Yeah, the buzzfeed‑style headlines love to call it “smart,” but when you walk through a block you’ll find a maze of flickering LED strip lights and a hundred different sensor pods that no one actually knows how to read. The city is trying to out‑tech itself, but the infrastructure is still stuck in a 1998 plumbing system, and the coffee shops? They’re the only places that actually feel like community hubs, if you’re into latte art and overpriced Wi‑Fi. So the real story isn’t about tech; it’s about a metropolis that’s still figuring out how to put the “city” part into “smart.”