I spent the holidays in San Pedro, CA (home to the Minutemen and, briefly, Charles Bukowski). Internet connectivity has been spotty at best. I refuse to pay Starbuck's extortionate prices for Wifi use, and the access point at the local cafe is behind a decorative steel cage. So no luck in the neighborhood.
But fortunately - or so I thought - the city of Long Beach has been providing free wifi throughout the downtown area since 2003. So we drove across the harbor and found...mostly nothing. After some concerted warwalking and -driving through the supposedly covered areas, we had zero signal, and got only weak and fluctuating connections below the main access point.
Here's the thing. Even in 2003, the Bryant Park public hotspot had been up and running for some time. It's still up and running, and works beautifully. There are two access points, one at each end of the park, to guarantee even coverage. There are some discreet placards letting visitors know that there's wifi available, and how it works. That's all.
I sent an email asking for some explanations to the people who installed the Long Beach system. Maybe I came when it was down. But there were no signs publicizing the free wifi. And the only people on laptops were at the Starbucks. But if you're going to run a municipal service, you should at least indicate its existence, if not its status.
Long Beach is a funny small city though - it did poorly for decades and seems to be only barely recovering. I had thought that the free wifi was an excellent attempt at good publicity and just maybe a useful way to bring daytime traffic back to the city center. So this may be just an anomaly. But still, all in all, a disappointing indicator of the fate of free munipal wifi, which will take much more commitment and upkeep than perhaps its boosters expect.
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