Re: [PhillyOnRails] Center City Meeting @ Comcast

[Cassius Rosenthal <cassius@xmodulation.com>]

I would love to attend most of the meetings in Center City.

However, I do have ethical objections to the meetings being held in the 
Comcast building.  Ed Rendell, the supposedly left-leaning governor of 
PA and former employee of Comcast, has given Comcast $30 million in tax 
breaks for their newest building, while cutting Medicaid by $300 
million.  That 1/10th could have made a huge difference to this city's 
poor, elderly, sick, and disabled.

Comcast also lobbied Rendell to block the free city-wide wifi project.  
As of now, the city isn't allowed to undercut Comcast's price for 
Internet access.  Obviously, this also negatively affects the poor, 
particularly the beleaguered education system.  It's also a slap in the 
face to self-governance.  Most importantly, as a user group of an 
open-source online development platform, we should all be wary of a 
company that uses strong-arm tactics to retain a monopoly over Internet 
access.

Let's not forget that Comcast is one of the leading opponents of Net 
Neutrality.  If we were to have our meetings there, it would be like 
having a LUG on a Microsoft campus.

I'd still come to the meetings if they were held there -- heck, as a 
tax-payer, I helped pay for the place -- but I'd have a really hard time 
stomaching their recruiting speech.

That's my $0.02, probably more than you bargained for.

Thanks!
-Cassius



Eric Snyder wrote:
> Comcast has offered to provide us indefinitely with meeting space and food in their building at 15th & Market. I hear that it is a really nice space. As a sponsor they would put out recruiting literature at the meeting and possibly speak for a minute or two. 
>
> This is an old discussion but I would like to revive it. I personally favor alternating between Center City and the northern burbs locations.  Now that this may be closer to reality, please state or re-state your opinion. 
> - Every meeting in Center City?
> - Alternate between locations?
> - Most meetings in the burbs and the occasional meeting in Center City?
> - Most meetings in Center City and the occasional meeting in the burbs?
>
> Thanks!
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