LinkNYC Kiosks Help Unsavory Characters Network on the Streets

The wifi-enabled LinkNYC kiosks along the city's streets may be a welcome connection to passers-by (and nearby apartment-dwellers), but residents are reporting that the homeless have made the internet-enabled monoliths into dens of iniquity.

The homeless population has flocked to the new devices, from watching explicit videos on publicly-viewable screens to using the kiosk as a camp site. DNAinfo outlines the concerns that residents have raised from Chelsea to the Upper East Side: People congregating at the kiosks, playing loud music, smoking pot and drinking, and viewing pornography.

Reports of unsavory behavior at LinkNYC devices will be no surprise to the generations that passed by the payphones that LinkNYC has designed to replace. The silver enclosures around payphones on the street also attracted crime and public nuisances, being used for drug deals and urinals.

If you see suspicious behavior at your local LinkNYC, call 311 or submit a letter to LinkNYC at help@link.nyc