Huntington Park to expand high-speed internet access thanks to $25.3M grant

HUNTINGTON PARK, Calif. (KABC) -- Huntington Park, with the help of a $25.3 million grant from the California Public Utilities Commission, will get what it's wanted since the pandemic -- high-speed internet.

At City Hall Wednesday morning, city and CPUC officials announced the sizable grant to literally bring the southeast L.A. county community up to speed with high-speed internet.

"$25 million is a big game changer for the city of Huntington Park. We already provide free WiFi access in our parks and certain parts of the city. This will provide us the opportunity to lay down the infrastructure that we need to further expand this Wifi program or internet access for the community," said Mayor Karina Macias.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, between 2018-2022, 12% of households in Huntington Park, had no internet access of any kind. The rest had some kind of broadband, dial up or satellite. Compare that to all of Los Angeles County, where 4% of residents don't have access to the internet..

This infrastructure project to bring high speed internet to the city will benefit businesses and education.

"The speed right now is poor. And right now it has to be a better speed and connection. And for the community it's excellent and for businesses and the schools, it's a great opportunity," said Huntington Park parent Jessica Sosa.

The pandemic, according to city and community groups, really exposed the need for affordable high-speed internet access for the city.

"LAUSD had created this plan to connect mobiley. But what they didn't account for was a lot of homes, a lot of our residents were not able to afford having broadband, being able to connect to the internet," said City Councilman Arturo Flores.

Once all of the paperwork has been filed, the infrastructure could be done in a couple of years.