It never ceases to amaze how we have so many people in America who complain incessantly about spotty cell phone reception, yet they do everything in their power to prevent improvement of the situation.
Enter the NIMBY. A NIMBY is an idiot, who will gladly agree that a certain structure or other item is necessary and beneficial, but they don’t want in their neighborhood (hence “NIMBY”… “Not In My BackYard” is their battlecry). Despite the fact that they will complain that certain services don’t exist – such as, cell phone service – they fear that a cell phone tower will greatly lower the neighborhood’s property values, and so they just can’t put it up.
There are also those NIMBYs who fight new site construction based on health risks. Yes, they’ll viciously fight the construction of a tower that puts a transmitter waaaaay up in the air because they’re afraid it will give them SuperMegaCancer, but will just as quickly put a similar transmitter right next to their heads without a second thought.
And that, my friends, is NIMBY logic. Here’s another fine example:
Les Dubnick, a clinical psychologist who lives in Kingsmill, said the service is indeed spotty. He has to stand near the windows of his Kingsmill home in order to get service for his Verizon cell phone.
But he called a 180-foot tower near homes outrageous.
In another part of the county, Verizon has a 120-foot tower in the Greensprings office park designed to resemble a pine tree. But even camouflaged with fake greenery, a 180-foot tower in Kingsmill wouldn’t blend in, Dubnick said.
“The idea that it’s going to look like a tree is a joke,” he said. “It’s not going to look like a tree. It will affect the living conditions of those who live near it because they have to see it every day.”
Neighbors have suggested having four shorter towers spread around the property, he said, adding that residents would not oppose towers that were situated out of view.
So, while it’s utterly unconscionable that these poor, poor people have to suffer by looking at a single cell phone tower (and oh what misery that will be!), it’s perfectly okay for Verizon to build four slightly shorter cell phone towers? So, is this how we solve the eyesore problem? By making more eyesores?
You also really can’t put a tower “out of view” if you expect it to do anything. A cell site has to be, well, in the area, in order for it to serve the intended area.