Thursday, May 18, 2006

New York park goers to get free Internet Wi-Fi - Yahoo! News

Park in Chengdu, China. Put wi-fi in parks.

New York park goers to get free Internet Wi-Fi - Yahoo! News New York's Central Park and a number of other public spaces will become public Internet hubs starting this summer when the city's parks begin offering free wireless net access, the city government said.

'We expect Central Park to be launched in July, and the rest of the parks in the late summer,' the Department of Parks and Recreation said. Among those green spaces going on-line for public Wi-Fi access will be Washington Square, Union Square, Brooklyn's Prospect Park and Flushing Meadows.
I suggested this for Pittsburgh. Our city's politicians should be more concerned with putting in wi-fi in parks and public spaces, not for downtown street corners.

City Council could have easily insisted that wi-fi come to all the swim pools and rec centers as it is being installed downtown. They didn't, sadly.

And it isn't just me. Another wrote on the WPLUG list: "Wish we could get this in Pittsburgh city parks! We have far less square feet of park space to cover than Central Park in NYC so costs should be significantly lower."

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

full article

New York's Central Park and a number of other public spaces will become public Internet hubs starting this summer when the city's parks begin offering free wireless net access, the city government said.
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"We expect Central Park to be launched in July, and the rest of the parks in the late summer," the Department of Parks and Recreation said. Among those green spaces going on-line for public Wi-Fi access will be Washington Square, Union Square, Brooklyn's Prospect Park and Flushing Meadows.

Beginning in 2003 the city sought service providers to furnish Wi-Fi service for the parks, but delays set in and only one park -- Battery Park at Manhattan's tip facing the Statue of Liberty -- finally got the service.

The city is also seeking a Wi-Fi provider for Dag Hammarskjold Plaza facing the United Nations and for the Brooklyn Heights promenade.

A handful of small parks in the city have had free Wi-Fi access since 2002 thanks to private donors.

Amos_thePokerCat said...

It would be nice, and make more sense, if they put wifi in *all* the libraries first. Right now it is just Mt Lebo, SQ Hill, Main, Downtown, and Cranberry that have wifi. When I am on the road it seems that almost any library in any other state has wifi now.