I wanted to share an article about Coronavirus and the Digital Divide. While our city council and mayor largely still ignore discussing the issues of broadband openly and transparently, the fact that emergency measures have to be taken to provide the poor with some broadband access during outbreaks should show us that the telecoms are NOT meeting our needs in any way shape or form as the public works director keeps telling the council and mayor that they are. With the closing of our schools for 39 days, we should all keep in mind that many of our school children and families rely on our schools for much more than just education. Since there is no safety net, we can expect at least some of the poor Bellingham/Whatcom County families to starve and lose their housing because they're missing work. Councilmember Lisa Anderson did mention the idea of establishing a safety fund to cover critical expenses for families that are affected by this outbreak at the 3/9/2020 council meeting, but the rest of the council did what they do best. They made sure that they didn't talk about it. Keep in mind that viruses mutate. This is hardly the first or last time we will face an issue like this. Providing all of our residents with at least 50/50 Mbps symmetrical fiber connections, for free, can only have benefits to our community. Comcast's low-income connections are below the inadequate federal standard at 15/2, CenturyLinks are even worse. All of them cost money which some of our families just don't have. Even if they did, the big telecom low-income connections would still be inadequate. With proper internet connections, our schools could be conducting digital learning days and most of our residents could work from home.