Welcome to the Smart City Initiative Newsletter, the central hub for news and updates on pilot programs, partnership opportunities, events, and upcoming challenges!

2023 Annual Report: Check It Out!

Wondering what we've been up to? Read our 2023 Annual Report.

Recently, we took a moment to reflect upon and celebrate our accomplishments over this last year by putting together the 2023 Smart City Initiative Annual Report!

Two years after adopting our Smart City Initiative Strategy in 2021, we increasingly deploy “smart” technologies to solve challenges ranging from poor air quality to traffic congestion and homelessness. This year and beyond, we aim to fortify our data privacy processes and policies, standardize civic engagement as new tech is rolled out, expand public education, and evaluate our progress over the last two years so we can iterate and improve.

Our work will always be rooted in our four guiding principles and we are as committed as ever to ensuring that everyone in Long Beach can benefit from advancements in tech and innovation!

With gratitude,

The Long Beach Smart City Initiative team

RFP Opportunities: LB Co-Lab

We are looking for partners to support the Long Beach Collaboratory (LB Co-Lab) - Submit your proposal today!

LB Co-Lab participants enjoy a coaching session at our June 2023 workshop

We recently issued four challenge-based Requests for Proposals (RFPs) as part of the LB Co-Lab, an immersive tech program where residents from four Long Beach neighborhoods identified a main challenge they seek to solve. Participating community members will collaborate with the City and selected vendors to co-design the implementation of an accessible technology or non-technology solution to address the identified “challenge”.

The LB Co-Lab includes four challenge-based RFPs:

For each RFP, we will award one organization up to $35,000 for an initial pilot contract for a

period of up to 12 months. Submissions are due by Friday, Jun. 30 at 5:00 PM PT!

Learn more and propose your solution

Smart City Spotlights

We are partnering with CSULB to look for a diverse group of people who live, work or attend school in Long Beach to participate in the testing of our prototype digital rights platform. We want to know about your experience using technologies deployed by the City, and whether you have concerns about the data they collect. User testers are eligible to receive a $25 gift card for every study in which they participate!

Welcome Nikhil Sharma!

We recently welcomed Nikhil Sharma to the Long Beach Smart City Initiative team who is joining us as a Data Analyst Intern as part of the 2023 Civic Innovation Corps program.

Nikhil is a a graduate computer science student at Johns Hopkins University who is studying natural language processing. Nikhil will be conducting a data-informed evaluation of our Smart City Challenge and Pitch Long Beach! pilot programs.

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