Farewell, some day maybe soon, to the World Famous Pee Phone™

[Do you remember the times that we had...]

Meant to mention this sooner... On Monday, Mayor de Blasio announced the winner in a competition to replace the city's pay phones.

Meet your new WiFi Internet hotspot stand thing via a consortium of companies called CityBridge:

LinkNYC is a proposal for a first-of-its-kind communications network that will bring the fastest available municipal Wi-Fi to millions of New Yorkers, small businesses, and visitors. The five-borough LinkNYC network, which will be funded through advertising revenues, will be built at no cost to taxpayers and will generate more than $500 million in revenue for the City over the first 12 years.

By replacing the aging network of public pay telephones with state-of-the-art Links, the City aims to transform the physical streets cape — and New Yorkers’ access to information — while also creating new local jobs for the development, servicing and maintenance of the structures.

And they will look like...



The city will eventually replace the pay phones around the city ... with a few exceptions. Via the Times:

The city also plans to remain hospitable to the cape-wearing set. CityBridge said it would maintain three existing “Superman pay phones” scattered along West End Avenue, where a small number of traditional phone booths have survived.

Anyway, you have a little time left to bid farewell to the World Famous Pee Phone™ on Avenue A at East Seventh Street. Maybe one more winter together.

And no word yet if those fancy interstellar, download-25-years-worth-of-the-Simpsons-in-47-seconds LinkNYC things will have a little shelf to hold the vodka like the World Famous Pee Phone™.


[EVG file photo via Bobby Williams]

Previously on EV Grieve:
The Miracle on Avenue A™: World Famous Pee Phone™ has a phone again

Out of order: World Famous Pee Phone™, others, face a future without quarters, whiskey

All is well at the World Famous Pee Phone™

Polishing up the Pee Phone

Yesterday, a man was busy cleaning up the Pee Phone on Avenue A and Seventh Street...He was cleaning the glass, scrubbing off some graffiti...generally just making things cleaner...



...so that we all can see these...



More Pee Phone Photos:
Pee Phone: Still Gross Yet Sexy as Hell! (Slum Goddess)

Strange Happening Atop the Infamous "Pee" Phone at 7th Street and Avenue A Wednesday Night (Neither More Nor Less)

Pee Pee Phone On E7th St.& Ave. A (Melanie)

A short tribute — sob — to the World Famous Pee Phone™

Many of you likely already noticed this disheartening disappearance this summer. 

On Avenue A at Seventh Street, the long, distinguished reign of the World Famous Pee Phone™ has come to an undistinguished end ...

Back in March, workers started removing the open-air pay phones on Avenue A... though the World Famous Pee Phone™ was spared at the time. 

Anyway, the booth was a recurring character through the early years here in these pages — and elsewhere! (And I don't honestly remember who bestowed the booth with the Pee Phone moniker. Eden? I retain the Pee Phone™ though for merchandising and the forthcoming bingeworthy Peacock series.)

A quick look back... when it served as a lending library...

... when there was a price increase...

... and just a day in the life...

Thank you for always being there for us.

The Miracle on Avenue A™: World Famous Pee Phone™ has a phone again

Pee Phone™ watchers have been distraught since last August (carefully documented by our Melanie at East Village Corner), the last time that the Pee Phone™ actually had a working phone.

[August 2011 via Melanie]

And with the recent news that the city is getting rid of payphones (or payphones as we knew them) ... this sighting yesterday comes as a surprise... A phone! A phone that works!

[Bobby Williams]

Meanwhile, will these prices return for the summer season? (It's less expensive in the off-season.)

World Famous Pee Phone™ now with lending library

New amenity on Avenue A and East Seventh Street, of course.

Photo by Bobby Williams.

Previously on EV Grieve:
The Miracle on Avenue A™: World Famous Pee Phone™ has a phone again

Out of order: World Famous Pee Phone™, others, face a future without quarters, whiskey

All is well at the World Famous Pee Phone™

New prices for the world famous Pee Phone wiped away

Melanie first took the shot of the new prices on the world famous Pee Phone ... And I was not pleased to see the Verizon truck pull up the other day for some spring cleaning...




And soon, the world famous Pee Phone prices were wiped clean ...



(And see more of Melanie's photos here.)

Previously on EV Grieve:
Polishing up the Pee Phone

All is well at the World Famous Pee Phone™

Avenue A at East Seventh Street today. Photo by Bobby Williams.

Previously on EV Grieve:
The Miracle on Avenue A™: World Famous Pee Phone™ has a phone again

Out of order: World Famous Pee Phone™, others, face a future without quarters, whiskey

Out of order: World Famous Pee Phone, others, face a future without quarters, whiskey

Well, to no surprise, it appears the end is nearish for the World Famous Pee Phone (above) on Avenue A at Seventh Street and other pay phones in the neighborhood. According to the Post today, the city is ready to welcome the next generation of pay phones:

New Yorkers stuck with a battery-drained iPad or BlackBerry will soon be able to turn to the city’s newest “pay phones” — computer kiosks that let users buy access to the Web, e-mail and various apps.

The Jetsons-style setup — dubbed MIKE, or My Internet Kiosk Everywhere — will soon replace every single antiquated pay phone throughout the city, The Post has learned.

The Post reports that workers will install 100 MIKE systems (MIKE? Really?) around the city, starting at Penn Station.

A California-based company called Pacific Telemanagement Services took over Verizon's stock of public pay phones "after the communications giant decided it wasn’t making enough money off them."

Thanks Verizon. Now where are people supposed to hang their dry cleaning?

World Famous Pee Phone getting competition

We'll be keeping an eye on this upstart on Third Avenue near 12th Street.

Previously on EV Grieve:
New prices for the world famous Pee Phone wiped away

Even the Pee Phone is more expensive now

Previously!


Now!



This is what happens when you become World Famous! Avenue A and Seventh Street, of course.

Meanwhile, for more fun under the sidewalk shelter here, I refer you to Bob Arihood and Melanie.

Previously on EV Grieve:
New prices for the world famous Pee Phone wiped away

EV Grieve Etc.: Mourning edition

Bob Arihood has a not-so-good update on Ray of Ray's Candy Store as well as a report on some Avenue A thuggery (Neither More Nor Less)

The return of DJ Lenny M (Down by the Hipster)

Inside the Pee Pee Phone (Slum Goddess)

An update on the Aqueduct's racino plans (Queens Crap)

Horse-drawn carriages may be replaced by eco-friendly vintage cars (Gothamist)

The Elk Hotel loses some business (Jeremiah's Vanishing NY)

Rite Aid and Sbarro are among the companies who may not last through the recession (Yahoo! News)

Smell like the Astor Place cube (Esquared, who has a new home)

What retailers say about the recession (New York)

Ruffians who sing Sham 69 songs in the middle of the night (Flaming Pablum)

More fun at the Ludlow Residence (BoweryBoogie)

EV Grieve Etc: Mourning Edition

Former LES resident Richard Boes, a regular in the early films of Jim Jarmusch, died on Feb. 21. In recent years he had self-published several acclaimed books. (DWX)

Let's not repeat the mistakes of Nassau Street (New York Post)

...but they do have that new free store (New York Post)

Manitoba's turns 10 -- and launches new Web site (This Ain't the Summer of Love)

The hand signals of the Stork Club (A Continuous Lean via Grub Street)

Rev. Billy's bid for mayor (Gothamist)

Remembering Music Row (Jeremiah's Vanishing NY)

A rundown on LES car services (BoweryBoogie)

Someone had the balls to eat a granola bar in the Pee Pee Phone (Slum Goddess)

New Yorkers cutting back on cable (Bits)

Exclusive: It snowed

EV Grieve Etc.: Mourning edition

The "complex legacy" of Antonio Pagan (The Villager)

Alex pulls out the rock ephemera (Flaming Pablum)

And Karate Boogaloo plays at Danceteria circa 1986 (Stupefaction)

Speaking of rock ephemera, I found a new site in which the author posts ticket stubs to different concerts that he has seen (Stubs and Stories)

NYC imports its sewer grills from India (Hunter-Gatherer, who must have lost his class ring in here!)

Pee Pee Phone update! (Slum Goddess)

Day-o officially abandoned (Jeremiah's Vanishing NY)

Ken has his eye on old Village haunts (Greenwich Village Daily Photo)

More trouble at The Box (Gothamist)

Delancey street-saw fun (BoweryBoogie)

NYU's next victim ready for its destruction (Curbed)

A-Rod update (Esquared)

Not Too Big To Jail

Pee Phone hijinks on Avenue A at Seventh Street. But is the phone working again?

[Photos by Dave on 7th]

EV Grieve Etc: Mourning Edition

Ice cream spilled during Avenue A donnybrook Saturday night (Neither More Nor Less)

Thoughts on living in Fishbowl City (Flaming Pablum)

Another vanishing: Aphrodisia Herb Shoppe on Bleecker (Jeremiah's Vanishing NY)

Town Hall on future of Chinatown tonight (Save the Lower East Side!)

Someone using the Pee Phone to make an actual phone call (East Village Corner....Musings by Melanie)

A Meatpacking District Now and Then (Greenwich Village Daily Photo)

Spotting a T-Rex on East Houston (BoweryBoogie)

Thanksgiving morning at the World Famous Pee Phone

...and behind the phone on Avenue A at Seventh Street...

Week in Grieview

[10th Street at Fourth Avenue]

New owners for Joe's Bar (Thursday)

316 E. Third St. has been demolished (Wednesday)

The Life Cafe trademark is for sale (Tuesday)

Former East Village resident releases new record (Monday)

Another message for the landlord at 35 Cooper Square (Tuesday)

A spring 2011-2012 now and then (Tuesday)

More about renting the Patricia Field boutique on the Bowery (Monday)

A new phone for the World Famous Pee Phone (Friday)

At the Coney Island USA Spring Gala at Webster Hall (Monday)

A Bleecker Bob's Update (Wednesday)

This morning by the Pee Phone

Avenue A and Seventh Street.

EVG Etc.: Tossing a SantaCon coma suit; playing at the 11th Street Bar

[Photo on 7th Street by Derek Berg]

Mayor's office releases report on legalized pot in NYC (Curbed)

Questions over the future of Mitchell–Lama residential buildings in NYC (City Realty)

Lost Clause! "A SantaCon reveler who landed in a coma after falling down a flight of stairs at a Manhattan bar only has himself to blame for the drunken tumble, a judge ruled." (New York Post)

The city's worst landlord? The NYCHA, says Letitia James's office (amNewYork)

Michael Che, Michelle Wolf and other entertainers coming together on Jan. 11 at the Irving Plaza to raise money for NYCHA (Daily News)

Why musicians love playing at the 11th Street bar (The Villager ... previously)

A Tompkins Square Park landmarks quiz (Off the Grid)

Pier 35 is (partially) open! (The Lo-Down)

Small fire at the Con Ed substation on Avenue C (Town & Village)

Space Invader's tiled mosaic of the Ramones is being chipped away in Soho (Flaming Pablum)

Two chances to see "A Clockwork Orange" in 35mm on Christmas Day (Quad Cinema)

Brooklyn’s 315 Gallery relocating to the LES — Henry Street to be exact (ARTnews)

EVG turns 11 today (First post)

And a fond farewell to Slum Goddess, who's retiring her blog after nine fun, action-packed years! (Final post here) Thanks for chronicling those good times at the Mars Bar... and the the World Famous Pee Phone™...

World Famous Pee Phone now getting in on the farm-to-table craze

Broccoli? That's so 2007. Where's the kale? Seventh Street and Avenue A.

Photo by Bobby Williams.