Monday, May 11, 2009

Bill introduced to restrict cell towers

From the Daily News:

A bill was introduced Wednesday in the City Council to force phone companies to give local communities an early warning when they intend to erect new cell phone antennas - often called towers - in their territory.

That will allow residents or concerned groups to generate "a dialogue" - translation: raise a commotion - with phone companies before the towers are already in place and it's too late to do anything about it.

"New York City has the most lax regulations in the entire country when it comes to the placing of these towers," said the bill's chief sponsor, Councilman Peter Vallone, Jr. (D-Queens). "And today, we're doing something about that."

The Federal Telecommunications Act of 1996 severely restricts what local communities can do about regulating the placement of cell phone towers.

In the city, phone service providers merely negotiate with building owners about the placement of towers and then apply for building permits, which are granted almost automatically, according to Vallone and other sponsors.

The new bill would require the Buildings Department commissioner to set forth general rules about how and where antennas or towers can be erected.


What difference does this bill make if the Board of Standards and Appeals will override the DOB's decision anyway?

8 comments:

-Joe said...

The Federal Telecommunications Act of 1996 was one of the worst things Bill Clinton signed.
He had to be "paid off" or he was to busy with Monika and MTV inturns to read it.

This analog to Digital TV "upgrade" is nothing more then a Trojan Horse to make public broadcast pay TV.

A good part of the Ham radio spectrum and all of CB has been wiped out by all these "boxes" on poles and power lines.
Its S-9 levels of pulse noise all over 1/2 the city.

Anonymous said...

Yes exactly Joe. And thats when Clear Channel swept across the country monopolizing radio stations. The automated stations run locally and around other states causing news delay
problems.

But as far as the cell phone towers, unless you have a geiger counter you dont know how much radiation is around. And unless you have a gaussmeter, you cant measure electromagnetic fields that cause fatigue, sleep problems, and cancers after long exposure.
Thanks to the Telecom Act of 1996, it prevents local planning authorities from prohibiting cell tower construction on the basis of health considerations.

Anonymous said...

Once the 'boys' are in charge, like they want for Con Ed, all ‘issues’ will magically disappear.

Take a look at power plants, traffic, developing brownfield for residential purposes and hooka smoke. All these add to polluting the envirnment and all these are ‘non-issues’ because they come from development and tweeding.

Anonymous said...

"What difference does this bill make if the Board of Standards and Appeals will override the DOB's decision anyway?"

That's what I'm sayin'.....

-Joe said...

Once again 1/2 the facts from the Daily News.
I wonder that their interest is.

---prohibiting cell tower construction on the basis of health considerations.
---------------------------
I’m pretty sure that refers to satellite dishes, assorted antennas for “inbound” reception radio signals.
However its often exploited buy the dumb or "playing dumb" judges & polititions who dont know about electronics or radio.

At the time their were too many townships getting upset with people erecting Satellite dishes. This law was to help companys like DISH, DIRECT, SATCOM
This law has clearly been exploited

Their are laws and level limits regarding and isotropic and below isotropic RF radiation.
(Transmitters)
Perhaps this article was put out as misinformation so the people being sh*t on give up and "settle down" if they think Board of Standards and Appeals will automaticly override.


I find all these sneaky broadband on power lines and all these stealthy VHF tranceivers on poles far more hazardous. These signals (some 1000 watts or more) hit you in the face come right in your house.

A 3-5 watt cell phone tower has to beam out a narrow “donut” isotropic RF pattern over the horizon. Othewise it would be a wast of time and money

-Joe said...

Yes exactly Joe. And thats when Clear Channel swept across the country monopolizing radio stations.
------------------------
That was a nightmare !
Once got the stations they baught the theaters and venues to book the bands they owned and booked under "SFX"
I was working summers doing FOH (front of house sound) at the Jones Beach ampatheater.
One day we were handed brooms and told it was our duty to sweep after wrapping up. ---on our own time as part of the job !

After the "riot" with the new suits and we were all fired.
Most of equipment and electrical conduits (now owned by Clear Channel) got smashed by some rather angry Italian guys. One suit was suspended by his ankles from the lighting booth

The cops refused to arrest anybody, even gave tickets to the new promoters for these kids drinking beer.
We were laughing at the new owners.

Anonymous said...

Only in NY can you get a Sopranos episode from a blog thread on cell towers.

Taxpayer said...

And how did these "concerned" council member vote regarding the construction of a school in Maspeth - fully aware that there is an array of antennae directly across the street from the proposed school?

And they were fully aware that: " ... with phone companies before the towers are already in place and it's too late to do anything about it."

So, how concerned are these cynical hypocrites?

They voted to harm the students and now persist even though they are now also completely aware that the proposed school will be located on top of severely contaminated soil.