Author Archives: JohnS

Verizon Decision Leaves Powhatan with Tough Internet Choices

Posted on November 24, 2015 | 42 comments

broadbandBy John Szczesny

“How they heck can we get broadband internet?”

That’s the question being asked in rural Powhatan County, where officials earlier this month held a meeting with frustrated residents living without a vital connection to the world around them.

Cable never came to these folks; their neighborhoods weren’t densely settled enough to suit incumbent providers Verizon and Comcast, and thus they were also left without internet service that is typically bundled as a package.

In Powhatan and many other rural Virginia communities the only telecom infrastructure in the ground is copper used to provide land-line phone service, which is fast becoming a 20th century relic as people make the switch to IP and mobile networking technologies.

Verizon owns this copper in Powhatan, but reluctantly so: the company has moved in recent months to sell off a good chunk of its wireline assets in order to focus on the more lucrative wireless business (read: selling us smartphones). Even a direct $144 million dollar subsidy offered by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) couldn’t induce Verizon to extend internet service to its rural service areas which includes Powhatan. The telco giant refused the money this past summer.

What’s next for Powhatan? Unless Verizon sells off its wireline infrastructure in the county to a willing provider there isn’t much hope of a private sector solution. The Return on Investment (ROI) would need to factor out, and that would be doubtful without the density of customers to purchase service.

And so we’re back to the issue of municipal broadband.

County officials have mentioned Fixed Wireless as a potential solution, on a network with a fiber backhaul to connect with towers. It may not be any cheaper, but this route would encounter less regulatory interference from the state than building municipal broadband on an underground fiber optic network (and without towers).

Unless state telecom regulators step in with assistance, rather than interference, rural communities like Powhatan are going to have to go it alone in an expensive mission to connect with the internet.

42 Comments

Posted in Infrastructure

Tagged

Cycling Rolls through Chesterfield, but Will it Reach the Finish Line?

Posted on November 20, 2015 | 7 comments

bicycles

By John Szczesny

It’s official, maybe: 360 new miles of bike paths and trails in Chesterfield County. Whether the plan endorsed this week by the Board of Supervisors in a 3-2 vote ever gets funded (and built) remains to be seen, but there’s no doubt cycling advocates scored a big victory.

Given county staff’s initial price tag — pegging the per-mile cost of bike paths between $250k and $1 million — early odds had favored denial in the low-tax, conservative Republican stronghold that sent Dave Brat to congress.

There remains strong opposition from residents who argued against the scope and astonishing cost of the plan. The growing county has multiple competing budget demands, and it’s fair to ask where bike paths should rank compared to education, public safety, infrastructure, and other concerns. But with over 1,000 petition signatures and a vocal lobbying effort in favor of the plan, county residents clearly want safe bicycling facilities in auto-dominated Chesterfield.

It remains to be seen whether county officials can acquire all the necessary right of way to construct the pathways, as any missing link could doom an entire trail. As innocuous as bike paths may seem, this complex project likely will require the services of outside engineering consultants for overall project management and full-scale paving, grading, and drainage plans. In addition, recently enacted and more stringent EPA storm water requirements must be reckoned with.

Cycling proponents can savor victory for now, but there’s still a bumpy road ahead in Chesterfield. So far they’ve proven willing and able to hang on for the ride.

7 Comments

Posted in Environment, Land use & development, Uncategorized

Tagged

Striking a Balance on Municipal Broadband

Posted on November 18, 2015 | 33 comments

broadbandby John Szczesny

Changes in latitudes, changes in attitudes… towards municipal broadband, that is. As officials in the Roanoke Valley move forward with plans for a municipal fiber network the state of North Carolina is busy suing the FCC to prevent its local governments from doing the same.

To be fair, municipal broadband is no cakewalk in Virginia. Commonwealth regulators at the SCC require localities to essentially tax their own operations in an amount they would charge an incumbent Internet Service Provider (ISP) for such things as licenses, pole attachments, and street opening permits. They also prohibit cross-subsidizing telecommunications from other government operations, except when no other competitors are vying to offer similar services. Municipal networks must provide open access to other providers. And they can forget about cable TV.

Rules like these typically raise hackles from those on the left who see no problems with municipal broadband, since they relish the expansion of government control.  In their view such telecom legislation is nothing more the genesis of greedy cable companies, and while there’s no denying the influence of the cable lobby in state legislatures — apparently cable companies run the show in N.C. — there are, in fact, dangers in stripping all restraints from municipal network providers.

As long as government entities have a monopoly power on taxes and absolute control over land use, there is a need to hold them in check. Just ask the incumbent providers. Too many communities have abused their authority by exacting unreasonable fees for right-of-way permitting, and have bogged down network deployments through bureaucratic inertia. Much like developers seeking zoning approvals, the ISP network is viewed as another revenue stream.

Virginia regulators will need to find a middle road so municipal networks can fill voids where private sector ISPs are not competing, while also ensuring that municipalities and their network partners aren’t conferred unfair advantages.

33 Comments

Posted in Economic development, Infrastructure

Tagged

No Easy Route on the Jeff Davis Highway

Posted on November 16, 2015 | 12 comments

jeff_davis_highwayby John Szczesny

Kudos to the Richmond Times-Dispatch for putting a human face on Chesterfield County’s plan to revitalize the Jefferson Davis Highway corridor. The RTD’s Pathway to Poverty feature is a sobering look at how poverty and homelessness have made life a daily struggle for so many in the area. It also begs the question of how Chesterfield’s plan will impact the lives of these individuals and families.

The visible signs of blight along the roadway make it easy to overlook how the surrounding area buzzes along as a hive of industrial activity. Not far from the trailer parks and run-down motels exists the most vital cluster of manufacturing employment in the Richmond metro: Dupont, Philip Morris, Kaiser Aluminum and other companies will soon be joined by Chinese-owned Tranlin Paper, which state officials expect to create 2,000 jobs at an average salary of $45,663. There is also the massive Defense Supply Center Richmond (DSCR) complex, scheduled for further expansion by the feds. And just a few miles to the south is the Amazon fulfillment center in Chester which opened in 2012.

County officials deserve their share of credit for these economic development successes. Through incentives and other means they have created an environment conducive to business and job creation.

Yet the industrialization on the edges of Jefferson Davis Highway has not done much to improve conditions for the 11,000 residents in the County’s study area, where 30% of the population lives below the poverty line. Chesterfield officials have gone a long way to offer assistance and resources for corporations in the Bermuda district. It is only fair that they offer a similar helping hand to area residents by connecting them with the employment opportunities in their own neighborhood. Workforce training programs would be a win-win for employers and job-seekers, and would help bridge the skills gaps needed for these positions.

Perhaps the thorniest issue for County planners is what to do about land use. It will be tempting to call for zoning revisions to invigorate the Jeff Davis area with new housing and retail projects. Redeveloping underutilized properties along the corridor would make economic sense, create jobs, and boost county tax coffers. But allowing these changes would probably also lead to the demolition of the motels and trailer parks where some of the poorest residents live, often just one missed rent payment away from homelessness. A redevelopment plan that throws these people out on the street without a suitable housing option is immoral and unacceptable.

Chesterfield has taken a noble first step in developing a plan to reverse the decline of the Jefferson Davis Highway corridor. It is now imperative for county officials to make future decisions with an eye towards improving the lives of area residents as opposed to just the built environment.

John Szczesny is a Chesterfield resident, urban planner, and telecommunications consultant.

12 Comments

Posted in Land use & development, Poverty & income gap

Tagged