Smart Long Beach
What is a “smart" city?
In October 2019, Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia and the City Council directed City staff to develop a Smart City Initiative. But what is a "smart" city? Does it include a monorail down Ocean Blvd and flying cars? Probably not. Does it mean partnering with the Long Beach community to leverage data and technology as strategic tools to solve challenges and overcome problems? That sounds more like it.
A smart Long Beach is one that is inclusive, responsible, resilient, and community-centered. We think technology and data have the power to improve the lives of all Long Beach residents, and that real change can only happen if we collaborate as one City to solve problems and test out solutions. The Long Beach of the future must be defined by our residents, not technology companies.
What we're doing
The Smart City Initiative advances solutions to civic challenges by engaging the community, staff, and private sector to explore and implement emerging technology. This does not imply that there is something “not smart” about the way things have been done in the past. Rather, the Smart City Initiative is a collaborative effort to build on foundations that are already in place and to keep pace with rapid advances in technology.
A "smarter" Long Beach uses technology and data to manage change and expand capacities to better the daily lives of Long Beach residents, enhance city operations and make the best possible use of resources across all City Departments.
+Learn more about our pilot programs to advance smart city technology projects
+Read our 2023 Annual Report!
Latest News
We have released our 2024 Annual Report for the Technology Planning and Partnerships Division, which manages the City’s Smart City Initiative, data privacy program, and technology strategic planning efforts for implementing emerging technology solutions.
This report highlights the achievements of the City’s innovative technology and data privacy initiatives in the past year and is shared publicly to highlight the City’s progress in delivering valuable technology programs and services to the Long Beach community and ensuring the technology deployed is ethical, responsible and useful.
The Long Beach Collaboratory (LB Co-Lab) community-driven technology pilot program was recently named a finalist in the Civic Engagement category as part of the 2025 IDC Smart City North America Awards! This award recognizes Long's Beach's best practice example of innovation in community engagement and the use of technology to solve challenges in interesting ways.
Is generative artificial intelligence — or GenAI — merely a dubiously useful, or worse, arguably harmful product? Or is it a profound breakthrough that will revolutionize how we work, live, and co-create?
2024 Year in Review Report: Check It Out!
Read our 2024 Annual Report to learn about our team's impact and commitment to using technology for public good!
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Submit your project ideas to help improve City services for our residents and businesses.
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