Long Island Town Enacts Tough Cell Tower Limits

crimeandpunishment writes "They're getting tougher on towers on Long Island. The town of Hempstead, NY has imposed some of the toughest cell phone tower restrictions in the country. The ordinance prohibits wireless equipment within 1,500 feet of homes, schools, day care centers, and houses of worship, unless the company can prove absolute need. A spokesman for Verizon says, 'It's not unheard of for towns to have issues, but this is extreme,' and says this makes 95 percent of the town off limits to future antenna construction." With internet access by 3G, 4G and WiMax getting ever more common, I suspect that not everyone in the town will appreciate blocking out the companies that provide it.

Hempstead

[captain_dope_pants]

I'm moving there - it'll save me a fortune in tin foil hats. Plus "hemp" + "stead" = a town that grows dope ? Great ! :-)

Other progressive ideas they should adopt

[Anonymous Coward]

• D&D players must be kept at least 100 meters from jocks at all times to prevent Satanic jinxes from affecting the football team.
• 6-year-old girls must be kept 10 meters away from 6-year-old boys while in school to prevent transmission of cooties.
• Doctors administering placebos must pinky-swear that they really work in order to enhance the placebo strength.
• Fire trucks are prohibited from operating their ladders at more than an 10-degree angle from vertical, to avoid bad luck caused by walking under them.
• Black cats to be tied up in a sack and thrown into Long Island Sound.

Re:Can you hear me now? Nope...

[davidwr]

Dang, did I just get first post? The frosty-drink troll guy must be trying to use his Android from Hempstead.

That reminds me...

[Liambp]

About 15 years ago my rural dwelling brother law was a leading light in a somewhat successful local campaign against the "radiation masts" that were sprouting up around the country side. As a city dweller who lived even then in a veritable sea of electromagnetic waves I was pretty sceptical of their protests and today , 15 years later, I am amused at his constant complaints that he cannot get a decent phone or internet signal.

Re:Hempstead

[binarylarry]

I for one welcome our new hemp growing Amish cell tower overlords.

Re:Nevertheless...

[ColdWetDog]

is easy to visualise [sic] a scenario where metropolitan phone users find it difficult to jam so much as a metaphorical toe into the flood of traffic.

And nothing of value will be lost.

Maybe, just maybe, the city fathers are crazy like a fox. Eventually, Hempstead (? home of marijuana) will become a bastion of civility and quiet. Drivers will actually pay attention to the road. Teenagers won't have their thumbs in splints.

And maybe they're just batshit insane. My money is on the latter.