In Light Of Disparities In Internet Access, NYC Mesh Expands To West Harlem

Upper West Side NY

20 October, 2021

1:24 PM

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Columbia Daily Spectator BY MAYA LAMECHE AND CHARLOTTE BUTTENWIESER OCTOBER 17, 2021 The COVID-19 pandemic has made students and workers more reliant on the Internet than ever before, exacerbating the already existing issues of Internet disparity. In New York City, only 66 percent of Black and 61 percent of Latinx New Yorkers have home access to high-speed internet, as compared to 79 percent of white New Yorkers. NYC Mesh, a volunteer-based organization focused on bringing broadband access to New Yorkers, has begun expanding into West Harlem. The core of NYC Mesh's program is building Internet servers on rooftops and balconies around the city. Primarily based in Brooklyn, the initiative's leaders have argued that the lack of accessibility to Internet services in West Harlem has led them to develop expansion plans in the community. Thus far, they have provided Internet to 4,000 New Yorkers by recruiting community members along the way. In order to fund their services, NYC Mesh asks residents of buildings with their Internet servers for a monthly donation of $20, though the amount is merely a recommendation. Curtis Archer, Community Board 9 member and president of the Harlem Community Development Cooperation, has led the initiative to bring NYC Mesh's project to West Harlem. "We do know that one thing the pandemic has illuminated is the fact that we do have a disparity in terms of those who have and those who do not have access to broadband," Archer said. New Yorkers without Internet access for jobs and online school have suffered due to this lack of a level playing field. However, this urgent need for comparable Internet access is far from over. "It doesn't stop with the ending of the pandemic, because we may not necessarily want to put the genie back into the bottle," Archer said. Because we may never go back to a fully in-person experience, Internet access has become particularly important, according to Archer. Part of the initiative is training community members to install servers and fix them if they break down. By implementing this community aspect of the initiative, NYC Mesh has been able to operate with only grassroots funding. "Right now, the organization is actually 100 percent volunteers," said Rob Johnson, an electrical engineer actively involved in the organization. "Now that said, what we've done in the last year, in the interest of diversifying people who can help because not everyone can help afford to just give free labor. And so we have increased the amount we're willing to pay people to install in someone's apartment. ... So that if someone's out there volunteering, basically, they actually get a lot of money to cover their expenses." In order to facilitate its expansion into Harlem, NYC Mesh has collaborated with City College, Riverside Church, community boards in Harlem, and the New York City Housing Authority. In order to expand their reach, the organization aims to form relationships with buildings in the area, especially taller buildings, so that they can provide a wider range of broadband access. While the response in West Harlem has been mostly positive, some residents' feel thatNYC Mesh is a scam. Their skepticism is largely rooted in the common belief that it would be impossible for them to build their own Internet server. According to Johnson, trust-building is at the core of NYC Mesh's mission, and they aim to include people from their target communities in the initiative. However, building trust within a new community has been difficult, as there are only a few servers set up by NYC Mesh in West Harlem so far. The organization isn't in a rush, however, as they hope to build partnerships with the community organically. "People don't always understand what that means. And think maybe it's a scam," Johnson said. "It's a lot easier in Brooklyn and in lower Manhattan because you can walk someone and show them … and they can connect with their phone and download and see that it works." NYC Mesh has also established partnerships with community-based non-profit organizations that offer job training and after-school programs. They hope that this will be a way to both expand their reach and contribute to positive youth programming. "We really think the internet is something everyone can understand and everyone can build—and so getting high school-aged kids some training and education sounds really positive to us," Johnson said. The organization's plans to create these programs with the local community go hand in hand with their will to build trust with the residents NYC Mesh works with. "There's more community work to do to make sure the services are used … and so we [will] take more time to build community [in West Harlem]," Johnson said. Staff writer Charlotte Buttenwieser can be contacted at [email protected]. Follow Spectator on Twitter at @ColumbiaSpec. Staff writer Maya Lameche can be contacted at [email protected]. Follow Spectator on Twitter at @ColumbiaSpec. Founded in 1877, the Columbia Daily Spectator is the independent undergraduate newspaper of Columbia University, serving thousands of readers in Morningside Heights, West Harlem, and beyond. Read more at columbiaspectator.com and donate here.