Red Hook Public Wi-Fi To Nearly Triple Service With $1M Expansion

RED HOOK, BROOKLYN — A free, public wi-fi network that helped keep residents connected after Hurricane Sandy will more than triple its reach with $1 million in federal emergency funds, the city said.

The Red Hook's Initiative Wi-Fi Network plans to add 48 new hotspots at businesses and community groups around the neighborhood starting later this year, with the rollout expected to finish in 2019. The hotspots will come equipped with solar panels so they can remain online in case of power outages in future storms.

"I don’t think people understand how important it is," said Dabriah Alston, project manager f0r the network. "Being confused and afraid and not really knowing what was happening. But having a tool like this stakeholders could communicate with each other during those times."

While the solar panels should keep the network up in case of a storm, residents would still be able to communicate with each other using the system in case it completely gets cut off from the internet, Alston said.

The new hotspots will be installed at businesses impacted by the storm starting later this year and the Red Hook initiatives will then train local residents, ages 19 to 24, to maintain and repair the hotspots as part of their digital stewards program.

The expansion will be funded by federal Housing and Urban Development community development block grants, which the city requested the money from for the project last week. The city also requested $1.3 million for the Geosyntec Project that will install flood-proofing systems at five businesses

Both projects were among the 11 winners of the New York City Economic Development Corporation's RISE : NYC program that will fund resiliency projects for small businesses around the boroughs. The program also plans to fund similar wi-fi networks for Gowanus and Sheepshead Bay, a spokesman for the agency said.

The Red Hook's wi-fi first launched shortly before Sandy hit in 2012 with the aim to help get the neighborhood's large population in public housing, many of whom can't afford internet service, free access to the web, Alston said.

Once the storm sent flood waters into the neighborhood and knocked out power in some spots for weeks, the network became a vital tool to keep residents and groups informed, with even FEMA relief works logging on to it.

"It was able to stay up and connect people during this time," said Alston. "It was really just a godsend."

In non-emergency situation the network helps residents with nearly 18,000 logging on last year and many using it to apply for jobs online, said Alston.

The wi-fi currently only has 14 hotspots, leaving large gaps of the neighborhood without access, but the new expansion will help bridge the gap, said Alston. However, there's still dead zones in some of the neighborhood's NYCHA building which the group is working to close.

"It doesn’t feel right that there’s this gap in service in the one place that it really is needed," said Alston.

Image: Red Hook Initiative