A real world is out there; Wi-Fi is way to join it

| The New Mexican

5/10/2008 - 5/10/08

As Santa Feans desiring a decision-making City Council might have expected, none was reached two weeks ago about wireless computer service.

At issue is Wi-Fi access to City Hall and eight other locations — libraries, recreation centers and the airport. And on Wednesday there'll be a resumption of an event featuring some of the City Different's most different adherents to theories on the dangers of Wi-Fi. On the other side will be the business community, and perhaps the computer-wise youth community, along with scientists and other academics, calling for contact with the 21st-Century world.

In growing numbers of cities, Wi-Fi is so readily available, give or take technical glitches, that it's become essential to information-gathering and communications. Yet a few communities around the world have yielded to arguments that the system is rife with sicknesses blamed on microwaves: headaches, irritability, anxiety, depression, tinnitus, arthritis, heart palpitations — the same things modern-day urbanites were suffering before there was Wi-Fi to blame.

Would thumbs-down from the council save us from such ills? Or would it, as we recently hinted, simply keep Santa Fe in the Dark Ages while the ongoing headaches are increased from being shunned by businesses and visitors?

A case might be made that, whatever City Hall decides, Wi-Fi will be adopted by so many businesspeople that their emanations will allow users in neighboring buildings or out on the street to hitch an electronic ride on their iPhones and laptops.

But denying Wi-Fi to the convention center soon to be completed would be silliness to say the least: Locals attending community events there might not need contact with the Web — but the out-of-towners Santa Fe hopes to bring in for moderate-size conventions depend heavily on wireless communication; if we don't offer it, they'll find more sensible cities where they can hold their meetings and spend their money.

Heaven forfend that filthy lucre would be the deciding factor — and it shouldn't be. Instead, how about seeking proof that there's actual harm from the relatively weak waves — and, until or unless it appears, considering the sources of today's concerns? How about vested interests against Wi-Fi? Are the health protesters handy to them?

For test purposes, perhaps, the council could decree Genoveva Chávez Community Center a wireless-free zone — finding out if the rec-center patrons are anxiety-free, and for that reason.

At the libraries, wireless Internet service is crucial to the information-providing process, in terms of up-to-date information and the archived kind as well.

Until someone authoritative comes up with a good reason not to offer Wi-Fi in libraries, where there are all-too-few wire-bound terminals, it's an emerging educational essential worth the risk — and the system's $150,000 cost to the city for the eight-building hookup.

For those wary of entering wireless-communication buildings, perhaps the city could check out metallic helmets or similar waveproofing. For now, though, the council should join its counterparts, nationwide and beyond, in connecting with the modern world.