Tour of Some Payphones in the Bronx, Upper East Side, and the Port Authority Subway Station
Here's what I could find of payphones in three separate parts of town. Not much dial tone to be heard out there.
Profiles in Technology
A poignant little pairing of the old and the new at 21st Street and Astoria Boulevard.
I Witnessed a Payphone Being Removed Yesterday
I just happened to have been present at the removal of an Astoria payphone yesterday morning. It is always jarring to see a payphone gone but it was another level of weirdness to see the actual process of dismantling a phone I'd used hundreds of times.
TITAN: Turning Midtown Payphones Into An Outdoor Museum
There is some pretty good stuff on some Sixth Avenue payphones. "TITAN" brings the work of 12 artists to 12 payphones for 12 weeks, ending January 3,. 2021. Sixth Avenue between 51st and 56th Streets is now an outdoor museum thanks to the work of Bree Zucker, Damián Ortega, and the Kurimanzutto Gallery
Payphone User at Penn Station Today
Tijuana Take Your Mother to the Payphone?
Some Tijuana, Mexico, payphones, from Gabriel Sandoval, reporter at TheCity.NYC. I've backed up Gabriel a few times on his coverage of LinkNYC, the so-called "payphone of the future". He and TheCity.NYC helped me get the crisis counseling/suicide prevention telephone installed on the RFK/Triborough Bridge last year.
A Payphone Tombstone, Of Sorts, in Maspeth
Dead Phone in a Land of the Dead
Two of my life's interests meet: A payphone at a cemetery. An old, abandoned PTS rig stands just inside the main entrance to one of New York's most beautiful cemeteries
Woodside’s Payphone for the Fallen Soldiers
I got schooled yesterday on what the graffiti all over this payphone means. A gang member told me these are the names of "fallen soldiers", victims of Woodside's gang violence. What looked like a squalid mass of graffiti is really a descanso of sorts, a poignant roadside memorial.
No Phone in the Phone Booth at Meadowbrook Campground, Ray Brook, NY
This is another set of photos from Daniel Hopsicker, who's been sending up dozens of payphone and phone booth photos from his travels.
Signs of Life in the LinkNYC Rollout?
It's hard to know what to expect of the LinkNYC rollout at this point. We were promised transparency on a variety of matters, but publication of most LinkNYC-related datasets stopped a long time ago.
What We’re Really Paying For: Red Emergency Call Boxes
Watch this video for a tour of an archaic piece of street furniture for which New Yorkers pay millions, while probably forgetting they are there. This post now includes both parts 1 and 2 of these videos.
A Video Tour of Long Island City’s Last Payphones
I've been on a video-making kick lately. This one has me traipsing familiar territory, along 21st Street in Long Island City, whilst finding a couple of surprises: Two fresh casualties of New York's payphone apocalypse and a signature etching from the legendary scratchiti artist PRAY.
No Dial Tone Here But the Old New York Telephone Era Signage is Cool
These non-working payphones will probably never work again but the SpareRoom advertising panel is new, proving yet again that payphone enclosures of today are not out there to provide access to public telephones but to make money for CityBridge, and the City, by selling ad space.
Why Is This Payphone Yelling At Me?
Whilst passing this phone today it sounded, from several feet away, like noise was coming out of it, making me think someone left the phone off the hook and/or somehow tweaked it to blast noise.
Queensbridge Payphones, One Last Time
Because I didn't think the previous video was all that great, and because I guess I'm on a video kick these days, I went back to Queensbridge to more fully document the two payphones at 12th Street and 40th Avenue in Long Island City. This time I think I got it right, or at least as right as I'll ever get it.
Another Payphone Up Close
While making this little video about one of the last independently-owned payphones in town I had the unusual experience of being asked, by someone who needed to make a phone call, to get out of the way. That was quite choice, proving to any naysayers out there that people still need and use these things.
Caught In the Act. A Most Magical Moment.
This was awesome. Magical, even. I was making a video about this phone when a real world payphone user interrupted me, asking if he could make a phone call. That is what he did. People still use payphones!
Queensbridge Payphones Revisited
I discovered these payphones on March 25, 2017, the day before my appearance on "CBS Sunday Morning", when an anxiety-fueled ramble sent me wandering headlong into parts unknown to me, including the Queensbridge Houses, the largest public housing projects in North America. These phones still work but call quality is garbage.
Borden Avenue Has Lost Its Dialtone
A short video of my discovery that a trusted, fully functional payphone had been chopped, with some pictures of how it looked just a month ago. It had those cool Arial font "TELEPHONE" signages, yellowed with age, from the olden days of NYNEX and New York Telephone.
Midtown Manhattan Payphone User. September, 1999.
Rummaging through old photos, found this one today. It's a Midtown Manhattan payphone user, with an arrow for emphasis, from September, 1999. I remember that phone, near the Time & Life Building where I used to work.
Study of Another Abandoned, Useless Payphone Enclosure
This payphone, which does not work and contains no display advertising to subsidize its existence, serves no purpose whatsoever, and might even pose safety hazards.
Video: Study of an Abandoned, Non-Working CityBridge Payphone
What the title says. CityBridge has a monopoly franchise on NYC's outdoor payphones. With no competition they can get away with stuff like this.
Northern Boulevard Has Lost Its Dial Tone
One payphone carcass stuffed into the hedges, and another hunk of nothing with no advertising panels or dial tone help round out what's left of the payphones on Northern Boulevard between Long Island City and Corona.
That’s No Prop. I Remember That Payphone From “Party Monster” (2003)
I think this is the first time I've seen a payphone in a movie or on television that I recognized and had actually used. Vestiges of this payphone still remain on Broadway near Crescent Street in Astoria, Queens.
Payphone Scenes From “Scarface” (Strong Language)
New York City payphones make a couple of appearances in this violent, obscenity-filled movie.
Dialing 412-250-2751 Rings This Payphone in Carolina Beach, North Carolina
If you want to reach out and touch someone, a total stranger, most likely, here's your chance. Bill Carew, from Carolina Beach, North Carolina, sends up this working payphone, a restored 1980’s DTMF AT&T/Western Electric rig, that makes and receives calls.
Some Payphone Innards For Your Wednesday
PPTs (Public Pay Telephones) have complicated digestive systems. This is from 6th Avenue around 50th Street last week. Wishing the last shot coulda been clearer.