“On top of 65 Reade there are two new gizmos (a technical term) on the roof. They don’t appear to be cell towers since they are angled downward. They aren’t satellite dishes either. I was wondering if you had seen these here or anywhere and what they’re possibly used for.” —A.

Heck if I know! Heck if I even know whom to ask! I tried a few folks, and I got nowhere. My super said he thought they were satellite-TV antennas, but I couldn’t find any online that matched. (And they don’t look like any cell-phone antennas I’ve ever seen.) Does anyone out there either have a clue what those are or whom we might turn to? Email me at tribecacitizen@gmail.com. Sometimes it takes a village, folks.

By the way, the gizmos are on a few buildings around there, including 78 Reade and 122 Duane. I think the photo above is the Church side of 122 Duane.

UPDATE: On Facebook, Rohin Hattiangadi suggested they might be motion or vibration sensors: “Sometimes they’re placed on buildings next to construction areas to monitor vibration and stress loads and prevent damage to the surrounding buildings. They are usually up on top as this is where the maximum effects of ground vibration are felt.” I thought that was intriguing, seeing as how that block on Reade had a building fall down a couple of years ago, possibly as a result of 57 Reade being built. Then I got an email from a reader who said she lives in one of the buildings in question: “When they installed them, I asked people who was working on the roof. Not sure who they were, but they said they bought the roof rights from the landlord and were installing wi-fi equipment.” My partner thinks this is more likely; when we signed up for Verizon, for instance, we were told that we’d be able to access wi-fi hotspots here and there around the city. I’ll see if anyone at Verizon knows anything….

UPDATE #2: My contact at Verizon said if it’s wi-fi it’s not theirs. He passed it to the Verizon Wireless folks to see if they knew, and they said they thought it could be a microwave device of some kind. I’ll keep trying….

Got a question? Email it to tribecacitizen@gmail.com.

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