Plan for 5G Poles in Lower Manhattan Stirs Opposition
The controversial plan by the City’s Office of Technology and Information (OTI) to install seven Link5G poles, each more than 30 feet tall, on publicly owned sidewalks in the Financial District and Tribeca has been expanded, with four additional sites now proposed.
The seven original sites of the planned fifth-generation (“5G”) towers are on sidewalks in front of 95 Wall Street, 88 Pine Street, 75 South Street, 110 William Street, Eight Spruce Street, 66 Harrison Street, and 100 North Moore Street.
The four new sites include three in the Financial District (at 81 Front Street, 77 Water Street, and 39 South Street), along with one in Battery Park City (at 175 North End Avenue in front of the New York Public Library Branch).
The poles, which contain antennas and transmitters that will enable high-speed wireless connectivity, are part of the City’s contested LinkNYC program, which began installing outdoor nine-foot-tall internet kiosks in Manhattan in 2015, mostly in locations formerly occupied by pay telephones. Two years ago, this rollout was reprised with the debut of 5G poles, which are designed to offer improved cellular service, free Wi-Fi, and enhanced options for in-home broadband internet access to residents whose homes are located near the towers.
In response to the first seven sites proposed for Lower Manhattan, Community Board 1 (CB1) enacted a resolution at its January meeting noting that the Board “continues to strongly oppose the proposed installation of Link5G towers.” This followed a resolution enacted in September 2024 in which the Board called for “a moratorium on the installation of Link5G towers in Community District 1 within all residential districts, commercial districts and mixed-use districts which contain residential zoning, as well as within and adjacent to all historic districts and areas in close proximity to individual landmarks until all questions and concerns have been fully addressed.”
At the July 10 meeting of CB1’s Landmarks and Preservation Committee, chair Jason Friedman said, “first of all, we’re never shown what they look like,” and asked the members of the panel, “does anybody like these?” He was answered by a unanimous chorus of “no.”
CB1 vice chair Alice Blank added, “this community board has made it very clear that they don’t want any of these,” adding that the proposed towers “are going to be 32 feet high and have 30-inch advertising screens.”
She concluded by urging LinkNYC to find a way to use existing street infrastructure, “such as street lights and traffic signals, or use City-owned property, such as bus stops, that could modified or reinforced for 5G siting. Nobody wants [more] poles on the sidewalks of New York City.”