One of the city’s most prominent liberal politicians says “Not In My Backyard” after the city proposed a 30-foot cell tower on the Upper East Side.
Rep. Jerry Nadler — who has demanded that city officials close Rikers Island — co-signer a letter sent to the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission who objected to a dozen cell phone towers being built in historic neighborhoods along upscale Park Avenue, Carnegie Hill, and UES historic districts.
The letter was co-signed by Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine, Senator Liz Krueger, Assembly members Alex Bores and Rebecca Seawright, and Council members Keith Powers and Julie Menin.
The Upper East Side isn’t the only neighborhood affected. Mayor Eric Adams’s administration — through the Office of Technology & Innovation — is overseeing the installation of 2,000 Link5G street towers across the city to bolster services — including 18 in Community Board 8 on the UES, including 12 in landmark districts.
“Today, I joined my fellow East Side elected officials in raising concerns about the placement of these 5G cell towers in our historic neighborhoods without careful consideration of their effect on the community,” Nadler said in a statement. on Twitter.
“While the project aims to expand the city’s 5G infrastructure, the proposed 32-foot towers do not match the existing Upper East Side and have raised widespread concern throughout the community,” the letter said. .
“We are concerned about the progress of a project that will be permanently in place with no hard data to confirm the actual need for these towers,” the wrist said.
Nadler represents both the Upper East Side and West Side of Manhattan for the first time after last year’s congressional redistribution and after defeating ex-Rep. Carolyn Maloney in a Democratic primary.
The liberal NIMBY campaign to ban cell towers drew eyebrows and sanctimonious cries from other political activists concerned about crime and more serious quality-of-life issues.
“Cell phone towers are objectionable, but a prison in Chinatown is OK?” said Yiatiin Chu, founder and president of the Asian Wave Alliance.
One of the neighborhood jails would open in Chinatown if the prison complex on Rikers Island closes as planned.
Political adviser Hank Sheinkopf, who lives in the Upper West portion of Nadler County, called his opposition to cell phone towers “hypocritical and ridiculous.”
“We have people who defecate and urinate on the street. We’ve increased crime,” Sheinkopf said.
“This is the best Nadler can do? Opposite cell phone towers going up through the city. Only poor neighborhoods should get cell phone masts? What’s wrong with this man?”
The liberal opposition is reminiscent of the time when the Kennedy family opposed — and helped defeat — a planned electricity-generating offshore wind farm near their Cape Cod summer camp.
Adams said when announcing the Link5G program last July that “accessible broadband and telephone services are not a luxury – they are a necessity.”
“When it comes to digital services, we know that too many New Yorkers have been left behind,” he said. They live.”
UES politicians and residents aren’t the only ones squawking about the 5G towers.
Former Knicks basketball star John Starks objected when the city had one of its 30-foot 5G towers installed right in front of his Kia car dealership in Queens.
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