A city plan to build a network of 32-foot-high 5G cell phone antenna towers on the Upper East Side has ritzy neighbors and merchants up in arms.

And now the controversy — including blowback from the fashionable Madison Avenue shopping district — has landed right in the lap of broadband booster Mayor Eric Adams.

The Office of Technology & Innovation is overseeing the installation of 2,000 Link5G street towers across the city to bolster service — including 18 in Community Board 8 on the UES. 

But residents and businesses there complain the towers are an eyesore, a potential environmental health hazard, and will attract vagrants.

State Assemblywoman Rebecca Seawright, who represents the UES, even sent a letter to Adams calling for a moratorium on 5G expansion amid the not-on-my-street backlash.

“Our office is receiving numerous complaints regarding the 18 additional Link NYC sites that have been proposed for the Upper East Side,” Seawright told Adams in the Dec. 7 missive.

“While we understand the importance of expanding access to critical telecommunication tools, community level input is essential.  With great concern from our neighbors for a rushed implementation, I request a moratorium on further expansion of 5G on the Upper East Side before residents can weigh in on the proposed sites.”

Seawright said she’s concerned the towers’ installation was already “in the last steps before implementation” by the time city officials and the wireless consortium shared details with the community.

The lawmaker also said she’s “wary” after complaining the OTI ignored queries about an antenna being installed on a city-owned street map outside of 520 East 90th Street “without notification” to elected officials. She said she’s gotten no response to requests to relocate the tower.

The 18 locations identified for 5G towers are: 1190 Madison Avenue, 1050 Fifth Avenue, 1000 Fifth Avenue, 46 East 91st Street, 1040 Park Avenue, 1354 Madison Avenue,  24 East 63rd Street, 680 Madison Avenue, 30 East 64th Street, 1105 Park Avenue, 1115 Fifth Avenue, 1175 Park Avenue, 570 Park Avenue, Fifth Avenue at 62nd Street, 1095 Fifth Avenue, 1283 York Avenue, 510 East 71 Street. and 510 East 70th Street. 

Three of the towers would be in the Madison Avenue historic district, noted Matthew Bauer, president of the Madison Avenue Business Improvement District — and said “it doesn’t seem fair. It doesn’t seem right.”

Resident Radames Soto said the wireless towers were unnecessary because “our service is great, our wifi is great.”

He said the Madison Avenue shopping district — with the most luxury stores “on the planet” — is still recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic, is struggling to clamp down on thefts, and shouldn’t be sullied with ugly towers.

“We need to help make it more elegant… not make it uglier,” Soto said.

East Side Councilman Keith Powers also parroted the NIMBY mantra.

During a virtual Community Board 8 meeting last week that attracted more than 100 anti-tower participants, a statement from Powers declared the towers “threaten the aesthetic and charm of the neighborhood.”

“I do share my constituents’ concerns about installing towers in residential areas where they will. surely be obtrusive,” he said.

But city officials defend the Link5G project as essential to the Big Apple’s future.

OTI spokesman Ray Legendre told The Post the agency welcomed the UES’ “valuable feedback” during the 60-day review process, but added: “This administration believes that digital connectivity is a human right, necessary to fully participate and access opportunities in modern society.”

Adams, when announcing the Link5G program in July said “accessible broadband and phone service isn’t a luxury — it’s a necessity.”

“When it comes to digital services, we know that too many New Yorkers have been left behind,” he added. “Our administration is committed to changing that and ensuring that all of our city’s residents have access to tech services, no matter where they live. 

According to OTI, statistics prove the need, reporting that:

• 40% or 1.5 million city households lack an adequate combination of home and mobile broadband.

• Of the 2,000 Link5G kiosks being erected across the city, 90% will be installed in underserved neighborhoods in the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island and above 96th Street in Manhattan.

• 65% of NYCHA residents reported having dropped calls the prior month.
• All 5G equipment is required to adhere to strict Federal Communications Commission safety regulations.
• The Public Design Commission has approved the design for Link5G.