On Flâneur.NYC detail on Atlantic Avenue in Queens I did not expect to encounter yet another abandoned New York City payphone. That is what happened on this new-to-me stretch of road at the London Planetree Playground in Ozone Park.

From this encounter I later learned that the London Plane is the most populous street tree in New York City, comprising about 15% of the City’s tree population. A few other parks and playgrounds in the City’s Parks system use the name “London Planetree.” Read all about the London Plane at the New York Times (gift link, no NYTimes subscription required).

Not much to say about this payphone. It is one of countless rigs left to rot by Verizon, the regional telco giant. that exited the payphone business with great haste.

A quick pass through Streetview imagery finds that the phone stayed pretty much intact from 2007 until 2017. Sometime between 2017 and 2018 the Verizon signage that stood several feet above the phone went missing, along with the poles that supported it. Verizon Payphone Signs frequently turn up on eBay. It would be no surprise at all if that is where this sign turned up.

Also between 2017 and 2018 the handset got smashed, losing its defunct mouthpiece, and the metal plate covering the base of the phone disappeared. This left wires exposed.

2021 sees the payphone obscured and blurred out in the way license plates and human faces are usually blurred on Streetview.

By 2022 virtually all trace of Verizon’s brand was gone, as illustrated in my video as well as Streetview. Just a trace of the Verizon colors and verbiage is found today.

The phone’s base is now wrapped in what I like to call a body bag, suggesting someone in the community was concerned about the exposed wiring seen in the Streetview shots from 2018. Whoever took it upon themselves to do this obviously didn’t expect Verizon to have any interest.