To maintain a diversity of small-scale, neighborhood-serving businesses, San Francisco prohibits stores over 4,000 square feet in several of its neighborhood commercial districts. Continue reading
Taos prohibits stores that exceed 80,000 square feet and requires developers to obtain a special permit to build stores over 30,000 square feet. To receive a permit, developments must meet specific criteria and comply with the town’s architectural and design standards. Continue reading
Some networks are purely open access, as in UTOPIA, where the network owner provides no services (leaving the provision of services to multiple third parties). Burlington, Vermont (see our Case Study and Fact Sheet) has taken a different approach.
In its fiber-to-the-home network, Burlington Telecom (a city department), offers the full triple play of television, phone, and fast Internet services. But it has also committed to making the network available to competitors – at the same wholesale rate it charges itself internally. Continue reading
San Jose grants local small businesses (those with 35 or fewer employees) a 5% price preference in the awarding of city contracts. For services provided through a request-for-proposal process, local small businesses receive a 10% point advantage. Continue reading
On purchases over $5,000, the city of Madison, Wisconsin, grants local businesses a 1% price preference on bids and a 5% point preference on RFPs (request for proposal). Continue reading
On contracts of $100,000 or less, the city of Los Angeles grants a 10% preference to small, local businesses. A small, local business is defined as one that is independently owned and operated, located in the county of Los Angeles, and not "dominant in its field of operations." Los Angeles County also grants small, local businesses a 5% preference on county contracts. Continue reading
A growing number of towns are inundated with chronically vacant big-box stores and shopping centers. Here’s how to prevent big-box blight in your community. Continue reading
CorpusChristi did not set out to create a citywide wireless network. Theproject arose as a logical extension of the upgrade to wirelessautomated meter reading for the city’s gas and water utilities.
In2002, the City was facing a large investment in updating its meterreading capabilities, and was actively considering privatizing itsmunicipal utilities. It was still utilizing meter readers who walkeddoor to door, a risky job with high turnover. If they couldn’t get intoa yard for any reason, they would skip the house, which was the sourceof inaccuracies. Also, the once-monthly monitoring meant system leakswere not quickly recognized and repaired.
In 1999, Fredericton (population 80,000 and the capital of New Brunswick, Canada) began building a high-speed information infrastructure. The City was looking to reduce its internal communications costs. There was no local competition. "We were paying three times the prices people in Toronto were paying," says Maurice Gallant, the City’s chief information officer. It came up with a strategy to build its own fiber optic network, and cover some of the costs by selling spare capacity to other organizations and businesses in the city. Continue reading
A RESOLUTION APPROVING AND AUTHORIZING THE INTERNET DIVISION OF THE ELECTRIC POWER BOARD TO PROVIDE CERTAIN ADDITIONAL SERVICES.
WHEREAS,The Electric Power Board of Chattanooga, an independent board of the City of Chattanooga, (“Electric Power Board”) has developed a detailed business plan for the provision of internet services directly and through MetroNet, Incorporated; has submitted the business plan to the State Director of Local Finance; and has considered the State Director of Local Finance’s analysis of the business plan; Continue reading
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