Photo by Harold Decena
Audio By Carbonatix
This is why we can’t have nice things.
Nearly one month ago, the city of Dallas announced that the long-discussed sidewalk kiosk program had finally gone live. Kiosk vendor IKE Smart City will introduce up to 150 large digital touchscreens to Dallas’ sidewalks over the coming years, thanks to a contract approved by the city council last summer.
The screens can be used as Wi-Fi hotspots or to dial 911; they can offer transit advice or weather updates, and they can recommend retail and dining spots in the area that a pedestrian may be interested in. They are also expected to generate desperately needed revenue for the city by turning sidewalk space into an advertising opportunity at $20,000 per kiosk per year, The Dallas Morning News reports. We should point out that in some cities, kiosk revenue has fallen far below what was promised.
So what could go wrong with installing 8-foot-tall iPads across town, you ask? Screen, meet rock.
Photo by Harold Decena
Dallasite Harold Decena took to Facebook over the weekend after he noticed that the new kiosk located at the corner of Turtle Creek Boulevard and Cedar Springs Road had been smashed, likely by a giant piece of gravel. The rock was still located at the scene of the crime when Decena whipped out his phone to snap a photo, so we feel confident naming it as the weapon used.
Why would a person do this? Who knows, but you’d think that the developers would have considered using projectile-proof glass on an outdoor installation. Because the situation feels a bit inevitable, doesn’t it?
Here’s the good news. According to a city of Dallas spokesperson, IKE Smart City, the company that manages the kiosks, is responsible for kiosk maintenance and replacement at no cost to the city. To date, the city has not received any 311 requests regarding needed kiosk maintenance, although repair requests can be made that way.
Evidently, though, the kiosk technicians will likely know there’s an issue before you can even call.
“IKE Smart City remotely monitors all kiosks 24/7 via software to determine if a kiosk is malfunctioning within minutes of an issue. Vandalism or other exterior damage is reported by our on-site technicians who visit each location, five days per week and one day on the weekend,” a statement from the city said.
Repairs are expected to be completed within five days of a problem being identified, but in more severe cases that require system replacements or significant work, it may be two weeks before the systems are back up and running. It’ll be easy to identify the broken kiosks, too, as longer-term repair timelines mean the units get covered up for protection.
(“That’s what we in the municipal kiosk repair biz call a Dallas fix,” Observer reporter Austin Wood said after we discovered that the Turtle Creek kiosk has, in fact, been shrouded in a gray canvas.)
There were a lot of people who were pretty unhappy with the whole kiosk idea when it was approved by city council last summer. They worried that the sleek screens would impede walkability by taking up sidewalk space. Privacy concerns were frequently discussed around the horseshoe. And the whole idea of selling ads to pedestrians just trying to enjoy a walk around town feels a bit on the nose for Dallas, don’t you think?
The Dallas Morning News’ editorial board has a long-recorded, somewhat hilarious hatred for these things, where they’ve griped about each of the aforementioned issues, plus the latest development: the sports betting app DraftKings is evidently a kiosk advertiser. Get your gambling on, Dallas! But the thing that everyone seems to be avoiding saying is this:
People break shit. People spray paint shit. And Dallas signed off on installing 150 new targets across town. At least taxpayers won’t be on the hook for paying for the necessary replacements again and again and again.
If the city’s timeline is on point, the Turtle Creek kiosk should be back online by mid-July. We’ll see how long it stays that way.
