Digital loitering reality of life for poor

On some evenings, after the Cleveland Public Library branch on Woodland Avenue closes, people linger near the low-slung entrance or sit in cars in the parking lot. Heads down, their eyes locked on a phone or small computer tablet, they come to do what most of us do without much thought or the need to leave the living room couch -- connect to the internet. For the people who live just across the street in the apartments that make up the King Kennedy public housing complex, access to the internet is not so easy. Broadband networks are available, but many can't afford the service. And some people have pay-as-you go phone plans that limit the amount of data they can stream. So, people from Cleveland's impoverished Central neighborhood tap the library's public wireless internet signal, which spills out of the building. The practice is known as digital loitering, common outside inner-city public spaces such as libraries and even at restaurants with free Wi-Fi, such as McDonald's.