Exploring Eagle Rock's Airwaves

If you sit down in one of Eagle Rock's many cafes and restaurants and set up your laptop—or just whip out your smartphone on one of the boulevards—you may encounter a series of open Wi-Fi networks titled Eaglenode, suffixed with a numeral.

Although it is open to connect, Eaglenode won't still your itch for Internet connectivity. Instead, you will likely find yourself mysteriously disconnected—without that email containing Auntie Debbie's incredibly cute cat pics she promised to send.

As it turns out, the Eaglenode networks are part of a push by the Eagle Rock Chamber of Commerce for public safety around town. The network serves as an anchor for surveillance cameras that are moved around Eagle Rock on the basis of crime statistics and monitored by the LAPD's Northeast Division on nearby San Fernando Road.

There are a total of seven surveillance cameras formally run by the so-called Eagle Rock Security Camera Committee, which, according to President Michael Larsen, is headed by the Chamber of Commerce and includes reps from ERNC, and the LAPD Northeast Division.

Here’s a quick list of neighborhood spots where the cameras are located, according to Larsen: There’s one near on Colorado Boulevard; one near on Eagle Rock Boulevard; two at (near Eagle Rock High School, the latest of which was installed in April); one near the ; one near ; and one more on Colorado Boulevard.

So, except for the two cameras at Yosemite and one in front of Panda Express, they are all on Colorado Boulevard, between Eagle Rock Boulevard and Townsend Avenue, notes Larsen, adding: “You can spot them easily with the camera below and the antenna unit above that.”

As for a public Internet-connected Wi-Fi, the idea didn’t quite pan out because “the ISP [Internet Service Provider] connection is not beefy enough for cameras and public access,” according to Larsen.

So, at least for the sake of those non-smartphone equipped netizens of Eagle Rock, let's hope that either technological advances will provide a steep drop in ISP prices or that some benevolent entity will help fund a truly public Wi-Fi for Eagle Rock.