CRENSHAW : Internet Project Comes on Line

With the flick of a symbolic switch, Los Angeles City Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas connected South-Central residents to the Internet, ushering in a new information age to a populace more associated with low wages than high technology.

At a ceremony last week at Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza to kick off his 18-month Electronic Citizenship pilot project, Ridley-Thomas declared that “information is power. . . . This will empower residents by making them ‘information rich,’ increasing access to city services and generating a higher level of civic participation.”

The project will place 65 computers in homes, offices and public places such as libraries throughout the 8th District. Residents will able to send messages to Ridley-Thomas’ office, check community-event calendars and converse with each other through e-mail.

They will eventually be able to send messages to other city departments to request service or file documents as well as access data on local community economies, employment, job opportunities and other programs.

To implement the program, Ridley-Thomas joined USC’s Information Sciences Institute and Break Away Technologies, a nonprofit computer training group that held its annual Youth Interactive Computer Fair at the shopping mall last week. Some of the computers to be used in the project are outdated models donated by the city, but others are being purchased with the help of Pacific Bell and other corporate sponsors, said a spokeswoman for Ridley-Thomas. Joseph Loeb, chief executive officer of Break Away Technologies and co-chairman of the district’s Electronic Citizenship Task Force Demonstration Project, said access to the Internet, a worldwide network of computer systems, will empower residents.

“Residents will be able to talk to friends in other states or countries via e-mail. Students will have access to research materials. Businesses will be able to order items and access customers,” he said. “We’ve come a long way since our task force held its first meeting in February of 1994.”

Those with full Internet access can check out the service at the Internet address, https://www.empower.la.ca.us.

Information: (213) 485-3331.