NYC Trying To Fill Broadband Black Holes

This project has nothing to do with "filling broadband black holes", and everything to do with subsidized access. There are no residential areas in NYC (yes all 5 boroughs) that cant get broadband, and this plan is about providing cheaper access to lower income areas. Frankly, I think this plan is a huge waste of money. The article talks about spending $8 million to bring fiber to specific areas of the city. Realistically speaking, why not spend that $8 million on education, sanitation, and law enforcement instead? The "low income areas" dont need FTTH to succeed, and the existing DSL and cable infrastructure is more than adequate to "bridge the digital divide (an awful term I HATE by the way). Another example of government waste folks, you heard it here first!

LOL, while Stuyvesant H.S. (one of the best specialized high schools) faces a $800,000 cut for this coming year (along with many other good high schools throughout the city), they're thinking of wasting 8 MILLION on something as useless as this? Sad.... I mean, this isn't even about providing BB to UNSERVED areas..
Sad..........

I couldnt agree more, this is a true tragedy. In all honesty the term WASTE is the only appropriate word to describe this nonsense. For those who dont know, Stuyvesant is one of the best public schools in the country. Cutting money to an institution like that just so "lower income" people can have fiber is outrageous. Nobody needs fiber. Lower income people will NOT (get ready for this) jump into the middle class simply by getting fiber. As I said before, spend the $8 million on education, sanitation, and law enforcement. This makes me sad to be a New Yorker.

Dump any money in there and it disappears into a Union black hole.

And actually, I myself am a soon-to-be sophomore in Stuyvesant, and sad thing is, the principal Mr. Teitel is even considering CUTTING DOWN the school day, from 10 to 8 periods, inclusive of lunch... Heck, this coming semester, even A.P. courses are being cut, due to budgetary constraints. The robotics team/other clubs/pubs are having their after-school hours reduced, and many won't even get funding from the school anymore. And that's not to mention the state of our overcrowded mass transit system, where it takes nearly 1/2 hr at times to get from midtown to City Hall even on an express train.
It just makes my blood boil to see huge wastes of money like these, when even getting a good education seems like a challenge in this city.
And how the heck does FTTH to 'poor' people make them rise in the social standing overnight? Without basics like a good education and a good mass transit system, how the HELL do the underprivileged/anyone for that matter, rise? I'm SICK of these govt's putting their taxpayers' hard-earned money into a seemingly bottomless pit, and it HAS to stop.

you and a few others on here need to take a breather. They are not using tax money. They're asking COMPANIES to give the money. NOT TAX PAYERS! If states actually gave funding to the public schools like they're suppose to Schools wouldn't be in this problem. Also does it hurt to do fundraisers to get the money for your clubs? why does a teacher have to be paid after hours to sit and baby sit you? they can donate their time. It's not like their forced to stay after and sit with the clubs; they are asked and can say no or yes. If they say yes then its a volunteer to say yes- not part of any contract i'm sure.

Also you are free to move from Public to Private school at any time you wish. There is a thing called No Child Left Behind Act which will help you move from Public to Private school. In many cases i'm sure you could get a good scholarship at a private school if you're an AP student.

I think the real point is that the money could be put to better use, regardless of where it comes from. $8 million can do a lot of good, and providing fiber access to low income areas (that can already get broadband) is a waste.

So in other words as soon as your point (whatever it was) turned out to be based on a complete BS (due to either not reading or lack of understanding the article) you keep beating the same propaganda drums?

Interesting.
I wonder why blokes like you are alwaysafraid when something wouldn't make money for private companies but rather could help some folks, all financed from private money...

What?? That doesnt even make sense. My point (from the very start) was that it is a complete waste of $8m to provide subsidized fiber to areas already served by broadband. Faster broadband is NOT what those people need, and anyone who argues that they do is a twit. What exactly is your point?

Ssssh, stop making sense. You're confusing the foaming mouthpieces - they don't like facts when they go against their preformatted, canned opinions.

Ummm, OK......
First of all, we DO fundraisers, it's called candy sales, but we barely break even as it is.
2nd: The teachers don't 'babysit' us, they actually are CS faculty members who know their stuff when it comes to robotics. Also, it's a school stipulation imposed upon us that we MUST be with a teacher to stay beyond 6 pm. We didn't impose that rule. The DOE DID....
3rd: Teachers don't do it for free, sorry. These days, NO ONE donates their time to do overtime as a teacher, especially when that involves staying in school till 11 PM at times, and sometimes going on 300-mile trips to competition venues...
And what's this BS about moving to private school? Do you have any idea of how much private school COSTS? Why should I pay nearly $20,000/year while the gov't deducts nearly a third of my parents' paychecks in taxes? Why? So that I can get the same education that children from richer families are provided with? You obviously have no idea of what you're talking about, and are just spewing random BS. Heck, you don't even live in NY. And NCLB's a pure POS. I was in one of the middle schools that were slated to be closed, back in '04-'05. I applied to the NCLB right after 7th grade ended, to transfer to any better school. Guess what? They declined any of my 10 choices. And, to add insult to injury, they replied in SEPTEMBER, when the '07 school year had BEGAN. I'd applied in june. My parents couldn't even decide if they could move or not to a better area, as with NCLB, I'd have been able to go to a non-zoned school w/o moving. Instead, they hurriedly had to rush into an unfavorable lease in a MUCH expensive area, just to give me a better education.
Therefore, NCLB= FAIL, IMHO
And stop insulting the hard work that we, as Specialized HS students, put in just to get INTO the damn system to begin with. Believe me, when you have to break your back studying for a competitive exam, where you must compete with 20,000 other applicants for maybe a 1000 seats, it's not easy. On top of that, when you face a 50-min. train ride each way, along with at least 2 transfers, and you've gone through that life for a year, only to face this kind of crap, it does give you a kick.
And RTFA... The city even has setup a 'Broadband Advisory Committee', in other words, a bottomless money pit, to 'solve' the city's broad problems. First of all, this is f'ing NYC we're talking about. You're hard-pressed to find a place w/o a single broadband option. Cablevision, as others have said, already offer free BB to schools/libraries. TW does as well. You wanna expand BB to Staten Island? FiOS and DSL, AND cable already have it covered. Queens? Hard to find a 'black hole' If you're rich enough to pay the rent in Great Neck/Nassau, you DEFINITELY can at LEAST afford TW's Lite 768K tier for $20/mo. if DSL isn't available. And 3G/EVDO pretty much covers every inch of the five boroughs. So why waste tax money hiring consultants (»www.computerworld.com/ac ··· =9110977) or setting up Committees? Use that for better education/police/mass transit.
And sorry, I really don't feel for those teen twits that thought they were too old for comdoms, and ended up having a family of 6 children whe they couldn't handle it, and now want free internet access on top of free healthcare/child support because they want to see anime at 20 Meg speeds. Don't have internet, go to the darned library! And get a job, for crissake... there's life out there outside of playing WoW at high speeds.
Please stop spewing BS, and have a nice day....

I didn't realize common sense was part of the public school curriculum!

I suggest you READ before posting false information about the government and the budget. There were articles in NYT, NY Daily News, and NY Post about the restoration of the school funds. If you look under CM Gerson's budget for schools Stuyvesant and the other specialized schools received even more funding than before the cut.

here's the link: »council.nyc.gov/html/bud ··· ts.shtml

And this is a good reason why municipalities should be prevented from getting in to the broadband business. They are taxing legit businesses(thereby just adding one more hidden tax on the taxpayers) and then transferring that money to the so called downtrodden to buy their votes.

This coming from a man, who freely admits he used to work for a Railroad, which is the EPITIMY of government support. DO you really think any of the rails in the US would exist if the government did not provide the railroad companies huge chunks of FREE and SUBSIDIZED land? I know for a fact that Amtrack only exists because of government subsidies. This coming from a man who BENEFITED from government support his entire career, and yet he still complains if the government tries to help 'anyone else'. Guess his career is deserving of the support, but everyone else who needs help from the government, well, they are just welfare cheats. Gee, if that's not a hypocrite, I don't know what is. If the shoe fits...

Perhaps you should sell your car, since thats government subsidized too. Where would all your nice paved roads be?

ehhh go to Michigan and parts of MN and other Midwest states- you'll find a good number that are not paved. We deal with it others can.

Yeah, look at how GOOD ARE OUR CABLE PROVIDERS or their systems...!

What a load of crap.

Hey TJunk, nobody cares about parasitic corporations anymore, their unfettered access to legislation soon will be over, pal - you should switch to shorting ASAP...

I looked at the link you sent, I don't see a budget increase for the school in question, but I do see it for several other schools, which is a good thing.

I bet these people can help them out »Frontier Imposes 5 GB Cap For DSL [256] comments. (sarcasm off )

All the money they are going to make, im sure they dont mind giving, some do they?

Gov Paterson talks today about cutting city budgets down 3.3% to help deal with looming deficit.

But yea, very ass-backwards of the city to consider this when every single ghetto mafaka in the PJs can afford philly blunts and fresh kicks.

They should have said brown holes or African American holes.
»www.foxnews.com/story/0, ··· ,00.html

This committee is nothing more than a bucket for lobbiest money. They have no interest in any regulation or interaction with existing broadband providers (telco/cable/business internet).

Their only goals revolve around getting more money from the feds through the USF for libraries.

They could have extorted low income NYC govt regulated internet plans through TV franchise agreements but they didnt (they did negotiate free fiber links anywhere in the city for city govt use tho).

Cablevision already gives there conenctions away for free to schools and libraries (its true we use it here at the library). so why do this ?Just make verizon and time warner have to do the same thing and thats all that is needed.

Use the 8 million for other more important things.

Time Warner gives free cable tv and internet away as well. They just don't say much about it. Check your local TWC page and you'll see things that they do. Even in Ohio they fund a public art museum. That's giving back.

I'm pretty sure it has something to do with the government stipulating free service to gov owned buildings as part of the franchise agreement.

nope. Not many do that anymore. Many states have their own free service companies such as Internet. Many contract Dish or DirecTV for services (ohio schools is one that contracts DirecTV).

But how do you explain the museum. TWC was in the that area for years and years before they turned in old building into one to protect it from being knocked down.