Large cities on the hunt for economic growth aspire to more than the arrival of one new employer or mixed-use building. The industrializing city had certain requirements: railroads to ship commodities, slums to house workers, access to the machines for the sweatshops and the immigrants to work them. The modern “innovation hub” also has preconditions, among them an ecosystem of amenities to attract well-paid technical employees.

This means green-lighting new housing and office developments, supporting the creation of retail districts where new residents might dine and shop, and municipal investments in policing and infrastructure to create a habitat appealing to corporate employees and conducive to business operations. Such massive, interconnected projects are most profitable when constructed on top of districts with the most diminished land value, especially those close to infrastructure and potential commercial corridors.

Attempts to create such an ecosystem in one fell swoop involve massive redevelopment projects, such as Google’s plan to create a “smart city” along Toronto’s waterfront through its Sidewalk Labs affiliate. (Read more about Sidewalk Labs in an excerpt from Josh O’Kane’s book “Sideways: The City Google Couldn’t Buy.”)1.

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• 1. The proposal for the “IDEA district” ballooned from 20 to 190 acres, with development to begin in the Quayside neighborhood, an “underutilized,” “post-industrial piece of land” situated close to downtown “at the nexus of many key corridors.” The company’s comprehensive plan for the eastern waterfront included housing, offices, shops, and “civic amenities,” with infrastructure investment to “unlock” new neighborhoods. Google’s Canadian HQ would relocate to form part of an “innovation campus.” The city of Toronto would see its property tax revenue triple as “complete communities” attracted new employees. The IDEA district soon became a lightning rod for controversy. Google hoped to achieve massive data collection through sensors embedded throughout the development to create what Sidewalk Labs CEO Dan Doctoroff had called a “Google City” whose “urban data” would comprise a “test bed and product/service trial venue.” An organization called Block Sidewalk coalesced against “ubiquitous surveillance,” the massive transfer of municipal property (in actuality the occupied territory of the Mississaugas of the Credit) to American developers and tech firms, and fears over impending Silicon Valley-type gentrification.