Miami

5G Installation Causing Unsightly Mess on Miami Streets

"It doesn’t look very good, certainly not very welcoming, particularly in downtown, Miami Beach or Little Havana where we are also welcoming tourists."

5G poles that are supposed to bring faster wireless network connection are also creating an unsightly mess on the streets of downtown Miami.

Major telecommunications companies like Verizon and AT&T are installing the utility poles every couple hundred feet in Miami to improve connection in time for the city to host the Super Bowl in February 2020.

But the installation has brought growing pains and eyesores such as utility paint markings, broken sidewalks and unfinished work.

"It’s a good thing to have more technology for the Super Bowl, but it’s been a really bad thing for our sidewalks and sometimes it’s dangerous," said Miami-Dade Commissioner Eileen Higgins. "We have had contractors that have not behaved responsibly and left sidewalks completely in disarray."

On local level, Higgins said she can't ask these private contractors to use a certain kind of paint during installation or ask them to clean it up.

"So we are just stuck with it all over the streets," she said. "It doesn’t look very good, certainly not very welcoming, particularly in downtown, Miami Beach or Little Havana where we are also welcoming tourists."

County commissioners have gone up to Tallahassee to ask for a solution, including ordering contractors to use temporary paint like the county uses. Meanwhile, the 5G installation will continue in the city and officials don't have a timeline for when it be complete.

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