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New
Life To Public Access and American Pie
Neighborhood Councils and Cable TV
by Ken Marsh
ken.marsh@verizon.net
June 2004
It was a lot of years ago and it was on the right coast, in fact,
in Woodstock, New York a year or so after the festival that made
that name famous and the town a destination of a generation of youth
seeking kindred spirits in a quest for a new life.
I moved there from New York City as an artist doing video documentaries
and community television. Woodstock, a town of about 5000 people,
had a small cable TV system which was ripe for development of a
town channel. I, with friends and the woman who was to be the mother
of my daughter, initiated a campaign to make it happen and within
about six months, we were cablecasting tape recorded town meetings
and other programming about the town once a week.
Within another year we were able to live cablecast from the town
hall and had also set up a studio a half-mile away in a barn for
cablecasting a variety of programs produced by local people themselves
on a daily basis.
With some changes it still exists. It's a story that in some form
or another can be told about many rural areas across the country.
Under the name "public access," even the cities established studios
for the public to produce programs and cablecast to subscribers.
Cities and towns have ever since made it a requirement of the cable
TV franchise holders to provide for public access television.
L.A. has what is referred to as Public, Educational and Governmental
(PEG) access channel resources throughout the city. However, after
the initial years of interest by a small and creative group of enthusiasts,
the facilities as now configured are under used. Public access has
come to have a bad name, often associated with a crackpot fringe
of egomaniacs or with goody-two-shoes who have all the answers to
our problems, if only we would do exactly as they say.
Government access programming and yawning are often compared pass
times. Educational access may have had the greatest appeal, but
it, too, has lost its vitality to the internet as the medium of
contemporary choice by which to take a course or pursue a degree.
As leading edge as it was onces, cable TV public access is passe,
at least in the big city context that pre-dates the development
of neighborhood councils.
Voila, the circumstance that brings new life to public access --
80-100 neighborhood entities, mandated by the CIty Council of Los
Angeles to be a new official layer of municipal government to serve
as the grass roots voice for the people of the city. Each consisting
of from about 20,000 to 60,000 people, the neighborhood councils
are essentially small towns. To me, it's Woodstock redux, a bigger
and better sequel in the saga of public use of television for the
public good as an alternative to the dominant corporate, business-driven
TV for private profit.
Neighborhood councils need this kind of resource to survive. Outreach
to what are called stakeholders, formerly citizens, can only be
effective by establishing a viable system of communications. All
other levels of government depend on it, so!? Neighborhood council
access channels are a no brainer, like salt on fries.
The cable access channels are not a panacea, but cable TV is an
important part of what makes up the communications complex in this
city and it is not going away. In fact, cable is growing with new
services everyday.
Of interest to LACP might be the use of a neighborhood council access
channel for disseminating safety and security information to raise
popular awareness and promote a sense of community that, in turn,
can energize the kind of understanding among people that contributes
to a safe and secure environment. The 15 minutes of fame we are
all supposed to get can turn into hours and days. And better than
the fame, public access can be the amplifier of that grass roots
voice we are supposed to develop to be heard downtown and in our
communities.
Below is a model of the resolution that the Mar Vista Community
Council passed on June 8, requesting the city include in its franchise
renewal negotiations now in progress with the cable TV companies
a stipulation to provide a neighborhood council access channel for
every council in the city, and more. Read it and if you are in a
position to advocate for it, please start exercising that voice
right now. This idea is as American as apple pie. In fact I look
forward to the time when they say "this idea is as American as public
access."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Resolution
of the Board of Directors of
the (your neighborhood council)
City
Council of Los Angeles
c/o City Clerk, Rm 395
City Hall, 200 North Spring Street
Los Angeles, CA 90012-4801
cc: Councilman Jack Weiss, Chair, Information Technologies and General
Services Committee
Conncilwoman Janice Hahn, Chair, Education and Neighborhoods Committee
Council person (your District representative)
Re: Neighborhood council access cable TV channels
In view of upcoming negotiations for renewal of the cable television
franchises in the City of Los Angeles, the (your neighborhood council),
as a certified neighborhood council in the City of Los Angeles,
desiring to influence those negotiations, resolves the following:
Whereas
the neighborhood councils are mandated by the city as a newly-formulated
sector of municipal government entrusted with developing a community-based,
grassroots voice of the people; and
Whereas
required for the achievement of this objective is the development
of multi-media, community-based communications resources through
which the free flow of information can be facilitated within
the boundaries of the neighborhood councils' areas to promote
and sustain ongoing stakeholder participation and interactivity
with the councils' boards of directors; and
Whereas
cable television networks have the capacity to provide the neighborhood
councils the capability to cablecast neighborhood council meetings
in real time into the homes of subscribers of cable TV services
in council areas, as well as to deliver other relevant and specific
community-oriented programming, i.e.; neighborhood council candidate
forums and elections, forums on issues, school-based programs,
etc., to stakeholders with cable TV in their homes, businesses,
schools, and other public places of assembly.; and
Whereas
the development of neighborhood council cable TV access channels
represents the backbone of community-based communications resources
and how that will contribute to advance the goals of the City
of Los Angeles Department of Neighborhood Empowerment (DONE)
in meeting its mission to create "a citywide system of independent
and influential neighborhood councils" ; and
Whereas
cited in the the City of Los Angeles Information Technology
Agency's needs assessment studies carried out in preparation
of the cable TV franchise renewal negotiations is the value
and need for expanded public and community access; and
Whereas
the resources in place established by past franchises and cable
TV companies' practices to address public, education and government
(PEG) access channels and the so-called community access production
centers that support PEG programming are failing to fulfill
the requirement to meet the needs and interests of the community;
Therefore,
be it resolved that the (your neighborhood council) vigorously
encourages the Los Angeles CIty Council cable TV franchise renewal
negotiating principals to stipulate that all new cable TV franchises
incorporate the following:
Establishment
of a neighborhood council access channel in each neighborhood
council area with-around-the-clock access so that all stakeholders
subscribing to any and all cable TV companies serving each individual
council's area are able to receive their neighborhood council's
access channel;
Establishment
of remote and mobile system connectivity that by plugging into
cable TV company-supplied line and equipment cablecasting can
be accomplished from multiple (at least three) locations as
specified by the neighborhood councils in each neighborhood
council's area;
Establishment
of interconnectivity capability so that neighborhood councils
can collaborate on cablecasts when issues and discussion cross
boundaries and intercommunications would benefit multiple communities
and the City;
Establishment
of a new network structure for neighborhood council access channels
and City of Los Angeles public access facilities to better meet
the needs of neighborhood councils and the city at large and
the requirements to provide public, education and government
(PEG) access channels;
Establishment
of a funds reserve from franchisee resources above and beyond
franchise fees through their requirement to meet the needs and
interests of the community that specifically will be designated
to support neighborhood council access channels, including,
but not limited to, programming origination and production equipment;
maintenance and repairs, consumables, limited staff and any
other related expenses; and
Establishment
of a central oversight/advisory entity made up of neighborhood
council, appropriate City government department and cable TV
company representatives with the mandate to put in place and
have operational the systems and resources required to meet
the specific stipulations listed above within a time frame of
no later than eight months from the date of issuing the new
cable TV franchises in the City of Los Angeles.
So moved
and passed by the (your neighborhood council) on
(date) at a public meeting of the Board of Directors. |
Or do your own and send signed original with 10 copies
EDITOR'S NOTE: This document is available in electronic form
by contacting ken.marsh@verizon.net
Ken Marsh
Mar Vista Community Council
Zone 3 Director
June 16, 2004
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EDITOR'S
NOTE:
Ken's resoluton was also shared on the LANCissues e-group
(for regional and citywide issues) enabling many neighborhood
councils to see, review and discuss the presentation simultaniously.
To read about the e-group, click here:
LANCissues
e-group
To
join the e-group, click here:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LANCissues
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