I say yes

Jennifer Brown, the reason why Worthington blocked it is because AirBears is paid for by the students through the University. He wants any free WiFi in Berkeley to be paid for through Berkeley tax dollars, not student tuition.

I say yes

This will be a great public service

I say yes

I understand that the University offered to extend its campus wi-fi, Air Bears, to within a one mile radius of the campus, which would include most of Berkeley. This sounds like a win for the city.
However, it was blocked by, I was told, Kriss Worthington. Can anyone fill in the details here? Why would a city councilman prevent the university's technology and expertise from benefitting the city of Berkeley?

I say yes

I strongly support this measure.

I say yes

We should be ahead of the curve.

I say yes

City wide free Wi-Fi supports the democratization of the internet

I say yes

Everyone needs access to the net these days, and it is especially helpful for travelers, students, and other temporary residents. NKS

I say yes

I've been perusing some of the comments. I'd love to see fiber optic to every Berkeley resident, but I don't think the quoted "$18" cost can be right for that. I don't know if wifi is the future. Maybe digital radio signals are, like the Smartwatches. I do think that DSL is expensive, for the MANY naysayers who claim otherwise. I'd guess the average cost of broadband access is in the $500/year range, and I think that's a whole lot. I don't know if a good system could be implemented for a low cost, but I'd hope that the University braintrust could bring some IQ points to bear on the issue.
Many other naysayers complained about Berkeley doing other things poorly or underfunding other areas as a reason to not provide this hugely beneficial service. That's bunk. The streets are plenty clean, the potholes slow down the assholes trying to endanger the lives of Berkeley residents on foot and bike, there's already more than enough cops and other civil servants and the schools in Berkeley are already some of the best. Free public wifi is NOT easily accessible. Most cafes and the like charge for access to their networks and the library's piddling hour of access is also hardly adequate, if you can even get on a machine. The wait to get online should indicate clearly the need for such a network. Better and wider access at home would allow the lederly, infirm and poor to get online without increasing traffic and parking hassles downtown to try and get online for 15 minutes at the library. Also, stealing from your neighbor's wifi isn't cool. If the city provided the service everyone could cancel their home service and get access themselves instead of freeloading off their neighbors who pay for their service and then be left stranded offline when the neighbor leaves town for a couple weeks. There are tons of poor students in Berkeley, a university town, who cannot easily gain access to nor afford a quality high speed connection although they desperately need it for school. This is a national problem and Berkeley, as always, should pioneer and lead this city and this country into the future with a forward thinking vision of community improvement and enhanced communication, knowledge dissemination and essential community service provision that others could look to as an example. Berkeley leads, and shares. Let's continue the tradition.
High speed internet, especially of the free wireless variety would give a huge boost to small businesses currently in Berkeley and invite more to come and do business here and fatten our coffers. We might even become a more desirable community to Silicon Valley businesses and employees if we offered sucy a service. See the positive effects of high speed access in this recent article: http://www.speedmatters.org/blog/page.jsp?itemID=28709148

I say yes

ubiquitous wifi will strengthen us as a hub for self-employed creative types, consultants, itinerant entrepreneurs and always-on hyper communicators!

I say yes

I suspect that I am not alone in maintaining a traditional phone line solely for internet service. This is a great time for the city to step forward and move us out of the past with its coporate lock on communications.

I say yes

Susan R. Levine

I say yes

Yes!

I say yes

I think most of us agree, we are over paying for internet service. We can save more money and use our savings on more constructive things other than feeding the companies that claim our communication infrastructure.

I say yes

Yes yes yes!!!

I say yes

We are in the shadows of a fine university but we should not be in the dark.

I say yes

This is a technologically progressive idea. Will we soon have nomads on Telegraph sending spam asking "Spare some change for more bandwidth!?".

I do think it’s a good idea, but I also echo the sentiment that this city (taxpayers and electeds) need to take a hard look at how much money we have and what exactly are the priorities that we need to focus on.

Ideas like this one would be great if our revenues weren’t flat and we are just rising out of a structural deficit!

Why doesn’t the city attempt to tie some type of revenue stream to this so that it AT LEAST covers the costs of implementation and maintenance, better yet producing some positive cash flow!?

I say yes

I think it can be done at reasonable cost. This century information access is going to be the crucial aspect to quality of life. Those who don't have it will fall behind in an increasingly competitive world.

I say yes

This plan has been implemented in other cities and seems to work well. Any action we in Berkeley can take to supply our citizens with means of communication and to take the profit motive out of the hands of private entrepreneurs is an important social contribution.

I say yes

This would be in line with open exchange of ideas that is so valued by Berkeley residents.

I say yes

Absolutely the best thing for folks. I particularlly think it's great in key areas such as business corridors but it suddenly makes accessing the internet open to all with out costly barriers.

Steven