I’m up in Portland for a few days over winter break, and I’m downtown after having lunch with an old coworker.  I figured I could slip into the main library for a few minutes, check my email and peruse the shelves until my ride gets here.  My first stop was the info desk… “hi, do you have wireless internet access in here?” I asked.

“No,” she said, “but there is outside.”  Huh?  “There is free wi-fi all over downtown, but it doesn’t get inside the buildings very well.”

I was certain I heard her right, but I couldn’t help remember the countless articles I’d read over the years about the struggles to implement WiMax, city-wide wi-fi or any other kind of ubiquitous internet access coverage in any of the country’s more wired cities.  Yet here it was, right under my nose in my former home town.  And sure enough, here I am penning this entry from a park bench outside the library in the chilly 42 degree northwest air.  At least it’s not raining.

Wi-Fi is alive and well in Portland, Oregon!  (And by the way, the Portland airport has free wi-fi too!)

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