Been there and done that, Sam

Interesting guest editorial in today's Kansas City Star authored by Sam Hossain, a student at Avila University.  He thinks KC ought to go all out-literally-by unwiring the city's parks.

Hmmm.  Now just where have we heard something like that before?  Oh, that's right-here and here.  And here too, come to think of it.

In short, open-air hotspots aren't a new idea.  And sadly, they haven't proven to be a very successful one either, at least locally.  I'm just not aware of any place around town that if lit up would work as well as say, the much-publicized Bryant Park hotspot adjacent to the New York City Public Library.  Frankly, I'd be too leery of sitting with a laptop out in too many of our local parks even in broad daylight-and even if the screen were readable under such conditions.  That's too bad.

What I'd like to see as an alternative, as I suggested last winter when I reported on the previous summer's restaurant parking lot robbery-slaying,  is an indoor location with Wi-Fi that would be available to the public either early and late, or better yet, around the clock.  In other cities large college libraries sometimes fill the bill, but as Macenstein noted in the post below, the largest one around here isn't currently motivated to do so.  Perhaps instead of unwiring the parks, the community could come together to pay for extending the hours at the Plaza Library-say to maybe 7 to midnight Monday through Friday, and 9 to 9 on Saturday.  Let's go with college hours on Sunday-how about 1 to 9?

Or let's really dream-that someone with a large ego and deep pockets bites on Macenstein's suggestion big time and funds UMKC's turning the Miller Nichols Library into a 24/7 operation like growing numbers of other university libraries are becoming-and just to sweeten the pot, opening up the hotspot there to everyone.

Hey, you never know.