San Francisco to support computer addicts one Wi-Fi connection at a time

A month ago on ElectronicProducts.com, Manhattan was the city supporting technology when AT&T helped New York City support phone addicts one charge at a time. Now the focus moves across the country in San Francisco, where government officials are accepting a $600,000 donation from Google to put free Wi-Fi in city parks.

Google’s gift to the city will take care of the installation and maintenance of the network for two years. Soon thirty-one playgrounds, plazas, recreational centers, and parks will be laptop friendly across San Francisco. The goal is for plans and installation to be complete by April 2014. Google has supplied Wi-Fi to New York and Boston already but it’s about time Google gets free Wi-Fi to the Bay Area, home to Google, Apple, Facebook, and other Internet tycoon companies.

It could be possible that Google is trying to butter up the city they call home after recent protests in San Francisco’s 16th Street, Bay Area Rapid Transit station. The heavily Mexican-American area threw an “Anti-Gentrification Block Party” in May where they smashed piñatas shaped like Google buses and spoke out against the tech company employment causing housing prices to increase. From 2011 to 2012, the cost of real estate in the area skyrocketed 29%.

This idea of supplying the city with free Wi-Fi was originally presented to Mayor Gavin Newsom and the Board of Supervisors six years ago, but it was turned down because San Francisco feared that Google would profit from it. The new and improved proposal does not plan for Google to receive any money. The project was announced to the city in Mayor Ed Lee’s Balboa Park event where he said, “We are behind. I call us the innovation capital of the world but we need to catch up. This is where the relationship with the private sector is so important to us.”

Google’s goal is to make it possible to sign up children for summer camps and allow workers in the area to leave the office and hold meetings outside. Free Wi-Fi in the city’s parks will allow information and knowledge to be free for the city. Mayor Ed Lee hopes this will “bridge not only the digital divide but bring the innovative spirit to every community in San Francisco.”