By: Diane Benjamin
Jamie Mathy has announced he is running for Alderman in Ward 1. WGLT has everything you need to know about Mathy: http://wglt.org/post/jamie-mathy-running-bloomington-alderman
Mayor Renner and at least 3 UN-named aldermen attended his announcement. The goal of Bloomington’s leadership has always been to be just like Normal. Everything passes, there is very little discussion, and nobody represents the citizens (except when they pretend to just to win elections). Jamie is a nice guy, but he will be just like the rest of Renner’s pets and buy into more of what we’ve seen the last four years. Mathy supported the 1% Sales tax increase because government needed the money. Cuts are impossible, government must make “progress”.
Your freedom to spend YOUR money where you want is immaterial. Government has a better use for it than you do.
Another WGLT story proves why government must be limited. Renner, Black and crew do not understand basic economics. http://wglt.org/post/company-excludes-bloomingtons-west-side-high-speed-internet-service#stream/0
One would think how the City has handled the Coliseum would be enough proof that government can’t be involved in business-type activities. The losses never mattered because they had the citizen-piggy-bank geared up to handle them. Regular businesses don’t have citizens to steal money from – they have to offer a service the people are able and willing to pay for.
For now, the west side of Bloomington will not have access to the new high-speed internet. Renner said he would have vetoed the company’s plan and he will put public pressure on them to run fiber optic cable to the west side. Alderman Black agreed.
Economics gets in their way of government that doesn’t understand it. The internet company obviously did their homework and is starting with areas of the City capable and willing to pay for high-speed internet. If they can’t make money they wouldn’t be doing the job.
Question for Tari and Scott: Would you work if you didn’t get paid? MetroNet feels the same way. Call it reality, capitalism, or fair. It’s ridiculous for you to demand service to the west side, where people willing and capable to pay are fewer, while you charge people for your labor. IWU and AFNI should be providing services for free! Next, Tari and Scott will demand a $15 an hour minimum wage!
Figure out yet why the bookmobile routes originally didn’t include the west side? With limited resources the library scheduled stops where the most people benefited. Only government thinks equality is the goal when equality produces equally bad results. Heavily used bookmobile stops had to be sacrificed for less use on the west side.
Sounds like Tari and Scott prefer the Connect Transit approach. Eventually they will get people out of their cars and on those empty buses. All it takes is MILLIONS of tax dollars and high gas prices.
Maybe if Tari and Scott hadn’t raised the Sales Tax, Gas Tax, Amusement Tax, Utilities Tax, Garbage Tax, and extended the .25% temporary Sales Tax the people on the west side could afford high-speed internet. The City of Bloomington stole from the people least able to pay – and they are proud of it.
MetroNet has limited resources and so do the people on the west side.
Under Home Rule, the City of Bloomington has no limitations because they can legally take ALL of your money. Mathy will be another YES vote for government domination of the local economy. Mathy wants to replace the guy who voted NO on all tax increases.
It’s not going to end well.
Maybe citizens should vote next year instead of allowing the theft to continue.
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So it’s fine for MetroNet to include coverage for “the entire city” in their proposal and then change their mind after the city approves the contract? Personally when I enter a contract with another party I hold them responsible for what they promised.
Have you read the contract or taking somebodies word for what it says? It could say entire City, but not all at once!
The agreement voted on at the April 24, 2016 Council meeting.http://www.cityblm.org/Modules/ShowDocument.aspx?documentid=10172 Pg 217-229
Renner and Black weren’t thinking about the members of the community when they voted for this. They voted for selfish reasons. One of which is their political legacy–bike friendly, fiber-optic infrastructure….
They should have never signed the contract unless there were assurances that MetroNet would upgrade infrastructure for ALL of Bloomington. Internet is no longer a LUXURY it is a MUST HAVE. There are companies like Wal-Mart that REQUIRE you to fill-out an online application. It’s like electricity.There is a school in Pennsylvania that doesnt allow teachers to assign homework involving the Internet because so many students lack high-speed Internet.
There are also folks on the west side who are not poor, they have jobs and can pay for Internet. Some may have online businesses or are self-employed. So now they have to deal with sub-par network performance. Should they pay the thousands of dollars it takes to extend fiber optics? Look up
Cole Marshall. Built a house, he was told he would have access to high-speed Internet, but he didn’t. Now has to pay Charter $117,000 to get high-speed Internet access. High-speed is necessary because content keeps getting more complex and requires more data to deliver. Your blog would be of limited use on a 56k modem. My satellite requires that I have a broadband Internet connection or else I can be charged a non-connection fee. Apparently they use it to push down updates to the adapters and boxes. Anything to make a dime, but with the deal I got, way cheaper than cable TV.
This is why government gets involved. Because companies mess with their customers and do a half-hearted or no-hearted job of living up to their promises. Communications providers have virtual monopolies so you can’t just switch if the service is bad. It’s because of the government that you have high-speed access in Ellsworth or else you would would be having to move someplace that has high-speed Internet. You can only rest on the laurels of the free market until you realize people take refuge in it to cover for their greed.
Ever heard of satellite internet?
The west side has underground problems making fiber expensive to run. Frontier is above ground. Some facts before tyranny would help
Ever hear that satellite does not have great performance and it tends to go out during a bad rainstorm. Plus they require line of sight. What if your house is in a place with a ton of trees? For what you pay in Satellite, cable and fiber optics offer more. Satellite Internet should be used as a last resort only. I wired connection is more reliable.
No tree problems. There are other wireless country options too.
Read the agreement found in the meeting packet from 4/24/16. Watch the presentation on the city’s You-tube video. The selling points for Metronet were competition and access for all. The other selling point is bragging rights which is to attract business. The West side has a $2,400 deficit in tax revenue according to the city’s Comprehensive Master Plan. There needs to be more support for business development on the West and South side of the City. One of the major problems here is the Council’s failure to read contracts before signing them. Case in point, the contract with the Coliseum.
East ways to run it underground don’t exist on the west so side. Of course it will be the last place to get it.
Jamie mathy has a business across the street from huff property. If hotel/convention center comes to a vote, and if mathy is elected, who will he be looking out for? he and his wife are already cheerleaders for the project
SOOOOO correct! He will be another downtown cheerleader.
West side already has high speed cable (Comcast) and satellite (ie Frontier) service. It’s not like they’ve got no service.