Topeka Working to Keep Youth in City

Google is doing an interesting experiment by offering free super high speed internet to select cities across the US. One such city that is lobbying pretty hard is Topeka, Kansas.

In a CNN interview Mayor Bunten said his priority is to keep young people in the city.

He "believes so firmly that younger residents of Kansas' capital city will benefit from faster Internet connections that he wants Topeka -- which he describes as a place of many lakes and the site of a burgeoning market for animal-food research -- to change its name for a month."

As a result, the city is renaming itself Google for the month of March in efforts to raise awareness about the competition. Think Big Topeka, a grassroots group has made videos, facebook, twitter, and online outreach to get The Google to the city.

"Bunten hopes the proclamation, which he read at a special City Council meeting on Monday, will catch Google's attention and make the Internet company decide to use Topeka as its guinea pig. The document renames Topeka as "Google, Kansas -- the capital city of fiber optics."

Google declined to comment on whether it's taking the whole "Google, Kansas" thing seriously.

The mayor believes that faster Internet connections would inspire young people to stay in the city and would encourage business development."

It's interesting to see a city recognize the importance of retaining young people and take such great strides to ensure youth are invested in their local cities.

The Mayor is "the first to say outsiders probably view Topeka as "another Midwestern town with not a lot going on," but he's been making efforts to change that. He trying to revitalize downtown with a bar and music scene.

Google would add to all that, making the city more attractive to youngsters, he said.

"To have this high-speed where people can sit down and have lunch and still keep working is a positive for young people," he said. "The young people are the ones that caught onto this and go to the Internet and asked people in the city to sign on as supporting Google coming to Topeka."