Talking Tech for Cities

By Anthony Flint, February 17, 2025

Advances in technology, including artificial intelligence, are poised to transform the field of urban planning—and ultimately, most experts believe, will improve efficiency, sustainability, and quality of life in human settlement around the world.

But sorting through the often dizzying developments of the ongoing tech disruption can be challenging, as cities attempt to figure out what’s real, what may be hype, and what practical applications are already having an impact.

“The tricky part of writing about technology, whether it’s about city technology or any kind of technology, is always sorting out the potential for the future and which future you’re talking about,” says Rob Walker, author of the City Tech column that has appeared in Land Lines magazine over the past decade.

In a wide-ranging interview for the kickoff episode of Season 6 of the Land Matters podcast, Walker—a contributor to the New York Times, Fast Company, and Bloomberg Businessweek—reflects on technological innovation in everything from curb management, geospatial mapping, and community engagement to new building materials and noise reduction in cities.

He addresses those subjects and more in City Tech: 20 Apps, Ideas, and Innovators Changing the Urban Landscape, a compilation of his columns published by the Lincoln Institute and distributed by Columbia University Press.

The book includes a foreword by tech journalist Kara Swisher and an afterword by author Greg Lindsay, who writes: “If the last decade of urban tech has been a dress rehearsal, then the curtain is now rising on the most momentous decade of change most cities have ever had to face.”

Rob Walker is a journalist and columnist covering technology, design, business, and many other subjects. He is coeditor of Lost Objects: 50 Stories About the Things We Miss and Why They Matter and author of The Art of Noticing. His Art of Noticing newsletter is at robwalker.substack.com. He also serves on the faculty of the School of Visual Arts in New York City.

Listen to the show here or subscribe to Land Matters on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, YouTube, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Further Reading

Could AI Make City Planning More Efficient?, Lincoln Institute of Land Policy

AI in Planning: Opportunities and Challenges and How to Prepare, American Planning Association

Generative Urban AI Is Here. Are Cities Ready?, Forbes

Lincoln Institute of Land Policy Releases New Book, City Tech (press release)

Anthony Flint is a senior fellow at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, host of the Land Matters podcast, and a contributing editor of Land Lines.