Proposal for citywide wireless Internet aborted

Told ya.

Proposal for citywide wireless Internet aborted: "Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl's administration has shelved an effort to extend wireless Internet access to computer users citywide.

First off, when Bob O'Connor goes down in history as the one who took Pittsburgh out of the dark ages in the information world -- we've got problems.

Bob wanted WiFi for the All Star game -- so Pittsburgh could show itself off like Spokane and about 30-other cities that had wi-fi for limited coverage at sidewalk levels for 120 minutes of use without charge in an unsecure network.

I called for and wanted free wifi for everyone in the city -- not just downtown locations.

We need wifi in neighborhoods where kids do homework and where people who don't have upscale condos reside.

Putting wifi downtown was the best way to guarantee that it would NOT go anywhere else. They got to pick our cherries -- taking a grant to do so. We got screwed.

And, the downtown wifi carrier deal dried up a few months ago anyway. It went bust. It has failed in a miserable fashion. Use is light. Others have scrambled to pick up the pieces.

The city administration does what it generally does -- nothing. They'll wait. They'll do too little, too late. They'll keep squandering the opportunities. They'll let the digital divide grow wider and deeper.

Plus, they are not meeting about it. They are not calling for open RFPs. They are not trying to instigate anything with open conversations.

There is a new push to make cameras spy on citizens -- at red lights, on public streets -- but no push to make the infrastructure work for citizens, just against us.