I and several others yesterday watched a LinkNYC customer urinate onto the street as a child blithely walked past:
A feeling of dismay momentarily filled the Starbucks at Third Avenue and 15th Street yesterday as this increasingly familiar scene unfolded. Conversation stopped. Everyone present in the Starbucks silently beheld the buttcrack of a derelict individual urinating onto the street. I heard people whispering “Links,” in reference to the name of the device the man leaned against as he relieved himself. He appeared to be under the influence of something. He had trouble standing up straight. Holy crap, though, he was peeing like a horse. The stuff flowed for what seemed like more than a couple of minutes.
This magnificent tableau of humanity, which moved its encampment after the man finished peeing, comprised three individuals. They occupied a fair amount of sidewalk space with their bodies and luggage. One of those three people could not be seen from inside the Starbucks but this image shows two of them just hanging out, charging their devices, as Brad Pitt incongruously glowers in the corner.
Ceremonially enough this happens to be the very first Link device ever installed and activated. Unlike Hartford, Connecticut, site of the first-ever coin-operated pay telephone, I do not think we will ever see a plaque at this intersection commemorating this dubious milestone.
I have no idea what is actually being done to address the quality of life problems that Links attract. CityBridge – the consortium of advertising and tech companies responsible for these devices – does not seem to talk to strangers. In social media they happily accept praise from industry peers but seem to mostly address complaints through private messaging.
These days CityBridge seems to be directing its limited creative thinking at staking out more and more new locations for their Link devices, and at filling the Links’ advertising panels with Fashion Week and U.S. Open promotions. This sort of public relations ploy might move the soul of a corporate boardroom but otherwise it captures the imagination of just about nobody. And it may have only bothered me but during the Olympics the Link devices were used to display names of winning athletes and medal counts per country. I used to work at Sports Illustrated and CNN/SI, and announcing Olympic results before the nightly NBC broadcast was considered a faux pas. This was true for any tape-delayed sporting event. Maybe that common courtesy has changed with the information-overload environment of today but I found it a bit tactless.
The money that is promised to be made from LinkNYC advertising revenue seems paltry if it comes at the expense of turning streets into toilets. CityBridge has predicted that the city will take in about 41 million dollars a year from shared ad revenues. The annual budget of New York City is something like 87 billion dollars. That makes 41 million look like a pittance, especially when the public perception of this program is that someone is making money here at the expense of degrading the livability of any place where a Link device is installed.
The problems inherent in these devices are not limited to the clientele they attract. The program continues to press forward under the threat of a lawsuit — “National Federation Of The Blind v. The City Of New York” — which claims the devices are not fully compliant with the American with Disabilities Act (ADA). Indeed, contrary to claims made by CityBridge before the program was launched these Link devices posses glaring ADA omissions. The ADA possesses some of the most potent legislation out there. It remains to be seen if the Alphabet-backed CityBridge has the resources to get away with continuing to ignore its requirements. Another lawsuit which could further distract the company — “Telebeam Telecommunications Corporation v. City of New York et al” — continues to makes its way through the appeal process after a judge ruled against Telebeam’s claim that CityBridge was awarded an illegal monopoly.
Stretches of Third Avenue already have comically dense concentrations of LinkNYC devices. Looking up or down the Avenue one sees an almost hall-of-mirrors like cascade of endlessly blinking screens. And more Links are coming. Whether anyone wants them or not the proliferation of Links cannot and will not be stopped. CityBridge appears to be full steam ahead in making good on its vision of having one of these devices every 50 feet.
To wit, yesterday I spotted a number of signature orange pylons along Third Avenue. These object serve as a warning of sorts that more of these needless devices are coming to that already Link-blighted street.
