[DC LoCo] PCWorld blog post - municipal fiber broadband in Chattanooga

[Kevin Cole]

Why not DC? In a nutshell, my take:

1. Taxation w/o representation
2. Lobbyist Central
3. Security Theater
4. The Digital Divide
5. The loss of Bryan Sivak

DC has less control over its own affairs than a lot of places, and
Congress only sees the place as one giant office, not a place where
people actually live.  Profiteers with special interests don't have to
send their lobbyists far to exert political muscle. So, it's worth it
to put in the minimal effort to control the status quo. No doubt,
someone somewhere has raised the specter of underground radio,
hackerspaces, and commie / extremist / boogeyman-du-jour "secret"
networks that are not under the control and watchful eye of Big
Brother. (Never mind that guns are okay, and that hackerspaces, et al
exist.  At least they're not being promoted by the government.) While
I don't know it for a fact, I suspect the distribution of wealth and
poverty is a little more even-handed in Chattanooga. Here there's a
sharp divide: If I recall, the numbers from the last Broadband Summit
were something like: NW = 95% of residents have broadband Internet at
home. SE = 17% of residents have broadband Internet at home. Also, the
have-nots often don't understand the value of having, and are in fact,
a bit afraid of the tech. And, speaking of the Broadband Summits,
which were attempting to address the issue, there haven't been any
since Bryan Sivak didn't make the cut in the Gray's shakeup.