Free Wi-Fi in Downtown DeKalb

It’s good for Pokémon Go! (Is that still a thing?)

Can’t hurt! 🙂

Why only 1st to 4th streets?

well that 150 k could be 3 police for a year. Just sayin.

Steve Ramsdell Honest question… how much do you think a police officer makes?

David Jacobson with or without their elaborate pension figured in? I’m gonna go with $100k+ average per officer without pension. BTW, how is our funding of pensions doing lol.

Justin Heuer throw in the benefits and you’re closer, on average, to 150k…

David Jacobson sounds reasonable.

Ok. We could have hired one police officer. Are you saying some plants on a corner will bring in more businesses than a safer environment. Not sure you knew dave but dekalb is on the top 5 most dangerous city’s after dark.

Steve Ramsdell the project thus far has cost us around 30 k to buy the hardware (which I voted no on, due to the lack of details and last minute change in the original planning). There was discussion that NIU will likely reimburse the City for half if this cost. The company mentioned in the article, Digital Lobby, runs and maintains the service through an advertising based model (ie. At no cost to the City ), they too have discussed “buying back” the hardware if the beta test is successful. They also collect basic data from phones in the network, that can be used for economic development (area codes, time spent downtown, etc. Which is the data required by many national site selectors). This will be part of a larger network that will run from Campus to downtown. It has consistently been rated as one of the top priorities for one of our largest consumer demographics in DeKalb…

Basically, it’s a relatively small one time cost (that likely will be reimbursed, in whole or part). Its got proven Economic Development benefits (In data collection, attracting and keeping people in the area longer, and as an amenity a major customer demographic expects), acts as another advertising platform to promote our businesses and our city, and even may help to get some student traffic downtown…

So, still want.to trade all that for 90 days of a temporary officer. “Just Sayin”

Steve Ramsdell as for your “Most Dangerous Cities” comment… based on what data/what source. It could be written that my rusted out 98 Explorer with 250,000 miles is the nicest car on the road in DeKalb County.*

* Dirt roads only, in Malta, Data collected at 3am, on “Leap Day” Feb. 29, on those years in which there is a blizzard.

The “click bait” article title would read “DeKalb Alderman Drives Nicest Car in County.” Many would comment, without even reading the article, and complain. Others would later cite that article in facebook conversations…

Would it be true… Sure, under the very limited context used… Would it be relevant… Not so much…