Upper East Side fights 32-foot 5G cell towers making ritzy shopping district 'uglier' - New York Post

A metropolis program to physique a network of 32-foot-high 5G compartment telephone antenna towers connected the Upper East Side has ritzy neighbors and merchants up successful arms.

And present the contention — including blowback from the fashionable Madison Avenue buying district — has landed close successful the thigh of broadband booster Mayor Eric Adams.

The Office of Technology & Innovation is overseeing the installation of 2,000 Link5G thoroughfare towers crossed the metropolis to bolster work — including 18 successful Community Board 8 connected the UES. 

But residents and businesses determination complain the towers are an eyesore, a imaginable biology wellness hazard, and will pull vagrants.

State Assemblywoman Rebecca Seawright, who represents the UES, adjacent sent a missive to Adams calling for a moratorium connected 5G enlargement amid the not-on-my-street backlash.

“Our bureau is receiving galore complaints regarding the 18 further Link NYC sites that person been projected for the Upper East Side,” Seawright told Adams successful the Dec. 7 missive.

“While we recognize the value of expanding entree to captious telecommunication tools, assemblage level input is essential.  With large interest from our neighbors for a rushed implementation, I petition a moratorium connected further enlargement of 5G connected the Upper East Side earlier residents tin measurement successful connected the projected sites.”

Some Upper East Side residents are opposing the city’s program to instal 18 Link5G towers successful the vicinity — including astatine 1040 Park Avenue.G.N.Miller/NYPost

Seawright said she’s acrophobic the towers’ installation was already “in the past steps earlier implementation” by the clip metropolis officials and the wireless consortium shared details with the community.

The lawmaker besides said she’s “wary” aft complaining the OTI ignored queries astir an antenna being installed connected a city-owned thoroughfare representation extracurricular of 520 East 90th Street “without notification” to elected officials. She said she’s gotten nary effect to requests to relocate the tower.

The 18 locations identified for 5G towers are: 1190 Madison Avenue, 1050 Fifth Avenue, 1000 Fifth Avenue, 46 East 91st Street, 1040 Park Avenue, 1354 Madison Avenue,  24 East 63rd Street, 680 Madison Avenue, 30 East 64th Street, 1105 Park Avenue, 1115 Fifth Avenue, 1175 Park Avenue, 570 Park Avenue, Fifth Avenue astatine 62nd Street, 1095 Fifth Avenue, 1283 York Avenue, 510 East 71 Street. and 510 East 70th Street. 

Mayor Adams astatine a Link5G operation successful the Bronx connected July 10, 2022.Tomas E. Gaston

Three of the towers would beryllium successful the Madison Avenue historical district, noted Matthew Bauer, president of the Madison Avenue Business Improvement District — and said “it doesn’t look fair. It doesn’t look right.”

Resident Radames Soto said the wireless towers were unnecessary because “our work is great, our wifi is great.”

He said the Madison Avenue buying district — with the astir luxury stores “on the planet” — is inactive recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic, is struggling to clamp down connected thefts, and shouldn’t beryllium sullied with disfigured towers.

“We request to assistance marque it much elegant… not marque it uglier,” Soto said.

East Side Councilman Keith Powers besides parroted the NIMBY mantra.

During a virtual Community Board 8 gathering last week that attracted much than 100 anti-tower participants, a connection from Powers declared the towers “threaten the aesthetic and charm of the neighborhood.”

“I bash stock my constituents’ concerns astir installing towers successful residential areas wherever they will. surely beryllium obtrusive,” helium said.

But metropolis officials support the Link5G project arsenic indispensable to the Big Apple’s future.

OTI spokesperson Ray Legendre told The Post the bureau welcomed the UES’ “valuable feedback” during the 60-day reappraisal process, but added: “This medication believes that integer connectivity is simply a quality right, indispensable to afloat enactment and entree opportunities successful modern society.”

The metropolis plans to instal a operation extracurricular of 1040 Park Avenue successful Manhattan.G.N.Miller/NYPost

Adams, erstwhile announcing the Link5G programme successful July said “accessible broadband and telephone work isn’t a luxury — it’s a necessity.”

“When it comes to integer services, we cognize that excessively galore New Yorkers person been near behind,” helium added. “Our medication is committed to changing that and ensuring that each of our city’s residents person entree to tech services, nary substance wherever they live. 

According to OTI, statistic beryllium the need, reporting that:

• 40% oregon 1.5 cardinal metropolis households deficiency an capable operation of location and mobile broadband.

• Of the 2,000 Link5G kiosks being erected crossed the city, 90% volition beryllium installed successful underserved neighborhoods successful the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island and supra 96th Street successful Manhattan.

• 65% of NYCHA residents reported having dropped calls the anterior month.
• All 5G instrumentality is required to adhere to strict Federal Communications Commission information regulations.
• The Public Design Commission has approved the plan for Link5G.