It can be difficult to navigate life in Los Angeles without a smartphone or access to a strong Wi-Fi connection, especially since the pandemic deepened our reliance on technology. Yet thousands of Angelenos remain disconnected from the digital world, making it challenging to access social services, apply for jobs and schedule medical appointments.
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If you're enjoying this article, you'll love our daily morning newsletter, How To LA. Every weekday, you'll get fresh, community-driven stories that catch you up with our independent local news.For residents of southeast L.A. County, it’s a common complaint. You pay the high rates for internet service — but that doesn’t mean it’s reliable. That’s what Maria Padilla, a military mom in Bell Gardens, has experienced. She needs a strong Wi-Fi connection to call and email her two sons while they’re overseas or in the field. Instead, she pays $90 a month to avoid the spotty service that often comes with more affordable plans. “If there’s bad reception, I miss their calls,” she said, adding that wealthier neighborhoods don’t seem to have these types of issues. “Why am I seeing that disparity?”Vega pays about $75 per month for service, but said it tends to lag when too many people use the Wi-Fi at once. “To me it doesn’t seem fair because I see other communities outside of that don’t have these issues… they can watch videos and listen to music without a problem,” said Vega, a parent leader with the nonprofit Innovate Public Schools. “We don’t have that.”Now the issue is being taken up on a higher level. Since May, six cities in southeast L.A. County have passed motions to hold internet companies accountable for offering slower, costlier service in low-income areas. Local leaders are following the federal government's lead and declaring the practice “digital discrimination" — regardless of whether it's done intentionally. They also want to highlight how high prices mean many residents can’t afford to get online, leaving them out of much of modern life. Advocates say internet companies tend to pour their resources into wealthier areas where they might see a greater return on investment.Because it’s a relatively new issue, advocates are using community outreach to help educate people on what digital equity is, how they can get involved and how to file complaints with the Federal Communications Commission.That’s why on Friday mornings, Padilla sets up an information booth at Bell Gardens Veterans Park. She sets out binders full of free resources for the community — fliers, pamphlets and other handouts — including where you can go to learn basic computer skills for free. Erika Cervantes of the Alliance for Better Community, or ABC, helps Maria Padilla set up her booth in Bell Gardens.Padilla volunteers as a parent leader with the Latino advocacy group Alliance for a Better Community, or ABC. She said many of her neighbors are eager to learn how to use computers and the internet so they don’t get left behind as technology continues to advance.ABC is part of the Digital Equity L.A. coalition, or DELA, and works with groups like EveryoneOn to offer digital skills training in the region. It’s also been organizing hundreds of parents like Padilla who struggle with connection issues on the southeast side. Padilla said it’s a matter of public safety, recalling an instance when an elderly man in the neighborhood lost his home because he wasn’t able to navigate an email account — and therefore wasn’t able to get the help he needed to manage his electronic payments. “For me it was frustrating that because of an email, they took away the help he needed,” she said. “That shows you the importance of the internet and knowledge.” Smaller municipalities don’t have the resources to set up their own complaint process like the one the city of. Instead, advocates are organizing parents to “uplift the need and awareness" of digital discrimination and to show there is “local will” to solve the problem.Parent leaders from ABC, Innovate Public Schools and other local groups have been talking to their neighbors about digital discrimination resources on the southeast side of L.A.“So many times folks tell us that they're paying close to $100 for internet, and it cuts out more than once during the week,” said Erika Cervantes, senior policy and advocacy manager at ABC. “So recognizing that doing something like that could be really intimidating, especially for community members who don't even have access to the internet or don't have the digital skills to do so." In Bell Gardens, about 9% of residents don’t have Wi-Fi at home, according to U.S. Census data. But the city is surrounded by neighborhoods where Councilmember Jorgel Chavez of Bell Gardens said the issue affects the entire region. The City Council unanimously passed a digital discrimination resolution in June. “From every different angle, my community consistently is behind,” he said. “Honestly, I'm fed up about it. I know the rest of southeast L.A. is fed up and we want to make sure we make it loud and clear that we feel that we deserve better.”Huntington Park Mayor Karina Macias is planning to host local leaders and community groups later this year for a discussion on how they can work together to achieve digital equity. The issue has been gaining momentum across the Gateway Cities region since last fall when the FCC adopted new rules to stop service providers from discriminating against customers based on race, income and other protected traits. The L.A. City Council unanimously approved the nation's first city-level policy in January. “We’re really trying to find a solution and trying to help out our youth and our families,” Macias said. “And we just need that extra support to get it done.” A bill to address digital discrimination at the state level died in the Senate Appropriations Committee last week. It had been opposed by major telecom providers and industry groups.“We are living in an unjust and inequitable moment of technology, where some have and some don’t,” Bonta said.“We do not want to repeat the FCC’s mistakes in California, which would risk provoking costly litigation and delaying the deployment” of ongoing universal connectivity programs, the letter states. Digital equity advocates said the effort to move the bill forward was an uphill battle because the broadband industry spent millions on lobbying efforts to stop it, including US Telecom, a trade association that represents telecommunications-related businesses throughout the country, did not respond to a request for comment.Cristal Mojica of the Michelson Center for Public Policy and the California Digital Equity Alliance said the state should consider other legal remedies and pass a bill to address the issue instead of"putting all of those cities that have more limited resources through that process.” She said community groups have a lot of “myth busting” to do to reach lawmakers who are maybe newer to digital equity and discrimination issues. “It's very much on their radar and they're gonna pour industry money as much as they can to try to stop it,” Mojica said, adding that advocates will continue to champion the issue and prepare to pick up the fight again in 2025.It can be difficult to navigate life in Los Angeles without a smartphone or access to a strong Wi-Fi connection. But there are thousands in LA who don’t have that basic technology.The repayment demands, detailed in Orange County letters obtained by LAist, come as officials found that the nonprofit Viet America Society failed to show that meals to seniors were handed out as required under a county contract. Supervisor Andrew Do did not respond to requests for comment.It's fighting talk, but LAist associate food editor Gab Chabrán says his hometown's combo of newcomers making waves and old timers making faves hits the spot.At LA’s infamous Cecil Hotel, formerly unhoused tenants report a plague of problems The iconic Skid Row building went from the true crime spotlight to homeless housing. But some residents wonder if they were better off before moving in.In a city that's exploding with excellent bakeries, deciding where to go for that croissant or cupcake can be a challenge. You told us your fave ravesWhy take a 10-plus hour flight when you can get the inventive flavors sweeping China right here in Los Angeles. We take you to a shop specializing in Asian snacks in Rowland Heights.Could the Hollywood Bowl get a subway station? Metro wants input about extending the K LineWhy we villainize coyotes, and more things you need to know about themWhy homelessness has more than doubled in LA County’s once-affordable northern desert
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