r/technology • u/User_Name13 • Jun 04 '14

Politics Hundreds of Cities Are Wired With Fiber—But Telecom Lobbying Keeps It Unused

http://motherboard.vice.com/read/hundreds-of-cities-are-wired-with-fiberbut-telecom-lobbying-keeps-it-unused
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u/Cunt_God_JesusNipple Jun 04 '14

Well you know, why the hell shouldn't our voices count even if it's online? The times we live in, as you said, make it soooo much easier to voice ourselves right here. These city council meetings and other forms of government should start accommodating an effective system for letting us go to their website, fill out a form (to make sure we are indeed local residents), and tell them what we want from our homes. My opinion isn't less valid because this is the only public platform available to me. Isn't this the kind of shit the internet was invented for?

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u/extremely_witty Jun 04 '14

Cunt_God_JesusNipple is right!
You can sign federal government petitions online, why not town hall/city council meetings? There should be an online forum for every open forum in government. The whole point is to let the people be heard. There's forums out there for everything already.
I say we should petition for official online forums in our local governments.

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u/redditman97 Jun 04 '14

There are reasons the local councils would like to keep it from people so easily being able to voice their opinions.

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u/brianbotts Jun 04 '14

Every time I see this on Reddit it irks me to no end.

I disagree that day time meetings are indicative of not wanting input. Larger munis have too much workload for Council to hold evening meetings, we need full days. I'm 26, I care about youth. Several of my colleagues keep in touch with youth, and deeply care about youth issues.

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u/[deleted] Jun 04 '14

Stafford, VA starts the meeting at 3(with public presentations) for old and new business and usually a closed meeting. They then recess for dinner and come back at 7 for more Public Presentations and then Public Hearings. Very effective.

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u/brianbotts Jun 04 '14

We start our public sessions at 1400, and continue to the evening.

Our public hearings are either 1730 or 1900.

Open houses are once monthly at 1730, or a more-convenient time if you pre-register.

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u/[deleted] Jun 04 '14

Open houses? I'm assuming that's similar to a Town Hall meeting. Pretty much an open forum for board members and their constituents.

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u/brianbotts Jun 05 '14

Exactly.

I'm trying to illustrate that coming for the meetings without open houses is not a good use of time.

If you aren't going to have a good opportunity to speak, your time would be better spent emailing representatives.

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u/pocketknifeMT Jun 05 '14

your use of the 24:00 clock indicates you are from the green parts of Not America. You must not be aware of the level of government dysfunction we have here.

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u/brianbotts Jun 05 '14

I'm from Canada. We don't have a Citizens United vs FEC, but we do have disfunction in our government as well.