With the city “under a microscope” after last year's unrest, Rep. Elijah E. Cummings said he believes that a plan to launch a free wireless network in West Baltimore is one way to help restore hope in neighborhoods long starved of opportunity.

The plan for the Wi-Fi network is one of several initiatives underway in the area under the umbrella of the Innovation Village, a coalition of community groups, public agencies, universities, businesses and others focused on spurring economic growth in West Baltimore.

The goal of the Wi-Fi network is to make it easier for families there to do schoolwork, apply for jobs and navigate a world where reliable internet access has become essential.

“This is about connecting and empowering our community,” Cummings said at Monday's announcement at Coppin State University.

“People are wondering how we will do, how we will make sure we change the trajectory of so many young people's destinies, and this is one of the answers.”

OneBaltimore, the nonprofit the city started last year to channel the outpouring of initiatives launched in spring 2015, is backing the start of the Innovation Village Wi-Fi network with $50,000 for a pilot.

To set up internet connectivity in the entire zone, a roughly seven-mile district bounded by Mondawmin Mall to the west, Martin Luther King Boulevard to the south, Druid Hill Park to the north and Station North to the east, would require about $700,000, officials said.

Installation will start in the Penn-North area, though the details of the rollout remain in the works.

As planned, the Wi-Fi would run on an independent network, but One Baltimore CEO Michael Cryor said he hopes Monday's announcement will open the way to new partnerships.

“I think it has great potential,” he said, pointing to the benefits for education, transportation and business, and the possibilities of expanding it.

More than a quarter of Baltimore households had no internet access in 2014 and about a fifth had no computer, according to the most recent census estimates.

That's approximately 5 percentage points higher than the national average in both cases.

Without a home internet subscription and a computer, low- and moderate-income families are less likely to shop, bank or apply for jobs online, even if they connect to the internet through a phone or at public access points such as libraries, a recent report on digital equity found. The report cited cost as the major barrier.

“There's clearly consequences and clearly economic consequences, as well as educational consequences,” said researcher Vicky Rideout of San Francisco-based VJR Consulting, who worked on the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop report, which surveyed about 1,200 households nationwide.

Rideout said any Wi-Fi rollout also should involve hardware and digital training.

Baltimore residents informed of the Wi-Fi plan said there's another thing the city will need for the prorgam to be a success: jobs.

“I guess if it's free, nobody mind,” said Joe Cook, 44, part of a small circle of men sitting in the shade in a backyard near Penn North on Monday afternoon.

But, he added, “it's not going to solve nothing.”

“I think it's beautiful,” said his friend Kevin Hicks, 55. “The Wi-Fi will help people find more jobs.”

Cook shook his head.

“They need to create more jobs,” he said as the others nodded.

Alexus Gambrill, 16, a rising senior at Carver Vocational-Technical High School, said she sees the benefits of fast, reliable internet, describing the Wi-Fi at her school as “horrible.”

But after sending out a slew of job applications recently, she said she is skeptical about the program's ability to resolve the city's systemic issues of poverty and violence.

“Just because they apply for jobs doesn't mean they're going to get the jobs,” she said.

Cummings described Monday's announcement as a “faith event” that will show that leaders are listening and developing practical solutions. But he and others said they know it will take time for the results of the Innovation Village effort to become clear.

In addition to the Wi-Fi plan, the group is working on plans for a food hub and business incubator, said Richard May, chairman of the group. The Greater Baltimore Urban League also recently opened an entrepreneurship center.

Conscious Venture Lab, a business accelerator now based in Howard County, plans to relocate to the Innovation Village in Baltimore, hopefully sometime this fall, said executive director Jeff Cherry.

The firm, which offers startups with social purposes an initial investment of about $50,000, wants to invest in 300 Baltimore-based companies over five years.

“This is sort of where … the rubber hits the road,” Cherry said.

nsherman@baltsun.com