• SmolderingSauna@midwest.social
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    3
    ·
    2 years ago

    Publicly funded but not for the public.

    And before anyone makes a comment about the unhoused probably not paying taxes … neither do any of the children or retirees who use the service every single day of the year.

    We’ve pretty much just abandoned any concept of citizenship or civic responsibility…

    • Nooch@beehaw.org
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      2 years ago

      getting a “protect my property value” vibes from this policy. Governing systems should focus first on lifting up our most vulnerable, and people selling houses just isnt it.

    • Calcharger@kbin.social
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      2 years ago

      It’s only getting turned off at night, not completely disallowing them from using it. I don’t see what the problem is. I can’t go and take out a book at 1am, I shouldn’t also be allowed to use their WiFi.

      • AttackBunny@kbin.social
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        2 years ago

        Exactly this. A housed, or unhoused person, can’t use the library 24/7, so why should there be an exception for Wi-Fi at night?

        • briellebouquet@kbin.social
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          0
          ·
          2 years ago

          because it costs $0 and unhoused people deserve access to education and resources at night same as those who are housed and have their own wifi?

          this isnt about the wifi anyway, it’s an attempt to chase homeless people out of populated areas bc rich people are scared to be confronted with the human cost of their actions.

          you’re fucking disgusting. i wish you the worst things.

          • Gaywallet (they/it)@beehaw.org
            shield
            M
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            0
            ·
            edit-2
            2 years ago

            Please don’t attack and insult each other. Give the other user the benefit of doubt and assume good faith even if it comes alongside ignorance. You’re free to ask questions to get them to clarify their point if you think they’re spreading hate speech but please wait for unambiguous intolerance before launching off on someone 💜

            • briellebouquet@kbin.social
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              1
              ·
              2 years ago

              i’m like the barest thread away from homelessness. i don’t think it’s fair to tone police me down when people are expressing disgust about people in a position i’ll probably be in when i’m too old to pay my bills with unwanted subsistence sex work. when people are supporting measures designed to make life more hostile for people like that.

              people who express disgust about unhoused people, and believe it’s okay to throttle their already super limited access to society, are lost causes. that’s violent instigation against people who can’t defend themselves and these attitudes get. people. killed.

              it’s weird how even spaces on fedi require that you Politely and Respectfully Debate people who lead with genocidal intent. think about who was impolite or intolerant first. think about whether anything i said was “unprovoked.” anyway speaking of tolerance i have none for environments that aren’t safe for poor and unhoused folk and it’s, all things considered, unsurprising that a model based on reddit ended up being, predominantly, another That.

              best of luck and goodbye i guess. you can have the genocide people or you can have their victims but you can’t have both.

          • StrayPizza@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            0
            ·
            2 years ago

            I was with you until the end there. Really uncalled for to call someone disgusting and wish harm upon them because they have a different opinion than yours.

            If you read the article, it’s not about rich people seeing homeless folks, it’s about vandalism and open drug use on the sidewalks. You don’t have to be rich or white to feel uneasy while stepping over bodies sprawled out on the sidewalk or walking by human waste and needles in the bushes the next morning.

            Perhaps there’s a middle ground like keeping the Wi-Fi on but requiring login with a (free) library card.

            • briellebouquet@kbin.social
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              1
              ·
              2 years ago

              if your opinion is, it’s correct to chase homeless people out of the few spaces they have access to, being told you’re an anti-social monster who doesn’t deserve anything good until you fix your revolting black heart, is getting off super easy.

              opinions on how to best reorganize urban settings to promote access to parks and public transportation? i’ll be respectful. “opinions” that displace and kill people? they create complicity in murder and violence and you deserve to be absolutely and firmly cast out of any meaningful discussion.

              if you’re uncomfortable with unhoused people existing, go do some activism. when enough of you murderous clowns come around and something gets done to house these people, great. we’re good. until then, shut the fuck up you monster, they hang out in populated spaces as means of survival, not to inconvenience dumb privileged slobs like you.

              there’s no middle ground or space for debate here in ethical or pragmatic terms. your behaviour is disgusting and violent. it doesn’t matter that you’re too stupid or selfish to know or care.

        • chaos@beehaw.org
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          0
          ·
          2 years ago

          The reason the library isn’t open 24/7 is that it’s expensive to keep paying people to staff it for so many more hours, plus those are hours you’d have to pay even more because working at night sucks. The WiFi access point doesn’t have those issues. You can leave it on and help people for almost no money.

          • AntennaRover@lemmy.one
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            2 years ago

            Right, they don’t close the library at night because they have some moral objection to people checking out books at 1AM, it’s just a question of how to allocate their resources. I believe some public libraries, such as Salt Lake City, are experimenting with staying open 24/7.

      • s900mhz@beehaw.org
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        2 years ago

        Why not? It cost them next to nothing to leave it on. It actually is more work to turn off and on the router every day. I don’t see why not being to check out books had to do with internet. Why does it have to be all or nothing?

        • MrIamsosmrt@feddit.de
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          0
          ·
          2 years ago

          I would guess all commercial routers and access points hae the option to automate something like that. So you only have to set it up once and it’s not really much work (unless something breaks)

          • s900mhz@beehaw.org
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            edit-2
            2 years ago

            Yeah but that requires even less effort to automate than manually turning it off and on. But the point is why put in the effort at all to do this? I mean rhetorically because I know everyone just wants to push the homeless to “anywhere but here”

      • SmolderingSauna@midwest.social
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        2 years ago

        I live in a rural area without broadband access. Any quality broadband access. During the pandemic, kids sat in their parents’ cars (typically after they got home from work) to do their remote-learning homework in front of the public library to get free access to decent connection speeds AND access the library files electronically (for California check here https://www.library.ca.gov/services/to-libraries/ebooks-for-all/ - every state has an equivalent ). People, including kids, check out books (and periodicals) electronically 24/7.

        • hope@beehaw.org
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          edit-2
          2 years ago

          It was shocking to me just how prevalent lack of broadband is. I moved in with my in-laws in norcal midway through the pandemic and the only internet service choices were a 600Kbps DSL line or Verizon mobile hotspots at 3-5Mbps (which is a massive blessing in comparison). I worked remotely and would frequently have to drive to Target or a coffee shop in town to download anything. They aren’t even in that rural an area - there were houses about half a mile away with gigabit cable. The cable company wanted nearly $70,000 to build out a line.

          • veaviticus@lemmy.one
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            2 years ago

            Not exactly the same but similar… There’s 4 major providers who service my area, but only one of them extends down my block. So I can choose from DSL (which to be fair goes up to like 35 Mbps), but if I want higher, I’m vendor locked to Xfinity, who charges at least 2x the price of the local companies.

            Ive asked several times, but they quote hundreds of thousands of dollars to trench fiber down my street, and it’s just not worth it.

            Except, you know, there’s already fiber from Xfinity… They just wont share.

            The physical cabling needs to be government owned and rented out to the companies, not exclusively owned by one single company. We’ll never have competitive pricing unless it’s nationalized infrastructure

          • SmolderingSauna@midwest.social
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            2 years ago

            Nearest Target to me is an hour away. I really thought our one local bank surely had wifi (no, of course a bank doesn’t have wifi, silly, security too big a risk, duh). It’s our little teeny 1930s public library or nothing. So this San Francisco story hit me square in the chops as something like that here would take away our only free access point. Why would anybody do that?!?

        • ConstableJelly@beehaw.org
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          2 years ago

          Good lord. The pandemic shutdowns sucked for me (I have two kids myself), but the more I hear about other people’s experiences, the more I realize I really lucked out.