Letters

Continued From Page 6

Build Back Better can reduce crime by supporting preschool

In my time as an attorney, I’ve seen countless young people make decisions that lead them down destructive paths.

Despite the desire that all of us in the justice system have to help these kids, by the time we get to interact with them, it’s often too late. One bad decision made by these young people can negatively impact them and their loved ones for the rest of their lives, perpetuating cycles of crime and violence that can pass onto future generations.

It’s been my top priority as District Attorney to promote a safe, healthy, and just community by not only fighting against crime, but also by advocating for evidence-based approaches to reducing crime. And the best way to reduce crime in any community is by working to ensure it never happens in the first place.

One of the best tools we’ve found to keep children on the right path and away from crime is high-quality preschool. It’s critical that young people have a strong foundation on which to begin their lives, as numerous studies have shown that high-quality preschool can lead to decreased rates of future incarceration and better academic outcomes, including higher rates of high school graduation. Significant investments in high-quality preschool would be a major boost to longterm public safety.

Fortunately, federal lawmakers have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to make such an investment.

Through the Build Back Better Act (BBB), lawmakers have the opportunity to pass preschool provisions that would allow roughly six million additional children to access high-quality preschool nationwide, including 298,000 in New York alone. This would help thousands of children in our state start on a path towards better academic performance and achievement and a reduced likelihood of being involved in crime later in life.

Helping young people have access to that path is one of the reasons I joined the national law enforcement membership group Fight Crime: Invest in Kids. It’s an organization that includes over 5,000 police chiefs, sheriffs, and prosecutors. For the past 25 years, they’ve consistently advocated for evidence-based solutions that strengthen long-term public safety by putting kids on a productive, crime-free path—a mission I’m proud to be a part of.

The preschool provisions included in BBB are incredibly important to achieving this goal, as research shows that positive preschool experiences help children build cognitive and social-emotional skills during a unique period of brain development that can serve them well for a lifetime. And, while this alone is reason enough to invest in preschool, a forthcoming Fight Crime: Invest in Kids research brief shows that such programs can provide a great return on investment (ROI) as well.

The brief highlights an independent costbenefit analysis that showed that preschool programs can return an average societal “profit” (economic benefits minus costs) of more than $15,000 for every child served. Applying this per-child “profit” to the additional children served by BBB’s preschool provisions, we see an overall ROI of $90 billion over the lifetime of these kids, including $4.47 billion in New York alone.

The factors that contribute to this ROI include increases in adulthood earnings contributed to by higher test scores, as well as decreases in costs to society, such as added expenses created by children being held back in school or needing special education.

The Build Back Better Act represents an opportunity to increase public safety in a way that also produces a solid return on investment through its preschool provisions. Federal policy makers must realize the tremendous benefit to our communities that this would represent through significant crime prevention and ROI benefits, and can’t miss this opportunity to make a transformative investment in early education. -Matthew Van Houten, District Attorney for Tompkins County and a member of Fight Crime: Invest in Kids

I’ve never really found myself liking Joni Mitchell, no shame on those that do, just not for me. Regardless I feel like she summed up this whole catastrophe in one great line, and if one were to ever want to feel how Joni felt, just take a drive down to the Ol’ Haunt and take a look at the parking lots in its place. I’m only 27 and I’m an absolute fool. I don’t remember the great Octopus that has since been slain at the foot of West Hill. I don’t remember State St. before the “original commons” and the old library has always been a vacant building. Despite my terrible memory of the past there are a few things I can still seem to muster up. I can Matthew Van Houten (Photo: Provided) still remember the feeling that nothing was ever going to be taller than the trees that erupted across the hillsides seeming to mark the end of my known universe. I will always remember Ithaca Fest at Stewart Park. Or the way the Commons felt like a treehouse was put into the middle of a city. Put there and now I can only assume to shield us from the dangers of the outside world. Ithaca had always been an escape for me. A place where a Human could be a Human and live, work, play, and die all in the company of other humans. These days, it more or less still is. But recently I have to ask myself if things are changing? I’m pretty much a Luddite, I get it. But with that being said I can still respect some life improving progress now and again.

Progress aside, I have to ask myself what the hell is going on when I drive down 13 and see a steel megalodon rising up in front of the Welcome to Ithaca mural. Or when we decide to keep pushing the jungle further towards the edge of existence. Choosing instead to ignore their needs and replacing the “unusable” land with a solar farm. Or when as a local in this area, I and others are driven out of the places we love because we cannot afford to live there any longer. Because individuals whose checkbooks far exceed ours are now realizing the paradise that lay in these hills and that they would like a slice as well.

The Ithaca I knew is far from the Ithaca I know now. Are we selling out? Are we forsaking the generations of individuals who have lived in these hills for a far more affluent population? A population whose means far exceed our own. I believe we are. I believe it can be seen in the way our city treats the destitute and homeless. I believe it can be seen in the way our city favors certain residents who have the means, and de-values the ones that don’t.

This question is one we must ask ourselves. As we live our lives and grow as a community, we can hold the keys to our own success. We can be the masters of our own dominion. We can live, work, play, and die for ourselves and our brother’s and sister’s.

If we continue to sell our land and ourselves to the highest bidder, we will ultimately reach the same relationship as others in our position have found themselves, as slaves to a master.

So, it’s with that said that I ask the residents, employees, local officials and the whole swamp that is Ithaca to seriously consider the direction we as a community and city are headed. We need to as a population understand the unintended consequences of these major property sales and stop looking to the almighty dollar as our ultimate salvation.

We need to remember the ideals that set Ithaca apart from the rest. We need to retain the ownership of our land, at the local level, and we need to start thinking of the future. Not in terms of dollars and cents but in terms of the human we now find wandering the hills of this area, destitute, disillusioned and forsaken by a city that has lost sight of what we were. -Dewey Herren, Newfield, NY

SHAWNA BLACK

Continued From Page 4

head the body.

“Both of us have very different interests,” said Black. “Deborah’s focus has been primarily budget and environment and mine has been health and human services and public safety. Together as a team our skills complement each other and we have very well-balanced roles as leaders for the legislature.”

“Personally, I find it quite humbling to have been elected to a leadership position by my peers and colleagues,” Dawson said. “We’ve been through an unusually challenging couple of years, and I fervently hope that we will complete our transition into whatever the new normal will look like with endemic, rather than pandemic, COVID. The county has a lot of ‘non-COVID’ issues on its plate, and I’d really like to move forward and address them.”

The session began with County Clerk Maureen Reynolds swearing in all 14 members for the new year. Five legislators were sworn in for the first time: Veronica Pillar (D-Ithaca, District 2), Greg Mezey (D-Dryden, District 13), Lee Shurtleff (R-Groton, District 9), Randy Brown (RNewfield, District 8), and Travis Brooks (D-Ithaca District 1).

These new legislators will take the spot of their predecessors in the upcoming committee meetings for January.

Black said that the “State of the County” address will be delivered at the next meeting.

-Jay Bradley

CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW?

Ithaca tries to balance environmental/health concerns with the need for updated cell service.

By Eddie Velazquez

Infrastructure that would support 5G networks could very well expand in Ithaca this year, after Common Council members outlined guidelines regulating the installation of 5G cell towers at the tail end of last year.

Commonly known as the next generation in mobile networking technology, 5G — which stands for the fifth generation of standards set by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in order to regulate cellular networks — has several applications for consumers, tech laborers and businesses. The small cells, or small towers, required to enable 5G in an area relay information between devices at a rapid speed, and have increased bandwidth that provides faster download speeds. In the last year, the Common Council has attempted to thread the needle between providing access to said mobile networks and hearing residents and advocates’ environmental and health and safety concerns, all the while seemingly avoiding potential litigation from Verizon for delaying the installation of 5G equipment.

The city hired Long Island-based attorney Andrew Campanelli to assess the measures local officials can take to control where 5G can be deployed in Ithaca. Ultimately, this resulted in the city approving amendments to city codes to oversee the installation of small cells via a vote of 7-2 back in October.

These small cells can be placed at the following utility sites:

Utility transmission towers

Public water tanks

Inside or concealed around steeples or similar architectural features

Rooftops

Utility poles in publicly owned rights-of-way or similar public properties as identified by the city of Ithaca

Any small cell wireless facility, according to the statute, shall be 250 feet or more from any residence, school, or day care facility and 1,500 feet or more from any other small cell wireless facility proposed or installed. The city codes list the following locations for small cell installation in order of preference, from most preferred location to least preferred: 1. Industrial zone 2. Commercial zone 3. Mixed commercial and residential zone 4. Residential zone.

Avoidance areas for small cell infrastructure include flood hazard zones, and historically and culturally significant resources, according to city codes.

Alderperson Ducson Nguyen has “vehemently” opposed some of the amendments to the code, labeling them as too restrictive. Nguyen noted that as of this month some providers have already reached out to the city to begin installing small-cell infrastructure.

“Some providers have reached out for installation — I think Verizon and AT&T — but I think they will find that our new rules are so restrictive that they will be able to add little to no new infrastructure, which is to the detriment of our residents,” Nguyen said.

Nguyen, a software engineer, noted restrictions — such as the provision that requires small cells to be 250 feet away from education centers and residences — will leave telecommunication companies with no options.

“Though there may be other small areas, [amending the city code] means small cells have to be in South Hill, the part of the city where the big box stores are,” Nguyen said. That leaves the city with very little.”

A lack of 5G infrastructure, he said, can already be felt during highly-populated events in Ithaca.

“I see it at the [Ithaca Farmers Market] and other highly populated events, where on a busy summer day you will already have trouble connecting to the internet or even sending messages,” Nguyen added. “We are going to see a degradation of service moving forward as companies decommission their older equipment. It is going to be hard to keep up with the latest technology.”

The current standard for measuring the effectiveness of cellular service is testing for dropped calls, which is something Nguyen fought to change. In October, he introduced an amendment that shifted that standard, instead suggesting 5G small cell applications could be considered if data speeds dip below a download speed of 10 mbps.

“The standard of using drop calls for determining that an area needs additional service is completely antiquated,” Nguyen said. “I actually agree that our current wireless speeds are fine. What I’m worried about is increased capacity as more people come here and being ready for the future.”

Although initially being approved by the council, the amendment was repealed via a vote of 7-3 in December.

Members of the council and the public spoke in support of reverting back to the previous standards for testing cellular service.

Jerone Galiano, an environmental consultant with the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, said during the Dec. 1 Common Council meeting that, while well-intentioned, shifting the standard would “set the city up for failure.”

“We already have sufficient data speed within Ithaca, which I utilize and I am thankful for that. But because speeds vary

so much by the time of day, the carrier, and the device, a telecommunications applicant can submit and cherry pick false records of insufficient speeds as their proof of gap in coverage in order to install as many wireless transmitters as they can,” Galiano said. “It’d be nearly impossible to verify the accuracy of their measurements and it’d just become a time consuming burden for a city to prove otherwise.

Galiano called the proposed new standard a “loophole.”

“Having that new standard only opens the loophole for applicants to bypass the codes that aim at minimizing unnecessary redundant infrastructure and affect the downtown aesthetic,” he added.

Alderperson George McGonigal introduced the resolution to strike down Nguyen’s amendment.

“[During the Oct. 6 council meeting] the council sought to balance the simultaneous objectives of enabling wireless carriers to provide services in the city, while also protecting the city’s zoning authority,” McGonigal said. “The council also sought to balance concerns minimizing the number of facilities used to provide such coverage, avoid unnecessary redundant wireless infrastructure, and avoiding to the greatest extent possibly any adverse impacts on residential communities.”

Small-cell 5G infastructure has drawn vocal skeptics who oppose the implementation of the technology. Facebook accounts and members of groups such as “Ithaca No 5G” and “Ithacans for Responsible Technology” have spoken during public comment sections of Common Council meetings citing environmental, health and safety concerns surrounding 5G infrastructure.

Claire Curran, cybersecurity Fellow at the University of Washington’s International Policy Institute, noted in a 2020 article that the main environmental issues associated with the implementation of 5G networks come with the manufacturing of the many component parts of the 5G infrastructure.

“In addition, the proliferation of new devices that will use the 5G network that is tied to the acceleration of demand from consumers for new 5G-dependent devices will have serious environmental consequences,” she argues. “The 5G network will inevitably cause a large increase in energy usage among consumers, which is already one of the main contributors to climate change. Additionally, the manufacturing and maintenance of the new technologies associated with 5G creates waste and uses important resources that have detrimental consequences for the environment. 5G networks use technology that has harmful effects on birds, which in turn has cascading effects through entire ecosystems.”

As for health concerns, public health experts and researchers have in some cases concluded 5G does not pose significantly added danger that isn’t already caused by the constant exposure surrounded by electromagnetic radiation found in most developed nations.

Alderperson Ducson Nguyen (Photo: Casey Martin)

APPLICATIONS For the average consumer, 5G could alleviate concerns of a lack of choice when it comes to internet speed offerings and providers, said Nate Foster, a computer science professor at Cornell University.

“We have really terrible internet service. We don’t have a lot of choice, and the speeds we get are not that great,” said Foster, whose research team was awarded a $30 million grant by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to build a fully programmable computer network to bolster internet security and stimulate market competition. “The [COVID-19] pandemic has shown us how important internet access can be for education as it moves toward an online environment. Lots of people are also working from home so internet service becomes this really critical infrastructure that can make the difference between your livelihood for lots of people.” According to BroadbandNow New

York, an organization that charts access to broadband internet in cities and counties across the state, the average download speed in Ithaca is 92.16 mbps. While this download speed is higher than the federal threshold for broadband internet, which is 25 mbps in download speeds and 3 mbps in upload speeds, the average download speed in Ithaca is still 65 percent slower than the average speed in New York, and close to 17 percent slower than the national average.

Further, data from BroadbandNow New York indicates there are 13 internet service providers for residential customers in Ithaca, with Spectrum being available to approximately 97 percent of city residents. Nine of these telecommunication companies provide internet services that meet the federal government’s definition of broadband internet.

“From the point of view of bringing broadband to our county, 5G could really accelerate the transition to high-speed broadband,” Foster said. “It would be great if we could blanket the county with fiber optic internet services to every home, but that is really expensive. With 5G, the bandwidths and the performance characteristics of the network service you get are big enough that you could help accelerate the transition to high speed broadband on the cheap.”

Foster, who is also a consultant for Intel, noted 5G could help advance applications of services and technologies powered by cloud computing, such as autonomous vehicles and artificial intelligence.

“There are a bunch of futuristic applications, a lot of them involving video or artificial intelligence, autonomous vehicles, and robots… all these futuristic things where keeping the data and the computation in a cloud data center that’s thousands of miles away is just not gonna work,” Foster said. “It’s going to be too slow, so you’re gonna need to have a higher bandwidth flank. A lot of people think that 5G is the missing piece there.”

For local programmers, Nguyen said, 5G could prove vital.

“One of the great things about innovation is that we can anticipate the things that are born out of fundamental new technologies,” he said, using high-speed, gigabit internet, which starts at a threshold of 1,000 mbps download speeds, as a comparison. “It’s hard to predict what can be done locally with this technology, but without those fundamental improvements, it’s hard to kickstart new uses for it.”

For companies in Ithaca’s “great mix” of a tech scene, Foster said, 5G availability could also help improve daily operations. Foster used GrammaTech, the software company which has a research center on Esty Street, as an example.

“GrammaTech does a lot of work in cybersecurity and analyzing software systems to find vulnerabilities and prevent vulnerabilities, so that this is a space where they could [use 5G technology],” he said.

Foster’s research in developing an “open-source 5G network,” which could increase market competition by simplifying small cell technology, could also help institutions like Cornell.

“This can be kind of the critical catalyst that helps some of these companies build their products,” he said. “That is pretty exciting as well.”

“It would be great if we could blanket the county with fiber optic internet services to every home, but that is really expensive. With 5G, the bandwidths and the performance characteristics of the network service you get are big enough that you could help accelerate the transition to high speed broadband on the cheap.”

-Nate Foster, Cornell University