Philadelphia Mayor John F. Street spoke in May 2005 at the Annual Freedom Fund Banquet held by the Auburn-Cayuga Branch of the NAACP. The mayor talked about how he and others were trying to re-energize his city, especially its downtown. With many of our local officials in attendance, it was a positive message to hear about community reinvestment. He also talked about one facet of Philadelphia's plan for revitalization, which people would have thought at least one local official in the room would have run with over the last 14 months #- making this community Wi-Fi.

For the non technically inclined (that includes this columnist), the idea of creating a Wi-Fi (wireless Internet access) community allows users (businesses, residents and visitors) to set up their laptop or desktop almost anywhere and be able hookup to the Internet. Creating these Wi-Fi “hot spots” is a way to make users more productive (that's why places like Barnes & Noble Cafe and Bookstores and Starbucks, even Arby's on Grant Avenue have gone Wi-Fi), so as to attract customers who may want to work out of their operations (and also purchase their goods).

More importantly a local Wi-Fi system has the ability to bridge the digital divide that allows those who can not afford standard hard-wired Internet hookups to access the Internet. Wi-Fi routers can be mounted on top of streetlights to create level access to users of all economic backgrounds throughout the community.

More than 300 progressive cities and towns are now looking at making their communities Wi-Fi hot spots.

While many communities across the nation and especially in New York can only offer the same generic set of incentives to land a business, smart communities find other ways to make themselves attractive for economic development.

Investing in Wi-Fi technology can pay off on several fronts beyond economic development. Some communities, including Philadelphia and San Francisco, have contracted with local Internet companies such as EarthLink and Google to run their Wi-Fi systems, with the municipalities getting fees from the operations and resulting advertising revenues.

While items such as a kayak park downtown might be a visual improvement that local officials may be able to get a photo op out of, a more sound and long term investment for the city of Auburn would be in the installation of a free basic and tiered (where users pay for add-ons such as higher speed connections) Wi-Fi system in Auburn.

The time for Wi-Fi is now. The city allowed an information technology investment with fiber-optical networking through Auburn Cablevision more than a decade ago #- the time is now for Auburn and Cayuga County to jump to the next technological level.

Cosentino is a former mayor of Auburn and can be e-mailed at cozguytho@aol.com