Wireless (and Wired) Minneapolis

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Just to keep everyone up to date:

On Tuesday the Ways and Means Committee of the Minneapolis City Council met to discuss whether to recommend approval of the City's business plan regarding a privately owned citywide information network. It was the first time the public was able to offer testimony to the Council about the privatization of its city wide information system. The Committee voted to send the issue to the full Council without a recommendation.

There were a number of pointed questions asked of the staff. Several councillors commented on the inadequacy of the business plan itself. For example, the plan contained a cost estimate but no revenue estimates. A cost benefit analysis without the benefit part of the equation is a challenging foundation upon which to make a decision.

The City Councillors asked the staff to answer their questions, including giving them the information the staff used to make their decision to go private. That information has never been available.

On Thursday morning the staff sent a very slightly revised business plan to the City Council. The additions were largely quotes the conservative Heartland Institute and about the dangers of government involvement in virtually anything, and examples of supposed municipal failures from reports by the telecom industry funded New Millennium Research Council.

Two and a half hours later, with several of the City Councillors still reading the document, the Committee of the Whole met. Staff implied that any hesitation might cause our private "partners" to abandon the pilot projects.
No vote was taken, but it appeared that the Council had decided, perhaps overwhelmingly, that an inadequate business case was better than asking the staff to develop a genuine analysis of alternatives.

The final vote will occur tomorrow, Friday.

All in all, it has been a very sobering experience. We would be far less disappointed if the Council had actually examined alternatives and chosen, after discussion, a privately owned infrastructure. But the fact is that the Council chose to make an initial decision without any analysis. And when finally forced to confront and accept that lack of analysis, they decided to go ahead anyway. Damn the facts, full speed ahead is a very poor guiding principle for government at any level. And that's what makes us so sad.

Onward and upward.

February 22, 2006 - Ways & Means Committee votes to send staff's motion forward without recommendation, with direction that staff provide more information about what led them to choose private ownership.

February 15, 2006 - There Are Cheaper and Quicker Ways to Bridge the Digital Divide than the Current Minneapolis Plan

**The Ways and Means Committee will be taking up the broadband initiative on Tuesday, February 21. The time to speak up is now.**

The Mayor and others say we have to move quickly toward a privately owned network in order to address the digital divide. But if bridging the digital divide is the focus, there ways to do it that are cheaper and faster than the current plan for a privately owned network. Read more here.

February 2, 2006 - Publicly owned citywide wireless network could generate millions in public benefits

A publicly owned citywide wireless network could pay for itself in five years, according to a financial analysis released by the Institute for Local Self-Reliance. “Even in the worst-case scenario, the network makes money in the first year.  Investing in its information infrastructure is the wisest investment Minneapolis can make at this time”, insists Becca Vargo Daggett, director of the Institute’s Municipal Telecommunications Project. Read more here.

February 1, 2006 - Field, Regina, Northrup Neighborhood Group adds its voice to the call for a publicly owned information network, and sends a letter to Councilor Scott Benson.

January 24, 2006 - Holland Neighborhood signs on to the list of supporting organizations, and sends a letter to Councilor Paul Ostrow.

January 13, 2005 - Ten Questions Minneapolitans Should Ask About That RFP

The City Council has gotten your letters, but they do not yet seem to have gotten the message. City Councilors have said it is true that they did not seriously consider public ownership, but it is too late to do so now. Read the rest of this post here.

December 22, 2005 - Cleveland Neighborhood Association voted to send a letter to the Minneapolis City Council, asking the Council to:

· Evaluate alternatives to ownership of the network by a single private entity.
· Examine the decisions and results of other cities which have established Wi-Fi networks, such as St. Louis Park and Moorhead.
· Cease from entering into contract negotiations with a single solution provider until the above mentioned alternatives have been fully, and publicly, examined.
· Hold accessible, public meetings to engage the residents of the City of Minneapolis in this decision and allow them to express their opinions and concerns regarding the various options.

December 21, 2005 - Windom Park Citizens in Action signs on to the list of supporting organizations.

December 19, 2005 - Northside Residents Redevelopment Council adds its voice to the call for a public process.

December 15, 2005 - Longfellow Community Council voted unanimously, with one abstention, in favor of a resolution asking the City Council to consider public ownership and open the process to public participation.

December 13, 2005 - Shingle Creek Neighborhood Association voted to adopt a resolution using the Linden Hill's NC position points.

December 12, 2005 - Standish Ericsson Neighborhood Association voices unanimous support of a public process, and public ownership.

December 6, 2005 - Audio: David Morris and Becca Vargo Daggett on municipal wireless - Wendy Wilde Show, Air America Minnesota [Part 1 and Part 2]

December 6, 2005 - Linden Hills Neighborhood Council leads the way - passes resolution in favor of public ownership.
After a lively discussion, the Linden Hills Neighborhood Council voted overwhelmingly (unanimous, with one abstention) in favor of the following resolution:

October 20, 2005 - FREE AMERICAN BROADBAND - Response to Star-Tribune's take on the state of broadband in the U.S.

Today's Star Tribune business section takes a look at the sorry state of broadband in the U.S. ("Broadband's terrific, but take a broader view")

The article takes the kind of “U.S. is the best” view that has contributed to our complacency while other countries have surged ahead. Sure, the U.S. has more broadband users than South Korea, but it also has six times South Korea’s population (297 million to South Korea’s 48 million). The fact remains that less than one-third of U.S. households have broadband, compared to three-quarters of South Korean households.
 
While it is true that South Korea and Japan are more densely populated than the U.S., this does not explain why the U.S. lags behind sparsely populated Canada, where 42 percent of households have broadband connections. More...

October 17, 2005 - San Francisco can see who’s bidding on their wireless network. Why can’t the citizens of Minneapolis?

The City of San Francisco has posted commercial and non-commercial responses to its citywide wireless request for information/comments on the city’s TechConnect web site.
The City of Minneapolis says it won’t do this because it wouldn’t be fair to the bidders if their competitors see the details of their proposals. More...

August 26, 2005 - Good News for the Madison Wireless Project!