The hot new spot in Southwest Chelsea is an actual hot spot. On January 8, a press conference was held in the community garden at Hudson Guild’s Fulton Senior Center — to announce free WiFi to Chelsea. In the above photo, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Senator Charles Schumer and Ben Fried (Chief Information Officer of Google) put a modern spin on the old ribbon-cutting ceremony. With the slicing of a few wires, they christened Southwest Chelsea the first WiFi neighborhood in Manhattan. This distinction, brought to you by Google and The Chelsea Improvement Company, will provide free Internet access to hundreds of thousands of people each year. Free WiFi is now available outdoors, roughly between Gansevoort Street and 19th Street, from Eighth Avenue to the West Side Highway — as well as the neighborhood’s public spaces (including the Chelsea Triangle, 14th Street Park and Gansevoort Plaza). Google’s New York office is located at the center of the hot spot, at 76 Ninth Avenue. For more info, visit chelseaimprovement.com.
