Jackson Lee: Internet outreach improves neighborhood safety
KHOU-11's Carolyn Campbell reports that the Fifth Ward is engaged in a community internet outreach program of sorts:
For all the news about high-speed Internet and the information age, there are still places in Houston that aren't connected.
The Fifth Ward in northeast Houston is one of those areas that hasn't hooked up. But a public-private collaboration is working to change that and to improve security for residents along the way.
But now there's a new high-tech security strategy, and with every click students are taking another step toward a better future.
TAPS is one of five Technology Access Points available free of charge to residents in Houston's Fifth Ward.
"Not a lot of people get this opportunity and we're getting it for free," says 18-year-old Javier Mendez.
About 24,000 people live in the Fifth Ward, but only a small number have computers and access to the Internet.
"This was my only access point to get Internet, so this was the only place I could get information," says Mendez. "Things that I wanted to go into like college for instance."
But the high-tech possibilities are growing, Fifth Ward now has its own window to the world.
The 5th Ward Community Redevelopment Corporation and its corporate partners announced a new community-based portal.
If the neighborhood organization and its partners want to provide internet services that are also provided by Houston's public libraries, more power to them I guess. But Campbell's reporting is hard to follow, and her assertion about the expanded internet access improving neighborhood security is especially confusing.
"We are not secure, until the neighborhoods and the communities are secure," says Jackson Lee. "This begins to secure people even if they're not on the Internet."
Organizers say residents will benefit whether they have a computer or not.
[snip]
With the added technology, organizers believe the community will be safer and these students will have a better chance at achieving their dreams.
It's certainly not unusual for Sheila Jackson Lee to say things that make little sense, and the notion that expanded internet access will make this neighborhood safer and more secure seems to qualify as one that doesn't make sense. That angle made the entire report muddled and confusing. The number one news station in town is usually much better than that.
UPDATE: KUHF-88.7's Laurie Johnson does a better job explaining the safety angle put forth by proponents:
The website employs special technology that allows emergency first responders to directly alert residents to problems or safety issues in the area. Using a database of email addresses, phone and pager numbers, the system can initiate an automated alert system so elderly shut-ins can receive a phone call like this one.
The alerts can be sent for everything from street closures, to chemical hazards or terror threats.
The public safety angle is still being oversold, in my view.
CALLIE MARKANTONIS ADDS: SAFEclear is about safety; jaywalking enforcement is about safety; red light cameras are about safety; government entities grabbing land belonging to other government entities is about safety. If you want to sell a program in this city, put a "safety" moniker on it, and anyone who argues otherwise is...anti-safety.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/18/05 09:08 PM | Print |
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