Looking Toward the Next Century

Innovation in Coral Gables

The irony of talking about innovation and Coral Gables in its next century is that the city is already immersed in innovation – and has been since its birth. City founder George Merrick’s vision of a planned city, designed to be livable and walkable, is what has urban planners excited today – the “live, work, play environment” now considered cutting-edge. The idea of the “triple helix” model, where government, industry, and academia work together, was part of the initial plan, with Merrick immediately launching the University of Miami, the Chamber of Commerce, and the first City Commission. Even the idea of environmental sustainability, so au currant, was incorporated in the Garden City movement he embraced, right down to the Gables’ tree canopy.

“We are, today, aligned with that vision of continuous improvement, and the founding principle that everything is about quality of life,” says Raimundo Rudolfo, the city’s chief innovation officer. “It’s about improving services and leveraging state-of-the-art technology to increase capacity, solve traffic problems and mobility issues, and improve health and public safety. Everything you are going to see in the next 100 years must remain focused on people.” As for cutting-edge technology, Coral Gables is ahead of the curve, already using artificial intelligence (AI) for more than a decade. The city’s Community Intelligence Center has been crunching data from its downtown camera and tracking systems to analyze pedestrian and vehicular flow – and, in some cases, track down lost children or monitor which window displays attract the most attention on Miracle Mile. Its smart poles on Alhambra Circle record millions of bits of data, including air quality, ambient temperature, and traffic patterns. At the same time, the city is laying in miles of G5 cable to enhance the speed and depth of communication.

“We are using AI and that is going to continue,” says Rudolfo. “AI is going to become faster, and with quantum computing, way more powerful. Quantum computing is going to skyrocket – so what takes one minute today [to compute] will take less than one second.” For example, Coral Gables is currently taking part in a research project called “AutonomIA,” in conjunction with the U.S. Department of Energy and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. The title is an acronym for “autonomous intelligent assistant,” a traffic management system that uses AI and algorithms to reduce congestion, improve energy efficiency, and lower emissions in regional transportation systems. “That’s something we are doing now, but that’s going to be taken for granted in a few years,” Rudolfo says.

Transportation

As we move toward the next century, Rudolfo predicts “hyper-connected infrastructure everywhere.” Traffic lights will be connected, and smart. The roads themselves will have sensors in the asphalt to measure pedestrian and vehicular traffic. If somebody is crossing a road and is in danger of being hit, for example, approaching vehicles will be maneuvered or stopped to avoid the collision.

Rudolfo also predicts widespread use of urban robotics, especially for delivery and for “the last mile of transportation and the supply chain,” meaning less heavy vehicular traffic downtown. He also predicts that the use of drones will skyrocket (pun intended), and that flying cars and taxis will proliferate, with rooftops used for evtol (electric vehicle takeoff and landing) conveyances. “So, you’re going to see a drone bringing a pizza to your window,” he says.

As far as flying cars go… not so fast, says Mike Rodriguez, who manages the Mercedes-Benz dealership in Coral Gables. “People have been asking this – will there ever be flying cars? – for decades. While it’s fun to imagine, the real focus right now is making ground transportation smarter and more efficient, pushing the envelope with electric powertrains, AI-driven technology, and features that make driving better than ever. If flying cars ever become a reality, I wouldn’t be surprised if Mercedes-Benz is involved in some way – but for now, we’re focused on redefining what a luxury car can do on the road.”

More likely, says Rodriguez, is the advent of self-driving cars, though fully self-driving cars are still a ways off. “What we do have right now are incredible semi-autonomous features that make driving safer and easier, with technologies that allow for hands-free driving under certain conditions. It’s not about replacing the driver – it’s about enhancing the experience, reducing stress on long drives, and adding an extra layer of safety.”

On the public transportation side of things, Coral Gables is already plunging into the future with alternative transportation. Matt Anderson, who wears a double hat as the assistant city director of mobility as well as of sustainability, says the aim is both to improve the efficiency of public transportation and to reduce the greenhouse emissions produced. “Our city has shown a lot of leadership in this area, reducing our energy use, our fuel use, and seeing what alternatives we can find,” he says. The last greenhouse gas emission study done by the city in 2019 showed that “almost 50 percent of our community-wide greenhouse gas emissions were associated with transportation.”

One solution has been to use trolleys on Ponce de Leon Boulevard and Grand Avenue (connecting to Coconut Grove), which transport one million passengers a year. While these use diesel fuel, the Freebees (which provide free rides to destinations in the downtown) are electric, and options for the trolleys are afoot – including conversion to electric or, in the more distant future, the use of hydrogen.

Then there are the electric scooters, 200 of which are located around the city, mostly in the downtown. These help provide what Anderson calls “the first and last mile of transit” for residents and visitors once they park their cars. And for those who do drive electric cars, the city has 26 charging ports in public garages, along with 70 electric vehicles in the city’s fleet, with more of both planned for the future.

Sustainability & Environment

Anderson’s other area of concern is sustainability and the environment. The city took a lead role in these efforts when it banned plastic bags and Styrofoam, an ordinance that was overturned by the State of Florida. In lieu of regulations, the city is working to bring awareness and recognition to businesses that go “above and beyond,” says Anderson, through its Green Business Certification Program. What has managed to stay on the books is the city’s 2016 ordinance that any building 20,000-square-feet or larger be LEED Silver certified, which requires energy and water saving systems to be part of the design. The city has followed the same dictates with its new buildings, such as the Public Safety Building and the trolley maintenance facility on U.S.-1. “We feel it’s critically important for us as a city to be able to lead by example,” says Anderson.

As for the future, he adds, “our city is looking at everything when it comes to our environment, from infrastructure to water quality.” Soon to be released is a comprehensive study on water conducted with FIU, UM, and NOAA, which will likely recommend converting all city septic tanks to sewage, so that groundwater will not be contaminated. The city will also expand its Keep Coral Gables Beautiful events, including collections of electronics, plastics, batteries, and chemicals at City Hall. “We’ve done 200-plus events in the last five years that engaged over 30,000 participants, and we’ve been able to reduce over 800,000 pounds of litter or debris from entering landfills – including 500 pounds of plastic,” says Anderson.

In the future, expect more of the same, with greater participation by residents engaged in the process. “The reality is that the field of sustainability is always innovating, with new technologies, from how we are processing waste to how efficient a vehicle is running. I see it in all sectors,” Anderson says. One encouraging sign: the city has already set aside $26 million in an interest-bearing account to mitigate future sea level rise.

Rachel Silverstein, the executive director of Coral Gables- based Waterkeepers, is not quite as sanguine. “We are facing some real challenges in the coming decades, from climate change to sea level rise and flooding, to more rain and more severe storms,” she says. All of these will put pressure on our wastewater infrastructure, energy infrastructure, stormwater infrastructure, and our canal system, none of which were built to withstand worsening environmental conditions.

On the other hand, if the community does “pivot” toward a low carbon energy future and reduces pressure on nature and the environment, she foresees “a future where we have cleaner energy, where we find ways to reduce pollution and bring nature and natural spaces into the built environment.” Coral Gables has been ahead of the curve in trying to deal with things like plastic pollution, but needs to do more, she says. “We can be restoring and protecting green spaces and parks to be able to catch and store flood [waters]. We can rethink our swales, our sidewalks, our driveways, our medians, so that they’re all part of a green infrastructure that is trapping, storing, and cleaning water.” A great example is Giralda Plaza. “There are cisterns and special soils under the ground to help deal with flooding and flood water. There’s special drainage. So, it’s actually a ‘green’ street and that also happens to be very beautiful and good for the businesses there,” Silverstein says.

As for the next century, “We have a huge stake in protecting clean water and making sure that pollution coming from the land is not damaging this really valuable asset for Coral Gables, whether it’s the Coral Gables waterway or along the bay,” she says. “I think we can keep
going and keep thinking about every park redesign, every development, every streetscape, as part of this green network that is enhancing the livability, the sustainability, and the resiliency of Coral Gables.”

Public Safety

Coral Gables is already among the safest cities in Florida, if not the entire country. In addition to low crime, it has one of the quickest response times for its emergency medical services.

The real issue for the future, says Coral Gables Police Chief Ed Hudak, is how to deal with the introduction of artificial intelligence into policing. As with other industries, AI has the power to process information at high speeds. But, says Hudak, “We are taking baby steps in law enforcement because there are a lot of issues, including legal issues.” The heart of the matter, he says, is “do we ever really want to replace a human being, and the decision-making and discretion of an officer, with an artificial intelligence?”

Hudak says he has witnessed, and welcomed, the advances in communication since his early days as a police officer – going from beepers to cell phones “as big as a shoe” to portable devices that allow everyone to immediately communicate. He is also pleased with how camera surveillance around the city has helped the police department, with celebrated incidents such as tracking down a lost child using high-speed analysis of visual data.

Hudak does not feel there will be some “earth-shattering piece of new technology,” but rather incremental changes in non-lethal weaponry improvements and the use of AI to help solve crimes. “I think artificial intelligence is obviously the future of policing in a more expeditious way. But I don’t think we’re ever going to replace a human being as a police officer,” Hudak says.

While it will also never replace firefighters, technology has been a boon to the Coral Gables Fire Department, says Chief Marcos De La Rosa. “We have always been innovative and cutting-edge in our services,” he says, going back to the early 1970s, when the CGFD was an early adopter of emergency medical services with paramedics. The department, for example, was one of the first anywhere to transmit an electrocardiogram as they sped to the hospital. They have also been a global leader in “vehicle extrication” of victims. “So, as we look into the next 100 years, emergency medical services are really where we are going in how we integrate with the overall health care system.”

In terms of firefighting, De La Rosa is looking forward to technology advances that will make the air packs and flame-proof uniforms lighter and better able to deal with fires that are increasingly intense due to the use of synthetic materials in buildings. In terms of AI, De La Rosa is looking forward to technology that provides better thermal imagery, so that people can be located in smoke-filled buildings, and even tiny screens in the goggles of firefighters that show the layout of the smoke-filled buildings they are entering. AI can also help the department by helping predict the occurrence and impact of natural disasters. “If we’re looking into the next 100 years, it’s going to play an integral part in how we plan, prepare, and mitigate emergencies,” the fire chief says.

Health Care

Health care is another area where new technology will have a profound influence in the next century. “The health care industry has progressed, from a technology perspective, so much over the last 20 to 25 years,” says Lourdes A. Boue, CEO of Doctors Hospital. “We see that progression continuing at an ever-faster rate. I really cannot imagine where we’re going to be in 100 years.” Boue believes the future of medical technology will evolve in ways predicted by popular science fiction years ago. “It’s almost like going back to the future – I think of Spock on “Star Trek,” and the way that they practiced medicine. I think we are going to be there, back to the future, just like how the Jetsons were predicting where we are today.”

“When we look into the crystal ball,” she adds, “innovation is at the heart of what we need to do, not only from the delivery of care – new procedures, robotics everywhere, new medications, new treatments – but also in ways to integrate AI to make our role as clinicians easier and more streamlined. The massive amount of information that exists in today’s universe? You can only imagine what it will be like in 100 years. We’re going to be leveraging AI more and more to help us.”

Not only will AI process health care data, it will also help mitigate the predicted shortages of physicians and nurses across the country, for which it will be necessary to leverage AI and technology. “Having said that, you will never lose that human touch,” Boue says.

Matt Love, the CEO of Niklaus Children’s Hospital, will be the first to tell you that pediatrics and the medical care of children is a “high touch industry” where human contact is critical. Having said that, Love says that technology has transformed – and will continue to transform – medicine, especially in the operating room. Over the last half decade, he says, procedures which required long surgeries and days to recover are now “same-day, in and out, or just overnight,” thanks to things like robotic surgery. At Niklaus’ Griffin Surgical Tower, for example, neurosurgeons are already using a device that produces 3D imaging of the brain in real-time, so that doctors can place implants or treat tumors with precision.

What excites Love even more than new surgical techniques is how technology is improving the patient experience. “These are children, not small adults,” he says, and they need a different level of attention. “Kids don’t want to be in the hospital. And so, it’s about using innovation and technology to make the experience as good as it can be.” Niklaus was one of the first hospitals to employ virtual reality headsets to create an imaginary world for the kids. Now they are using “immersive technology” that transforms the entire bay “into a fish aquarium, for example, so it feels like they’re in the water,” Love says. “And then you can change it, you can turn it into an outer space environment. It’s very, very comforting, both to the parent and to the child.”

As far as the use of AI, Love sees future benefits in the administrative side of health care, where the processing of paperwork and data can be streamlined and made more efficient, freeing up resources for the clinical side. “It’s about taking costs out of the system so that we can hire the best doctors and the best nurses,” he says. “I see a little bit on the clinical side, where [many] opportunities reside, but it’s also where the risk is going to be. How do we balance those AI tools? I haven’t yet seen how our insurance industry is going to respond to some of this, in terms of relying on AI tools versus people.”