Friday, April 16, 2010
News Residents fight cell phone tower in East Atlanta ... again
Posted by Gwynedd Stuart @gwynnstu on Fri, Apr 16, 2010 at 9:40 PM
Ruby-Beth Buitekant was relieved when T-Mobile withdrew plans to erect a cell phone tower at 469 Metropolitan Place, a piece of property that sits just steps away from the East Atlanta Village home she shares with her mother.
An Atlanta native and recent graduate of Wesleyan University, Buitekant joined forces with other EAV neighborhood advocates and successfully stymied the proposal. In the end, T-Mobile retreated and is currently negotiating to erect the tower on the roof of a nearby condominium, an idea to which East Atlantans have been more receptive.
But, Buitekant’s relief was short-lived as yet another tech giant is eyeballing the lot in residential EAV. This time, it's Clear wireless internet service that wants a tower on Metropolitan Place, and Buitekant’s objections to the plan remains the same.
“There’s so many reasons that this is not a good place to put a tower,” Buitekant says. “It’s literally steps from my house. We did some research about fall zones — towers have fallen before — and three houses or so are in that hazard zone, including tons of neighbors with very young children. It’s mind-blowing that they would consider this to be a good [idea].”
She also points to the Clear tower’s potential superfluity — Clear could easily share the T-Mobile tower once it's erected.
As they did in response to T-Mobile’s proposal, a contingent of EAV neighbors will petition city council and the mayor’s office. Buitekant says she hopes city leadership will be more responsive this time than last. Also planned is a demonstration from 11 a.m.-2 p.m. on Saturday, April 17, at the corner of Flat Shoals and Glenwood avenues — right outside the Clear storefront.
Comments (11)
Showing 1-11 of 11
Oh, that's why I don't get a signal in EAV...I always wondered. Yeah, I have to go with the residents on this one. I don't care if I don't get a signal there, I'm too drunk and shouldn't be calling people anyway.
like
dislike
"towers have fallen before" How often? 1 out of 50 towers or 1 out of 10,000. It's inconvenient but you gotta check those facts CL!
I think the "Nimby" pejorative would apply if we weren't interested in finding a location that worked for more that just us. The location T-mobile has picked is better fro T-mobile and the building owner WANTS the tower atop their building for the income it will provide. Also, Yes there is a small percentage of possibility that the tower would fall on my house. It is a tiny one of the many, many reasons that this tower should not be erected here. My favorite of those reasons is that there is is another location about 1/8 of a mile away that they could put the tower without a building a new one and on a location that is agreeable to all involved. If you would like anymore information we will be at Flat Shoals and Glenwood today from 11-2 passing out information and answering questions.
I live 4 houses up from the site and do not want nor need this atrocious eyesore in our beautiful community. I have stated before in a letter to a Clear representative that in 5 years this technology will be a dinosaur and we will be stuck with a tower that will no longer be taken care of-the greenery will grow out of control while the tower will rust and decay and become even more of an eyesore!!! Our property values will decline-all because a selfish wireless company won't do the right thing and move like T-Mobile did. It is clear we do not want Clear here!!!!
Yes, lets just all bow down to AT&T and Comcast, who needs another provider in the area. Bandwidth throttling, priority to some packets over others, internet packaged like cable channels, incompetence, and limited port availability is what EAV needs. You know what else falls down and crushes houses, and more often than cell towers, TREES. In five years of disaster response I've never responded to a cell tower fall but I can sure tell you stories of people killed, crushed, and trapped from trees falling into their homes. Lets not forget the traffic and all the DUI in EAV, but oh god think of the children and the evil evil tower that might fall. ...and yes, I would actually allow it in my backyard if that were an option.
Um, okay. R.Decline, contact them and tell them to put it in your backyard. Problem solved right? You are an ass. You're not even a resident of the neighborhood so really, put a sock in it. EAV is a strong community and this tower will be blocked. and CLEAR SUCKS! They do a max of 4mbps, that's like 25% of a broadband connection. Do you really want to pay for dial up speeds? No, no one does. Clear has great marketing, but look into the speed. It is not fast. They lie.
The homeowners have the right and obligation to build a neighboor they want to live in. That's why we pay, right? So why would any outside person or company come in and try to "CRAM IT DOWN OUR THROATS". I think we're going to have to tea bag Clear. And, anyone that is not with me is against me, so bring it on! REMEMBER: you can't fix stupid but you can tea bag it away!
Agree with Traci. Cell towers are going to give way to smaller less intrusive cell called pico-cells. There is no need for it and it should be blocked. It's just a desperate attempt of a real-estate investor trying to salvage his plan with complete disregard to the neighborhood around him. He's an A-hole and should stick to his day job.
Latest in Fresh Loaf
-
Time and Place: Read between the lines
To me this photo is about doing your own thing and following your own path in life.
-
Vernon Jones wants to return to the Gold Dome and other interesting qualification tidbits 1
Qualifying period ends, dust settles, campaigns begin
-
Suspects in Pittsburgh gay bashing slated to go to trial Tuesday
The men accused of beating Brandon White in Southwest Atlanta already headed to court
- More »
More by Author
-
Shouty man shouts at Ga. legislature about child porn, gay marriage, other evils 1
Toccoa pastor hates liberal stuff, loves microphones
-
The Great Atlanta Fire of 1917 is happening again (on the Internet)
Atlanta History Center 'live blogs' the great fire
- More »
