Kansas City loses Smart City challenge to city that played the sick-kid card

A Midwestern city that let suburban sprawl get out of control has won a $40 million federal transportation grant.

Alas, that city is not Kansas City, Missouri.

Official word came Thursday that Columbus, Ohio, had beaten Kansas City and five other communities for a prize offered by the U.S. Department of Transportation. The Smart City challenge invited cities to present plans for using technology to improve their transportation networks. As the victor, Columbus will receive up to $40 million from the feds and up to $10 million from Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen’s Vulcan Inc.

The interactive kiosks you see downtown were a part of Kansas City’s pitch for the prize. The city’s plan called for an additional 200 kiosks, self-driving shuttles to the airport, sensors to improve bus service, and other tech-minded transportation improvements.

Columbus, for its part, included sick and dying children in its proposal.

In addition to ideas about moving people to jobs and developing smartphone apps for visitors, Columbus made the health of women and children a focus of its application. Earlier this year, CityLab described how the city’s Smart City bid fit into a larger strategy to reduce infant mortality by making it easier for people who live in low-income neighborhoods to access health services. A new bus-rapid-transit service connects a depressed part of the city with two medical centers, for instance.

The emphasis on health-care access seemed to resonate. In a news release announcing Columbus as the challenge winner, the transportation department cited the city’s intent to create more “transportation options to those most in need of prenatal care.”

Of the seven finalists in the Smart City challenge, Kansas City and Columbus may be the most similar. Like Kansas City, Columbus covers a huge geographic area — you could fit Cleveland, Cincinnati and Akron within its city limits. Kansas City and Columbus have similar “sprawl index” scores, reflecting each city’s love of asphalt and suburban development.

Thought it lost the Smart City contest, Kansas City can take satisfaction from a different transportation measure. Ten years ago, the then mayor of Columbus announced the formation of streetcar working group. But today, no track has been laid.