'I’ll Have The Tacos': Newark Mayor Launches Free Wi-Fi Kiosks

NEWARK, NJ — With cameras rolling and flashes popping, Newark Mayor Ras Baraka leaned into the high-tech kiosk at Military Park, placing his phone call with a feigned casualness, as if he was ordering a pizza at home in his living room.

“Hi, this is Mayor Baraka… how y’all doing today?” he asked the worker on the other end of the line. “I’m trying to order something to pick up.”

After hearing the restaurant’s menu, Baraka decided on an order of tacos. “I’m going to send somebody to get ‘em,” he said. “I’ll see y’all in a minute.”

And with that symbolic order of food, Newark took a flying leap into a new era of technology.

Last week, Baraka, city officials and several community leaders gathered in Military Park for the activation of Newark’s first LinkNWK kiosks, which deliver free wi-fi, offer mobile device charging, make phone calls to anywhere in the U.S. and allow access to a plethora of municipal services, maps and directions.

The kiosks – which are run by tech company Intersection – make use of Newark Fiber, the city's public-private gigabit data network. Eventually, Intersection will install 45 LinkNWK kiosks throughout the city’s five wards, including:

• Newark Penn Station
• Prudential Center
• Broad Street, Market Street, Martin Luther King Blvd. and Irvine Turner Blvd.
• “Neighborhood corridors” such as Clinton Avenue, Ferry Street, South Orange Avenue and Bloomfield Avenue

A collaboration between Intersection, the City of Newark, the Newark Community Economic Development Corporation (NCEDC) and New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT), the kiosks are expected to help Newark cement a rising reputation as a “cutting-edge, high-tech city,” Baraka stated.

• See related article: Newark Is 1st In N.J. To Use High-Tech Kiosks

“We are the only city in the entire state and the second in the nation to provide these services, and every person who uses one of these kiosks will not only gain the services they need, but learn something more important: Newark is a world-class urban leader,” Baraka said.

According to municipal officials, the kiosks operate at no cost to taxpayers or users. Instead, they’ll be supported by advertising revenue, some of which will also help fund other “smart infrastructure” programs in the Brick City through contributions to the NCEDC.

Initial advertisers on the kiosks include United Airlines, which operates a hub out of Newark Airport.

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Photos: City of Newark Press Office