Alphabet's Sidewalk Labs Eyes Toronto for Its Digital City

The urban tech moonshot born at Google wants to reinvent cities `from the internet up'

Toronto, Canada on May 23, 2015.

Photographer: James MacDonald/Bloomberg
Lock
This article is for subscribers only.

Larry Page's dream of using technology to fix cities may come to Canada first.

Sidewalk Labs LLC, the urban innovation unit of Page's Alphabet Inc., has applied to develop a 12-acre strip in downtown Toronto, responding to a recent city agency request for proposals, according to two people familiar with the plans. Details of the proposal are private, but these people said the bid fits with the company's ambition to create a connected, high-tech city or district from scratch.