While most New Yorkers are sheltering inside, Congresswoman Yvette Clarke offered her constituents a novel way to contract coronavirus.
During a lengthy Facebook Live broadcast on March 22, the Brooklyn lawmaker urged anyone having internet problems during the pandemic to go out and use the public WiFi provided at sidewalk kiosks.
“Our kids will start a full week of home instruction starting tomorrow and so we want to make sure that anyone who is on the Facebook Live this evening and has not availed themselves of that option take a look at it and see if it’s for you and your family,” Clarke said. “And remember, there are those free WiFi kiosks on major avenues in the heart of Brooklyn … where folks can access free WiFi.”
But some believe the public kiosks can be germ factories.
“Now is not a good time to be using them during this outbreak,” Dr. Kris Bungay, a primary care physician in New York City, told The Post. “If someone with the coronavirus gets it on their hands, they can leave it on the surface when they touch those kiosks.”
The city, however, says they will remain open and operational, and are safe.
“Using the free Wi-Fi does not require touching or interacting with the kiosks,” said Nick Colvin, Senior Vice President at CityBridge, which operates the Kiosks told The Post. “LinkNYC is also publishing up-to-date prevention tips, closures and restrictions, and resource information on thousands of Link screens across the five boroughs. The kiosks are being cleaned on their regular schedule.”
Since they were first installed in 2015, the city’s WiFi kiosks have provided free internet service for New Yorkers, but have also become a pubic nuisance, frequently overrun with vagrants. In 2016, a homeless man was busted masturbating in broad daylight outside a kiosk in Murray Hill.
Rep. Clarke, a seven-term Democrat, also raised eyebrows in a 2012 appearance on “The Colbert Report,” where she insisted slavery was present in Brooklyn under “the Dutch” in 1898.
“We are urging Brooklynites to stay home,” a rep for her office told The Post.
“She is keeping a safe distance. We are being smart about this and as community what we need to focus on is staying safe, staying inside and giving critical information to everyone.”