Google sister company hires former Toronto councillor for Quayside project

Thestar.com
February 14, 2019
David Rider

Sidewalk Labs, the Google sister company proposing a high-tech neighbourhood on Toronto’s waterfront, has hired a former city councillor to explain and sell the vision to Torontonians.

Mary-Margaret McMahon, who retired from politics last fall after representing Beach residents for eight years on council, confirmed Wednesday that on Tuesday she becomes Sidewalk Labs’s “director of community” for the controversial project slated for Queens Quay and Parliament St.

Mary-Margaret McMahon says her role on the Quayside project “is basically getting Sidewalk Labs known across the city.”

Since 2017 when Waterfront Toronto announced Manhattan-based Sidewalk Labs as its preferred partner on “Quayside,” a hyper-connected test zone for urban tech, proponents have faced tough questions over privacy, data protection, land ownership and more.

“My role is basically getting Sidewalk Labs known across the city, especially areas where they aren’t known now, and hearing people’s thoughts and concerns about the project that we’ll all know more about,” with release of a master innovation and development agreement this spring, McMahon said.

“Sidewalk needs a Toronto face -- they haven’t had that 100 per cent and so I think that’s part of hiring me,” on a contract until the end of 2019, said the former environment committee chair.

“I have worked well with everyone across party lines and in all different parts of the city and communities. There are a bunch of hoops to jump through and I’m up for the challenge.”

Under the city’s cooling-off provision, McMahon is not allowed to lobby council members or city staff for one year from her November departure from city hall.

On council McMahon was known as a progressive ally of right-leaning Mayor John Tory, championing bike lanes, tree protections and also term limits for municipal politicians.

She joins the urban innovation arm of Google parent company Alphabet Inc. and its local workforce of about 20 people working out of an open-to-the-public office and “experimental workspace” at 307 Lake Shore Blvd. E. McMahon is among four locals being added to the mix of Canadians and Americans.

Sidewalk Labs also hired: Pino Di Mascio, a former partner at Urban Strategies, as director of planning; Ryan Guptill, a former federal Conservative political staffer, as associate focused on government relations; and Zak Abdulle, a former Toronto Community Housing program co-ordinator, Muslim Fellow in Mayor John Tory’s office and unsuccessful 2018 school trustee candidate, as project management associate.

Micah Lasher, a former chief of staff to New York State’s attorney general who moved to Toronto to head Sidewalk Labs’ communications team, said in an interview McMahon was hired for her deep commitment to the city and ability to get things done.

“If this project is successful, it will be because it drew on the insights and lived experiences of people from every neighbourhood in this city and it will generate innovation and ideas that can improve life in every neighbourhood in this city,” he said. “We hope to be part of this city’s future for a very long time to come.”

Waterfront Toronto, an agency representing the city, provincial and federal governments, has been working with Sidewalk Labs on the draft master agreement spelling out plans for data collection and retention, revenue generation, housing and development guidelines, and more.

After public consultations and any resulting changes, the document is to go to the government partners and Sidewalk Labs for final ratification. If no agreement can be reached, Waterfront Toronto is free to seek a new development partner.

Bianca Wylie, co-founder of the advocacy group Tech Reset Canada who has criticized secrecy around the Quayside process and a private company’s role in shaping city space and policies, said Wednesday that local hires should not be the firm’s priority.

“Sidewalk Labs’s priority should be defining how they will make a graceful exit from Toronto,” she said, “including how they will thank the city’s residents for the privilege and opportunity they were given to do their research and product development here over the past 15 months.”