Google, turn your gigabyte city into a science experiment

[Commentary] Chattanooga, Tennessee is running an interesting experiment . By the end of this year, its residents and firms will be able to opt into accessing an extremely high speed (1 gig per second) Internet access. This is a specific place based treatment. Will this stimulate economic growth or simply stimulate increased downloads of movies, videos, and images of Lady Gaga and other leisure activities that raise well being but won't "create jobs." Cities have tried out many placed based strategies for encouraging growth. Favorites include; new sports stadiums, new arts museums and Ed Glaeser's favorite --- building billion dollar federally subsidized rail transit systems). Could fast Internet cable achieve what these other strategies have not? I have blogged about this subject before. But, now a new point. Google is undertaking a similar effort.