A few weeks ago I pointed out that new installations of LinkNYC kiosks seemed to have come to a halt. This assessment derived not from personal observation but from data supplied by CityBridge and available at the NYC.gov Open Data portal. According to the LinkNYC Locations dataset the last kiosk installations occurred on August 23, and the last machines to be activated went live in mid-September.

What could make the matter confusing is that different datasets, such as LinkNYC Kiosk Status, include different installation and activation dates for each kiosk. Either way, it seems that the once rapid pace of installations and activations has slowed to nothing, raising the specter of it becoming physically impossible for CityBridge to meet its already ambitious goal of 10,000 or more kiosks over the coming years.

What makes the matter more intriguing is that the LinkNYC manufacturing plant on 31st Avenue in Astoria, Queens, has been demolished. I live nearby and, when I happened to spot a short piece on a hyperlocal news blog announcing the demolition, I recognized the building from the photo in the article. I went over to investigate and found the building’s demolition well on its way to completion. It is not known to the general public if LinkNYC manufacturing moved to another location, or how many jobs might have been impacted by the plant’s closure.