Free Cable Television Service at Risk for those in Public Housing

Columbia, Missouri Daily Tribune ^ | 8.21.2003 | Dave Moore

[rface]

"I’d be pretty ticked off" if the free-cable arrangement ended, said Leslie Bennett, a Paquin Tower resident who likes to watch Cardinals baseball on Fox Sports.

...if Virginia Piltz had to pay for cable TV, she’d have to go without groceries..."I’d go nuts if I didn’t have it"

Virginia Piltz is confined to a motorized cart and hampered by the crumbling sidewalks and curbs around her Paquin Tower apartment as well as handicap-inaccessible stores and restaurants.

Brian W. Kratzer photo
Virginia Piltz watches a cable-network movie yesterday
in her Paquin Tower apartment. Public housing
residents of Paquin Tower and Oak Towers for years
have received free service from the local cable TV
provider, but Mediacom officials say there is no record of an agreement to provide the service.

A simple trip to the movies becomes an expedition involving a special van. Piltz often relies on cable television to provide a window to the world via the Discovery, Food and Weather channels.

That’s why Piltz is dismayed by the possibility that Mediacom might stop free cable service to residents of Paquin Tower and Oak Towers, public housing high-rise apartments. Piltz is on a fixed income, and if she had to pay for cable TV, she’d have to go without groceries if she wanted cable, she said.

"I’d go nuts if I didn’t have it," Piltz said.

On Monday, Columbia Housing Authority Executive Director Doris Chiles told the Columbia City Council that Mediacom had notified her of the possible change because the company could find no record indicating the company or its predecessors had pledged to provide the service.

If they don’t find a letter that established the pledge as a practice, Mediacom officials said, they might have to start charging for the service.

The service costs $44.90 per month for the average consumer, although a bulk purchase by the housing authority would amount to fees of $35 per month, depending on what deal the city and housing authority could strike with Mediacom. The housing authority owns and operates both towers.

Chiles raised the issue in a hearing on the renewal of Mediacom’s franchise contract with Columbia. Already, Mediacom has taken heat from local public-access cable proponents who claim the firm hasn’t taken seriously its requests to establish a public-access cable channel.

The council is considering whether to renew Mediacom’s cable contract with the city, where there are 46,000 subscribers.

"We’re looking for a yes-or-no answer," Mayor Pro-Tem Jim Loveless said. "Will there be continued free service to Paquin and Oak towers?"

"The product isn’t ours to give away," answered Arnold Cool, regional vice president for Mediacom, who attended the meeting with Mediacom Senior Director of Operations Gary Baugh and Mediacom Government and Community Relations Manager Stan Melton. "We need to clear it with the CEO."

Baugh said yesterday that the issue surfaced because Mediacom needs documentation to account for the free cable service it provides. Baugh said the firm is paying for the cable programming for the towers but isn’t reimbursed for the service by the housing authority.

Baugh said the free programming could continue for the towers but it would have to be negotiated during renewal of the cable franchise. Otherwise, the housing authority would probably be billed at a bulk rate that would be decided during negotiations.

Chiles said the housing authority was unable to afford cable service for the 347 residents who now get it.

Regardless, Baugh said, no changes in cable service would occur until late next year or early 2005, when the new franchise agreement goes into effect. Baugh said free cable service has been provided to Paquin and Oak towers for as long as cable television has been available, but Mediacom hasn’t been able to find a contract that commits the cable provider to that service.

Chiles told the council Monday that she hasn’t been able to locate such a contract, either. The service also isn’t mentioned in the city’s ordinance regarding cable franchise regulations.

The matter has been referred to the council’s cable television committee.

The residents at both buildings are anxiously awaiting the outcome.

"I’d be pretty ticked off" if the free-cable arrangement ended, said Leslie Bennett, a Paquin Tower resident who likes to watch Cardinals baseball on Fox Sports.

[TankerKC]

I see folks like this quite a bit these days...overweight in a motorized scooter/wheelchair. Are they fat ‘cuz they’re in a wheelchair, or are they in a wheelchair ‘cuz they’re fat? I know that’s a bit insensitive, but one has to wonder. Thoughts from Freepers?

[najida]

Both (seriously)....Usually the end up in a chair because of joint disease (or emphysema etc)...

Once they are in the chair, their caloric expenditure drops (and intake increases) so their weight goes higher and their condition worsens....

Bottom line...to get out of that chair, she has to lose weight...to lose weight, she needs to get out of that chair.

[duckman]

"Clearly, she is pregnant.."

See is 'calorie challanged'.

[rface]

Are they fat ‘cuz they’re in a wheelchair, or are they in a wheelchair ‘cuz they’re fat?

Ahhhh yes - the old chicken and egg conundrum.... I understand the question, and I am afraid to jump on the bandwagon and pummel this woman about her weight - but I do wonder about the cause and effect of being overweight and if the wheelchair is partly the cause of any weight problems

[HenryLeeII]

I'd be pretty ticked if I had to pay $58 for basic digital cable...hey, wait a minute...

[lelio]

"I’d go nuts if I didn’t have it," Piltz said.

You'll go nuts if you didn't watch ... what exactly?

She's got an addiction problem to the television and doesn't want to give it up. Based on her physical appearance it isn't the only addiction she has either. She'll be better off if she read books and walked around.

[lelio]

If that woman is pregnant, I'll eat my shoe.

Watch out, I think she's reaching for your edible shoe right now.

Actually there is a way to help her out: have cable in a community room that people go hang out in. Makes people more social and less apt to squirrel away in their rooms. Course now they'll argue over should they watch "Temptation Island 3" or "60 Minutes" but hey. Who said life was easy?

[Living Free in NH]

if Virginia Piltz had to pay for cable TV, she’d have to go without groceries..."

That fat bitch could stand to do without a few groceries!!!!!!!!!

[IronJack]

Most communities have regulations in place that forbid "essential utilities" from being turned off for nonpayment, if such disconnection will threaten the health and well-being of the occupant. In Chicago a decade or so ago, there was a concerted movement to have cable TV declared one of those essential utilities. In other words, deadbeat welfare mooches could order cable, refuse to pay it (or any of their other bills) and nobody could turn it off. The movement failed, but there was the usual grumbling about "tyranny" and "oppression of the downtrodden" by the usual suspects.

[TheOtherOne]

Libraries are wonderful things. Books on tape, etc. She would never be bored if she was intertested. TV is a lazy advanture.

[VOA]

Free Cable Television Service at Risk for those in Public Housing

A couple of years ago, I saw some sob-story from New York (City?) about how
some folks on welfare might also have to face this sort of cultural and spiritual "deprivation".

And just about had steam coming off my brain because I've never really
felt that I could afford cable even a decade after graduating college.
But, I have money extracted from my paycheck so that someone who won't find a way
to be productive can have it.

Just one thing wrong with the greatest country on earth.

[VOA]

And send me some free cheese.

It would be cheaper if some anonymous benefactor started having Krispy-Kreme donuts
delivered to her house daily...a dozen a day the first week, two dozen
a day the second week, etc.
This lady would be dead (and die happy) within two-three years from diabetes/heart-attack/stoke.
And it would probably save the guvmint millions in lifetime support.

Not that I'd really advocate it, but it sounds like a win-win scenario.

[CdMGuy]

Hey, I'm on a fixed income too, but then aren't we all? So, where is my free cable TV, and I want HBO and Showtime too, and I want someone to pay for any pay movies or sports events I feel like watching. Now that I think about it, I want a bigger TV too, with surround sound.

[VOA]

Clearly, she is pregnant.

My guess is that it's debatable.
I've had a few female co-workers of similar dimensions that looked that way for more
than nine months and they didn't hatch any young-uns.

And the sad thing is that they huffed-and-puffed and often would take the elevator
rather than labor up a single flight of stairs.
This was 20 years ago; I suspect today they'd be wheeling around in carts.

The Good Lord made them all...in all sorts of shapes and sizes.

[SAMWolf]

We had two people working in this family and still had to make a choice between Cable TV or internet.

These leeches on Society are P*ssing me off!

[dozer7]

'If that woman is pregnant, I'll eat my shoe.'

I agree, but should we be wrong a picture of the impregnator would be an interesting point of reference. Just bizzare thoughts from the midwest.

the dozer

[Publius6961]

Say what? !! ?

[johnb838]

I was doing great without cable until I realized war was imminent, then I had to be able to be continuously updated. Now, I occasionally turn it to something besides Fox News. The babes, ya know...

[Revolting cat!]

Clearly, she is pregnant.

Clearly! Which changes the pitcher quite a bit. She has a right to free cable, free housing, groceries and more.

[Flying Circus]

I know this place from when I went to school at MU. Virtually all of the residents are disabled or elderly. These aren't the kind of people who can get jobs.