KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Lincoln Building in Kansas City, Missouri’s historic 18th and Vine District is receiving upgrades. High school students are running wires through the walls, ceilings and closets to get high speed internet to the businesses that rent space in the building.
“I learned a lot,” Maurice Booker, a freshman at William Chrisman High School, admitted.
Booker and other students are installing internet cables at the Lincoln Building and in other parts of Kansas City’s third district through an initiative the city launched in November called Digital KC Now.
The goal is two fold: First, to teach teenagers the ins and outs of creating a network, running wires and connecting routers and second, to spread internet connectivity to the third district.
“At this point, we’re doing some really big things,” Ricky Bright said humbly.
He’s a mentor with aSTEAM Village, the nonprofit coordinating Digital KC Now for the city.
The effort has been needed in the third district because it's home to the city’s zip codes with the lowest median incomes, lowest home values and lowest life expectancies.
Bright said when homes and businesses aren’t connected to the internet, they’re not part of the digital economy and those divisions in health, technology and wealth will only grow larger.
“When COVID-19 hit, it was like the world woke up to the fact that we all need reliable, affordable internet,” Tom Esselman, who runs PCs for People in Kansas City, said.
He admires Digital KC Now’s approach and has been a part of the KC Coalition for Digital Inclusion for several years. His work has led him to distribute devices and collaborate with the FCC to become a “last mile” internet service provider offering low-cost wireless internet in underserved areas.
“The need is immediate,” he said. “Everyone needs high speed internet they can afford right now.”
Google Fiber, which made a splash when it chose Kansas City as its first market, continues to make strides closing the digital divide. Through its Gigabit Communities program, Google Fiber currently provides free internet of 1gbps speeds to 835 units across five housing authority properties in Kansas City, Missouri.
Three of those properties are in the third district.
Google Fiber’s Community Connections program provides the same high speed internet to more than 200 schools, community centers, libraries, and other agencies in the city.
A federal program called the Affordable Connectivity Plan provides eligible households with a $30 discount on monthly internet bills. It also provides eligible households with a discount for a one-time purchase of a device like a computer or tablet to use with the internet. The program changed names on Jan. 1 this year, it was originally called the Emergency Broadband Benefit.
Visit the FCC’s website to find out more about eligibility requirements.
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Two Americas is part of a KSHB and Scripps signature issue to help introduce our community to the America you know and the America you might not know. Our role as the media is to share the news of the day, but we also seek to give a voice to people we don't hear from often.
Of course, there are many parts that make up our community, so we’re not just showing you two and we’re not pitting two sides against each other. Instead, we’re hoping to highlight solutions and showcase different perspectives to help us all better understand our area's culture, our area's past, and why our community feels the way it does today.
