{"id":5677,"date":"2014-08-30T23:47:00","date_gmt":"2014-08-31T03:47:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/?p=5677"},"modified":"2018-08-24T15:40:02","modified_gmt":"2018-08-24T19:40:02","slug":"sunday-august-31-2014-will-tiny-chattanooga-lead-america-out-of-conservative-darkness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/?p=5677","title":{"rendered":"Saturday, August 30, 2014 \u2014 Will Tiny Chattanooga Lead America Out of Conservative Darkness?"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s appar\u00adent that not all of rur\u00adal Amer\u00adi\u00adca is pre\u00adpared to let the forces of Con\u00adser\u00advatism dri\u00adve them into pover\u00adty and feu\u00addal serfdom. <\/span><\/p>\n

The City of Chat\u00adtanooga\u2019s local pub\u00adlic pow\u00ader author\u00adi\u00adty had a prob\u00adlem a few years ago. They were plagued with pow\u00ader out\u00adages. The city esti\u00admat\u00aded loss\u00ades of about $100m annu\u00adal\u00adly to local busi\u00adness from these out\u00adages. Like most small cities in the U.S., Chat\u00adtanooga\u2019s econ\u00ado\u00admy was dead in the water. The solu\u00adtion, for the pow\u00ader author\u00adi\u00adty, was to install a fiber-optic sys\u00adtem to com\u00admu\u00adni\u00adcate with the dig\u00adi\u00adtal equip\u00adment on the grid. This new tech\u00adnol\u00ado\u00adgy would elim\u00adi\u00adnate most out\u00adages and quick\u00aden restora\u00adtion times when they occurred, plus ren\u00adder main\u00adte\u00adnance more effi\u00adcient and sig\u00adnif\u00adi\u00adcant\u00adly low\u00ader oper\u00adat\u00ading costs. The plan was to build the sys\u00adtem for $220m (the cost of an indoor shop\u00adping mall) financed by a local bond issue, and to fin\u00adish the work in ten years. Dur\u00ading con\u00adstruc\u00adtion, Oba\u00adma\u2019s Recov\u00adery Act took effect, and it turned out that they qual\u00adi\u00adfied for $110m of Fed\u00ader\u00adal mon\u00adey, which meant that the project could be fin\u00adished in three years. Now here\u2019s the inter\u00adest\u00ading part. At some point in the process (I\u2019m not sure when), they real\u00adized that they were actu\u00adal\u00adly build\u00ading a super-fast inter\u00adnet cable sys\u00adtem, and that they could pro\u00advide every\u00adone in Chat\u00adtanooga with inter\u00adnet ser\u00advice run\u00adning at 1 gig per sec\u00adond \u2014- about fifty times faster than the U.S. average. <\/span><\/p>\n

\"Random

Ran\u00addom screen test of Chat\u00adtanooga\u2019s pub\u00adlic util\u00adi\u00adty inter\u00adnet service.<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

Chat\u00adtanoogans now enjoy the fastest inter\u00adnet ser\u00advice in the U.S.. In fact, it is among the fastest in the world \u2014 at below the cost of the crap\u00adpy inter\u00adnet \u201cser\u00advice\u201d pro\u00advid\u00aded by Cor\u00adpo\u00adrate Com\u00admu\u00adnism. When Time Warn\u00ader Cable went down, last week, Chat\u00adtanoogans chuck\u00adled. Not sur\u00adpris\u00ading\u00adly, Cor\u00adpo\u00adrate Com\u00admu\u00adnism is fight\u00ading back, with the usu\u00adal bliz\u00adzard of law\u00adsuits, Fox\u00adPrav\u00adda scream\u00ading pro\u00adpa\u00adgan\u00adda, cam\u00adpaign con\u00adtri\u00adbu\u00adtions, bribes and secret slush funds. A few days ago, the US<\/span> tele\u00adcoms indus\u00adtry called on the FCC<\/span> to block Chattanooga\u2019s plan to expand it\u2019s ser\u00advice, and to pre\u00advent a small city in North Car\u00adoli\u00adna from build\u00ading a sim\u00adi\u00adlar sys\u00adtem. You aren\u2019t going to find out about Chat\u00adtanooga\u2019s suc\u00adcess on Fox\u00adPrav\u00adda. I only learned of it from a British news\u00adpa\u00adper. It is already ille\u00adgal for munic\u00adi\u00adpal\u00adi\u00adties to do what Chat\u00adtanooga did in twen\u00adty states, and the lat\u00adest bat\u00adtle\u00adground is \u2014 you guessed it! \u2014 Kansas, where the Con\u00adser\u00adv\u00ada\u00adtive ide\u00ado\u00adlog\u00adi\u00adcal fanat\u00adic Sam Brown\u00adback has done more dam\u00adage to the econ\u00ado\u00admy than any\u00adone since Quantril\u00adl\u2019s Raiders.<\/span><\/p>\n

What has been the out\u00adcome of pub\u00adlic util\u00adi\u00adty-based inter\u00adnet ser\u00advice, local\u00adly pro\u00advid\u00aded and con\u00adtrolled? Chat\u00adtanooga has gone from zero ven\u00adture cap\u00adi\u00adtal investors in 2009 to five high\u00adly active groups. These are financ\u00ading a vari\u00adety of busi\u00adness incu\u00adba\u00adtors which are pulling Chat\u00adtanooga out of the dol\u00addrums. One of them is in the city\u2019s pre\u00advi\u00adous\u00adly aban\u00addoned down\u00adtown depart\u00adment store. Tech entre\u00adpre\u00adneurs are flock\u00ading to the small city in the Appalachi\u00adan moun\u00adtains. The city has expe\u00adri\u00adenced a surge of cul\u00adtur\u00adal growth, with lit\u00ader\u00adary and jazz fes\u00adti\u00advals, and revi\u00adtal\u00adiz\u00ading down\u00adtown neigh\u00adbour\u00adhoods. Local hos\u00adpi\u00adtals are using their high speed ser\u00advice to con\u00adstruct and trans\u00admit 3D<\/span> mod\u00adels of patients\u2019 inter\u00adnal con\u00addi\u00adtions in real time, a fan\u00adtas\u00adtic help to sur\u00adgeons, but they com\u00adplain that it stops at the city lim\u00adits, beyond which prim\u00adi\u00adtive inter\u00adnet ser\u00advice still rules. The city seems to be bub\u00adbling with ideas. It is, for exam\u00adple, the only city with it\u2019s own pro\u00adpri\u00adetary type\u00adface, devel\u00adoped local\u00adly and financed by crowdfunding. <\/span><\/p>\n

I remem\u00adber Chat\u00adtanooga (pop\u00adu\u00adla\u00adtion 170,000) fond\u00adly from its friend\u00adly, infor\u00admal sci\u00adence fic\u00adtion con\u00adven\u00adtions, and from a long hike in its fan\u00adtas\u00adti\u00adcal\u00adly beau\u00adti\u00adful moun\u00adtain hin\u00adter\u00adland. Here is a pic\u00adture of Chat\u00adtanooga\u2019s may\u00ador Andy Berke, and that grin isn\u2019t fake.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Andy

Andy Berke (D), may\u00ador of Chattanooga<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

The prim\u00adi\u00adtive sav\u00adagery play\u00ading out in Fer\u00adgus\u00adson, Mis\u00adsouri is not the real Amer\u00adi\u00adca. That\u2019s the Koch Broth\u00aders\u2019 enslaved Amer\u00adi\u00adca. This is the real thing. Amer\u00adi\u00adcans will even\u00adtu\u00adal\u00adly rid them\u00adselves of the ide\u00ado\u00adlog\u00adi\u00adcal chains of Con\u00adser\u00advatism, just as much of the world threw off the chains of its iden\u00adti\u00adcal twin, Com\u00admu\u00adnism. This is the start.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s appar\u00adent that not all of rur\u00adal Amer\u00adi\u00adca is pre\u00adpared to let the forces of Con\u00adser\u00advatism dri\u00adve them into pover\u00adty and feu\u00addal serf\u00addom. The City of Chat\u00adtanooga\u2019s local pub\u00adlic pow\u00ader author\u00adi\u00adty had a prob\u00adlem a few years ago. They were plagued \u2026<\/p>\n

Read more \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,940],"tags":[1414,1413,1412],"class_list":["post-5677","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-a-blog","category-am-blog-2014","tag-andy-berke","tag-chattanooga","tag-high-speed-internet"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5677","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5677"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5677\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7473,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5677\/revisions\/7473"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}