Centurions February Task Force: Infrastructure and Sustainability

Category:

Centurions

Co-Chairs: David Kim and Terry Harlow
Committee Members: Evan Fox, Adrienne Struble, Mary Claire Gustafson, Amanda Yoder and Quint Hall

Goal: Explore the role of infrastructure and sustainability in achieving a successful future for the greater Kansas City area and its citizens. The task force will dive into the impact and challenges of infrastructure and sustainability on today’s Kansas City and the opportunities and momentum for the future.

Session One: Hyperloop

Speaker: Aaron Attebery, Solutions Lead and Capture Manager @ Black & Veatch

Overview: Missouri aims to become the “the global epicenter for the research, development, and commercialization” of tubed transport technology.

Lessons Learned:

  • Missouri leaders want to run a 250-mile hyperloop route that would link Kansas City to St. Louis in a 30-minute trip along Interstate 70.
  • The hyperloop works by electronically shooting a pod through a depressurized tube. Magnets line the tube and levitate the pod like an air hockey puck. The lack of air or friction allows it to reach an incredible speed quickly and sustain it with minimal energy.
  • Kansas City is in the running to build a 12-15-mile test track that would position the city to be the potential epicenter for future expansion.
  • The cost to take a hyperloop from St. Louis to Kansas City would be lower than the cost of gas to drive, while still cutting down the time by three hours, to 28 minutes.
  • Travel time savings equate up to $410 million per year.
  • A commercially feasible Hyperloop that is approved for passenger travel in more than a decade from reality.
Aaron Atterbery, Solutions Lead and Capture Manager @ Black & Veatch
Aaron Atterbery speaks about Hyperloop in Missouri

Session Two: Smart City

Speakers:
Ashley Hand, Partner @ Cityfi
Mike Grigsby, Cisco & previous CIO of KCATA

Overview: In June 2015, KCMO entered an unprecedented partnership collaboration agreement with Cisco and Sprint to make Kansas City, Missouri the most comprehensive smart city in North America. The session also explored the legal and privacy impacts of the future Smart City and expansion of the Internet of Things (IoT).

Lessons Learned:

  • A Smart city is an urban area that uses different types of electronic Internet of Things (IoT) sensors to collect data and then use insights gained from that data to manage assets, resources and services efficiently.
  • Smart cities use intelligent solutions to optimize infrastructure and smart and responsive governance to engage citizens in the management of their city.
    • A system of sensors, networks, and applications collect useful data, like traffic congestion, energy use, and CO2 levels.
  • Everything from road traffic to municipal services could be more efficiently managed, and environmental issues from noise levels to air pollution improved with a smart city approach.
  • The more connected devices a smart city employs, the greater the risk to individual privacy.
    • Citizens have legitimate concerns that data shared to access smart city services could be compromised in the event of a network breach.
    • Smart city initiatives must embed cybersecurity into the very heart of their projects.
  • Successful smart cities are a partnership between government (at all levels), private companies and citizens.
    • Smart City technology can help improve public safety and reduce response times for first responders.
Ashley Hand, Partner @ Cityfi
Ashley Hand speaks about Smart Cities and the expansion of IOT

Session Three: 1 Million Project

Speakers:
Debby Ballard, Director, Community Affairs & President of the Sprint Foundation
Gwendolyn Litzsey, Vice Principal of Learning Communities at Central High School

Overview: The mission of the 1 Million Project is to help 1 million high school students who do not have reliable Internet access at home reach their full potential by giving them mobile devices and free high-speed Internet access.

Lessons Learned:

  • 70% of America’s school teachers assign homework to be completed online, but more than 5 million families with school-aged children do not have reliable internet connectivity at home.
  • This disconnect leads to dramatically inequitable outcomes among our students. This isn’t fair. It isn’t right. And it doesn’t need to happen.
  • This program is available to in almost every school district in the Kansas City area, including KCMO and KCK.
  • The 1 Million project will expand to the 10M project with the merger of T-Mobile and Sprint.
Debbie Ballard, Director, Community Affairs & President of the Sprint Foundation
Debbie Ballard speaks about the 1 Million Project

Session Four: The 5G Experience

Speakers:
Corey Hanson, General Manager, Sprint Experience
Rick Jones, Sprint Experience

Overview: Sprint 5G Experience is an immersive walk-through venue where you can explore more than a dozen stations and demonstrations using augmented reality, virtual reality and simulations. See firsthand how 5G will power smart cities and make cities safer, connect billions of things through IoT and change the way people live, work and play.

Corey Hanson, General Manager, Sprint Experience
Corey Hanson speaks about Sprint 5G

Lessons Learned:

  • The future of wireless communication and city infrastructure will be driven by the availability and delivery of high-speed data.
  • A connected city provides infrastructure to assist first responders and drastically reduce emergency response times.
  • Wireless service will not be delivered using the current unsightly towers found throughout today’s cities; it will rely on small, out of sight repeaters.

Session Five: Urban Acupuncture

Speakers:
Brittany Barrientos, Partner, Stinson
Tim Duggan, Founder, Phronesis

Overview: There is a long history of legal battles between KCMO and the EPA regarding the KCMO sewer system and its impacts to the environment. This session will explore the legal components of this environmental challenge and move to potential fixes that not only solve the problem but provide a sustainable solution for future generations.

Lessons Learned:

  • Kansas City’s infrastructure and treatment systems were built as early as 1863, and many through the early 1900s.
    • Sewer system covers more than 300 square miles and contains more than 2,800 miles of pipe
    • After years of citizen complaints, and a decade after EPA’s compliance initiative began, EPA alleged many violations by the City of Kansas City
    • In October 2010, Kansas City entered a Consent Decree requiring it to implement overflow control measures, use green infrastructure, pay a $600K penalty and spend at least $1.6M on SEPs. The total cost expected to be over $4.5B.
    • By 2017, Kansas City had made many improvements, including improving infrastructure and completing several greenspace initiatives.
  • To overcome blight and disinvestment in the marginalized sections of Kansas City, we need to be designing regenerative infrastructure systems and to achieve this goal we must:
    • Develop a more holistic approach focused on transit-oriented development projects that utilize a strong community-based planning and design approach.
    • Lobby for change in the overall capital projects planning & decision-making process at City Hall.
    • Facilitate and prioritize community-based planning, design & implementation for local development initiatives that encourage green infrastructure systems.
    • Focus on leveraging resources with local, state, federal & philanthropic funding mechanisms. Public realm investments in green infrastructure will transform the pedestrian experience within our City.
Brittany Barrientos, Partner, Stinson
Brittany Barrientos talks about the legal component of the environmental challenges facing the KCMO sewer system.
Tim Dugan, Founder, Phronesis
Tim Dugan shares potential sustainable solutions for the KCMO sewer system.

Session Six: Understanding the Infrastructure problem

Speaker:
Dennis Strait, Architect, Gould Evans

Overview: Communities across the country are facing a fundamental problem: we’ve built cities we can’t afford. The root cause is so imbedded in the fabric of our lifestyle, it can be difficult to see. But once you’ve seen it, it’s difficult to unsee. This introduction is an important first step toward understanding and beginning to solve the problem.

Lessons Learned:

  • Between 1850 and 1950, Kansas City grew from a small village on the Missouri River to a full-fledged city of nearly 500,000 people within just 81 square miles. Today, post automobile, Kansas City is nearly four times as large at 319 square miles, yet the city’s population has hardly changed.
  • Today, Kansas City has over 6,500 linear miles of roads and limited budget to improve them. Each resident is responsible for maintaining four times as much city infrastructure compared to 1950.
  • It would take about $125 million a year of the city’s budget to keep roads at a passable level. The city’s current budget for road improvement is about $24 million.
  • City’s should function as a farmer would – and figure out the best use of all its properties. This includes:
    • Creating a tax policy that provides incentives to develop what is best for the city.
    • Creating a tax system where the city charges property tax based on how much infrastructure upkeep is required to maintain the property.
    • Citizens who want to live in larger lots in suburban areas should be willing to pay more for the increased upkeep
  • The biggest roadblock to addressing the infrastructure problem is getting past people's discomfort with change and things that are different from what they’re accustomed.
Dennis Strait, Architect, Gould Evans
Dennis Strait talks about infrastructure and maintenance