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With roughly 25 percent of the city facing some sort of digital divide the Long Beach City Council appears poised to take actions to close that gap as items targeting the divide were introduced Tuesday night.
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First District Councilwoman Lena Gonzalez brought forward a digital inclusion plan that she hopes a coalition of city departments could potentially tackle through a variety of means. It could include offering incentives to internet service providers to expand and promote programs for low-income households, repurpose used city computers and even expand free public wifi and digital literacy programs.
Gonzalez, and a group of other council members representing the city’s central and western regions—the areas with some of the largest percentages of poverty and people of color—put forth a trio of items that would try to tackle the issue that has predominantly affected low-income people of color and older residents in Long Beach.
“I don’t think we can move forward without addressing this need and that means that making sure that our city facilities are accessible and there are lots of computers available for people to use for job searches and whatever they might need it for,” Gonzalez told the Post. “There are some places that have broken computers, some park facilities that we have that don’t have anything, we really need to upgrade that and overhaul that as well.”
The Long Beach Media Collaborative—a collection of news outlets in Long Beach, including the Long Beach Post—ran a series of stories last year detailing how the digital divide was affecting residents in Long Beach. The collaborative found that according to the most recent U.S. Census Bureau statistics some 16 percent of households in the city lacked internet connections of any kind with another 9.5 percent only having a connection through a smartphone.
Those numbers jumped when looking at people of color. A paper published by a team of researchers from the University of Southern California showed that adoption rates, the percentage of households with a broadband connection, is skewed in Long Beach with the city’s eastern flank, where poverty is relatively low, having an adoption rate of about 88 percent. The city’s north, southwest and central portions all lagged behind that figure with an average adoption rate of 73 percent.
In interviews with residents the reasons for not having an internet connection at home ranged from prices being too high, to a lack of a home computer to some older residents stating that they just didn’t feel the need to have one. A large portion of those interviewed said they relied on internet provided by city libraries, and for students, the connections they have access to while at school.
The item requests the city manager’s office to work with the city’s technology and innovation department, libraries and the office of equity to assess the needs of the city and possible ways to solve them. A report was requested to come back to the city council within the next four months.
They also ask those departments to be creative in trying to close the digital divide, even recommending that the city look at putting its e-recycling practices, with the potential of used computers being donated to community groups and nonprofits. This approach could be modeled after examples cited by Gonzalez that are already in operation in Los Angeles and Riverside where old devices are wiped and donated to low-income residents and non-profits. Those cities have donated thousands of devices since the programs’ inception, according to their websites.
“You can have free internet everywhere but if a child doesn’t have the hardware to finish their homework at home, that’s an issue,” Gonzalez said. “When our public library isn’t open seven days a week that’s an issue. I think giving these kids the hardware and finding opportunities through our nonprofit partners who can provide that technical support, both the hardware and the digital assistance, I think can be a game changer for us.”
Outreach to small business owners to ensure that they’re digital literacy is up to date, and that they have access to high-speed internet is among the suggestions. As is a recommendation that the city look into digital inclusion activities that connect younger residents to older ones.
The items also include a request that the city become a formal member of the National Digital Inclusion Alliance (NDIA), a group of cities that includes Boston, Oakland and Seattle, that have pushed for more digital inclusive policies. If the city joins, it would likely host a Digital Inclusion Week like the 23 other NDIA cities where awareness is raised about digital disparities, and how local organizations can help meet community needs.
These efforts come on the heels of the city announcing that it would make efforts to expand its fiber network to incorporate all city buildings as a number of them currently are not connected to a contiguous city network. While the city has said that this option will open up the possibility of ISPs piggybacking off their network to expand high-speed access to currently underserved neighborhoods, providers like Frontier and Charter, the city’s two biggest ISPs, have declined to state if they’re interested in doing so.
Gonzalez said that the framework of this policy is a start to an effort that she hopes continues on every year from now. The investment in technology, and getting it into the hands of the youth is crucial for both their development but also to the development of the city’s future workforce.
“We have to start somewhere and I see it everyday,” Gonzalez said. “I see these kids that know that they want to get into technology or maybe they don’t know enough about it but want to learn a little more, and once they get the hardware in their hands or the opportunity to jump online for 15 minutes just to sort of explore, I think it really opens their eyes.”