What We’re Really Paying For: Red Emergency Call Boxes

One misperception about the LinkNYC program, a misperception that seems like it will never go away, is that the “Smart City” kiosks are taxpayer funded. They are not. All revenue comes from digital display advertising, though you could make the case that any costs associated the City’s administrative oversight of LinkNYC is a taxpayer-paid expense.

There is a position called “Franchise Inspector” at DoITT, the technology agency that oversees LinkNYC and most of New York’s payphones. The Franchise Inspector inspects and reports on functional status of LinkNYC kiosks and payphones. That’s a job I was born for, and for which I applied, but my application was not considered or even acknowledged.

In a city with a 90 billion dollar annual budget I would think the salary of a Franchise Inspector is relatively negligible, and whatever other costs associated with the City’s administrative overhead would be as well.

What we do pay for is the emergency call boxes seen in these two videos. The most usage these things get today is from pranksters who activate them for the hell of it, plaguing the FDNY with false alarms.

New York is required to keep these things alive after a federal judge ruled the City had not made a sufficient case to prove there was a suitable alternative. Specifically the judge ruled that mute people and those with speech disabilities had no other viable option besides certain of these call boxes to report fires or crimes in progress.

Watch this video for a tour of an archaic piece of street furniture for which New Yorkers pay millions, while probably forgetting they are there.

Call Boxes Part 1

Call Boxes Part 2