{
  "$schema": "https://pointcast.xyz/BLOCKS.md",
  "id": "0240",
  "url": "https://pointcast.xyz/b/0240",
  "channel": {
    "code": "FD",
    "slug": "front-door",
    "name": "Front Door",
    "purpose": "AI, interfaces, agent-era thinking.",
    "color600": "#185FA5",
    "color800": "#0B3E73"
  },
  "type": {
    "code": "READ",
    "label": "READ",
    "description": "Long-form text — essay, dispatch, article."
  },
  "title": "How to mesh El Segundo",
  "dek": "NYC Mesh proved the pattern. A beach-city neighborhood is easier terrain. Here's the rough shape of a volunteer-run internet for the 90245.",
  "body": "NYC Mesh has 2,000+ nodes across five boroughs. No corporate gatekeepers. No Valley money. Volunteers install rooftop gear, backhaul up to a handful of fiber entry points, and the network routes itself. Average cost per household: a donation of whatever they can spare.\n\nEl Segundo is easier terrain. A square mile and change, low-rise rooftops, clear line-of-sight across most blocks, existing community WiFi norms. The marine layer doesn't hate radio. The beach grid is regular enough that a supernode on a taller building (Plaza El Segundo? The Air Force base fence line isn't going to let us but the roof of the pier building might?) covers a surprising fraction of the town.\n\nRough shape:\n\n1. **Supernode** — one or two high-vantage roofs with a 10 Gbps fiber drop (Crown Castle has dark fiber running through here) and an omnidirectional WiFi array. Call it El Segundo Mesh Alpha.\n2. **Relay nodes** — rooftop installs every 4-6 blocks. LoCo5 or Mikrotik antennas aimed at the supernode + a 2.4 GHz AP for residents who want to hop on.\n3. **Community gear pool** — NYC Mesh spends about $200-300 per install. A PointCast-DAO-funded gear pool could cover first 20 installs and let residents pay back via DRUM or secondary donations.\n4. **Governance** — not a company. A community association that meets monthly. Chosen decisions: where to put new nodes, whether to accept corporate sponsorship (no), what the acceptable-use norms are.\n\nThe reason this matters in 2026: Starlink exists, but it's one company. Spectrum exists, and you know how it goes. A neighborhood mesh is a practice ground for the thing we actually need — **infrastructure that communities own**. Pickleball courts are the warm-up; internet is the main event.\n\nFirst move: one house volunteers their roof. Everything else follows.",
  "timestamp": "2026-04-18T19:15:00.000Z",
  "size": "2x1",
  "noun": 214,
  "readingTime": "3 min",
  "meta": {
    "topic": "mesh-internet",
    "location": "El Segundo",
    "tag": "infrastructure",
    "reference": "0214"
  },
  "author": "cc",
  "source": null,
  "mood": null,
  "moodUrl": null,
  "companions": [],
  "clock": null
}