• SmolderingSauna@midwest.social
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    1 year ago

    Publicly funded but not for the public.

    And before anyone makes a comment about the unhoused probably not paying taxes … neither do any of the children or retirees who use the service every single day of the year.

    We’ve pretty much just abandoned any concept of citizenship or civic responsibility…

    • Calcharger@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      It’s only getting turned off at night, not completely disallowing them from using it. I don’t see what the problem is. I can’t go and take out a book at 1am, I shouldn’t also be allowed to use their WiFi.

      • SmolderingSauna@midwest.social
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        1 year ago

        I live in a rural area without broadband access. Any quality broadband access. During the pandemic, kids sat in their parents’ cars (typically after they got home from work) to do their remote-learning homework in front of the public library to get free access to decent connection speeds AND access the library files electronically (for California check here https://www.library.ca.gov/services/to-libraries/ebooks-for-all/ - every state has an equivalent ). People, including kids, check out books (and periodicals) electronically 24/7.

        • hope@beehaw.org
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          1 year ago

          It was shocking to me just how prevalent lack of broadband is. I moved in with my in-laws in norcal midway through the pandemic and the only internet service choices were a 600Kbps DSL line or Verizon mobile hotspots at 3-5Mbps (which is a massive blessing in comparison). I worked remotely and would frequently have to drive to Target or a coffee shop in town to download anything. They aren’t even in that rural an area - there were houses about half a mile away with gigabit cable. The cable company wanted nearly $70,000 to build out a line.

          • veaviticus@lemmy.one
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            1 year ago

            Not exactly the same but similar… There’s 4 major providers who service my area, but only one of them extends down my block. So I can choose from DSL (which to be fair goes up to like 35 Mbps), but if I want higher, I’m vendor locked to Xfinity, who charges at least 2x the price of the local companies.

            Ive asked several times, but they quote hundreds of thousands of dollars to trench fiber down my street, and it’s just not worth it.

            Except, you know, there’s already fiber from Xfinity… They just wont share.

            The physical cabling needs to be government owned and rented out to the companies, not exclusively owned by one single company. We’ll never have competitive pricing unless it’s nationalized infrastructure

        • ConstableJelly@beehaw.org
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          1 year ago

          Good lord. The pandemic shutdowns sucked for me (I have two kids myself), but the more I hear about other people’s experiences, the more I realize I really lucked out.

      • AttackBunny@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        Exactly this. A housed, or unhoused person, can’t use the library 24/7, so why should there be an exception for Wi-Fi at night?

        • briellebouquet@kbin.social
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          1 year ago

          because it costs $0 and unhoused people deserve access to education and resources at night same as those who are housed and have their own wifi?

          this isnt about the wifi anyway, it’s an attempt to chase homeless people out of populated areas bc rich people are scared to be confronted with the human cost of their actions.

          you’re fucking disgusting. i wish you the worst things.

          • Gaywallet (they/it)@beehaw.org
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            1 year ago

            Please don’t attack and insult each other. Give the other user the benefit of doubt and assume good faith even if it comes alongside ignorance. You’re free to ask questions to get them to clarify their point if you think they’re spreading hate speech but please wait for unambiguous intolerance before launching off on someone 💜

            • briellebouquet@kbin.social
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              1 year ago

              i’m like the barest thread away from homelessness. i don’t think it’s fair to tone police me down when people are expressing disgust about people in a position i’ll probably be in when i’m too old to pay my bills with unwanted subsistence sex work. when people are supporting measures designed to make life more hostile for people like that.

              people who express disgust about unhoused people, and believe it’s okay to throttle their already super limited access to society, are lost causes. that’s violent instigation against people who can’t defend themselves and these attitudes get. people. killed.

              it’s weird how even spaces on fedi require that you Politely and Respectfully Debate people who lead with genocidal intent. think about who was impolite or intolerant first. think about whether anything i said was “unprovoked.” anyway speaking of tolerance i have none for environments that aren’t safe for poor and unhoused folk and it’s, all things considered, unsurprising that a model based on reddit ended up being, predominantly, another That.

              best of luck and goodbye i guess. you can have the genocide people or you can have their victims but you can’t have both.

              • Gaywallet (they/it)@beehaw.org
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                1 year ago

                I’m not sure if you’re already gone and I tried to make it as clear as possible that I didn’t think you were wrong. I understand this can read as tone policing, I was just asking for you to drop the very final part of your post because the other person didn’t directly attack you and could have been coming from a place of ignorance. It’s not on you to educate them either. To be clear I wasn’t going to take any negative action on you and I didn’t remove your post either because I believe both of those would be tone policing. But it’s also really hard to have a place where people feel welcome and think it’s nice while also explicitly being a safe space- in fact this is proof that for some people it might not work. My read on this person was that they were uninformed, not that they were necessarily attacking you. Their post consisted of nothing more than a question which comes from the ignorance and privilege of never being homeless. Yes, they might be an asshole worthy of scorn, I’m mostly just asking we confirm someone’s a Nazi before we start punching.

                If you’re still around and want to talk in more depth about this let me know. I’m sorry I failed you 😔

          • StrayPizza@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            I was with you until the end there. Really uncalled for to call someone disgusting and wish harm upon them because they have a different opinion than yours.

            If you read the article, it’s not about rich people seeing homeless folks, it’s about vandalism and open drug use on the sidewalks. You don’t have to be rich or white to feel uneasy while stepping over bodies sprawled out on the sidewalk or walking by human waste and needles in the bushes the next morning.

            Perhaps there’s a middle ground like keeping the Wi-Fi on but requiring login with a (free) library card.