Raleigh

Community-focused posts

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Street closing hints of Google Fiber disruption

Traffic backs up on Edmund St.

Traffic backs up on Edmund St.


Tuesday night, street crews began blocking off Glascock Street and side streets in preparation for a traffic calming and sewer line replacement project. Glascock’s traffic was detoured down the normally serene side street of Edmund, where traffic now roared down the 25MPH road. Understandably, the neighbors were livid with this gigantic disruption, especially in light of no notice being given to the community outside of the few neighbors who live on Glascock itself. Hopefully in the future, the city will choose to notify the neighbors on the detour street, too, as they get impacted just as strongly as those on the street getting the construction.

The whole mess got me thinking of what it might be like in the next few years when Google Fiber gets started here in earnest. Tuesday’s closure affected just one block whereas Google likely will be tearing things up everywhere. How will people react to this kind of disruption happening all over town?

Google Fiber and an FCC decision could give more people cheaper access to the Internet | News Feature | Indy Week

Indyweek talked with Erica Swanson, head of Google Fiber’s Community Impact programs, about bringing broadband to all income levels.

The bad news about Google Fiber coming to seven cities in the Triangle is that the high-speed Internet service won’t be installed in your neighborhood by the next season of House of Cards.

The good news is that Google Fiber says it will seek out traditionally underserved communities—low-income, minority, non-English speaking areas, where some residents don’t have home Internet at all.

About 60 million people in the U.S. don’t have Internet at home, according to the Pew Research Center. In cities, that number is 1 in 4. For some, a computer and a connection are too expensive; others say they don’t need it—the Internet has no place in their lives.

That might change, hinging on Google’s expansion plans, along with a pending decision by the FCC, that could give more people cheaper access to the Internet.

"Affordable connectivity, that’s the piece we can address," says Erica Swanson, Google’s head of Community Impact Programs.

via Google Fiber and an FCC decision could give more people cheaper access to the Internet | News Feature | Indy Week.

R-Line envy

R-Line-BikeOnBus
Speaking of transit, I see that the marketing director for Cameron Village is trying to drum up support for diverting the R-Line buses from the original mission of serving downtown Raleigh. I’m all for improved transportation around Cameron Village because trying to drive anywhere around there is a nightmare. That said, I’m not sure extending the R-Line is the answer.

The R-Line buses came about through a joint effort of the Raleigh Transit Authority, the Downtown Raleigh Alliance (DRA), and the Greater Raleigh Convention and Visitors Bureau (GRCVB). All three groups helped make the R-Line possible. Cameron Village is not part of DRA and I don’t see that they do much with the GRCVB. Is the shopping center proposing to help pay for this extended service the way these other groups have? If so, I haven’t heard it. It would be great to get everything for free, but someone has to pick up the tab.

Cameron Village already has city bus service (two routes, 12 and 16). It makes sense to improve this existing service and leave the R-Line to do what it’s been doing: giving visitors an easy way to get around downtown Raleigh. That’s why downtown businesses subsidize it.

N&O’s Christensen gets light rail wrong

The N&O’s Rob Christensen makes the classic light rail vs. commuter rail blunder in this week’s column. If the media can’t even properly explain the difference between light rail and commuter rail, how do we ever expect the public to understand?

When it comes to a light-rail system for Raleigh, label me a skeptic.

I am a believer in buses, and I think our bus system should be expanded and more bus shelters erected.

Before we sink huge bundles of money into a light-rail system, I think a stronger case needs to be made, given our limited resources.

He also misidentifies the real problem with our bus system, which is it’s unusable to all but those who have no other choice. I’ve written about that before.

via Christensen: Raleigh needs buses, not rail | Rob Christensen | NewsObserver.com.

Taking aim at Gage’s Google Fiber op-ed

I submitted this letter to the editor to the N&O today. I trust they’ll agree with it and run it to correct the errors in the abysmal op-ed they ran last week.

Dawson Gage’s recent opinion piece about Google Fiber was deeply flawed. No public infrastructure is being “handed over” to Google. In actuality, Google will buy or build its infrastructure like any other provider. Gage also alleges Google was “deeply involved in the illegal, secret surveillance” when in fact much evidence exists to the contrary. Furthermore, how Gage can suggest that broadband hasn’t enriched our lives is bizarre and puzzling.

I know Google Fiber’s arrival is exciting news but let’s keep our heads, please.

Mark Turner
Raleigh, NC
Founder, Bring Google Fiber to Raleigh! Facebook Group

Update 6 Feb: The N&O ran my letter today. Gave it a headline of “Google all good.” I’m not sure I’d go that far, but at least someone has now set the record straight. On the same page, though, another letter writer repeated Gage’s “public giveway” premise. Sigh.

N&O runs horrible broadband op-ed

The Google Fiber op-ed that ran in today’s N&O entitled “Google Fiber deal not in best interest of NC public” is so godawful that I don’t even know where to begin. Written by Dawson Gage, who calls himself an “IT worker, freelance writer, and aspiring law student,” it is incredibly misinformed on so many levels:

I rejoiced when my family first got broadband Internet when I was about 13, but I doubt it has made any of our lives richer or more productive. The usefulness of computers, for the most part, has little enough to do with how fast they are. No one wants delivery vans and school buses that go 20,000 mph.

Is Gage actually suggesting that life isn’t richer than in the days of dialup? Before YouTube, NetFlix, Wikipedia, Facebook, and Google? Apparently, having a mind-blowing amount of the world’s information instantly available isn’t rich or more productive enough for him. I bet he’s a big fan of the abacus.
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Google Fiber: fast download AND upload speeds

fiber_house
Most of the local news stories I’ve read about Google Fiber coming to Raleigh highlight the ability to “download YouTube videos quickly.” Quickly downloading the stuff you’ve always downloaded is cool, but it isn’t an Earth-shattering use case. The real value of Google Fiber is that Google treats the Internet the way it should be treated – like a two-way street.

Other broadband providers will sell you fast connections but those connections are strictly asymmetrical. You may get a 15 Mbps download speed but you’ll only get a 1 Mbps upload speed. You see, Big Telecom wants you to treat you as a “consumer,” meaning you’ll take whatever the media companies choose to give you. They don’t think of you as having anything to bring to the conversation.

Google Fiber is different. Not only can you get 1 Gbps download speeds, you also get equally fast 1 Gbps upload speeds! Your download and upload speeds are equal, exactly how God intended. You become a full partner in the Internet, able not only to download at blazing speeds a multitude of cat videos from YouTube but able offer up your own. Or, you can hold videoconferences with your friends without being interrupted by buffering. Or play video games with others without sluggishness.
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An Introduction to Google Fiber

An_Introduction_To_Google_Fiber_cover

One of the most useful things I got out of yesterday’s Google Fiber press conference (well, aside from a sweet Google Fiber water bottle) is an insightful booklet called “An Introduction To Google Fiber.” It basically spells out what the next steps are for the Google Fiber rollout.

Of particular interest is the question of “how do I get Google Fiber in my neighborhood?” Google’s answer?

Our approach is to build where people want us.

Fiber optic cable will travel into your neighborhood into boxes called telecom cabinets. One of these cabinets can serve you and a few hundred of your neighbors with Fiber — we call this grouping your “fiberhood”.

That’s where you come in. For us to bring Google Fiber to you — i.e. for us to light up your local telecom cabinet with working Google Fiber service and then for us to bring that service right down the street and up to your house — you and your neighbors first need to tell us you want us. Each fiberhood will have a sign-up goal that you can see on our website by entering your address — and the process is transparent, so you and your neighbors can see how close your fiberhood is to the goal.
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N&O Editors miss Hatem hypocrisy

I was disappointed to read the N&O’s take in this editorial.

Greg Hatem is an acquaintance of mine. He’s done a tremendous job helping kick-start downtown Raleigh’s renaissance, investing when others would not. He’s earned some respect and should have his say.

On this issue, though, I must respectfully disagree with Greg. Downtown has continued to grow since those days when Empire Properties was the only game in town. Greg’s businesses have grown and thrived as well in this new, noisier downtown Raleigh. Heck, his businesses have contributed more than their share to the noise and revelry. For Greg Hatem to have played such a large role (as well as profited) in popularizing downtown and now complain about its success seems a tad hypocritical, doesn’t it?

It mystifies me how the editors at the News and Observer failed to see this irony.

When someone heads a company with 40 buildings and 500 employees connected to downtown Raleigh, getting the Raleigh City Council’s attention is fairly easy.

And Greg Hatem – whose company owns the restaurants Sitti, Gravy, The Pit and the Raleigh and Morning Times, along with many other properties – has earned that attention. Hatem’s involvement with downtown Raleigh goes back to a time when it was by no means certain that the city would see the boom it has. Hatem took big chances and got big returns.

But he’s moving his family, which includes younger children, out of a Fayetteville Street apartment into the Oakwood neighborhood near downtown. Why? The noise and party aftermath have made downtown, he says, "unlivable." He doesn’t like the idea of his family waking up to the garbage and other remnants of the previous night’s revels.

via Lower the volume on Raleigh's boom | Editorials | NewsObserver.com.

Larry Stogner and ALS

I was saddened to hear local WTVD anchor Larry Stogner has ALS, also known as Lou Gherig’s Disease. He has been the face and voice of the Raleigh-Durham area for decades and to see him doing battle with this devastating disease is heartbreaking.

I’ve been thinking of my own recent health issues. For a while it seemed that the twitching that popped up last summer had subsided but recently it has come back just as strong as before. I can’t sit at my desk during the day without feeling some muscle somewhere just twitching away. I had to reschedule my follow-up visit with a neurologist due to a PTA conflict but I see him again next week. I hope we can figure this out.