WiFi Now Offered at Harlem’s Riverbank State Park
By Donte Gibson
The digital divide in Harlem has just gotten a bit smaller. That’s because officials at Harlem’s Riverbank State Park have brokered a deal that gives the park free WiFi access. This also makes Riverbank State Park the first New York State park to offer WiFi access.
The park, a rooftop park which sits along the Hudson River and spans from West 137th Street to West 145th street, receives over two million visitors a year, already has other amenities like an Olympic-sized pool, a 2,500 seat athletic complex and a covered skating rink.
The service was made possible thanks to the Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation’s officials reaching out to Columbia Engineering School’s entrepreneur in residence Bruce Lincoln. The plan was originally to have create a WiFi hotspot for only one of the park’s buildings, but when Lincoln saw that it would be just as much work to provide the entire 28-acre park with the service, the officials sought out other partnerships to help. They eventually teamed with Columbia University, Per Scholas, The Digital Divide Partnership to provide the service.
Best of all for the park, the service comes at no cost to the state or the park thanks to the public-private partnership. The park had recently suffered budget cuts due to funding issues, causing the park to lay off all four of its rangers and reduce its hours.
Many in the community are affected by the digital divide, the gap between those who have access to the Internet and those who don’t for various reasons. The divide generally affects minorities and seniors, for whom the Internet can sometimes be too costly an expense. Providing this service should be a great boost for Riverbank’s surrounding communities. Hopefully, the city can follow Riverbank State Parks’ example and find alternate methods of providing WiFi to state parks.
Last year, a plan had been announced that would bring WiFi to New York City parks. A collaboration between Time Warner, Cablevision and the city, the plan would not only bring WiFi to the parks, the cable companies would also be tasked with providing approximately $30 million in upgrades to the city’s communication infrastructure and the creation of broadband access points throughout the city. Unlike the WiFi in Riverbank, park patrons would be required to pay .99 per day after three monthly free 10 minute sessions of WiFi.
Hopefully, the city can follow Riverbank State Parks’ example and find alternate methods of providing WiFi to state parks instead of forcing city residents to foot the bill.
Category: Featured, News | Tags: columbia university, Digital Divide, New York City, Per Scholas, Riverbank State Park, The Digital Divide Partnership, WiFi
