CITY OF ST HEADER . LOUIS as a result of historically discriminatory laws and policies that the city is trying to reverse .
Technology also plays its part , as Simon notes : “ The northern section of the city is unfortunately heavily disadvantaged . As you can imagine , their ability to pay for services like internet access or a computer is severely hindered , because it correlates very well with poverty and people don ’ t have the luxury of paying for subscriptions .
“ About 25 % of households don ’ t have a computer and we realise that , if we do not address this , the divide will only grow larger and limit access to education , job opportunities and all the online systems the city and its businesses offer .”
In response , the City of St . Louis invested in building a strategic plan in 2023 to tackle some of these issues . The St . Louis Digital
Inclusion Action Plan was the result : an outline of priorities that the city can embark upon with the aim of improving equitable access to high-speed internet and the digital skills needed to succeed in contemporary society .
“ It ’ s actually focusing a lot of investment to correct the results of all this disinvestment over the years ,” Simon explains . “ The city set aside some ARPA funding for implementation of the digital inclusion action plan and I ’ m happy to report that out of the 10 recommendations , we ’ ve already initiated eight of them . We now have a two-year window to get the rest of them completed .”
Part of these plans include introducing programmes like community Wi-Fi across the city ’ s recreation centres , digital literacy education classes and community centres .
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