Payphones Past

USPS Blue Mailboxes: The Next Vanishment

6 years ago

It's not that mailboxes are vanishing. Instead we are losing distinct stamps of age that showed how some humble little…

Payphones vs. LinkNYC: The N11s Compared.

6 years ago

Access to 211, a community outreach service provided by the United Way, has been hijacked on a significant quantity of…

Still Cannot Find an NYC WELL Phone on the RFK/Triborough

6 years ago

Maybe I should just give up. But I continue to question the MTA about the presence of an NYC WELL…

Abandoned Payphone Beautification on Fresh Pond Road

6 years ago

This abandoned payphone enclosure got some beauty treatment from unknown parties. And also, an old telephone exchange name phone number…

The Sex Offender Payphone: Rogue No More

6 years ago

Give credit when due to CityBridge, the company with a monopoly franchise on New York City's outdoor payphones. They do…

No Breakout on LinkNYC for You

6 years ago

It's still possible to get at Breakout or Doom through LinkNYC. Too bad you can't actually play the games.

Phone Booth Hunting in Old School Yearbooks

6 years ago

Phone booth hunting in publicly posted college and high school yearbooks turned up some interesting stuff. Until the mid-2000s, if…

Arted-up Payphone at the Taco Dumbo Midtown

6 years ago

There is, as anyone would expect, an arted-up defunct payphone in a midtown Taco shop, positioned such that all visitors…

PRAY at Beyond the Streets

6 years ago

It may not have been authentic PRAY, but I appreciated seeing one of my all-time New York City heroes get…

LinkNYC’s Loudspeakerphone: A Failure With Precedent

6 years ago

LinkNYC's loudspeaker interface erases some of the most common maintenance headaches of the traditional payphones. But at what cost?