Mesa developing ‘smart city’ strategic plan, seeks residents’ input

PHOENIX – Arizona’s third-largest city wants to be smarter.

Mesa, an East Valley suburb with around 500,000 residents, is developing a “smart city” strategic plan to better serve its citizens.

“At its core, a smart city means cities and municipalities better using data and information and analytics and engagement to provide kind of enhanced and more efficient services for our residents and all of our stakeholders,” Ian Linssen, assistant to the Mesa city manager, told KTAR News 92.3 FM this week.

Linssen said Mesa already has been implementing smart strategies – he cited the use of data for traffic management and the creation of an app that lets residents report graffiti – but wants to do more.

To help with the comprehensive plan, the city is seeking input from citizens about what it should look like.

To that end, a smart city workshop will be held Oct. 25 from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Mesa Arts Center. Residents, entrepreneurs, innovators, students and business leaders are invited.

“We need input from everybody to tell us how they see a smart city working,” Linssen said.

“Our goal out of this is to create a holistic kind of strategy to applying these new techniques, these new technologies.”

Linssen said Mesa also will work with nearby cities that have similar initiatives, including Phoenix.

“Our surrounding communities are all doing that as well, and it’s actually a great thing because we can start to work even more collaboratively across our organizations to share data and best practices,” he said.

KTAR News 92.3 FM’s Griselda Zetino contributed to this report.

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