By: Robert J. Terry

So I’ve had some time today to digest Baltimore’s application to Google for its Fiber for Communities project, the ultra-fast broadband network the Internet giant plans to build. Did you know there were 1,959 apartment complexes in the city with an average of 50 units, and not one gated community?

Neither did I, but the document — posted today on the Bmore Fiber Web site — contains all sorts of nuggets like that. It trumpets Baltimore’s virtues pretty loudly (“Baltimore’s per-capita income is today growing faster than in any other metropolitan area in the country.”) while brushing quickly past any shortcomings (“Like all American cities, we also face challenges.”)

It also lays out a pretty coherent and compelling narrative hinging on three key features organizers say set Baltimore apart:

1.    Great applications
2.    Greater project control
3.    Strong beachhead

That third feature is interesting, and something I didn’t think to pursue in my own reporting (darn it!) on the effort. Baltimore hopes to convince Google that building its broadband network here could give the company a “beachhead for visibility and expansion of this prototype project given its location within the Northeast U.S. corridor and the Washington-Baltimore metro area (with the nation’s highest concentration of IT workers).”

Check it out and tell us what you think. And coffee’s on me for the first person who can tell me the number of utility poles owned or controlled by the city.