Peggy Dolgenos, CEO of Cruzio, took the floor at an economic conference last month during a discussion about California infrastructure, as a bandana-wearing Rosie the Riveter beamed from the projector screen onstage, flexing her muscles.
Microphone in hand, Dolgenos explained to the Monterey Bay Economic Partnership summit that Santa Cruz hasn’t been following its own much-touted dig-once policy for super high-speed Internet.
When tearing up streets for basic repairs, the Public Works department is supposed to be laying down conduit for broadband Internet, because it’s much cheaper to do when workers are already underground, anyway. The problem: Public Works says it is too strapped for cash to spend even a few extra bucks on piping.
Dolgenos’ basic question: How can business leaders get cities to follow their own forward-thinking policies?
J. Guevara, the city economic development manager who happened to be sitting next to a GT reporter at the summit, expects all these details to get sorted out at the Dec. 8 Santa Cruz City Council meeting.
That’s when the council will review a plan between the city and Cruzio to bring crazy fast gigabit-fiber Internet to Santa Cruz, increasing speeds from about 15 megabits per second up to 1,000. It will be unique both in its scope and in the nature of its public-private partnership.
“It would be the first of its kind in the Silicon Valley,” Guevara says.
So, are we part of the Silicon Valley now?
Well, we do have over 20,000-plus people commuting over the hill, Guevara notes, and we get covered in the Silicon Valley Business Journal. Maybe we’ll soon be able to claim superior Internet, too.
