
Hunt: Fort Collins’ municipal broadband scheme still falling short
From the start, nearly all projections presented in the Connexion business plan, on which voters based their approval of the project, have failed to materialize.
From the start, nearly all projections presented in the Connexion business plan, on which voters based their approval of the project, have failed to materialize.
“City Council and (Fort Collins City Manager) Darin Atteberry need to stop discussing Connexion in executive session, behind closed doors, and instead have honest and hard conversations with the citizens who are on the hook if their rosy projections fail to materialize.” — Sarah Hunt, Fort Collins
At a time when internet connection is critical for all of us, rather than making up for lost ground, Connexion fell short by another $1.6 million in their next quarterly report. Either people don’t want the service or Connexion can’t provide it, or both. Either way, this experiment is failing.” Fort Collins resident Sarah Hunt.
“We are making sure we adhere to the council’s direction that we work with our current providers. We are trying to expand the possibility that the number of current service providers we have today is different in six months, nine months, whenever and that we are doing everything we can as a city to enable those providers to come into the city and provide business.” Greeley IT director Scott Magerfleisch.
“Covid is going to affect everyone’s budget whether it’s a personal or municipal budget.” — Greeley Mayor John Gates.
“I’m leery to enter into anything that is going to require us to have more infrastructure liabilities when we already have many that are backlogged.–Greeley Councilwoman Kristin Zasada.
The future doesn’t look much brighter, he said, as the cost to implement the enterprises increases and technology changes more rapidly than government-run broadband can keep up.
“If we have a problem there, it’s a problem of marketing and perception, and not reality, I don’t think it’s a problem that can be solved by investing capital or bringing broadband in.” — Rod Esch, task force member.
“Fiber is not future proof. I’d maybe call it future resistant, but there is going to be a time where there is a breakthrough in transmission technology where something is bigger, better and faster. There is always a push for bigger, better and faster. — Troy Mellon.
“If you’re talking internet, it’s hard to say it’s going to be this price at this point. Having had to raise utility rates — seems like every year in Longmont with the government — it is like with any business, there are costs dealing with infrastructure that increase over time. So of course, rates are going to increase. There can’t be just a set price of $49.99 for internet. Eventually, that price will go up for charter members. And right now, if you didn’t get in on that charter rate, it’s almost $70. And that’s just internet.” — Gabe Santos, former Longmont City Councilman.
“I don’t get this push for a municipality to take on being an (Internet Service Provider). You’re telling me you have more knowledge in the marketplace than a company that’s been doing it for decades. And what business has government ever ran more efficiently than private enterprise?” — Kevin Ross, Eaton Mayor.
“We can create some real harms if we’re not careful about things like data security and privacy. What governments also have to have a dialogue with industry about is this concept of a social license to operate. It’s really important that we don’t get into a world where each party looks to just leverage their legal rights.” — Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser.
By Jon Caldara
Racial discrimination is repugnant. Period.
Our nation has made great strides during our nearly 250 years. And for that we should be proud, not ashamed. Too bad we’ve gone backward with government-sanctioned racial discrimination.
I was born the same year of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, raised with our shared goal of a colorblind society. Martin Luther King Jr. laid out that vision as clearly as John Kennedy set a goal of a man on the moon: to be judged on the content of our character, not the color of our skin.
Today’s identity politics is the most dangerous, hateful and ugly movement since slavery itself. To teach a child she is what the color of her skin is, not who she works to be, pollutes her and condemns her.
The Wall Street Journal recently shed light on this systematic racism at my alma mater, the University of Colorado, Boulder. With a simple open records request researchers found (to no one’s surprise) CU recruits and hires based on race. Those who check the BIPOC box (black, indigenous and people of color) get the benefit of CU’s institutional racism.
Not only is this a blatant violation of the Civil Rights Act, which CU turned a blind eye to, it teaches tens of thousands of students that, to get ahead professionally, they must embrace their victim identity.
I did find one department at CU turned its back to racial parity — athletics.
The Buffaloes head football coach Deion Sanders has brought a new excitement for the first time in a generation. This is likely because winning is more important to him than racial equity. To test this, I perused the team’s website to see how ethnically representative his department is compared to the state. After all, it is Colorado’s flagship university. Shouldn’t it “look” like Colorado?
I mean, in the other departments CU is using the same philosophy of the Los Angeles Fire Department’s Deputy Chief, and race-over-merit enthusiast, Kristine Larson. Defending her race-based hiring, she said, “You want to see someone that responds to your house, to your emergency — whether it’s a medical call or a fire call — that looks like you.”
I know when I had my heart attack my first concern was the racial and gender identity of the medical workers racing to save my life. That’s, that’s just normal.
Likewise, football fans also want to see players who look like them. That’s much more important to fans than anything merit-based, like winning games.
Addressing concerns female firefighters may not be strong enough to carry a man out of a burning building, Ms. Larson responded, “He got himself in the wrong place if I have to carry him out of a fire.”
If physical strength doesn’t matter in life-or-death situations like being trapped in a burning building, then why would it matter on something as trivial as a football game? The University of Colorado’s overpaid elite overlords obviously agree.
And that’s why I expected racial equity on Folsom Field.
Remember, according to the U.S. census, Colorado’s population is roughly 62% white, 12% black, 19% Hispanic and 6% Asian.
Odd, then, that at a cursory glance of the 46 pictured who make up Coach Prime’s staff only 16 appeared to be white. For those who received a Liberal Arts degree from CU, I’ll do the math for you. Only 21% of his staff is white. And only three, around 6%, are female.
The players he recruited also show no racial equity. Of the 99 players on the roster, it looks to me only 28 of them are white. Not to mention the institutionalized sexism CU obviously promotes — not a single chick on the team.
Here’s CU’s separate-but-equal race policy: On the field — use merit. Off the field — use Jim Crow (hire by skin color).
Sensing the political winds of change, CU just renamed its Office of Diversity to the Office of Collaboration. I’m sure those who made the change are equally supportive of President Donald Trump’s renaming of the Gulf of America. CU’s known for intellectual consistency.
There is no “reverse racism,” there is only racism. It’s foul and only made worse when perpetuated by your tax dollars. Oh, and if anyone in the victim-pimping industries care, it’s illegal.
Unless you want CU to force three times more white guys on its football team?
Are the energy problems facing Colorado a partisan issue? PowerGab Hosts Jake Fogleman and Amy Cooke have a conversation with Dave Thielen from Liberal and Loving It to see if there is a political consensus on the problems facing Colorado’s energy grid and what some possible solutions are.
Show Notes:
https://liberalandlovingit.substack.com
https://liberalandlovingit.substack.com/p/will-toor-executive-director-colorado
https://liberalandlovingit.substack.com/p/is-wind-energy-cheaper-than-gas
Transparency is a key to government accountability. Often judges have to order that public information become, well, public. How very odd then, that many judges refuse to follow transparency laws themselves. Retired Judge Dennis Maes explains.
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