How a farmworker town got broadband for all

If California is really the global tech capital, why is it so hard for small towns there to get the internet service they need? One answer to that question is in Gonzales, a Salinas Valley settlement of 9,000. While California’s biggest cities now struggle to provide internet access for people to work and study from home, Gonzales solved that problem a few months ago. Before the pandemic hit, the town offered broadband service, free of charge, to all its residents. The story behind this rare achievement — Gonzales is the first Central Coast city to do this — offers lessons about power and how communities can beat the odds. 

[Joe Mathews is Connecting California columnist and California editor at Zócalo Public Square, an Ideas Exchange that is a project of New America and Arizona State University.]