Neff Zone Column

Print Edition: February 25, 2006

HOW ABOUT A WIRELESS DOWNTOWN?

Every once in a while I like to take a flight of fancy and toss an idea into the public realm to see if it has any merit. Lately, I’ve been thinking about tourism and more specifically how Cadillac could lure more tourism dollars to our environs.

As a long time golf, ski and travel writer, I’ve had the opportunity to visit several northern Michigan communities and many of them share the same attributes and tourism strategies. Compare Cadillac to any number of places and this is how you end up: we have water – they have water, we have fishing – they have fishing, we have downtown shops – they have downtown shops, we have festivals – they have festivals. On and on it goes with scores of communities offering essentially the same things all trying to distinguish themselves from the pack in the pursuit of tourism dollars. How to set Cadillac apart from the rest; that’s the sticking point.

Well, here’s my idea, for what it’s worth. What I’m about to propose may already have been discussed by the powers that be, but if it has I’ve not seen anything about it in the newspaper or on the television news. My idea may be deemed stupid pie-in-the-sky idiocy, but I’m already old, short and bald so being called stupid is the least of my problems. Here it goes…

Make the "Downtown Cadillac Lakeshore Corridor" a free wireless internet zone. In other words, offer free, high speed internet access in a specific area encompassing the core downtown area and the connected lakeshore.

For those of you who are not into high speed computing, a quick primer. All laptop computers now come with built-in wireless capability. Basically, when you turn your laptop on, it finds available wireless signals and can log onto the internet (to check your e-mail, do business, etc.). Sometimes you have to pay for access; sometimes it’s free. Several places in Michigan are installing free wireless access to promote business growth, educational opportunities, and tourism. Soon, all of Oakland county and the entire city of Grand Rapids will be wireless. All of those people will vacation somewhere, they’ll be used to free wireless, and they’ll only go to places where they can stay connected.

Hang with me for a bit. While many other towns in the north have the attributes previously mentioned, Cadillac is unique in one respect. No other town (of which I’m aware) has all this in a neat (roughly) one mile package: downtown, public library, DEQ headquarters, city hall, convention and visitors bureau, city park, city dock, boat launch, swimming area, children’s play area, lakeshore sidewalk, skateboard park, high school/junior high, and a senior center. It’s a compact set of assets only found in Cadillac.

We ought to have free wireless access over this entire area. Just think of the tourism marketing potential. Come to Cadillac and while dad is sitting in a downtown establishment monitoring his stock quotes, mom is checking out the downtown shops. While dad is fishing, mom is sitting at a picnic table sending e-mail to her office. While the folks are sunning themselves and junior is in the skateboard park, sister is chatting online with her friends back home. ‘Hey honey, take a lap on the sidewalk and as soon I send this file to the office I’ll join you.’

Imagine, too, campers at the state park boating to the city dock so they can log onto the net. Companies having a "meeting" under a tree in the park. Raining? No problem, just duck into the library.

I know what you’re thinking. "How much is this going to cost the taxpayers?" How about virtually nothing? I may be completely off base about this and this may be an oversimplification, but it’s my understanding that cities can do this at minimal cost. Basically, the town already owns the light poles and infrastructure where wireless components would be installed. The town bids out the rights to install wireless access and private service providers bid to offer the service. The winner installs the equipment and makes their investment back by selling advertising on the pages that appear on the users’ computer screens when they log onto the free network. For those who want service without the advertising appearing on their screens, a second level of service would be available for a subscription fee.

As an added bonus, the free wireless would cover the library, senior center, and senior/junior high schools, which would be a tremendous plus for those facilities.

Now, there are companies who are already developing these services in the public sector. The open space in Traverse City, for example, has wireless access. I’m not saying that we should rule out such companies who might come into Cadillac and set up a similar service. All I’m saying is that Cadillac should aggressively fast track this idea and do so with an aggressive tourism marketing campaign in mind.

As I stated earlier, I may just be out of the loop on this one and perhaps minds sharper than mine have already thought of this and either are now working on it or have discarded it as more trouble than it’s worth. I may have oversimplified the challenges and logistics.

However, I do know this. Tourism is becoming an increasingly important cog in our local economy. Unless Cadillac can offer something radically different that other similar destinations in northern Michigan, luring a larger portion of tourism traffic will be increasingly difficult.

Jim Neff is a local columnist. Comments to neffzone@gmail.com. Read Neff Zone columns online at www.neffzone.com/cadillacnews.