2026 Theses Master's

Smart or Spectacle? Auditing LinkNYC and Public Space Equity

Qian, Julia (Yan)

This thesis evaluates LinkNYC and Link5G as public digital infrastructure embedded within New York City’s streetscape. While the program was introduced as a universal connectivity initiative intended to reduce digital inequality and accessibility to public Wi-Fi, its spatial deployment, performance patterns, governance structure, and street-level impacts reveal a more complex reality. Drawing on GIS mapping, usage data, statistical correlation analysis, 311 complaints, stakeholder interviews, and systematic site observations, the study develops an assessment framework based on the Spatially Aware Technology Utilization Model (SATUM) and Jan van Dijk’s four-phase theory of digital appropriation.

Findings show that infrastructure distribution partially overlaps with digitally vulnerable areas but remains corridor-oriented and usually falls in commercial areas. Usage reliability is uneven, and governance transparency is limited. At the street scale, kiosks’ physical usability may also be subordinated within construction environments, visually read as advertising surfaces, or used in unintended ways, revealing a gap between technological ambition and the infrastructure’s actual spatial integration.

The analysis concludes that LinkNYC functions as both connectivity infrastructure and urban spectacle. While it modestly improves physical access, it does not structurally alter relational digital inequality and may have introduced new tensions in public space. Based on the evaluation, the thesis also proposes a recalibrated public evaluation framework and policy recommendations that emphasize equity-weighted sitting, maintenance accountability, streetscape integration, and adaptive governance. Smart urban infrastructure must be assessed not only by network performance but by its capacity to generate equitable, durable, and context-sensitive public value.

Keywords: LinkNYC, smart urban infrastructure, digital divide, public Wi-Fi