Gigabit Fiber Connectivity to Homes in San Leandro: An Opportunity Lost

-


This week, I drove by the street I used to live on Bridge Road. It's behind Bancroft Middle School. 

 A work crew for PG&E was digging a trench for laying new gas piping. It's a part of a project that has been ongoing for several months. Apparently the old gas lines have deteriorated and must be replaced for all homes along several streets.

 What is not happening at the same time is the laying of conduit to connect households to Lit San Leandro, the City's ultra high speed internet. 
Lit San Leandro has been a game changer for San Leandro but it's impact will not be nearly as great as it could be if it is not extended to our residential neighborhoods. The major challenge is cost. It's very expensive to dig up streets. The fiber for Lit San Leandro has only been installed in business areas because conduit already had been laid in those areas to monitor traffic on our major streets by City engineering staff.

 In 2012, the City Council adopted a San Leandro Commercial Broadband Strategy that called for a comprehensive open trench policy in San Leandro, meaning that "the goal of placing conduit [should be established] any time a street or right of way is dug into should be established." The Strategy further stated, "Conduit could be installed by telecommunications service providers or the City. The cost of doing so is relatively low, involving staff time and inexpensive materials. Similarly, information regarding construction or upgrading of wireless facilities should be shared widely to encourage joint use."  

 I am very disappointed that the City has squandered a golden opportunity to bring gigabit fiber connectivity to large number of residents at a minor cost.

I also discussed this issue in an earlier blog post.

Note, I still live in San Leandro but now on Joaquin Avenue.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Looking Back: Measure B Transformed San Leandro Public Schools

-
Image
Our tax dollars can make a real difference in the lives of our children and prosperity of a community. Twelve years ago San Leandro High School was grossly overcrowded leading to discipline problems and undermining academic performance, no theater in the school district existed for student performances, and many restrooms at schools were in such poor condition that the students would not use them. That all changed in August 2006 when the School Board voted to place Measure  B on the ballot. The largest school construction bond in San Leandro’s history, Measure B received overwhelming support and led to the physical transformation of San Leandro public school (combined with the passage of two subsequent bond measures and one earlier measure). With better public schools, San Leandro has become a more desirable city to live, helping attract and retain families who previously would have never moved to San Leandro or moved away when the children were in middle school. Here is a
Read more

How Juan Gonzalez won the San Leandro Mayor's office at the end of the counting of votes

-
Image
On November 18, 2022, the Alameda County Registrar of Voters released the vote count for nearly all votes cast in the November 2022 general election. After being behind for the entire vote count, Juan Gonzalez effectively won the race.  How did this happen? First, from election night through 11/17, the Registrar had reported a total of 13,746 first choice ballots in the Mayor's race. On 11/18, the number of votes reported increased by 6,436 to 20,185 total votes. That was a nearly 47% jump in the reported votes. Another way of looking at the data is that prior to 11/18, all previous vote counts released by the Registrar did not include roughly one-third of the votes that were cast in the race. Second, Gonzalez  decisively took the lead in the the first choice ballots that were released by the Registrar on 11/18. Gonzalez took these votes by 39% to 33% margin. With the exception of the first vote count released by the Registrar on election night right after the polls closed when Br
Read more

San Leandro Celebrates New School Opening & Completion of Significant Renovation Work

-
Image
San Leandro students can now attend in my opinion the finest alternative high school in the SF Bay Area. The new Lincoln High School was dedicated this week. I was honored to to speak at the dedication ceremony. Located next to Cherry Grove Park and San Leandro Adult School, Lincoln High School consists of twelve standard classrooms, a multi-purpose room, a culinary arts classroom with multiple ovens and kitchen setup, a science lab, and a fabrication lab for learning the skills and techniques used in building construction.  Approximately 400 students will attend the new high school, almost tripling the capacity of the previous campus (which consisted of portable classrooms on an asphalt parking lot in an industrial part of San Leandro).  In addition to officially opening the new Lincoln High School, the school district also celebrated the completion of significant renovation and modernization projects at Bancroft Middle School. As chairperson of the Measure N bond campaign committee t
Read more