Goodbye to the last payphone in NYC

RadishRose

RadishRose

SF VIP
Location
Connecticut, USA
"Midtown Manhattan said goodbye to a long-standing resident on Monday when the city's last working public payphone was officially removed from the area."



"The payphone isn't being sent to the scrapyard though: it's headed to the Museum of the City of New York (MCNY) as part of their new exhibit Analog City: NYC BC (Before Computers), which looks back at pre-digital life in the city."

https://gothamist.com/news/the-last-public-payphone-in-nyc-has-been-removed-from-midtown
 

I will say I do not like this, there are many people that don't have a cellphone. They need an easy convenient way to reach others if they need. They need to be able to call 911. Technology is a good thing but should not take away from the people that don't have access. I guess soon they will get rid of the United States Postal Service. You can pay your bills online, you can transfer money, you can communicate by email. I must say I do some of those things but I enjoy sending a letter, a card or a gift by mail. Certain things are needed in a functioning society, I believe pay phones should be available.
 
Whenever I think of phone booths now I think of the movie Phone Booth. I think it came out in 2002. Who knew at the time how fast they would become obsolete.
 

@MarkinPhx , I know. I had taken my mother to buy groceries and she collapsed in the store. I did not have a cell phone. People just stood there looking. I asked them to get someone to call 911. To find a store employee, no one moved. I said if you have a phone will you please call for help, only then did a person pull out their cell and call. They had the technology and could not be bothered to just dial 911. What is the point of technology if people won't use it to help someone in trouble.
 
Geezerette said:
Agreeing with Blessed. One hurried day recently I forgot to put my cell phone in my purse and when. I realized I was panicked of what if I needed to make an emergency call, car broken down or such. (And where is Clark Kent going to change into his working clothes now?)
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EXACTLY. you may have a cell but forget it at home. The battery could go dead and you need someone in an emergency. I wonder why someone has not started a phone booth kind of thing of cell or digital communication for the general public. When this happens, remember it was my idea first.
 
Blessed said:
I asked them to get someone to call 911. To find a store employee, no one moved. I said if you have a phone will you please call for help, only then did a person pull out their cell and call. They had the technology and could not be bothered to just dial 911.
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I've heard a couple of times that in that type of situation you need to pick a specific person and ask that person to call. Something about human psychology when asking a group of people it doesn't work.
 
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I'm sorry to see phone booths/payphones go. Years ago, you could even find an emergency phone along the side of highways if you needed help. Long before cell phones, a public telephone booth saved me from assault or worse. Today, not everyone has a cell phone. If you run into trouble without one, you're pretty much out of luck. If your car breaks down, someone might stop to help you, but since Covid, I don't know. Hopefully, some kind soul would see you and stop, or at least offer to call the police to send someone out to help. But you really can't count on that. Then there are those who might seek to take advantage of the situation by robbing you or doing you harm. You never know. I always figure whatever happens, I'm on my own.

Bella✌️
 
Pay phones are extinct in my area, and I shall miss them and what they meant to me. Growing up, my parents had but one corded phone, located in a central location where my mother could listen to any call going in or out. She’d freely comment on the conversation as it transpired.

Pay phones were my privacy. To talk unmonitored to friends and the occasional romantic partner, I’d find some excuse to get out to a pay phone. They didn’t require a back-breaking monthly “service contract,” just some coins in your pocket. Another integral part of my past, now gone.

Kids today don’t know how lucky they are. They feel that cell phones are an entitlement, and enjoy a level of privacy and freedom with them that was unthinkable to me. My everyday past is now a historical experience to be seen in a museum... 📞
 
We still have some in the UK but they are disappearing fast.

There used to be two near me within about 15 minutes walk, one was smashed up most weekends by drunks and the other one used mostly for drug dealing, both gone now.
 
I guess you can say I am blessed. Everything I need is withing in walking distance. If I get stranded I can just walk home. I have a walmart, target, cvs, walgreens, post office, library, even a mall just a mile away.
 
OneEyedDiva said:
I'm glad they didn't scrap it. I realized there is still at least one pay phone in my town on the same street I take to run errands sometimes. I wouldn't use one of those things...I can't even begin to imagine how filthy and germ-y they must be. 🤮
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But we used them and used them without giving it a thought when I was growing up (40's-50's) . In the 50's, , when in the military, I used to call my girl (now wife) and was thrilled to find one not in use, when my calling time was limited and I would believe that they were just dirty and germ-ridden back then.
 
Ironic as I go through old papers and things I run across phone cards for long distance which was out of state or even a different area code/county 25 years ago. I'm surprised they/that one lasted that long because I heard the phone companies thought they would be done by the end of last century. Some also say the drug dealers of the 1980s and 90s saved the pay phone and propelled the cell phone.

Where does Superman change now a days?
 
This got me thinking about my town. I haven’t seen a pay phone in a long time, not even at the mall. Stores don’t want them because they had to pay for the privilege. There may be one in the foyer at the hospital or it might have just been to connect to a different department.
 
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