When Lafayette, Louisiana set out to build a high-speed fiber optic data network, legal challenges caused major delays. Other cities are likely to experience the same issues as they try to expand their information infrastructure.
Lafayette eventually did get its fiber optic network built, but doing it alone can be a challenge.
"As efforts proceed to improve the nation's patchwork broadband infrastructure, most attention is focused on the $7.2 billion allocated in the federal stimulus law to bring broadband to rural and other underserved areas that still live in the dial-up world. Some of those places, unable to attract commercial providers, may find themselves with no other realistic option than to build their own networks, and they are likely to encounter many of the same hurdles that Lafayette and other communities have faced."
Read the full story: Bandwidth on the Bayou
Tribal Communities Create Own Broadband Networks
Access to quality internet connectivity in many tribal and rural communities lags far behind other regions.
Making Broadband Investments Count
As connectivity becomes increasingly important to everyday life, policymakers at all levels can take action to streamline broadband infrastructure projects and improve internet access for all communities.
Amtrak, CN end decades-long dispute with eight-year agreement
The new operating agreement establishes an updated framework for the companies to work together, including processes to resolve disputes.
Judges permit Denver to divert 77,000 acre feet from the Colorado River for reservoir expansion
Overuse and climate change have caused the Colorado River’s water levels to plummet.
Nation's most wind-powered state turns to coal as data centers increase energy demand
For the first time in decades, Iowa has increased its generation of coal power.
Boston has spent millions making the Green Line more accessible — and there’s no end in sight
While the city has invested millions into expanding and adding platforms to the Green Line to make it more accessible, new train cars set to arrive next year will be too tall for disabled passengers to board without raising the current platforms.
Idaho may see an 18% drop in federal surface transit funding — the largest estimated cut in the US
Transit systems in rural communities are much more reliant on federal funding to provide their services.
How ‘post-disaster gentrification’ alters neighborhoods after natural calamities
After hurricanes, fires or other calamities, the original residents of a community are often replaced by younger, wealthier residents.
FREE Course: Walkable City 1: Why Walkability?
After describing his path towards focusing on walkability as the essence of good planning, Jeff Speck marches through his five principal reasons for making more walkable places.
Reinventing Malls: Planning Alchemy—Turning Gray Fields Into Gold
The course focuses on the opportunities and imperatives that shape reinvention of mall sites.
City of Wisconsin Rapids
Harvard University Graduate School of Design
KFH Group Inc.
The Architects Foundation
University of Cincinnati Online
The Pocatello Development Authority
The Urban Renewal Agency of the City of Pocatello