A group hoping to send Manhattan-based Sidewalk Labs packing is warning of stealth privatization and corporate decision-making on Toronto’s valuable east waterfront.

“In Toronto (Sidewalk Labs) is aiming to take over the functions of government — do we really need a coup d’état to get transit and nice paving stones?” waterfront resident Julie Beddoes told reporters at the city hall launch of #BlockSidewalk’s public outreach campaign.

Sam Burton, a digital rights activist and #Blocksidewalk organizer, added “We must reset this project,” to put the needs of Toronto and its citizens first, not a Google sister company.

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Sidewalk Labs, which is owned by Google parent company Alphabet, won a competitive bid process in October 2017 to partner with Waterfront Toronto to develop plans to build a high-tech test neighbourhood on Quayside, a 12-acre former industrial lot near the corner of Parliament St. and Queens Quay.

Questions over use and protection of residents’ data, control of land and who profits only heightened in February when the Star revealed Sidewalk Labs’s vision of expanding into 300 acres of the adjacent Port Lands and, in return for helping build a waterfront light rail line, getting a cut of development fees and property taxes that would normally flow to the city.

Bianca Wylie, chair of #BlockSidewalk, acknowledged her new group is many months behind Sidewalk Labs which has been holding public consultations, hosting events and lobbying public officials.

Sidewalk Labs says it will this spring submit to Waterfront Toronto — a city, provincial and federal redevelopment agency — its proposed master innovation and development agreement for a futuristic neighbourhood that can serve as an innovation test bed for solutions to urban problems.

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The proposal is subject to approval by Waterfront Toronto and the three levels of government.

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Wylie said Sidewalk Labs’ lack of transparency to date means Torontonians shouldn’t wait for the agreement before telling political representatives the city can redevelop the east waterfront, with technological innovation and a focus on citizen rights, without help from a U.S. tech giant.

She wasn’t sure what form her group’s outreach will take, saying that and more will be discussed at an April 17 public meeting.

Keerthana Rang, a Toronto-based communications official for Sidewalk Labs, said the company remains focused on helping build a “high sustainable, transit-connected, inclusive community on the waterfront, enabled by innovative technology and innovative urban design.”

More than 20,000 Torontonians have taken part in consultations and discussions on the Quayside proposal, and residents and their officials will decide if the plan moves forward to reality, she said.

Councillor Paula Fletcher, who represents the Port Lands and participated in the #Blocksidewalk launch, said she had to help save the Port Lands in 2011 when then-councillor, now-premier Doug Ford wanted to put a hotel, megamall and Ferris wheel on the redeveloped land.

“Now I have to save the Port Lands from Google.”