A good morning from 12th and A
In a links roundup on Tuesday, we linked to items at Gothamist and Curbed about those Link5G towers around the city.
However, only two of the nearly 200 towers installed since 2022 have been fitted with 5G equipment.
Some cutting-and-pasting from Gothamist:
The 32-foot-tall structures, which resemble giant tampon applicators emerging from the sidewalk, offer the same services as the LinkNYC electronic billboards that popped up around the city in 2016. Those were also installed by CityBridge. Both the original Link kiosks and the 5G towers provide free limited-range Wi-Fi, charging outlets and a tablet to connect users to city services. Data shared by the company shows that 16 million people have used the internet at kiosks since 2016, and the attached tablets are used to call for city services thousands of times each month.
But unlike the LinkNYC kiosks, each new tower is topped with a 12-foot-tall cylindrical mesh chamber containing five empty shelves reserved for companies like Verizon and T-Mobile to store the equipment they use to transmit high-speed 5G internet service to paying customers.CityBridge officials concede the 5G expansion's rollout has been slow, mirroring a similar experience the company had with the kiosk installation nearly a decade ago.
We heard from several readers about these 5G stories and are reposting here ICYMI.
Another reader mentioned the petition launched to remove the 32-foot-tall 5G tower at 129 Avenue C and Eighth Street.
There are three towers in the East Village: Eighth and C, 12th and A, and Second and Second.
A map with the Gothamist story shows three more proposed sites for 5G Towers here: 37 Avenue B, 229 Avenue B and 135 E. Houston St.
And from previous EVG coverage on May 30:
The Avenue C Block Association is urging the city to remove the 32-foot tall 5G tower that arrived in late April at 129 Avenue C between Eighth Street and Ninth Street.
According to the group's recently launched petition:
This tower is unnecessarily large and obtrusive and presents a jarring contrast with the low-rise tenement streetscape of the neighborhood. Avenue C has a narrow sidewalk, which is already crowded with pedestrian traffic, strollers, wheelchairs, trash cans, and numerous sidewalk cafes. The tower was installed only twelve feet away from the residential apartment building directly behind it, and negatively impacts the view of the street, and the historic urban landscape of the East Village. There has to be a better way to deliver technology in Manhattan that is less brutal in design.
The group also points out the "potential adverse or long-term health effects of living or working in close proximity to these towers."
Find the petition to city officials here.
As amNY reported in 2022:
The new structures are operated as a public-private partnership by consortium CityBridge, and are a revamp of the old 10-foot kiosks the firm set up under former Mayor Bill de Blasio starting in 2015 with free Wi-Fi, USB charging ports, a tablet, a 911 button, and calling capabilities.
The first 32-foot tower arrived in the East Village in August 2022 on Second Avenue at First Street ... then another on Avenue A at 12th Street.
There has been political opposition to the 5G towers. Read more about Village Preservation's advocacy here.
