By Gus Saltonstall
A 32-foot-tall 5G tower might be headed to an Upper West Side street corner near you, and one local elected official is not happy about it.
The Link5G towers, which provide high-speed, free wifi, as well as USB charging, have slowly been rolled out throughout the city since 2022. There have been more than 160 of the towers already installed throughout the five boroughs, with roughly 2,000 more expected in coming years.
West Side Rag recently learned about five proposed sites for the installation of these poles on the Upper West Side.
741 Columbus Avenue: Between West 96th and 97th streets
- In front of a Mattress Firm.
715 Columbus Avenue: Between West 94th and 95th streets
- Closer to West 95th Street, near a Citi Bike rack.
1900 Broadway: Between West 63rd and 64th streets
- Near the space between Bar Boulud and Cafe Fiorello.
1886 Broadway: Between West 62nd and 63rd streets
- Near the corner of West 63rd Street.
1880 Broadway: Between West 61st and 62nd streets
- In the middle of the block, near the IT’SUGAR candy store.
Both of the Columbus Avenue proposed sites have already been approved by the State Historic Preservation Office, according to Council Member Gale Brewer, who wrote a letter to the Preservation Office and the New York City Office of Technology and Innovation, which oversees the installation of the 5G towers.
Brewer articulated her strong opposition to the proposed Upper West Side towers, which she referred to as “ugly” in her weekly newsletter.
“I write to express my strong opposition to the proposed installation of 5G towers on the Upper West Side,” she wrote. “Historic districts such as the Upper West Side are characterized by unique streetscapes that reflect specific periods and styles of architecture. The installation of towering cellular infrastructure within these districts contradicts the fundamental purpose of preserving their historical integrity and beauty.”
All new 5G pole sites are subject to review by the State Historic Preservation, regardless of location.
When asked for a response to Brewer’s June 18 letter, a spokesperson from the Office of Technology and Innovation kept their answer centered on the important of access to high-speed internet.
“In our modern digital age, it is critical that New Yorkers have access to high-speed internet wherever they live, work, or travel across the five boroughs,” the spokesperson told West Side Rag in an interview. “The Adams administration continues to deliver this essential service for free — through LinkNYC and Big Apple Connect — to more residents than any other city in the nation. The Link5G towers feature one of the sleekest designs on the market – one that has received approval from the Public Design Commission — and are helping to bridge our digital divide.”
“We value constructive feedback as part of a robust open comment period but this administration will not be deterred by NIMBYism,” the spokesperson continued. “We will continue to prioritize democratizing access to technology, building a more connected and livable city for New Yorkers.”
Brewer’s letter also mentioned that while the goal of these 5G towers was to address gaps in the city’s 5G network, she didn’t see that as an Upper West Side issue.
“While I certainly support expansion of wireless and cellular services to underserved communities, I have not seen any data to support this need in my district (Upper West Side),” she wrote.
Importantly, the installation of any of these 5G towers has to go through a community-review period, which includes a 60-day public-comment period, meetings with elected officials, and presentations at community board meetings.
The five Upper West Side proposed sites will all soon start this process.
You can learn more about the city’s 5G internet rollout and the towers — HERE.
Subscribe to West Side Rag’s FREE email newsletter here.
The equipment in these poles should be able to be fitted into or onto existing light poles that are already on the street. That rendering shows the ugly new pole with what looks like the same equipment integrated into the top of the pole across the street.
They are just plain ugly.
I don’t know why everyone gets so upset about these towers. It’s the least of the city’s problems.
Would you like one outside your window?
If Gail Brewer is worried about ugly invasions to the streetscape, she should focus all her efforts on the hundreds of sidewalk sheds that are a permanent and ongoing blight. No other city in the world has this problem…why can’t this be fixed?
There is terrible 5G service in the area of West End Ave in the low 70’s;actually very poor internet for phone data services from T-Mobile. They should figure out a place to put it there.
When I look out my living room window I can see 4 Link5G kiosks. That’s 4 on one block. Is that really necessary? Everyone ignores them and I can’t imagine anyone actually using them for internet at home due to how unsecure they are. The whole city is littered with these things and now the 5G towers are a new level of ugly.
You can’t use them for internet at home. Signals are too weak which is probably the point of the new towers, boosting that. But people do use them for internet, to charge things, to make calls. They can be very handy in an emergency and they do work when you are sitting outside so long as you are not too far from one.
How can you say that everyone ignores them? In addition to weather, mass transit, sports scores, and other helpful information, they post great historic photos of area buildings, interesting NYC facts, and nonprofit organization hews.
Not being able to avoid them(there’s at least two on every block) is not really the same thing as everyone pays attention to them. If you have a pair of eyes and use a sidewalk you will see them.
Why exactly do we need to get sports scores and historic photos on digital billboards? If I want to see these I can just pull out my phone.
Sometimes I wonder if people are so bored that they pick on any topic to critique and disagree with. You want good cell and internet service, you need to put up with some towers- can they be better looking , maybe, probably ,but for heaven’s sake find something important to complain about, The world is in the sh**thole and you are complaining about 5G towers. OH GOD REALLY
These towers will not provide any better cell or internet service. The point is not to provide a better service, they are already on the roofs of building not much higher than these towers. The point in this kiosks is to sell advertising and make sure no New Yorker is ever free from the constant stream of marketing and advertising.
That is exactly right. Plus are they really needed? Yes cause they make you sick. Don’t trust me, do your own research and your own conclusion.
Thanks Gale, sounds like a worthy crusade, I’ll consider my opinion during my bike ride home on 72nd street today while weaving between 3 lanes of parked cars.
Careful Gale. If we don’t currently have an internet underserved population on UWS then we probably need MORE internet underserved people to justify the program AND solve an internet justice and equity problem that MUST exist in this city. or we wouldn’t be devoted resources towards this issue. Let’s move n internet deprived people and give them free housing and free internet.
If you’re worried about ugly, get the scaffolding off our buildings!
Agree with all of these comments for once. Gail sure does know how to pick her battles
NIMBY. So tiresome. And endless. UWS issues that matter a bit more? As previously commented, how ’bout motorized bikes flying through crosswalks, scaffolding that never comes down, etc. Generally I agree with Gail Brewer, but this, really? I think this is a real positive! (Recently I lost phone service for a few days and the city’s Wi-Fi was extremely important.)
I wonder if there is an increase in cancer risk that comes with an increase in 5G poles? I am worried for our children.
There is not.
I write to express my strong support to the proposed installation of 5G towers on the Upper West Side,
Why are 3 within 3 blocks needed on Broadway?. It seems artists should be used to jazz up the poles. Actually I don’t think they are too bad
It’s so much fun watching this neighborhood deteriorate.
How does this work – does there need to be a group of them in a confined area? So 3 towers on 3 successive blocks: Broadway between 61st & 62nd, 62nd & 63rd, and 63rd & 64th. And Columbus between 94th & 95th, and 96th & 97.
Maybe I’m confused about their purpose and use. Do they bolster existing cell service? Or are they more like “kiosks” that one stands next to in order to get internet service? (Though I thought we already had those in a smaller format.)
If the latter, I can’t imagine how it will work to have one between Fiorello’s and Bar Boulud. Both restaurants have sidewalk seating, and there’s a bus stop between them. Where is this thing going to go? Where are the people who want to use it going to position themselves?
Yes-they need to be clustered.
I’m glad to see this coverage in WSR. The new 32-foot towers are the latest generation of LinkNYC installations. What rarely gets mentioned is that LinkNYC – and, now, Link5G – are the project of a consortium of which Alphabet (i.e., Google) is the largest member.
Beyond just providing 5G access, each LinkNYC/Link5G contains sensors for gathering data from the smartphones carried by the people who walk by. I wonder if New Yorkers realize that they’re being tracked by Google every time they walk by a LinkNYC or Link5G tower.
Beyond being eyesores (which they are), these Link5G towers deserve a lot more scrutiny.
Are they gathering personal data, such as in stored med info or credit cards, or are they just tracking which apps we use and how often, etc?
The area around “1900 Broadway: Between West 63rd and 64th streets. Near the space between Bar Boulud and Cafe Fiorello” is already quite cramped due to the sidewalk cafes.
There is little room for pedestrians and almost no room at the bus stop.
Wondering why this was selected?
Turn the 5G towers into homeless shelters and Gale Brewer will put one on every block…
“Helping to bridge our digital divide” is a worthy objective. However, the statement from the NYC Office of Technology and Innovation quoted in the article contains what appears to be an inaccurate and misleading statement: “The Adams administration continues to deliver this essential service for free…” Among other things, the service is not “free”. We taxpayers, including low-income taxpayers, are footing the bill.
The Office of Technology and Innovation was further quoted as saying “The Link5G towers feature one of the sleekest designs on the market”. This sleekness of design is largely unimportant to the successful operation of the network toward “helping to bridge our digital divide”.
Many other considerations are of much greater importance. Such considerations include network reliability, responsibilities of service providers to maintain equipment, availability of replacement parts for tower components, service provider contractual obligations to NYC, etc.
The franchise agreement issued by the NYC Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications (“DoITT”) linked to this article mentions an expiration date of June 24, 2026.
Due diligence on this entire project would appear to be incomplete. Such further review could save money that could be better allocated to other current and future NYC needs.
I hope they build the cell towers.
I live near one of those areas and the current 5G cell service is terrible. Phone regularly goes into SOS (emergency use only) mode.
Data is impossibly slow and often doesn’t work at all. I’ve made multiple calls to cell phone provider and their only suggestion was to only using WiFi calling when I’m home – since calls often get cut off otherwise.
The 5G connection is so weak that it often barely works when I’m out on the sidewalk in neighborhood.
I contacted the NYC council people and asked that they come to the neighborhood so that they can experience how terrible the 5G service is. The response was “I’ll have someone call you.”
Bring them on I’d say. We need better coverage. Since we’re on the topic, can the T.J. Maxx on Columbus install Wi-Fi for its customers? It’s a dead zone there.
One good thing is that it is hard to see how these towers will attract derelicts, unlike the phone/internet kiosks, the street dining sheds or the sheds that protect pedestrians from falling objects.
A reminder LinkNYC is a private company
These WiFi kiosks that are run by a consortium of companies including the Google subsidiary Sidewalk Labs. They are also in no way providing “free internet access.” You are paying for this garbage in the form of being subjected to ubiquitous advertising with generally 2-3 of these things on every block in NYC. Your sidewalks were sold to big business and you don’t get a say in how they’re used. I suggest you head downtown(there’s two in the East Village) and look at how obscenely out of proportion these things are with their surroundings. These tower will also be used to co-locate Verizon and AT&T equipment.
Also the renderings always conveniently omit how large the new LCD screens will be on these monstrosities.
Lastly as most people know by now – 5G was a big dud, it was little more than marketing fluff. The fact that corrupt NYC government is pushing this garbage show how truly bereft and out of touch they really are.
The only people I can tell that use the existing kiosks are homeless people. Not that isn’t a worthwhile cause, it is. However the city can provide USB charging and WIFI for this segment without selling the sidewalks out to corporate advertising and big telecom companies.
So more microwaves blasting us.
In the 1970s, MW communications were severely restricted because of well established biological effects.
There is increasing evidence that the “microwave syndrome” or “electro-hypersensitivity” (EHS) is a real disease that is caused by exposure to EMFs, especially those in the microwave range.
Microwaves range in frequencies from 100’s of MHz to 100’s of GHz. Presently the frequency bands used for 5G (between 3GHz to 28GHz) fall within this spectrum.
Now that we are all Chipped they are starting to install control towers!
There are documented cancer clusters that have been linked to 5G towers. Why are the towers concentrated in 2 areas? Two towers between 94 and 97 Street along Columbus Ave. Two towers between 61st and 63rd streets along Broadway. Is NYC going to pay for oncology treatment if cancer clusters occur in those 2 areas?
More questions need to be asked about these ugly towers because NYC withheld details about the LinkSys kiosks before they got approved to replace pay phones: Each LinkSys kiosk has 2 hidden cameras on the side that record full time. There is a third camera above the kiosk touchpads that records audio and video of anyone making a call or using the touchpad. The kiosks “free phone” feature cuts off calls after a few minutes and the “resume call” feature does not work on many kiosks. There has been no maintenance on many broken LinkSys kiosks, leaving just a 2 sided bright LED billboard with ads. If these 32 foot tall towers have hidden cameras , the cameras would be high enough and close enough to buildings to record the inside of nearby apartments (privacy issue).
They need some way further Uptown on Broadway in the 90’s, 100s, 110’s.
People need to do research on the safety of these cell phone towers.. Start with this article: https://westviewnews.org/2023/01/11/new-york-city-a-sorcerers-garden-of-5g-cell-towers/westview-news/
and this one:
https://www.propublica.org/article/fcc-5g-wireless-safety-cellphones-risk?utm_source=sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dailynewsletter&utm_content=feature
Kudos to Gale Brewer for speaking out about the aesthetics, which might be our only hope for banning these monstrosities, though the safety issue is more of a concern, in my opinion..
Most of Europe has banned 5G for health reasons. We are electromagnetic beings and 5G is disruptive to humans and animals. These waves have been linked to many disturbances in the ecosystems of birds. Researchers observed that after exposure to radiation from a cell tower for just 5-30 min, the eggs of sparrows were disfigured. Why are we so bent on destruction?
If Gail Brewer realized that the 1000s of homeless and 1000s living in her shelters on the UWS rely on these towers for free internet she would reverse her opposition and continue of the upper west side and the community. Please leave Gail.
“While I certainly support expansion of wireless and cellular services to underserved communities, I have not seen any data to support this need in my district (Upper West Side),” she wrote.
Not exactly aware of the fact that there are literally thousands of not exactly affluent people living in low income housing all over the UWS? I’m not just talking about the NYCHA buildings either. There are several buildings for low income, disabled and/or elderly people on my block, including mine. Many of us are living on disability and YES there is a need for it here.
Perhaps Gale should have Nadler stand up for the UWS like he did for Carnegie Hill https://assembly.state.ny.us/mem/Rebecca-A-Seawright/story/109053
Seems like NYC neighborhoods once again have to act like individual municipalities to litigate for their communities right to placement, aesthetics and most importantly transparent communication of health concerns. The FCC shut down the further installation of these poles (which have yet to be leased by any carrier) in April 2023 over historic preservation concerns as well as environmental review which City Bridge failed to do.The NYC agency for Tech & Innovation lacked adequate oversight over this vendor (as noted in a city council meeting) & did not ensure that this vital step was completed & approved. Has the FCC made a ruling? No evidence that they have. Therefore City Bridge is making good on their word to ignore the FCC’s request. The consequences for migrating birds are known but the health risks for humans are still unknown but as one UES revealed-there was a large sticker placed on the pole installed outside her 3rd floor window that said “Beware Dangerous levels of Radiation” & as NYC mysteries are made – that sticker vanished.
Really? Gale gets upset over these but does nothing about public safety in the district? Talk about misplaced priorities. Is she also upset about the poles that hold street lights up? Good grief.