LACP.org
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New Life To Public Access and American Pie
Neighborhood Councils and Cable TV
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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."

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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

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