Northern Boulevard Has Lost Its Dial Tone

From 31st Street in Long Island City to 114th Street in Corona, Northern Boulevard in Queens has zero working public pay telephones, and only a handful of LinkNYC kiosks, at least one of which does not work.

I found one payphone carcass stuffed into the hedges outside a Taco Bell, another with zero advertising panels, no lights, and no dial tone.

One empty clamshell enclosure outside a car wash and a standalone pedestal that once hosted an advertising-free payphone rounded out the last surviving remnants of what used to be dozens upon dozens of phones along this stretch of road.

Other than that I found a bunch of yellow mats where payphones used to be.

I stopped at 114th Street because that is where Northern Boulevard basically turns into Interstate highway, with no walkable path. Northern Boulevard continues on up past Citi Field and into Long Island, so there may be payphones yet on that stretch of road within Queens, but I wouldn’t count on it.