Tonight at 6:30 pm the City’s Office of Technology and Innovation (NYC OTI) will present a plan to install 32-foot LinkNYC kiosks at 18 sites throughout the Upper East Side, including 13 in Historic Districts, at the Community Board 8 Transportation Committee’s virtual meeting on Zoom.

The proposal is part of a revamped strategy by the City to deploy LinkNYC kiosks with new 5G technology across the city, as detailed in a letter to community and elected officials HERE. The sites as proposed are focused in three main areas of the neighborhood – between Fifth and Park Avenues in the lower East 60s and in Carnegie Hill, and near York Avenues close to the hospital corridor.

Recent presentations to the Public Design Commission indicated that sites within Historic Districts would not feature digital advertising screens and that siting would need approval from the Landmarks Preservation Commission. However, the letter does not provide clarity on the choice of locations, details of each proposed installation, or process for approval. We are hoping those questions and more will be addressed by the NYC OTI presentation tonight.

Anyone interested in the specific location sites or the overall impact of this towering streetscape infrastructure is encouraged to attend and speak at the CB8 meeting tonight at 6:30 pm. You can sign up here to participate in the Zoom meeting, which will also livestream on YouTube where it will be recorded to view later.

As currently proposed, the sites planned for installation of LinkNYC kiosks are as follows. Those with an asterisk are in historic districts. See the City's map here.