Interestingly enough, the town I used to live in, just a few miles from me, offers discounted water, garbage sewer, AND electricity as an economic incentive. Certainly, the wisdom of our forefathers in investing in future electrical production paid off handsomely in the lives of the people of the city. However, that town routinely loses businesses to across the border to a much larger town just 12 miles away, for all sorts of reasons.
The biggest reasons have almost always been outside the c ontrol of the city... LAnd use laws imposed by hte state, state income tax and tax policies, and some are just physical... location, for instance. When all is said and done, I think a lot more gets said than done, but the best successes are individuals or organizations that use their brains more than average. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ neofast.net - fast internet for North East Oregon and South East Washington email me at mark at neofast dot net 541-969-8200 Direct commercial inquiries to purchasing at neofast dot net ----- Original Message ----- From: "Brad Belton" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "'WISPA General List'" <wireless@wispa.org> Sent: Wednesday, January 10, 2007 10:07 AM Subject: RE: [WISPA] Muni networks, the good, bad and ugly > I'll agree with Mark on this. There are many that are exploiting city > counsel's across the country to only line their own pockets. I have read > about one muni-wifi failure after another...point me to a real success > story. As a percentage my guess is the failures far, far outweigh the > successes. > > If a city wants to drive business and people to their community then how > about offering free water or free garbage pickup instead of free Internet. > How about offering lower taxes? > > Let the city offer something free to drive people into the community that > EVERYONE can benefit from. After all the Internet is only for the 'rich', > right? <grin> > > Brad > > > > > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On > Behalf Of Dawn DiPietro > Sent: Wednesday, January 10, 2007 11:21 AM > To: WISPA General List > Subject: Re: [WISPA] Muni networks, the good, bad and ugly > > Mark, > > Many if not most RFP's today require a percentage of accounts be > discounted heavily or given away for just the reasons you are describing. > > The term "Digital Inclusion" is used in this document to describe the > goal of expanding the capabilities of computing technology worldwide to > better serve social and economic challenges of underserved communities, > both rural and urban. > > If you would get off your own train and look around and maybe read a > thing or two on this subject maybe you would understand this a little > better. > > Regards, > Dawn DiPietro > > > > Mark Koskenmaki wrote: > > >----- Original Message ----- > >From: "Peter R." <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > >To: "WISPA General List" <wireless@wispa.org> > >Sent: Wednesday, January 10, 2007 6:13 AM > >Subject: Re: [WISPA] Muni networks, the good, bad and ugly > > > > > > > > > >>There are numerous studies that demonstrate that towns that lack > >>broadband are economically deficient compared to towns with broadband. > >>Job growth, tax base increase, home value stability, higher per capita > >>income. > >> > >> > > > >The economic deficiency drives the lack of broadband, not the other way > >around. > > > >You can't raise the dog to life by wagging it's tail. > > > >I live in one of those towns, and have many of them in the region > >surrounding me. Broadband is not the issue. The economic conditions are > >driven ENTIRELY by other factors. Just like poor roads don't help, a > lack > >of connectivity may be some hindrance, but building a superhighway to a > >depressed community will simply NOT create magic. Broadband brought to > >these places may have some neglible impact, but the lack is not the cause > >of economic problems, nor will provisioning it "fix" things. > > > >Unfortunately, too many people are riding this train. Politicians are > >holding it out as a "fix" ( BB access has never hurt a town's economy, of > >course) for things when it isn't, and lots of businessmen are exploiting > >that for thier own pocketbooks. The people who are being sold this are > the > >unwitting victims. They need real solutions to other real problems, and > >ignoring them and offering fashionable modern services as a fix is a red > >herring... > > > > > > > >+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ > >neofast.net - fast internet for North East Oregon and South East Washington > >email me at mark at neofast dot net > >541-969-8200 > >Direct commercial inquiries to purchasing at neofast dot net > > > > > > > > -- > WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org > > Subscribe/Unsubscribe: > http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless > > Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ > > -- > WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org > > Subscribe/Unsubscribe: > http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless > > Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ -- WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/
