Thanks to Amy for her International Women's Day message! IWD was a big day for the Lower Eastside Girls Club, where my wife is executive director (I am Tech Guy). In a press conference, Mayor Bloomberg and Councilwoman Margarita Lopez announced a $2.5 million gift from the Mayor's budget to help build the new Girls Club facility on previously vacant, city-owned lots in the Lower East Side of Manhattan. It will be a "green" building with a health center, media and computer labs (the Hedy Lamarr Center!) cafe and podcasting studio.
I was there shooting the event, and my camera wavered when I heard the Mayor describe the new building, declaring that it would give away free wireless internet access to the housing projects - my contribution to the plan for the building. To hear my idealistic dream echoed by the Mayor of New York City, especially in a time when municipalities are under attack by the telcos to prevent free wireless, was quite a moment. And with municipalities increasingly barred from doing this, it makes even more sense for private or nonprofit groups to step up and address the lack of affordable broadband. Now I have to make the dream a reality. So the Mayor and Margarita had their moment, the club got a big boost, my wife had 8 years of hard work recognized, the girls got on local TV news, and I got a moment of encouragement. What a happy International Women's Day! Best Dave Pentecost -- The Daily Glyph http://www.gomaya.com/glyph Usumacinta http://www.gomaya.com/dams Cell 917 312 9733 _______________________________________________ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list [email protected] http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
