Thursday's parting shot

So long to some open-air pay phones along Avenue C... workers were seen uprooting them earlier today.

Last year, workers removed pay phones on Avenue A. (No sign of LinkNYCs in their place!) 

Thanks to Heather Dubin for the photo!

The disappearing pay phones along Avenue A

In the last week or so, workers have hauled off the open-air pay phones on the northwest side of Avenue A at Fourth Street (above) ... the west side Avenue A at Third Street...

... and the west side of Avenue A at Second Street...

The one on the east side of A at Third Street is also gone. However, the pay phones remain on the south side of Fourth at A... 

... and the south side of A at Fifth...

So you still have a place to take a _____ or put down your bottle of ______ or roll a _____.

Thankfully, for now anyway, the World Famous Pee Phone™ is still on duty on Avenue A at Seventh Street.  

Anyway, all this was expected... in late February 2020, Gothamist reported that the Department of Information, Technology and Telecommunications (DoITT) was going to uproot nearly 3,000 pay phones around NYC that are maintained by CityBridge. A few non-CityBridge phones are likely to remain. And expect to see some new LinkNYC kiosks in some of these spaces.

Monday's parting shot

Photo on Fourth Avenue and 12th Street today via Derek Berg...

Fourth Avenue pay phone receives back-rent payment notice

And then there's this. Spotted the other day on a pay phone on Fourth Avenue at East 12th Street...





So, based on this notice, the DVD Funhouse at 814 Broadway — one block over — hasn't paid a lick of its $21,218 monthly rent since they moved into the place in in early 2012... good for a whopping $250,898...



That's a lot of $2.99 Tyler Perry DVDs...

Callers spend weekend on hold at First Avenue and St. Mark's Place

Friday! Via an EVG reader...



Yesterday! Via IansTweets ...



And today, via Bobby Williams...



Did anyone learn who was on the other end?

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?