Daniel Barnes, a junior at Oyler School in Lower Price Hill, says he sometimes had to leave the neighborhood and head to a public library if he wanted to get his homework done outside of school. But the recent addition of five Wi-Fi hotspots around the area means he can stick around Lower Price Hill to do his chemistry work.

“Say we have to look up elements and their atomic numbers,” he says. “Well, with no Internet access, we’re not going to be able to do that. When we have Internet outside of the school, we can just do it right there in the moment. That’s a lot of time not being wasted. We’re able to get things done.”

The hotspots provide free Wi-Fi for the entirety of Lower Price Hill courtesy of a partnership between Symmes Township tech company Powernet and Cincinnati Public Schools. The project is the latest effort by groups inside and outside the neighborhood to help an often-forgotten pocket of the city, where boosters say the momentum is starting to empower residents of Lower Price Hill.

The neighborhood has the lowest rate of Internet access in the city. Less than 40 percent of households there, and perhaps as few as 20 percent of households, have fixed Internet access, according to a 2013 study by the Federal Communications Commission. The neighborhood is one of just 328 Census tracts out of Ohio’s nearly 3,000 where less than 40 percent of households have Internet access.

The so-called digital divide is a widespread problem. Across Cincinnati, more than a third of the city’s residents don’t have access to Internet. Statewide, Ohio ranks 35th in the country for access. 

“In a world of increasing inequality, providing universal Internet access helps to create a more equal playing field, especially for our community’s youngest learners,” said Councilman P.G. Sittenfeld at a Sept. 22 ribbon cutting for the partnership at Oyler. “Imagine being a student today and trying to write a term paper without Internet access. Imagine being a parent trying to find a new job without Internet access. Imagine trying to be a citizen engaged in the world and not having email access. We can do better.”

Fifty-seven cities around the country, including Akron and Cleveland in Ohio, have some level of free Wi-Fi provided by the city to residents.

Oyler School, where the free Wi-Fi ribbon cutting took place, has been a hub for efforts to boost Lower Price Hill

It became a community learning center after a renovation in 2012, hosting students K-12 and housing a number of community services, neighborhood activities and after-school programs. 

The change has been marked. In the 1990s, as many as 80 percent of the school’s students dropped out. Now, it boasts a 74 percent graduation rate, according to its Ohio Department of Education report card. Oyler has become a model for the community schools movement, attracting national media coverage