If the city truly wanted to conduct a municipal broadband feasibility study, it would not have taken the time to try and mislead the City Council and the public about a recommendation to do just exactly that.

The New England Cable and Telecommunications Association, which is chaired by Comcast, wrote an astounding letter suggesting that if we just leave Comcast alone, everything would be just fine – because, it says, the system is working. Here are the ways that letter was wrong.

The city manager has had close to four years to dispute the work of the city’s own consultants. He hasn’t. Instead, he’s responded in anger to legitimate questions raised by the City Council – blaming the council for doing its job when he hasn’t done his.

Instead of dismissing the digital equity study with an eye roll, we should, instead, be demanding the city do this important work of understanding the issues and hold it accountable for its apparent lack of progress.

We believe that a municipal broadband system will generate substantial revenue that would keep revenue local, rather than sending it to Comcast and its shareholders, and could also be used to fund threatened services such as CCTV and 22-CityView.

An opponent of a Cambridge-owned broadband Internet network cherry-picks facts to assert a point of view rejected by the majority on a municipal task force. City after city has been able to make broadband pay for itself, and there’s no reason to think Cambridge couldn’t too.

Adopting an ordinance that requires City Council review of surveillance technology empowers our elected representatives to make choices, rather than police under pressure. We take it on ourselves to hold those officials accountable come election time.

On Tuesday, Branville G. Bard Jr., the sole candidate for the position of police commissioner, will take part in a public forum at the Public Library. Here’s one resident’s list of 10 questions he’d like to see Bard address.

We coastal elites have been accused of mocking the heartland by pointing out that they often support governments that work against their own economic interests. But we don’t have to look farther than our own City Hall to find an example.

A free, fair, open and affordable Internet for Cambridge is within grasp. All Cambridge needs to do is build one – and ensure its infrastructure reflects its own values and the needs of its residents, not the values and needs of Comcast, Verizon and Donald Trump.