August Wireless in Prospect Park and Other Notes

The city's long promised effort to bring wi-fi to city parks is moving in fits and starts. Two of the wireless hotspots promised by the end of August will be in Prospect Park, at the Picnic House and the Boat House, as noted on the map above. All told, there should be 18 operational hotspots in ten parks by the end of summer (nice timing on the contractor's part, huh?). Non-Manhattan spots include Flushing Meadows-Corona Park in Queens, and Pelham Bay and Van Cortlandt Parks and Orchard Beach in the Bronx. What isn't clear is how strong the wireless signals will be and how far one can wander from the hotspot before losing the signal.

If you want to sit in a Brooklyn Park with your laptop and can't wait for Prospect Park to be wired, you can always hit Brooklyn Bridge Park. The park went wi-fi as of the end of May, but the system has experienced some down time and weak signals. The Brooklyn Bridge Park network was created by NYC Wireless, which is a nonprofit that has also set up wi-fi in Union Square Park, Tompkins Square Park and Stuyvesant Cove Park. NYC Wireless has also helped wire other parks in Manhattan, has wired some public housing and maintains a directory of free wireless hotspots.

Bonus Prospect Park Love:

Dig bats? (The flying, Dracula movie kind, not the New York Mets ones). Check out Dope on the Slope's account of his hunt for bats in Prospect Park, which apparently is home to them in great abundance. According to Dope, who knows his nature, the bats he observed were little brown bats with 8-10 inch wingspans, "the most common species in the park." There may also be, Dope writes, big brown bats , which have wingspands of 12 inches or more. Best viewing times are about 8:45-9:15 and some of them can be spotted around the Picnic House so if you want to point and click at night, you can put some Bauhaus on your MP3 player and do your wireless thing with the bats.

Dig fishing? Well, do your kids like it? The 59th Annual Macy's Fishing Contest is happening from July 12 through 16 from 10AM to 4PM at the Audobon Center. The contest is open to anyone 15 and under.

Dig classical? The New York Philharmonic plays Long Meadow on Tuesday, July 11 at 8PM. Xian Zhang conducts as the orchestra plays Tchaikovsky’s Coronation March and Violin Concerto, and Dvorak’s Symphony No. 8. The evening ends with a fireworks display. Twenty-four, 15-foot speaker towers are promised. And, possibly, bats.