Towering Upper East Side 5G Poles Shot Down By Community Board

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — An Upper East Side community board voted overwhelmingly on Wednesday to tell the city not to install enormous 5G transmission poles across the neighborhood — though the city may proceed with its plan anyway.

Members of Community Board 8 approved two resolutions against the LinkNYC 5G poles, which are being eyed for 18 sidewalk spots around the Upper East Side, as Patch first reported last week.

Objections have centered on the towers' height (32 feet), their aesthetic impact on the neighborhood's historic districts, and some shakier claims that the poles would pose a threat to public health. (Experts and city officials have said the towers are safe.)

"I think they are just gigantic and they are huge and they definitely ... stick out like a sore thumb," said City Council Member Keith Powers during Wednesday's meeting.

Fellow Council Member Julie Menin said that the city's Office of Technology and Innovation, which runs the LinkNYC program, had told her they would not cancel any planned towers due to "radio frequency emission concerns."

But the agency would consider removing poles that block sidewalk accessibility or affect outdoor dining sheds, bus shelters, and other "specific block conditions," Menin said.

OTI told the board that the towers could begin installation by mid-January, depending on residents' feedback.

The city has touted the towers as a way to "bridge the digital divide" by expanding high-speed internet service to underserved neighborhoods, and the roughly 1.5 million New Yorkers who lack both home and mobile broadband.

"We believe that digital connectivity is a human right, necessary to fully participate and access opportunities in modern society," OTI spokesperson Ray Legendre told Patch last week.

But several residents who spoke Wednesday questioned why the 5G poles were coming to the Upper East Side at all, since the neighborhood enjoys high rates of internet and mobile broadband access.

"Why are we using the limited New York City resources to build these poles in neighborhoods where this is not a problem?" said resident Sue Moss, whose apartment building is slated to get a pole installed in front of it.

The board voted 40-2 to approve a resolution calling for the city to hold off on installing the 5G towers. A separate resolution targeted at the city's Landmarks Preservation Commission — which must approve the 10 towers within the Upper East Side's historic districts — passed 42-2.

The city began installing the 5G towers earlier this year, which use the extra-fast cellular technology to power Wi-Fi, USB chargers, nationwide calling, and access to 911 and 311. LinkNYC is a joint venture with the sometimes-troubled private consortium CityBridge.

Also during Wednesday's meeting, board members announced an apparent resolution in the case of the moveable public artwork whose planned installation on Park Avenue sparked safety concerns last week.

In the previous meeting, members of CB8's parks committee fretted that the steel sculpture by artist Raul Mourão could become a climbing target for "mischievous teenagers," in part because its upper portion is capable of swinging gently back and forth.

The committee had passed a resolution calling on the city to make the sculpture non-moveable — even though a gallery representative said the artist "might not be comfortable continuing with the project" with those alterations.

By Wednesday, however, committee chair Judy Schneider said she had gotten an assurance from the artist's gallery that the sculpture would only swing by 30 degrees — a "minimal" amount of movement. The board thus voted to approve the project without any mention of the sculpture's movement.

Still, some said they were disappointed that the committee had ever requested such a change in the first place.

"I'm offended that we would even entertain the thought of asking the artist to alter it," member Loraine Brown said.

Related coverage: Huge 5G Poles May Come To 18 Upper East Side Blocks, City Says