July 10, 2019 This FUSE-produced story was originally published on NationSwell. Though San Jose sits directly in the heart of Silicon Valley, many of the city’s residents don’t even have access to the internet. In one of the wealthiest cities in the U.S., more than 100,000 people — that includes 50 percent of residents with incomes under $35,000 — have no internet access in their homes.  Finding a solution to the stark disparity was what San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo and his Chief Innovation Officer Shireen Santosam had in mind when hiring FUSE executive fellow Dolan Beckel in 2016. Now, as the director of the Office of Civic Innovation and Digital Strategy, Beckel is working to create a sustainable model of increasing connectivity and digital services across San Jose.  As internet connectivity continues to become more of a universal need, Beckel hopes to see cities shift to models more like Finland — reportedly the first country in the world to declare that broadband access is a legal right for every citizen. “I want to live in a world where internet is considered a utility just like water and electricity,” Beckel said. “In 2019, it’s just as important for our well-being.”  During the last three years, Beckel and his team have worked with the Mayor’s Office to understand the deeply systemic changes necessary for tackling such a complex issue. Here are four lessons they’ve learned.

1. Think like an entrepreneur.

Beckel and the Mayor’s Office of Technology and Innovation knew that in order to create sustainable programs for addressing the digital divide, the city needed money. So he did what any smart Silicon Valley entrepreneur would — he identified a need and crafted a deal to fill it. To implement 5G, which provides faster and better digital connectivity, telecommunications companies have been installing compact antennas called “small cells.” But to work, small cells must be situated at high levels with access to electrical power. The more cells there are, the more consistent the service they provide. The solution? City light poles, the ideal spot to hold small cells. San Jose’s existing workhorse utilities instantly became the most valuable asset the city had to offer telecoms. 
Dolan Beckel, FUSE alum and director of the Office of Civic Innovation and Digital Strategy in San Jose
Beckel’s team took the idea to local telecoms and negotiated an agreement to reap income from the city’s existing infrastructure, offering to lease the light poles at a market-based rate of $750 each annually in return for guaranteed fast and consistent service. San Jose used the fees to provide a team of city staff entirely focused on installation to speed up the process. The remainder of the income, approximately $24 million over the next 10 years, will go into what San Jose calls its Digital Inclusion Fund. Created by Mayor Liccardo, the fund will be used to bring connectivity, devices, and digital literacy to 50,000 underserved households, effectively closing the digital divide for these residents. Kip Harkness, deputy city manager in San Jose, believes the efficiency of the process can potentially save the telecoms millions. “Rather than these companies having to go through thousands of negotiations on each small cell they installed, our offer allowed them to negotiate all at once,” he said.   These deals have also led to what the city says is the largest small cell implementation in the country. In 2017, before this project had taken off, San Jose had only managed to create permits for five small cells across the city. These days, Harkness says the city permits around 30 small cells a week. 

2. Commit every penny to the stated goals.

While most cities place revenue from private deals into a general fund, every penny of the estimated $24 million from the telecom agreements will go into the Digital Inclusion Fund to support citywide programming that addresses the digital divide. San Jose claims it’s the first city in the country to specifically restrict revenue for these purposes. “In other cities, that revenue goes into a general citywide fund and then kind of disappears,” Beckel said. “Residents hope that city leaders do good things with it, but there’s no data-driven plan with accountability of ensuring those funds go toward a specific initiative. The Digital Inclusion Fund radically transformed that.” 

3. Listen to and work with the community.

After approving the fund, the city began to consider how it might spend the monies. But when Beckel’s team surveyed residents about their general opinion on citywide digital inclusion initiatives, many expressed concerns around any government involvement.  With a large immigrant population — almost 40 percent of San Jose’s residents were born in other countries — people expressed a fear of the government accessing their immigration status. Others expressed what Beckel referred to as a Big Brother fear that anything related to technology and the government would lead to increased surveillance and an overall loss in privacy.  Listening to concerns, the city decided to take a different approach to offering new services. Rather than providing those services itself, San Jose is partnering with nonprofits and other organizations that already have a track record of community trust, giving them funds but letting them determine community needs and handle operations. This February, for example, the San Jose City Council approved a partnership with California Emerging Technology Fund, a statewide nonprofit with a singular mission of closing the digital divide. Some of the initiatives that CETF is developing include expanding library programs that allow people to borrow digital devices such as iPads, increasing the number of free community courses on how to use various technologies, offering more Wi-Fi hotspots near public schools that lack connectivity, and adding after-school coding classes. Programs are slated to begin this fall. “I think the city was good at acknowledging what we didn’t know and admitting that it wasn’t our core competency to run a social justice program,” Beckel said. “And we realized that from a trust perspective, it’s sometimes better for the city to fund the programs, but not be the face of them.” 

4. Get ready for a long haul.

Though Beckel’s team has made crucial steps toward improving digital inclusion, Beckel worries that future federal and state legislation will constrain the city’s initiatives. Just this May, the Federal Communications Commission made a ruling that threatens city authority over 5G infrastructure deployment. Mayor Liccardo has partnered with other civic leaders to endorse federal legislation overturning it. “I think there is an overreach of the FCC, which is focusing on the needs of the private sector, instead of the needs of the public,” Beckel said. As legislation keeps changing, it’s unclear whether the city’s Digital Inclusion Fund and the steady stream of funding it created will survive. But when Beckel began this work, he knew that it would require a long-term commitment. “Digital inclusion cannot be achieved with just one program that we implement in a year, and then be done,” he said. “We knew that this was going to require more systemic change.” Amanda Machado is a writer and facilitator whose work can be found in media outlets such as The Atlantic, The Washington Post, NBC News, Harper’s Bazaar, and others.  [Photo credit: rawpixel]