That started those computer gnomes thinking. City employees—police, fire fighters, meter cops and others—tend to roam around a lot. They need information, but they can't be bogged down with wires and cables. Maybe a huge zone of wireless Internet access could be part of the city's infrastructure ... Meanwhile, a local commercial isp called 180 Networks had been studying ways that urban wi-fi could attract more people to Spokane's downtown area, which was in need of a little revitalizing. As Starbucks has learned, people tend to hang out more if there's free Internet access to be had. They check their e-mail. They linger. And while they're lingering, they spend money. Light bulbs started appearing over people's heads all over town. Why not make downtown one big wireless zone? The city geeks, the Vivato geeks, the 180 Networks geeks and a local business group called the Downtown Spokane Partnership got together and created the Spokane HotZone.

	INVISIBLE LINK Whether you're keeping your home safe or watching movies by the pool, wires aren't required PHOTOS FROM SPOKANE Sleepy Spokane, Wash., has a secret: it's the wireless hot spot of the future
	Wi-Fi Gets Rolling The Web is going wireless in offices, schools, RV parks and more—transforming our lives like no technology since the Internet itself

In telling this story, Stalter likes to punch up his patter with wireless-industry slang. When he talks about bringing wi-fi to an area, he says he's going to "paint it!" or "light it up!" But the reality isn't that dramatic. Though they sound like a secondary weapons system from the starship Enterprise, the phased-array antennas are actually large, featureless beige-and-gray nubbins that sit unassumingly next to AC units on rooftops. It's almost impossible to pick them out of the skyline, though there are six of them in downtown Spokane, along with 12 smaller "bridge routers" that help fill in shadows cast by buildings. Jim West, Spokane's mayor, likes to point out that a few years ago, perennial rival Tacoma dubbed itself America's No. 1 Wired City. What do you think of your fancy wires now, Tacoma?

We tend to think of information as a liquid; we talk about how it flows through conduits—wires and cables—or gathers in pools in hard drives. But wi-fi turns information into an all-encompassing vapor that seeps into places it has never been before, and it has added an extra dimension to sleepy old Spokane. Elise Robertson is a 10-year veteran of the city's police force. Her squad car has a full-fledged wireless PC in it—the guts of it are in her glove compartment—with a touch-screen monitor stuck on her dashboard. If she sees a suspicious car at a stoplight, she can use the HotZone to run the suspect's plates and download arrest warrants, criminal records and affidavits to her squad car. That isn't unique. A lot of police departments have wireless networks, but they tend to be slow and poky. Slow and poky doesn't cut it in the field. "Before the light changes, I can come up with his driving record," Robertson says. "I do that all the time." The HotZone gives Robertson so much bandwidth, she can even download full-color mug shots in seconds.

Half the suggestions the city people came up with were news to Vivato. "They sat down and said, ÔYou know what we're using this for?'" Stalter said. "They're listing the applications. We had no idea. We don't know what the meter maid does all day." Now fire fighters can download the floor plans of burning buildings while they're on the way to the scene, right down to the room where the oily rags are stored. In the next few months the city is planning to give fire fighters clip-on webcams that can stream video back to the fire truck from inside a towering inferno. ("Instead of the fire hose dousing the building with water, you're dousing it with 10 megabit!" exults Stalter, sounding like he's running for office.) Next come the parking meters. Soon, a parking attendant who writes you a ticket in Spokane will also be able to run your plates to see whether your car is hot. And when your time runs out, the fancy wi-fi-enabled parking meters will be smart enough to page a meter cop, so you will get all the parking tickets you deserve. Who knows, one day the meter could also be programmed to page your house to warn you that you're about to get a ticket—or to let your spouse know that you're parked in front of the movie theater on Thursday afternoon when you're supposed to be at work.

That kind of stuff makes you realize that life in the wireless city of the future isn't necessarily unmitigated bliss. Information is a two-edged sword: it can empower you, but it can also mess with your privacy. And there's such a thing as too much info. Stick a wi-fi-enabled camera on a streetlamp, stick a solar panel on the camera for power, and suddenly you have got cheap, instant 24-hr. streaming-video surveillance. "How many cities wouldn't want that?" Stalter asks rhetorically. "So Blade Runner is happening." (I think he means 1984, but same difference.)

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