The payphones outside the Queensbridge Houses, at 40th Avenue and 12th Street, have been documented on this website a number of times. Owned by PTS, the nation’s largest payphone service provider, the phones still work, at least as far as delivering dial tone. I was last there in October, and remember that calls made from these phones sounded pretty garbled.
Recently these phones, or at least one-and-a-half of them, made an appearance in this Queensbridge-based music video “Diamond Freestyle (RIP Prodigy)”, from @PiifJones. At less than a minute this would be a warmup for a longer, full-length song video. I don’t know rap music as well as I should, but I like the sound of this, especially the opening atmospheric salvo of what sounds like a choir of angels, portentously foreboding. Using the payphone handset as a microphone is also good to see. Looking forward to the rest of this song, produced by @Xeta Productions.
The numbers for these payphones, which do not accept incoming calls, are 718-784-8935 and 718-729-9638. There is also the carcass of a payphone at the Queensbridge/21st Street subway station. That phone, sorry to say, is dead and not coming back.