(JNi.media) “A Smart City requires a smart CIO (Chief information officer), and vice versa,” said Eilat Mayor Meir Yitzhak Halevi, “And that’s exactly what we do in Eilat. We postponed gratification, we built a long-term plan, and we’re turning Eilat into a bona fide smart city,” DailyMaily reported.
Halevi spoke on Monday, at the municipal IT Conference 2015, at the Avenue convention center in Airport City, Israel. The conference was attended by hundreds of IT professionals from Israeli municipalities.
According to Halevi, “The vision and the path that guide us are in accordance with the verse, “Where there is no vision, the people perish” (Prov. 29:18). We believe in our ability to produce good quality of life for our residents and tourists, with the infrastructure for it being technology. But for that we have to build a long-term, multi-year strategy.”
Meir Yitzhak Halevi was born in Jerusalem, the grandson of the chief rabbi of Yemen. He moved to Eilat in 1978 and ran the community center and management college in the city. He was elected to the city council in 1993, and ran unsuccessfully for mayor in 1998. Between 1998 and 2003 he served as opposition leader on the council, until he finally won the municipal election in 2003 in two rounds. He left the Likud to join Ariel Sharon’s new party, Kadima, and in 2008 won 50% of the vote to retain office.
Mayor Halevi described some of the projects being carried out in Eilat, as part of making it a Smart City: replacement of street lighting with LED, smart street signage, smart trash cans equipped with sensors, a plan to deploy fiber optics throughout the city, deploying sensors to collect data on noise and air pollution, analysis capabilities of operational measures to increase energy efficiency, smart districts, smart bus stops, and electric taxis. Halevi also boasted his signature project “City without Violence,” which utilizes a system of CCTV cameras deployed throughout the city.