October 23, 2006

Foster City (CA) residents and visitors will soon be able to kick back by the waterfront while surfing the Internet. This service will be provided by the Mountain View-based MotroFi Company. The city council approved MetroFi’s proposal on providing local wireless Internet access in April. “Foster City will become the first in the county to launch citywide wireless Internet access anywhere within city limits when it holds its formal ‘wire-cutting’ ceremony October 16 according to Mayor Linda Koelling.

Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin, this past summer, led an effort to acquire the Martin Luther King, Jr. collection of more than 10,000 of his notes and other personal items from New York based Sotheby’s auction house, which had planned a public sale. In January, this collection will be on display at the Atlanta History Center.

The mayor pulled off the purchase to buy the papers for $32 million with the help of more than 50 corporate, government and private donors. Morehouse College owns the papers.

On October 9, the Associated Press reported that a beaming Franklin said, “The Martin Luther King, Jr. collection is home.”

On October 16, Adrian M. Fenty, who is expected to be the next mayor of Washington, (DC) after November elections, visited New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg to get some insight into the way the New York City’s mayor gained control of the public schools. Fenty, 35, plans to deliver a plan to the DC city council in December to give him control of the District’s schools. Bloomberg took over New York City’s school system in 2002 as Fenty plans for the 58,000 student system.

Fenty, a Democrat in the heavily Democratic city, is already planning for the transition to succeed Mayor Anthony Williams, who is leaving office.

Former Denver Mayor Wellington Webb has been named to the 25-member board of the Mexican-American Legal Defense and Education Fund. Webb is a past president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors.

Riverside (CA) Mayor Ronald Loveridge announced a new Riverside Renaissance Initiative that will invest more than $780 million in infrastructure, parks, libraries, museum, railroad grade separations and other high priority public projects. The program will accomplish the city’s 30-year capital plan over only five years. “This plan signals a vibrant transformation of the city’s future,” stated Loveridge. “These are defining and historic ‘brick and mortar’ investments.”