This cell tower’s reception hasn’t been great.
Upper West Siders bashed a massive, futuristic-looking 5G cell tower casting a shadow over Columbus Avenue — with some locals calling it out-of-place eyesore while others are hatching government conspiracy theories.
“It looks monstrous,” Pam Gould, 58, said of the three-story tall tower that was recently built as part of a citywide connectivity expansion. “It’s definitely ugly. It looks like they threw it there without any thought. I don’t like it.
“It overshadows everything around it, like the trees,” said Gould, who has lived in the quiet neighborhood for 20 years. “Don’t make it so obvious. Put it behind the trees. It doesn’t fit in with this neighborhood.”
The tower — which stands 32-feet high on the avenue sidewalk between West 94th and 95th Streets — was installed in the old-school neighborhood with many long -time residents in March as part of the ongoing Link5G project to build out the city’s high-speed internet infrastructure.
About 200 towers have been installed so far, with plans for about 2,000 to go in across the five boroughs in the coming years. In addition to supporting the 5G infrastructure, the towers allow passersby to charge devices with USB outlets or connect to locally broadcast wi-fi.
“Link5G provides the necessary infrastructure to increase capacity, future-proof New York City’s telecommunications grid, and prepare it for new technology for decades ahead,” a LinkNYC spokesperson said.
“The entire network needs to be built out in a way so neighborhoods that don’t have access to connectivity can have access, and that requires selecting locations like the one at Columbus Avenue between West 94th and 95th streets.”
But many Upper West Siders are not impressed.
“When I saw it a month ago I was thinking, ‘What the heck is that? It was a total shock to me,” said Tara Fray, another neighbor of 20 years. “It would look good in Dubai. Everything there is artificial – man made and metal.”
“Almost everyone around here has a phone. I wonder why they thought we needed it here,” she said, adding that she’d only seen homeless people hooked up to it so far.
Marjan N., 65, a 27-year resident, said it was an “excessive expense.”
“Charging your phone is pampering people. Do it at home,” Marjan said. “You spoil people on one hand and on the other, you let them live in poverty. That’s bulls–t.”
“Does it have any value for this area? Absolutely not,” he said. “How many people do they think are going to use it? It’s unbelievable waste — unless they have other use like spying on people.”
Since 5G first began rolling out in 2019 its been dogged by conspiracy theorists who have blamed the tech for everything from illnesses to secretive government survellance.
“We know that they do that so it would not surprise me to know they are using it for that purpose,” said 64-year-old Michelle Watson, who’s lived on the Upper West Side since 1974. “George Orwell wrote ‘1984’ years ago and those things are coming true.
“I’m going to keep an eye on it and I’m going to do more research on it, too,” she added.
Numerous studies — including one from the World Health Organization — have ruled 5G signals to be completely safe.
At least three other UWS towers have been proposed — at 1880 Broadway, 1886 Broadway and 1900 Broadway — but are still undergoing a review process that the Columbus tower passed, including numerous committees, community boards, council members and city agencies.
Some elected officials have taken a stand against the towers, including City Council member Gale Brewer, whose district covers the Upper West Side.
“Our goal should always be to find a balance between the evolving needs of the city and the imperative of preserving the unique character of our neighborhoods,” Brewer wrote in a letter to the State Historic Preservation Office, obtained by the Spirit.
And in 2022 when the towers were first being installed, Upper East Siders attempted to block the installation of numerous towers in their neighborhood.
Still, some Upper West Siders think they’re lucky to have the cutting edge in their neighborhood.
“It’s great for any neighborhood, we are fortunate to have it,” said 71-year-old Allan Ripp, who’s lived on the Upper West Side for 45 years.
“It looks like a sculpture, it’s very modern,” he said. “It looks like of kind of what you’d see in the modern city.”
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