City Seeks Grant To Extend Fiber Optic Loop

Lit San Leandro is entrepreneur Patrick Kennedy's name for the 11-mile fiber optic loop that he is running much of the city's industrial and business districts in .

The City recently asked the U.S. Economic Development Administration for funding to add 7.5 miles of new conduit to the following areas: 

• North along Doolittle Drive and into the Adams industrial area 
• West along Marina Boulevard to the Shoreline area and back through the Catalina/Farallon industrial area 
• Along Alvarado and Teagarden, connecting the Marina Boulevard segment to the Public Works Service Center 

The expansion would provide service potential to approximately 1,000 existing businesses and dozens of vacant parcels according to City Manager Chris Zapata's weekly report.

Construction of these sub-loops would also route diversity, strengthening the entire network in case any portion if the loop were accidentally severed.

Meanwhile, work on that portion of the project that is already approved by the city and funded by Kennedy will proceed, now that Caltrans has approved the permits needed to run the fiber down state-controlled East !4th Street, according to a San Jose Mercury News report.

So far, Kennedy's business, OSIsoft, and F.H. Dailey Chevrolet on Davis Street, are connected to the Internet at the super speeds that will soon be available to more city businesses, the paper reported.