October 17, 2005
Park Slope Co-Op Owners Angry About Celling Out
Residents at 130 Eighth Avenue in Park Slope are upset that their co-op will get a cellphone antenna. It's a classic case of co-op residents versus the co-op board, which approved the 15-year deal with T-Mobile (it's for all those Treos in the neighborhood!): The residents hate the board for doing their job (albeit possibly poorly), the board hates the residents for complaining! The best quote is from outraged eighth-floor resident, Jay Joe Jakubowitz: "I feel like I want to move out of the building. I escaped the World Trade Center thing, and I didn't buy this apartment with a cell tower on it, and it's literally going up above my head."
The NY Times says the equipment weighs over seven tons, and the co-op will get $1,800/month for the installation, which the board says will help the finances. Residents, though, are worried there will be health issues due to the frequencies transmitted by the antenna. At the very least, the co-op could look into those sensory deprivation tanks from Karma-Ceuticals for residents. Gothamist wonders if T-Mobile will try to disguise it, to go above and beyond the Landmarks Preversation's requirements, by creating some Park Slopian structure around it (perhaps it's a huge stroller canopy)! Or will they put fake branches with fake leaves on it, a la the cellphone tower on the Hutchinson Parkway?
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"I escaped the World Trade Center thing"
What does that have to do with a cell tower being installed on your roof? Stop whining! Do you cut the line at the bank because of that too? Jay Joe -- puh-leeze.
Cry me a river, Park Slopers. Switch to T-Mobile and enjoy the kick-ass reception your building-top tower will afford you.
Put a huge billboard in front of it, for Elle McPherson's new lingerie line.... that would disguise it.
But for Park Slope, they need cellphone antennae (what is the plural? antenni, antennas?) inside the buildings... I hardly get any cellphone reception inside my apartment and I live on 8th Ave.
I personally don't have issues with cell-phone arrays being installed on the tops of buildings. Yeah, maybe that would change if it were right over my head. But part of me thinks the co-op boards 'outrage' might be anchored in the price they will be getting for this.
According to the article:
"In exchange, the co-op will receive $1,800 a month from T-Mobile USA."
and
"...the 15-year contract..."
$1,800 a month for any Park Slope property--let alone something straight in the most desireable part of Park Slope--seems like a bargain. It should probably be $5,000 a month. Especially considering this is a commercial installation and T-Mobile has deep pockets to say the least.
The co-op will only get $21,600 per year before taxes. And after the 15 year contract is said and done, they would have gotten $324,000. Quite a damned bargain when you realize that Park Slope real estate has more than doubled in the past 15 years.
The co-op could probably make more by--for example--building an addition on the top of the building and selling that property for $500,000 outright. $1,800 a month? I'd be upset as well!
I live on 8th Ave too and don't get any reception for my T-mobile phone. It's really frustrating since we don't have a landline... After awhile it's a big pain to walk downstairs and around the block every time we have to order takeout, make a doctor's appointment, answer a call from grandma, answer a booty-call, whatever.
I'm gonna drop by Carroll Street today and personally check that the construction of the tower is going smoothly!
"I escaped the World Trade Center thing"
So terrorists are targeting cell phone towers on Brownstone rooftops? Or are terrorists trying to reach us through cell phone signals?
They came to the board of my building with a similar proposition and similar amount of money. (This was Nextel - about a year ago.) Not giving it much thought, the board wanted to do it. Seemed like a free $2000/month, BUT the contract was worded in such a way that they could have basically put anything up these on the roof, and had no liability if something went wrong. There was also nothing in the contract about noise or radiation from this thing. In short, you'd have to be crazy to let anyone install something like this on your roof for this amount of money.