In November, Austin police blocked off the ends of Bedford Street running through the Booker T. Washington Terrace, a federal housing development in East Austin.

There was no emergency. This was yet another in a series of highly-orchestrated media events Google Inc. has conducted to promote its ultra-high-speed Internet service known as Google Fiber.

The rollout is one of the biggest business endeavors to hit this booming city this century, and it took a ton of political prowess to pull off.