Where’s My New York City Wi-Fi?

Ah, how short is the memory of our media outlets.

Not 2 months ago, there were a number of reports about how Wi-Fi Salon + Nokia were going to bring free Wi-Fi to New York City Parks. Of course, those reports didn’t mention that we already have a bunch of free Wi-Fi hotspots in some of New York’s most prominent parks, like Bryant Park, City Hall Park, Madison Square Park, Union Square Park, and Brooklyn Bridge Park, all of which were NYCwireless projects.

But one thing these reports did mention was that our own City Council held a hearing, and put a deadline on when Wi-Fi Salon should have its franchised parks online (after 2 years of virtually no hotspots under the Park Department’s oversight):

At the City Council hearing, Robert L. Garafola, the department’s deputy commissioner for management and budget, said that the city had
extended the deadline to August.

“We expect Central Park to be launched in July, and the rest of the parks in the late summer,” he said.

So, now that the summer is over, where are all of these Wi-Fi Parks? We’ve heard nothing from Marshall about his company turning on these hotspots. The Parks Department and Commissioner Benepe have been silent. We’re now 30+ days beyond the second deadline that they set for Central Park, and close to that for the rest of their parks, and certainly we citizens have waited long enough.

Over this past summer, NYCwireless has brought online a number of new hotspots, including Brooklyn Bridge Park, Stuyvesant Cove Park, and Madison Square Park. We’ve launched (through the work of students at Monroe College) hotspots at a bunch of restaurants and gathering places in Brooklyn, the Bronx, and Harlem. We’ve upgraded some of our hotspots that provide free Wi-Fi for affordable housing residents at some Dunn Development & Community Access buildings.

Of course, that’s not to say that the Parks Department hasn’t been involved. They tried to force the folks at the Friends of Dag Hammarskjold Plaza pay for insurance using taxpayer dollars (the “Friends of” organization is funded by the City Council) before they pulled out of the Parks Department Wi-Fi RFP. Now Dag Hammarskjold Plaza is getting free Wi-Fi with the help of NYCwireless. The Parks Department also forced the fully operational Madison Square Park hotspot (built by NYCwireless) offline for over a month because they didn’t want that hotspot online before the Parks Department had their hotspots online (and we’re still waiting for that to happen…).

So, Mr. Benepe, our Commissioner of Parks, where is all the free Wi-Fi in our Parks that you promised us? Are we going to have to wait until the winter, freezing outside with our laptops on our snow covered laps? I hope not.

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Published:
9.6.06 @ 12am

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