GOACT Points Covered in “Our Community” Interview


Glendale Organized Against Cell Towers and GetTheCellOutofHere.com were the “Our Community with Greg Krikorian” show yesterday on Charter Digial Cable Channel 280.

Thank you to AMGA and show host Greg Krikorian for giving GOACT a chance to get the word out about this important issue! Among the points GOACT leaders covered:

We all use cell phones and we all rely on good reception. But there are places where industry is placed in a city — factories, warehouses, railroad tracks, shopping centers. In residential areas, throughout the city’s single family and multi-family areas, there is a process that monitors how construction fits into the environment.

What we’re asking for are some logical and reasonable construction requirements. We’re asking for the same processes that homeowners would have to follow if they were building a 3-story tower on their property.

T-Mobile and other cell phone companies are not public utilities. These are for-profit companies taking advantage of laws and the public right-of-way. They’re putting up equipment that has potential safety/maintenance issues, is a nuisance, and destroys property values. There has to be some oversight. Their business profits should not be our losses.

This isn’t just about one cell tower. To compete for broadband business, T-Mobile will need towers throughout our neighborhoods. They’ve already applied to build a second tower a few blocks away from their proposed site near Cumberland and Pacific.

And remember, this is a more intrusive and less efficient technology than high-speed fiber optic cable, which our government and the telecom companies promised us more than a decade ago. We haven’t gotten it; instead we have companies like T-Mobile attempting to gain market share and profits by putting up wireless towers.

GOACT wants to stop this intrusion into residential areas, make sure there are fewer towers put up overall, and guarantee more oversight over their location and construction.

Contact your state and federal representatives and let them know that laws allowing for-profit outfits like T-Mobile to take advantage of privileges for public utilities should be changed – laws like the Telecommunications Act of 1996 and the California Public Utilities Code Section 7901.