Today in Limousine Liberals

California Governor Gavin Newsom rolled out a program to provide connectivity to everyone in California, but it's getting expensive, so he is rolling back programs in poorer neighborhoods while continuing to execute programs in richer neighborhoods.

I guess that people in Beverly Hills and Culver City are more important than those in South Central LA, because the former people are more likely to make a campaign donation.

More than two years ago, Gov. Gavin Newsom approved what was then the nation’s largest-ever investment in public broadband. The $6-billion spending plan was supposed to finally bridge the digital divide that has left too many households and businesses in low-income and rural communities without fast, reliable internet access.

But last month the Newsom administration cut projects in some of the neediest, most disconnected communities in the state, including South and Southeast Los Angeles and East Oakland, while adding projects in some of the most affluent, tech-connected communities, including Beverly Hills and Culver City.

………

The Middle Mile Broadband Initiative, which is part of the spending plan, taps $3.25 billion from the federal COVID-19 stimulus package to install high-capacity fiber optic cables in areas where the private sector hasn’t built broadband infrastructure — typically rural and low-income communities.

The middle-mile network connects the massive, high-speed lines that cross states and regions with the local “last-mile” service that delivers broadband service directly to homes and businesses. By installing publicly owned middle-mile fiber optic lines, California would make it easier and cheaper for cities, nonprofits and broadband companies to build the last-mile connections to homes and businesses. California set aside an additional $2.75 billion in federal aid to help underserved communities pay for last-mile projects. But without the middle-mile infrastructure, it becomes impossible or extremely expensive to build the last mile.

In 2021, Newsom announced 18 projects across the state that would build or acquire 10,000 miles of middle-mile network, mostly along highways to take advantage of the public right of way. The list included South and Southeast Los Angeles, with fiber installation planned along the 110, 105, 710 and 605 freeways, between downtown and Long Beach. The area includes communities with some of the highest rates of disconnected households in the state.

But when the final map was released last month, most of the South L.A. projects were gone and a new line was added next to Beverly Hills and Culver City, some of the best-connected communities in the state. There were similarly confounding changes in the Bay Area, with projects in low-income East Oakland cut while projects in wealthier suburbs, such as Walnut Creek and Livermore, will be funded.

This encapsulates everything that is wrong with the Democratic Party establishment (There is no Democratic Party establishment) today.

At least when Republicans do this, they don't pretend to care about the poor and minorities.