Jake McGoldrick: Crazy Like a Fox

Jake's caught a lot of flack in his last term for having gone off his rocker.  But he's as staunch a chigger under the Mayor's hide as ever, and this resolution introduced into the BOS agenda today has the sweet, sweet scent of honest-to-god competence.  The comment trolls on Slashdot couldn't have flamed the Earthlink deal better:

WHEREAS, Areas of the City and County of San Francisco primarily in the south-west sectors are “redlined” and have neither DSL nor cable modem connectivity for Internet access; and,
WHEREAS, A shared connection speeds of 300 kbits per second (300kb/s) barely meets the Federal Communications Commission definition of broadband, and is considered inadequate for many Internet applications; and,
WHEREAS, Silicon Valley, Mountain View and other communities have been offered free wireless fidelity (known as, WiFi) access at 1,000 kilobits per second (1,000 kb/s); and,
WHEREAS, WiFi has a reasonable life expectancy of less than five years, and less than two years with regards to general technological innovation; and,
WHEREAS, The information technology (IT) industry and community lauds fiber optic connectivity as far exceeding the reliability and stability over WiFi exceeding any technological advances for at least a decade...

It goes on, mostly to further laud fiber-to-the-home and the benefits of a municipal, rather than a private, solution.  It's the right move to make.  If they don't make it, the telecoms will have their way with our fiber infrastructure while we doze off, waiting for jerky YouTube clips to download at 300kbps.

The resolution now heads off to committee, and I imagine can expect support from a majority of the board.  Sergey and Larry better buckle up, because that custom private jet is in for some turbulence.

Thanks to Kimo Crossman for forwarding the resolution via email.