"...I worked in San Francisco for several decades and spent a great deal of that time dealing with City Hall through the judicial system.
...Perhaps the greatest corruption, though, was at the political level, among the Supervisors, elected representatives from each San Francisco neighborhood.
The thread continues (emphasis ours):
One SF Supervisor told us she would vote against it unless we promised to fund quarterly field trips (eg to the zoo) for the kids in her district.
Another promised to vote against it because we wouldn’t give free laptops to all of SF.
One Supe rejected it because poor people needed “training to use the Net.”
Countless low/no-income residents spoke at hearings about how they had computers and knew how to use the web, but couldn’t afford Comcast. Supes mansplained back to those very people that they were wrong.
We built a demonstration network in a public housing project in Hunters Point. It was saturated with use. Those residents testified that laptops and phones weren’t expensive, cable and data plans were the problem. The Supes just couldn’t accept that those people were Net savvy.
Ultimately, one Supervisor told us straight up: He didn’t care what this meant for the people of his district, he was blocking it because it would give the mayor a win in a political year.
He was the deciding vote and I will never forget what he said...
“Stop lecturing me about the digital divide, because I don’t give a fuck. Now get the hell out of my office.”
Our team walked out stunned, sat in the lobby of City Hall, and realized it was over...Read all.
