A drowsy day at a meeting of the New Orleans City Council can now be enlivened by Internet browsing - maybe even work. photo: Kare Gadbois

Back in November 2005, while most of us were still wringing out our houses and trying to figure out how to piece our lives back together, Mayor Ray Nagin announced a plan for free Wi-Fi – citywide!

But even before Nagin’s tech guru, Greg Meffert, was convicted of corruption, reality had fallen well short of  the hype. A sporadic and unstable network was rumored to be available in select parts of the city, making free Wi-Fi kind of like Bigfoot. You heard it existed but never actually found it.

Least of all at the very heart of the beast, City Hall.

That was then.

At long last the wait is over. A couple of weeks ago, without fanfare or formal announcement, “CH Guest” popped up on the screens of users seeking a Wi-Fi  network as they browsed the Internet in the area of City Hall. The password? It’s “GOSAINTS,” of course.

So now, in case things drag on a bit, bring your laptop. City Council meetings are rarely electrifying. But, hey, at least now they’re wired!

Karen Gadbois co-founded The Lens. She now covers New Orleans government issues and writes about land use. With television reporter Lee Zurik she exposed widespread misuse of city recovery funds and led...