Seattle Puts Forward Action Plan Aimed at Bridging Its Digital Divide
The Aurora Avenue Bridge in Seattle Shutterstock
In the Pacific Northwest’s largest city, 93,000 residents don’t have Internet access. Mayor Ed Murray’s administration has 19 strategies it hopes to use to connect the unconnected.
Despite Seattle’s surging technology sector, upwards of 90,000 residents there don’t have home Internet access, something the city is looking to change with a plan Mayor Ed Murray’s administration launched Wednesday.
The so-called Digital Equity Initiative Action Plan includes a set of 19 strategies. These are aimed at improving access to digital devices, Internet connections, and technology skills training to traditionally underrepresented residents and communities in Seattle.
"This is a city that is known for its innovation and for its technology,” Murray said during a news conference. “Yet too many of the residents of this city do not have sufficient access to the Internet. They don’t have a computer, or the skills necessary to participate fully in this high tech economy."
The mayor noted that 93,000 Seattleites don’t have Internet access in their homes.
Seattle’s total population is around 660,000 residents, according to Washington state estimates.
“The percent without access,” Murray added, “is much higher if you are an immigrant or a refugee.”
Through a combination of reallocated city staff time, spending and partnerships, the city plans to invest $1.6 million in the digital equity initiative this year, according to the mayor’s office.
Examples of specific strategies in the action plan include: Developing a scholarship, voucher or financing pilot program for low income residents who want to buy computers; crafting public Wi-Fi access plans for places like transit tunnels, homeless encampments and community centers; and increasing computer coding instruction for students in out-of-school programs.
Michael Mattmiller, Seattle’s chief technology officer, emphasized that achieving the goals in the action plan would take effort from outside of city government.
“The work can’t only come from the city,” he said. Mattmiller explained that it would also have to come through partnerships with companies like Google and Comcast, both of which had representatives at Wednesday’s news conference, as well as local nonprofit organizations.
Google on Wednesday pledged to pony up $344,000 for Internet connectivity and technology skills training in Seattle.
That money will help pay for Wi-Fi access at 26 city community centers, and to provide 31 computers for learning labs at those facilities. It will also go toward a grant covering three years of Internet service for 800 Seattle Housing Authority residents who are low-income students.
Comcast, meanwhile, is broadening eligibility standards for discounted Internet service nationwide through a partnership with a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development program. This move by the company should open up the lower-priced service to around 4,900 Seattle households, Murray’s office said.
Seattle is not the only Pacific Northwest city working on digital equity issues. Portland, Oregon, has a proposed digital equity action plan, which is scheduled to come up at an April 6 meeting of the City Council.
Mayor Murray emphasized that Seattle still has a ways to go closing its digital divide. “Today’s launch of the action plan,” he said, “is just a starting point.”
PREVIOUSLY on Route Fifty: “Putting Digital Equity in Cities Front and Center”
Bill Lucia is a Reporter for Government Executive’s Route Fifty and previously covered Seattle city government for Crosscut.com.
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