as usual, the Mayor's rhetoric is a string of empty words. Those kiosks are an eyesore and should be removed. Replace them with something more useful...like a tree.
10
The City should really take over LinkNYC and CitiBike and stop licensing these projects to potentially compromised and corporatized interests. Wifi hotspots should also be attached to police cameras, which already scatter marginalized areas and would present a low cost.
Revenues from Link ads and bike rentals could be used to help close the funding gaps on NYCHA, DOE, Homeless Services and other agencies. Government transparency laws would ensure we know where our data is going.
And for the love of all things, this city needs to clean up its homeless and mental illness issues. Stop with SOTA relocations, stop with hiring more cops to shoo them away, stop hiring unqualified counselors. Regulate developers into building housing for the underserved and sell their air rights to fund mental health services. Tax them more to expand NYCHA developments.
If I see DeBlasio pass one more bill that benefits only the rich and neglects other communities, I'm going to lose it.
2
Couple things...
1. Privacy issues are a political issue. Stop blaming tech companies that operate like it's a small town in the Wild West and the sheriff is passed out drunk. If you want change in this area put pressure on politicians to change the laws NOW so they keep pace with the changes in what looks like an unsupervised, lawless industry.
2. For those of you that are upset about homeless people congregating around these things, get a grip and do something about it. Get involved with the unaffordable NYC housing situation, mental illness, domestic violence victims, etc... Try talking to them. Not all homeless people are bad and that could very easily be you one day.
10
Please remove these horrible things. Magnet for vagrants and homeless in a city with a homeless crisis. Whoever approved these was asleep at the switch.
10
These kiosks are a visual blight on the UWS, which doesn't need the free service. I hate them.
If other neighborhoods want them, fine.
Most preferable would be to have some form of free service for everyone who can't afford to pay for their own---but without the advertisements and silly trivia.
5
I live on the UES. There are 4 kiosks between 2 blocks and none of them work. What gives?
7
Public NYC sponsored wifi? Not interested.
1
@Barbara Well, being from Boston, not surprising. But a lot of folks who can’t afford extortionate costs of digital access. Or do they not matter?
2
Of course they matter. No one said or implied otherwise. But it is becoming clear that these kiosks might not be the answer. Admittedly, I don't know the answer. Is it building a network for everyone? Developing and maintaining a secure and reliable free WiFi network for a city of nearly 9 million people is an immense undertaking. Is it the responsibility of the taxpayers to fund that expense? Is it the responsibility of other non-profits? Private companies? Is it a human right to have free internet access for all? Regardless, these kiosks have yet to succeed, so we may need to keep asking questions.
1
Just an impediment and an eyesore on the streets of nyc. I guess for homeless people though they are useful. Still it is visual pollution.
7
The one near my apartment is completely unusable. It is surrounded by a homeless person's encampment. NYC has found yet another way to waste the money of the citizens it taxes so heavily.
10
It sounds as though some people want LinkNYC to prove their innocence to data sharing. I guess I missed the part where innocent until proven guilty was repealed.
@michaelscody
This is not a trial. Considering the widespread "sharing" (selling) of our private data, every tech company IS guilty unless proven innocent.
2
@akamai It is beliefs like that which starts mob justice. While a legal principle, requiring proof of guilt is a good way to live one's life as well.
I used one in the South Bronx to charge my phone while watching the NYC marathon. It was very handy for my white man’s problem.
4
I did not know they had cameras.
I have only once see anyone using the kiosks in my very expensive neighborhood. There are half a dozen within a few blocks of where I live.
They only seem to exist to provide bright light pollution and commercial clutter. Also, in this very first Landmarked area in NYC, their ultramodern design is totally at odds with the area's architecture.
7
I don't even see how the Brooklyn Heights association -- which I guess must exist -- didn't object to these unsightly WiFi kiosks. But then, from what I heard, it didn't object to tearing down the Cadman Plaza library either.
I guess landmark status ain't what it used to be.
4
@B.
The BHA could not object because the placement of the kiosks was not up to them, but governed by decisions made by the company in consultation with NYC.
I see you are not afraid to post under your own name with your strong opinions.
That's a lot of hostility there, Mr. Porter. It does seem to me that Landmarks has the power to object to additions to historic neighborhoods.
And Brooklyn Heights has been in the forefront of maintaining a certain tone to its streets. So I do not see your objection to my comment -- or to my initial.
1
I'm baffled by these kiosks. I mean, I rarely see anyone using them. And why would you?
6
@John H. They’ve come in handy several times for me. Once when I (horrors) left my phone at home in another borough and I had to make a call, and once when the cold weather deep-sixed my battery and was able to jumpstart it via the kiosk’s USB. Three stars!
The article says it all, these politicians and people want something for free and believe it is an entitlement.
People are only entitled to what they earn and pay for. He has a phone, if he cannot afford to make the call to a foreign country then write a letter, go buy a stamp and mail it. No different than people did years ago.
As for the company, they are in business to make money, it is made by advertising on the kiosks. If their advertisers only want to place ads in certain areas of the city then that is where the kiosks are placed.
12
@annoyed Yeah, let’s trash the poor. And support a model that allows use of public property without a benefit other than where a private company can profit from ads. Heck, let’s just turn the whole City over to corporations to make bucks without providing a public benefit.
I’m sorry to say it but these things are magnets for vagrants. It’s a nice idea to say that they provide access to the Internet to those who can’t afford it but the result is that there are vagrants literally camped out by these things all day and night. They lie in the sidewalk or pull up lawn chairs. Monopolizing the kiosks and the entire street corner. It’s not good.
26
A great convenience for the public: especially the high transfer speeds. But does LINK capture any data that is not otherwise being collected on the cell network or other means?
Disappointed by their absence in neighborhoods where they might be more effective. But recall what happened to pay phones in the same neighborhoods in the 60's, 70's, 80's and 90's.
Perhaps by hanging the WiFi device on a pole, out of reach of privacy warriors, would preserve the service and protect the equipment.
3
If I open my neighbor's mail I commit a federal crime. Tech is far more invasive, co-signed by government in this case and are raking in millions.
9
Wow, they put the kiosks first where the most people are? The Cabal is at it again!
30
@Andrew they put them where they are least needed. Rich people have internet service and the ads are directed to them.
2
One of the dumbest wastes of money the city has ever perpetrated on the tax paying public. Who are the geniuses that thought this one up and the hundreds of people that had to be involved with making it happen?
25
@Michael City splits the revenue, so this is a money maker, not taker for the city.
11
@Michael Read the article? The City takes in revenue and doesn’t pay for these.
1
@Jimmy
Bank accounts? I doubt anyone using these kiosks have a single account.
4
In the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy when lower Manhattan was dark for nearly a week, old school free standing payphones were the only things that allowed many of us to contact the rest of the world. I had a landline, but as it was powered by cable it was utterly useless in a power failure.
Just how useful will the LinkNYC kiosks be in a similar emergency?
13
That's why I bless Verizon's being unable to install Fios in my neighborhood.
I have old copper wires for the telephone, and I've kept two corded landlines, which work during blackouts. Call me old-fashioned -- but when my neighbors' phones go out because they have Optimum, I do fine.
17
The kiosk across the street from us turned into a homeless pornography theatre. Literally 3 or 4 guys sitting in chairs on the corner of 24th street drunk watching porn, loudly. They have since turned off the web browser.
22
There are NO FREE LUNCHES.
seriously people - git wit it.
6
Of all the problems that make life in NYC hard, ugly, expensive,and challenging, your going to whine about the free Wifi kiosks? Some people should get over themselves. Its like there are professional complainers that will dissect anything they can to prove there is some cabal of evil, biased, rich, bigoted, racist, leaders who sit in secret chambers with hoods planning to the downfall of the poor. They put up free Wifi. You dont have to pay for it. Its rolling out. And besides, how would the all the homeless who live in midtown be able to get on the internet if these weren't there?
16
@Jtoro
Just because they are bigger problems, doesn't mean you can't complain about smaller ones too.
1
We submitted an extensive critique of LINKNYC spy kiosks to NYC DOITT, never received a response:
Cryptome Report to NYC DOITT on LinkNYC Beta Part 2
July 24, 2016
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Yq_2SRLTRQ
https://cryptome.org/2016/07/Cryptome-LinkNYC-Beta-Report-16-0724.pdf
4
"The food is terrible! And such small portions!"
16
‘Be careful what you wish for’ goes the adage.
Nothing is ever free in this age, whether it’s advertisement or user data collection for subsequent marketing or some other form of invasion into user privacy, there’s always a cost.
NYC users beware.
16
The temperature on those kiosks should be given in Celsius as well as Fahrenheit.
NY has so many foreign tourists, the Fahrenheit temperatures will not always make sense. For example, a temperature of 15 degrees occurs in NY on both scales but you would dress differently for them.
9
At least those of us in the ignored neighborhoods of southeastern Queens can use the Queens Public Library’s free wi-fi - sometimes the signal range is as much as half a block from the building! Otherwise, the only LinkNYC kiosks are in the Jamaica Center shopping district.
6
The LinkNYC kiosks are great. I use them all the time, and they came in handy for an extended period when I didn’t have either internet service or phone service and was able to use the WiFi for both purposes. I would have been utterly stuck had it not been for LinkNYC. You can’t tell who is using them or who is not, Ms. Correal, just by looking at one. San Francisco doesn’t even have a system like this. It’s amazing to me how there are people ( quoted in the article) and special interest groups out there who have nothing better to do than to always find something, *something* to complain about or make sinister. Especially something as useful as this. Really? Maybe just get a life instead?
35
@Kevin
Agree. These are needed in spite of privacy concerns. Anyone who thinks they're data is private is living in last century.
I walk past a dozen or so every day and often see these being used, mostly to charge phones.
Even in prime neighborhoods, more than half of them are dark or don't work. And the removal of internet browsing renders them far less useful than they might be, though the service was aggravatingly slow, with unresponsive touch screens, when it was still available.
Meanwhile, we have the blight of them, cameras, the privacy concerns, etc. What exactly do New Yorkers get out of it?
32
As usual, the rollout started in Midtown Manhattan not the Neighborhoods that had the most need. In Manhattan the Homeless certainly utilize these Kiosks the most.
As for the Privacy Issue isn’t that an overall concern with the Internet in general.
5
In all the years I have walked around the City, I have seen one, yes one, person using a kiosk. He was making a phone call.
I have heard that in some apartments near the kiosks, you actually can use the Wi-fi. Except, you'd be crazy to. We are always warned not to use public networks for anything at all private.
These kiosks are yet another DeBlasio giveaway to corporate America. They are there solely to provide advertising space. Never mind that they physically clutter the sidewalk, and visually clutter the mind.
They should all be removed.
58
@akamai How can you tell if someone nearby is using the WiFi just by looking at the kiosk?
9
@akamai
Actually the wi-fi usage is significant.
https://data.cityofnewyork.us/City-Government/LinkNYC-Usage-Statistics/69wu-b929
2
I can't tell you how many times those kiosks have saved me with their USB ports. When your phone is dying, it is virtually impossible to find somewhere to plug it in.
Plus, I feel safer knowing that I can call 911 from them.
Of course, I live in the heart of Manhattan. It's a shame that that's where they are concentrated. I hope they (like Citibikes) can expand wide.
21
Yes! These kiosks are great for emergency charging and often I need the WiFi when my cellular is slow...I wonder if nearby apartments can use the free WiFi permanently?!
7
@crosswordese Beware those USB ports. NYT recently ran an article about how hackers, as they have with cash machines, have modified the ports to gain access to your data and info to clean out your bank accounts. The article advised that the only safe way to charge is to have your own charger and plug into a common outlet. So, just beware.
21
@crosswordese Did you know you can buy a power backup to plug your phone in? Did you know that a cell phone running out of power is not really a critical issue? Sorry, but true.
In the 80s NYC DOT started the computerization of Manhattan traffic signals by running cable through ductwork that according to an urban legend was provided to the city by Tom Edison as part of his deal with the city to electrify Manhattan. Once that was done the city had power and a coax connection to each traffic light in Manhattan. All the city had to do was add an antenna and WiFi modem to provide Wifi for most of Manhattan.
15
Coax? Have you heard of fiber?
1