Much of urban America is in the market for ways to handle the pressures that come with growing and changing populations. Enter “smart cities:” The movement to make municipal planning more efficient and effective for residents, which has a lot of champions but no one-size-fits-all program.

Taxpayer funds are a key part in sustaining public services and our overall government. Our democracy is responsible for government oversight and ensuring the process of checks and balances works. But with some entities operating in both the public and private sectors, many quasi-government entities opt for the secrecy afforded to private companies.