mean, you just sort of have to have the infrastructure and resources in place to get it done. Some cities aren’t as well-resourced, and that is kind of where things can fall apart a little bit.

So, do you ever try—I mean, you live in Cambridge—do you try Cambridge’s 3-1-1 out much?

I haven’t. I’ve actually never really tried it. But what I can say is that, for example, I had to get my driver’s license. It was going to expire in two weeks, and I thought it was just going to be a simple matter of just going down there. But you have to make an appointment, and the appointments were at least a month out for anywhere. So I had to travel 40 minutes to Taunton, Massachusetts. They were ready to go; I could go tomorrow, right? Part of that is population, I understand that, but part of it is bureaucracy, right? Like, part of it is the fact that we live in a city where there are lots of layers. And maybe that’s my naive understanding as an outsider looking in. That’s one of the reasons why I wanted to talk to you guys. Like, how is technology fixing these problems?

I can tell you that, for the majority of people that I talked to, they’re worried about the traffic. They look at the traffic as something that is the city’s responsibility that they’re supposed to fix. And I think climate is important. I want my daughter to have clean air and stuff like that, so that she has all of the benefits of health that somebody that’s living out on, like, a farm has. But I just sometimes feel like living in a big city, there’s a lot of layers of bureaucracy that I have to get through to get this stuff done.

Which is part of the reasons why I think a lot of people move out of the city. Young people are moving to Boston now, right? The cities are more difficult, I think, as a parent. It’s more difficult to raise a family in a city just because of those layers of bureaucracy. Like, if I need to get some sort of admin stuff done, there’s just an extra layer of difficulty that I might not have in the suburbs. Have you guys heard that, or is that just my own perspective?

Yeah, I mean, I think there are a lot of layers there. Um, you know, I think the thing that young families or families are facing—and this is just like cities across the country—is just generally the affordability crisis. And so, you know, that is going to hit suburbs as well. But, you know, it’s just the basics that our mayor is really focused on: affordable housing, access to great public education, that kind of thing.

I love Michelle Wu, by the way. You know, the fact that she is a mom, that she understands that a city has to be available to families. I think that mindset is shown in her policies, like, I get that.

Um, but it’s an affordability crisis. And listen, like, I’m paying a premium to live in Cambridge as opposed to the suburbs because I like living in the city. There are so many benefits, you know? I can walk down and get my daughter a croissant as opposed to having to drive five to ten minutes to do that. Like, there are lots of educational opportunities for her. The schools are much better here in the city. Um, but the fact of the matter is that there is something you have to give up to live here, you know?

And I think if we really want to make it a vibrant community, like, we have to have space for the people that live here, not just because they’re in their 20s or 30s and they don’t have a family and they can afford to live in a one-bedroom apartment. They have lots of disposable income, but, you know, people who really want to set up roots here, you know, I think that that’s something that I see. My wife is from New York City, and like, there are people that live in the city, and they don’t ever want to leave the city. And like, there are a lot of people that we associate with, you know, like when you have a child, you have a certain group of kids that have parents, and we all get together because of them. And we all talk about it, like everybody’s talking about moving out, you know? Because they’re just frustrated with this or that, and a huge part of it is the affordability. Don’t get me wrong. But part of it is like getting in and out of the city. Part of it is, you know, just the layers of red tape that they feel like they have to go through for other things, you know?

Right. And I want it to work, like, I truly enjoy city life. Um, but it’s tough. It’s difficult, you know? And I think technology is our way out, right? Like, I think that, especially in the age of AI, getting things more efficient, um, is going to be something that I really look forward to. And it’s nice to hear you guys’ insight, you know, to see where the city of Boston is going.

I’m very happy that they’re working on the traffic, and I know I keep coming back to it, you know, right, but it’s just such a big thing, right? Yeah, like, you know, we’ll talk to my wife and she’ll be like, “Oh, there’s this, my kid’s watching the show Bluey right now, so, like, there’s this Bluey experience in Burlington. And it’s, like, 30 minutes out,” and my wife’s like, “Oh my God, we’ve got to drive all the way out there, drive all the way back, you know? It’s going to be, like, you know, such a mission to do that.” I’m, like, thinking in my head, I grew up in Florida, and you had to drive 30 minutes to do anything, you know? But it’s just, for some reason, there’s this added layer of complexity when it comes to getting in and out of the city.

Yeah. So, I don’t know. Do you guys feel any of that in your own lives?

I don’t personally… Well, I know that it’s an issue. Maybe I shouldn’t say… You know, when I’m going to Salem or Maine, I’m typically taking Amtrak because driving is just not going to be fun. Anyway, Abby, do you have… Abby?

Yeah, I stay in my downtown Boston bubble, and it’s the same when I go back to New York City. I take the Amtrak, so I don’t have a car. I definitely get that it’s an issue, but not one that I personally experience.

Yeah, I mean, I think that whether it’s issues at the DMV or traffic, technology can play a really important role. And I mean, that is what we’re focused on every single day. It’s just not going to be everything, right? I mean, the thing with traffic…it’s like the physical problem of literally not having enough physical space for all the cars. So that’s why mode shift is so important. The city has gotten, I think, much more involved in collaborating with the T on what improvements look like in the future. Um, you know, the mayor worked hard to actually get us a board seat on the MBTA.

So we have more of a voice there; you know, we have a really, you know, a bigger transit team within the city to think about things like dedicated bus lanes and, um, you know, plan that out. So I think that’s why I sort of say I think it’s kind of an all-of-the-above approach, um, but it’s also just kind of like really, kind of honing in on every single, um, you know, every, you know, every single situation. Actually, I look, I’m trying to remember something… just, I was just thinking about this because you’re, you’re a surgeon… I remember, um, I think this was like the 2008 debate between Obama and, and John McCain, and John McCain was talking about, you know, taking like an ax to the federal budget.

Yeah. Obama said he wanted to use a scalpel.

Exactly. Exactly. So, I don’t think that Obama was necessarily thinking… I mean he had big ideas, it wasn’t like he wanted status quo… but it’s just kind of like really kind of honing in on situations.

So if you guys had a magic wand to fix Boston the way that you wanted to… I mean, maybe it’s a climate thing. Maybe it’s, you know, implementing artificial intelligence…. What would you do with it?

Magic wand…

I think more like green open spaces.

Yeah, I agree. I mean, I think that we definitely do it well. I love that there are so many parks here—like, even in Cambridge, there are three playgrounds within a five- to ten-minute walk from here, and the Boston Public Garden is just unreal, you know? Um, what about you?

It kind of just comes down to either housing or transit for me. Yeah, um, transit, like, if you take, you know, a subway that’s really reliable, you know, five-minute headways, I, you know, if I walk, you know, through the door of, you know, Charles MGH, you know, T station, I know I’m gonna get a train to wherever I need to go within five minutes. So, like, that’s sort of the concept, um, and yeah, just, you know, affordable housing.

It just is, you know, really, really, you know, it’s been such a pain point for years. Uh, you know, the city’s doing an incredible amount of work to build more housing, work on zoning, uh, that kind of thing.

So yeah, can I tell you mine?

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

So if I had a magic wand to do one thing—I can’t do everything, right?—if we had humanoid robots that could make the tea smell better, like just clean up everything, you know? Like, I mean, you’ve said you’re from New York City, like I’m not naive to the fact that it’s very difficult to keep a public transportation system very clean. But, like, the difference between the Kendall Square T station and, like, three T stations that way is so vast, right? Like, it’s just—it’s a different environment. And there are times when I get on the T, and, you know, if I’m going from, like, here to downtown, it’s a world-class experience, you know? It looks beautiful. There are, like, you know, timely trains, um, helpful people, but then when you get further out from, like, the hub, it gets a little bit dodgy, you know?

So that—that would be my thing, and I give Boston a lot of credit; like, it is easy to get around, you know? Um, because we lived in New York City for a bit, and, oh my god, the commutes were terrible. Um, how do you feel like the, um, city experiences here compare to New York City or LA?

Hmm, I think when I first moved here, I was like, “New York City is way better than Boston.” But I think Boston’s really grown on me. I think, like you were saying, the transit timing could be better here, like in New York.

I feel like the trains come faster there; um, but I don’t know, I feel like the experience is better on the trains here than in New York, and it’s cleaner. I like it better now.

Yeah, so I grew up in the Bay Area and then lived in LA for a bit. When all’s said and done, I find life easier here. Where I’m living right now, I can walk to the supermarket, to work; my library is really close. Everything’s really close. In LA, you’re constantly in traffic. It just takes longer to get the basics of life done.

When I lived in the Bay Area, it was kind of halfway between; in the neighborhoods that I was living in, things were still farther away, but it was still easier to get things done. Yeah, I think the proximity of things in Boston just makes life easier.

Yeah. Now, I’d be remiss not to ask, especially with everything in the news, like you’re talking about the climate, you’re talking about L.A. What do you think the effect of these wildfires will be long-term?

So the first thing that comes to mind is I think just the effect on the fire department’s budget is going to be top of mind for many, many years.

For sure.

I think the back and forth between leadership in LA about budget cuts—yeah, there’s a lot of debate about how fair that was—but that will likely be a very robust budget in the next fiscal year. Um, you know, a lot of talk about water availability and that sort of thing, which, you know, of course, like in Los Angeles, that is origin story type stuff.

I think there will be improvement there, but other than that, I’m not sure. You know, maybe there will be some political effects, but I don’t know if we can comment on those. Beyond that, I’m not sure. There’s a lot of debate around what rebuilding Pacific Palisades will look like. There’s a large local developer who has a particular line of thought on it, and how that’s going to interface with the city and the governor.

Yeah, we have to get it done fast, too. We have the Olympics and the World Cup coming up.

Yeah.

We’re not at risk for any of that kind of stuff here in Boston, right? Like any significant climate disasters?

I mean, I think LA serves as a look into the future if we aren’t doing anything.

It makes me think of the wildfires that happened in Canada. I came here about like two years ago, I was in New York. I’m actually from California and they hand out like N95 masks once there’s fires and stuff, but New York wasn’t prepared at all. There was no mask, they didn’t put out any notification to stay inside, air quality’s bad, until it was like two days past.

So I think it’s a signal to like make sure you’re prepared. I think Boston is doing a great job of like seeing what are the effects that can happen in Boston. I think the biggest one is like coastal flooding, but again we do get impacts from wildfires. There were wildfires when we had a drought last year.

So I think it just is a signal that we need to make sure we’re prepared because disasters like this are going to continue to happen if we, on a global scale, don’t take the action that we need.

Yeah, I mean I think the flooding piece in particular is something that you know we hear a lot about. It has like some you know that we’ve been talking about just in terms of you know like a data collection effort where we just need you know when there is you know a big storm just better you know data on you know particular places that are flooding even in anticipation of the storm. So the one thing that the City’s been trying out are these flood sensors from the University of Hawaii.

So it’s University of Hawaii and I think the company is called Hohonu that you know give us more granular data on water levels and then being able to use that to use that data to feed into weather forecast models and that sort of thing so that we just have a more accurate view of you know what might happen in a particular storm surge and that also kind of gets coupled with you know interventions that we’re going to have on the ground.

So there the city works with building owners and the T on flood walls. For example, if you look at the aquarium T station in downtown Boston it’s very close to the coast when and the station is underground and so what they do is they put up these flood walls… Abby, you probably know more about this than I do… just to you know prevent you know water from like flooding the station.

It’s kind of that sort of thing and so you have kind of these pinpoint interventions and you know and building owners are kind of doing the same thing just make sure that the water doesn’t get to the building.

Yeah, I think those are also important because to build resilience interventions that will protect us from like future flooding – like 2050 flood levels – takes years. So these interim interventions help a lot.

Then, I’ve been doing a lot of research, reaching out to architects, startups, and incubators to see how we can use new technology related to resilience. There’s a lot of bureaucracy and barriers to implementation. Much of it has to do with permitting and state regulations, but that’s something we’re working on. We’ve been hearing that we need data to prove that these new interventions are successful and will pass permitting.

Where’s the areas that are most at risk around Boston? Even Cambridge?

Yeah, I think it’s a lot around East Boston and then Seaport – obviously. I feel like that floods at any time there ‘s rain. And then there’s a little bit in like the north end area and the aquarium I think are like some of the key points.

Okay interesting, good to know.

Listen, I feel like I could talk to you guys forever about this stuff because I live and experience a lot of the downstream effects of what you guys are trying to do, but we are getting close to the end of our time and I wanted to talk with you about the three general questions that I ask everybody.

So the first one is where do you see Boston in 10 years? Or maybe not realistically where you see it, but where do you want to see it in 10 years?

Good question. I kind of go back to the basics, to a very reliable transit system. People need to feel like they can actually afford their housing and that their public education system is fulfilling their needs or is really contributing to their child’s future, and that their child can pursue anything they want.

I think that’s where I see it, and technology could play a role in any one of those things. So, yeah, that’s the gist of it.

What about you Abby?

I would say net zero carbon emissions. Everybody’s utility bill is lower but everyone has like access to heat pumps and electrification. And then closing some of those flood barriers so we don’t see flooding like we do now.

Yeah. Can I tell you mine?

Yeah.

Robotaxis.

Oh.

Robotaxis for everybody you know so I never have to worry about traffic ever again.

I just go downstairs hop in a robotaxi and it takes me to where I want to go. I’m really excited about that. Like the Tesla presentation where it was like what would a city look like without parking lots – like that was so huge, it just like blew my mind of like what is capable. But I know we have a ways to go, hopefully we’ll get there in 10 years.

Have you have you tried them? Have you like tried Waymo or anything like that?

I have not, no. I know that there’s like a certain you know leap of faith that you have to let it take you to where… but every time that my family and I take a trip we always rent the Tesla.

I’m always trying like the full self-driving and each successive time it gets better. The first time I was intervening a lot and then the most recent time I let it take me pretty much to everywhere that I wanted to go.

So you know in my own personal life I would love to have that ability, but I don’t want to compromise on like a gas engine. Like it’s something that I feel like, you know, I commute 30 minutes outside of Boston, I might not have like the ability to charge my EV and that kind of stuff. So there’s definitely a component of it of convenience that I haven’t been able to make. But if it’s publicly available you know, like rather than taking the T, it might be nice to take a robotaxi. I think that’s gonna really change how cities operate.

Yeah, I mean, I think the city’s made quite a bit of strides on electric vehicle charging capability, both for residents and for our own government operations. There’s an electric vehicle transition happening with our city fleet. So, when you go to our operation center for, you know, everything that’s happening around snow operations and garbage and that sort of thing, there is a gas station on site where you can gas up your vehicle, but they now have, I think, at least 24 chargers. That ubiquitous availability of charging is going to be essential.

One thing to note on the robotaxi thing: I had a chance to try it out in Los Angeles. I was out there for a conference, and they made it available to the general public, like, I think, the second day that we were there. So we tried it out a couple times, and it’s definitely an experience. I think they…

Was it a good experience?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

It’s like such a cryptic answer – I was trapped for 24 hours…

No, I mean they were short trips.

I won’t sort of like dig into a lot of the meat – you’re aware of the debate around it and whatnot – but I think last week they announced their plan for 10 additional cities. I know that they did announce Miami, probably a couple months ago.

So Boston get on it.

So we do have testing of autonomous vehicles in the seaport. These are, you know, MIT affiliated companies.

Yeah.

So for the most part, the state is kind of leading on it so we’ll see how that shakes out.

Yeah, it’s certainly an interesting city to live in. Or even an area to live in. I mean, I feel like Cambridge and Boston are so ubiquitous with MIT. I feel like I’m the direct beneficiary of so many different cutting-edge technologies, you know? So, it’s cool to live in a city like this. I mean, in general, I feel like there’s—I’m sure you guys know—that the overall trend is for people to move back to cities. But, um, I do want to gain a lot of the benefits, too, you know? Like, it’s not just for the croissants available downstairs, it’s also like I want to see how I can live better than in the suburbs, right? So, very awesome answers.

The second question is, like, how did you guys get into this? Like, what made you decide that this was the career path for you?

Want me to go first?

Oh, sure.

Okay. So I was actually a chemistry major in college, so I did chemistry and physics in college. Um, but after college, I was working in—I was really interested in interactive design and was working in some studios and advertising agencies and that sort of thing. I don’t actually know the exact moment, but there was a time around the time I was getting out of college where cities were making data more available. Um, there was just generally a kind of groundswell around civic technology that was happening that—um and I don’t know the exact moment, maybe I was reading some blog post or looking at some news article about it, but um, I just started building things with the data. You know, data visualizations that were kind of fun.

There’s an organization called Code for America that was just starting out, and so they had launched a fellowship program, and so the first year I applied and got in—that was like the beginning of the journey. So I did my fellowship with the city of Philadelphia, but they actually knew the folks in the mayor’s office in Boston really well, so I got to know the folks in Boston. Um, you know, about a year later, Boston had a position open, and I went for it, and you know, I’ve been in Boston ever since, so that’s kind of the—that’s kind of the origin of this.

What about you?

I kind of have like a crazy background.

No, Abby has like the coolest background.

Well I don’t think it’s that cool.

I was actually in the military, an Arabic linguist, but I wanted to get out. Um, the hurricane actually hit Puerto Rico—my family’s from there—and so I was thinking about getting out. I wanted to do something with a purpose, and I felt like climate hit that. Then I became a teacher, so I feel like service has always been it.

I saw the city job and I felt like it was a perfect fit where I got to benefit a community that I’m living in focused on climate. And I was mostly working in policy, but I saw technology, like, grid-enhancing technology to reduce the need for infrastructure, cool, like, concrete solutions. And then Michael posted this technology position, so I switched offices and happy that I did that.

It’s cool, very interesting. I mean, the last question I want to ask kind of segues into what you all are talking about—it’s like, was this interest outside of your own field, and then you just kind of got into it? Which is very similar to how I look at smart cities. It’s like, you know, I’m very much involved in medicine and, like, doing surgery and stuff like that, but I look at all this interesting technology, and it’s something I just can’t get enough of, you know? So, smart cities is one of them, but, like, realistically, if there’s, like, a robot article that comes up, I’m gonna read it, you know, start to finish. If there’s a video that pops up about robots, I’m gonna watch it because it’s like a side interest, you know?

What technology are you guys looking at that is kind of like a side interest that you can’t get enough of? Like, aside from smart cities, which is kind of like your day-to-day. There’s so much technological progress that’s happening in 2025. Over the past few years, I feel like it’s always interesting to hear what you guys that are in the field are looking at, aside from what your day-to-day is.

I’m going to say AI. I know Michael mentioned our office works on AI, but that’s not something I work on. I just like everything that you apply it to. Like all these companies that are emerging. I’m like, “Whoa, like you’re saving money, saving time, making it easier to go to the DMV.” So I’m going to say that, even though everyone probably says that.

That’s okay. I mean, it’s very in vogue right now, just like you were saying it’s in the zeitgeist. Are you using it like on a daily basis? Are you using ChatGPT for writing up emails and stuff like that?

Not on a daily basis, but occasionally, and it’s very cool, the things it can do. My boyfriend’s actually in tech, and he uses it to code. I’m like, “My gosh, this is so cool; you’re saving so much time.” So, it’s cool to see how you can apply it and make your life a little bit easier.

Yeah, my one is still maybe a little work-related, but like so much of my job is really administrative.

So, we have a, you know, USDOT grant; we have the NSF grant. So, a lot of times, I don’t have enough time in the workday to prototype something or spin up some code or whatever. And so, I do use it a lot for, you know, if I need to code an app really quickly or do data viz really quickly. It sometimes saves an incredible amount of time, and then other times it’ll make these mistakes that are just so incredibly frustrating that it might end up taking longer for me to fix it through Claude rather than just kind of doing it myself.

So, your using Claude primarily?

I do use Claude primarily—primarily, either Claude or Gemini. Um, there’s also some other open-source models that you can download really easily on your computer. So, there’s a program that you can download called Ollama, and if you go to ollama.com, they list an incredible number of large language models—some small—basically language models, but whether you call them large or small or whatever is a matter of semantics. But, you can just download them directly on your computer, and now you don’t even need to connect to the internet to play with them. But on a day-to-day basis, it’s mostly Claude and Gemini. Um, and yeah, it’s just been, you know, the speed of development on it has been almost shocking.

Yeah, have you guys tried DeepSeek at all?

I haven’t. I’m definitely intrigued by how it was developed. I’ve talked to our CIO a little bit about what our policy around using it internally would even be. I think, I mean, it just—we’re like a little over a week in on that.

That’s right.

Yeah, how it kind of blew up. I think, all said and done, just if the claims are true that this was trained for like five and a half million dollars, you know, that’s a really big development.

You know, maybe it means that it gets to a price point where we could work with a local university to create our own models that…

Exactly. A local Boston AI.

Yeah.

Would you program in a Massachusetts accent or would you…

It has to say wicked.

Exactly. No “r”s at all.

But honestly, it was such a great conversation having you guys give us insight into what the city of Boston is doing and how we’re responding to the future.

I would love to see the rest of you in the future. If you don’t mind, please like and subscribe; it really helps us bring on interesting and cool guests like Abby and Michael. For those of you who are listening on a regular basis, we will see you in the future. Thanks, everybody! Thanks for coming!

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By: The Futurist Society