Blog Sept. 10
Wednesday, Sept. 10 - Another day of door-to-door campaigning late this
afternoon today. Taxes seemed to be the biggest concern as usual.
In the news yesterday there was a good example of how NOT to implement a
public project.
City needs advertisers to back Internet venture
Budget ax may fall if ad sales don't improve
By John Hill • Press & Sun-Bulletin • September 9, 2008
I'll use it to illustrate how to avoid wasting taxpayers' money and as a specific
example of how to make a smart investment in our community that benefits you.
This municipal wireless Internet project should be killed immediately whether or
not advertisers are found for it. It should never have happened in the first place.
It went to Binghamton Wireless/ Plexicomm with no bid. It was supposed to cost
Binghamton taxpayers $29,000 to match a $29,000 NYS grant. It will cost at least
$87,400
Binghamton University Adjunct Lecturer Angelo Mastrangelo & his students
rubber-stamped the whole thing. It was clear by late 2005 ALL muni wifi was in
trouble. By '06 most cities had already cut back on their plans & services. By '07
all the big provider companies were pulling out & it was clearly a financial
disaster. That is when Binghamton decided to get it.
It was a completely unnecessary and even obsolete idea. Any business person
that really needs wireless access now gets it through a Blackberry or Iphone or
they purchase access from their cellphone provider that works throughout the
entire country not just a few blocks downtown and is far more secure.
Executive Assistant to the Mayor, Tarik Abdelazim cited "social equality and
justice" when presenting the project but failed to explain how people without
the necessary hardware could ever use it.
Taxpayers are paying at least $90,000 for about 16 hot spots.
The smart way to implement this, if it was deemed necessary, (which it was not)
would have been for the same money to have had small grants given to private
companies to setup & maintain these hot spots at their own expenses. In this
way we could have had about 250 hot spots instead of only 16 and not had to
worry about their maintenance.
When elected I will bring this same scrutiny and analysis to how Broome County
spends your tax dollars
afternoon today. Taxes seemed to be the biggest concern as usual.
In the news yesterday there was a good example of how NOT to implement a
public project.
City needs advertisers to back Internet venture
Budget ax may fall if ad sales don't improve
By John Hill • Press & Sun-Bulletin • September 9, 2008
I'll use it to illustrate how to avoid wasting taxpayers' money and as a specific
example of how to make a smart investment in our community that benefits you.
This municipal wireless Internet project should be killed immediately whether or
not advertisers are found for it. It should never have happened in the first place.
It went to Binghamton Wireless/ Plexicomm with no bid. It was supposed to cost
Binghamton taxpayers $29,000 to match a $29,000 NYS grant. It will cost at least
$87,400
Binghamton University Adjunct Lecturer Angelo Mastrangelo & his students
rubber-stamped the whole thing. It was clear by late 2005 ALL muni wifi was in
trouble. By '06 most cities had already cut back on their plans & services. By '07
all the big provider companies were pulling out & it was clearly a financial
disaster. That is when Binghamton decided to get it.
It was a completely unnecessary and even obsolete idea. Any business person
that really needs wireless access now gets it through a Blackberry or Iphone or
they purchase access from their cellphone provider that works throughout the
entire country not just a few blocks downtown and is far more secure.
Executive Assistant to the Mayor, Tarik Abdelazim cited "social equality and
justice" when presenting the project but failed to explain how people without
the necessary hardware could ever use it.
Taxpayers are paying at least $90,000 for about 16 hot spots.
The smart way to implement this, if it was deemed necessary, (which it was not)
would have been for the same money to have had small grants given to private
companies to setup & maintain these hot spots at their own expenses. In this
way we could have had about 250 hot spots instead of only 16 and not had to
worry about their maintenance.
When elected I will bring this same scrutiny and analysis to how Broome County
spends your tax dollars