Google Fiber came first to Kansas
City, Kansas and then to Kansas City, Missouri with the egalitarian promise of
leveling the playing field by bridging the digital divide. Now the service is becoming available to Metro
suburbs. Today Google Fiber announced
that it is indeed egalitarian because it has told Leawood, Kansas they can't
have their service.
Leawood, especially the new
Leawood south of Interstate 435 is the enclave of the 1%, or as my generation
called them Yuppie scum. They have used
zoning laws to position themselves as a fortress keeping the riffraff
away. Recently a favorite grocery store
of these wealthy spoiled citizens told them they were leaving town because the
city was inflexible in using tax money to assist in the refurbishment of their
store.
Leawood's affinity for zoning
itself into oblivion struck again in Google Fiber's decision to bypass this golden ghetto. It simply costs too much money for Google to
develop the infrastructure to serve Leawood.
Oh their homes are big, and spread apart, the lot sizes tend to be
described as estates. The bottom line
calculation for installing the impressive infrastructure for Google Fiber must
go something like "x number of houses to the block, y number of blocks to the city
= n number of potential customers". Then
you'd figure out how many customers you'd likely obtain and there is a break
even figure in that math. Leawood
doesn't have enough customers to justify the cost of building the network in
their city.
Plus there is the problem with
digging ditches in the pristine lawns of Leawood. You know that those people won't be satisfied
with the trench being refilled and grass seed being spread and watered once or
twice. Nor would placing a coat of
excelsior over the disturbed area suffice.
No, in Leawood Google Fiber would have to hire George Toma, or at least
a golf course grass guru, to assure the continuity and beauty of the lawns
of Leawood.
So the whiny little rich kids
will have to play their bleeding edge, high tech, and mind numbing electronic
games on the back alleys of the internet highway system. If they're parents need to wheel and deal on
global markets they can rent office space in Kansas City, Missouri or Kansas;
but they can't have it at home. And the
serious students will have to do their learning the old fashioned way. They'll fall behind, but that tends to happens when
the poorest become a little more equal in obtaining access to education with the richest.
When the average is raised in the arena of opportunity some win and some
lose. The kids of the two Kansas Cities win this round.
