A mock-up of the Citybridge consortium's wi-fi kiosk in New York.
Alex Marshall at Governing the States and Localities writes
NYC’s Plan for Free, Citywide Wi-Fi. An excerpt:
What is a phone booth without a phone? In general, it’s an eyesore. But not in New York City, where beginning this year old phone booths will be transformed into about 10,000 sleek metal slabs that will provide high-speed digital access throughout the entire city.
The plan is called LinkNYC, and it’s important for two reasons. One, it may be a plan other cities can copy -- there are certainly plenty of old public pay phones around. Two, it’s an example of reimagining old assets and connecting citizens to what is increasingly a vital and life-enhancing service: the Internet.
The project originated under Mayor Michael Bloomberg and his Reinvent Payphones Design Challenge. But Mayor Bill de Blasio is carrying the program forward, arguing it’s a way to help address the digital divide.
The city has entered into a contract with a consortium of private companies, acting under the name CityBridge, which will tear down the roughly 9,000 old pay phones and replace them with kiosks fit with a screen, telephone and charging port for mobile devices. Users will be able to walk up to these screens and get information, call 911 or call anywhere in the United States for free.
Most important, New Yorkers will get really fast Internet service. Within a radius of 150 feet, most kiosks will provide a gigabyte per second service, a speed almost unimaginable to most Americans (although not uncommon in some other countries). At this speed, a two-hour, high-definition movie will download in about 30 seconds, and up to 250 people can use it at one time without diminishing service, according to the consortium. […]
Not only will New York City residents get high-speed Internet access, but the city government will also get an estimated $500 million in direct payments from CityBridge over the next 12 years. So the next question is, what does CityBridge get? Revenue from advertising, which will play on most of the screens. It’s a variation of what New York has already done with its citywide bike system. A private company supplies the bikes, pays most or all the cost and in return gets the advertising.
Blast from the Past. At Daily Kos on this date in 2009—Open Thread for Night Owls, Early Birds & Expats:
So, here we are, two and a half weeks into Barack Obama's first term as President and already it's a post-post-partisan world.
Kumbaya sounded good. Really. How could you not like the idea of it? Especially after eight years of the unitary executive in which the Republicans frequently ignored Democrats, much less consulted with them about legislation or other matters. That ain't the way to behave.
Unless, of course, you're modern Republicans. Theirs is the Genghis Khan view of bipartisanship: We tell you what to do and you do it. Surrender or get trampled. The idea that the Gee Oh Pee was going to switch its stance just because Barack Obama won a mandate and the House and Senate swelled with newly elected Democrats was a pipe dream. From the point of view of Republicans, real bipartisanship is just another word for nothing left to lose. A last resort when nothing else works.
Some left-progressives have been suspicious of the bipartisan, post-partisan theme all along. We didn't buy it. But it wasn't our call. Now, it is to be hoped, more folks see it for the fantasy it is. Not that cooperation, which is what bipartisanship is supposed to be about, should never again be tried. Of course, it should. But next time it is, we shouldn't start out with a "pre-compromised" proposal like the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act - the stimulus bill, the jobs bill. Good bargainers know that if you want to sell a rug for $100, you don't start out asking for $105, you ask for $200 and hint that you might be flexible. I'm not referring to dollar amounts here, but rather negotiating principles.
So what did we get from the sincere bipartisanship of President Obama? Well, we don't know yet for certain because we don't have a Senate vote on the stimulus package. But we do know that what started out "pre-compromised" has now been weakened even more by Republicans and some conservative Democrats who saw vulnerability and pounced on it.
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today's Kagro in the Morning show: Lots of excitement over new jobs numbers this morning. Aaron Schock is still in the news, having sold land way above market value to a campaign donor. Chris Christie's Port Authority chairman probed for favor trading with United Airlines.
Meteor Blades made a surprise visit to give us a fuller picture of the jobs numbers, and the latest legislative gun nuttery. Next, we consider "Confessions of a congressman." White privilege meets the Super Bowl. WY's proposed loosening of gun standards sounds terrible, too, and contains a special, secret surprise! And, one reason one might be comfortable with armed police, but not so much with random armed strangers.
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