Boston

Mayor Michelle Wu announced that the city of Boston will pay 65 percent of each employee’s MBTA monthly pass of their choice, a significant cost savings compared to the pre-tax discount workers had been offered previously.

The city of Boston could have to pay close to a billion dollars if it decided to build out a fiber Internet network, according to a new “digital equity” study that detailed gaps to access in the city.

GovTech checked in with Boston; Mesa, Ariz.; and Oakland, Calif., to get a sense of what some of the newest things happening in digital equity are across the country, as cities continue to prioritize the digital divide.

Digital equity advocates say this may be the single largest dispersion of federal grant money to one local-level organization in the space, and as such, it may serve as a model for others going forward.

Many residents have no idea what sort of data is collected by the myriad sensors, cameras and other pieces of smart city technology. A new project hopes to demystify the technology through embedded QR codes.