Today, a reader alerted me to an article in Gothamist about the surviving pay phones in New York City: "Most of the Last Remaining Pay Phones in NYC Will Be Ripped Out." The pay phone on Ninth Avenue that appears in one of the photos accompanying the article looks in much better shape than the one shown above, located outside Hudson City Hall.
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It's simple! Ask our Mayor: "Kamal, do you want to see the phones gone?" If he responds YES, ask him when he is going to tell Rob Perry to get it done. If Kamal says NO, ask him to justify their presence on our sidewalks. B HUSTON
ReplyDeleteWhat makes you think that ROB PERRY will do what the Mayor asks .The DPW supervisor did not listen to any of the previous Mayors. Arrogant, under qualified,& grossly over paid.The Mayor & Common Counsel should concentrate on restructuring the D P W.Time for a city manager .He impossible to work with. Eliminate that position .
ReplyDeleteYou right, Dog!
DeletePossible progress that I noticed this morning: Perry`s parking space WAS one of the two directly behind city hall (not in the muni lot), his being the nearest to the rear entrance to back door of City Hall. That space is now reserved for the Mayor as a brand new, quite large sign saying so has replaced Mr. Perry`s as of this week sometime. The $100,000 public servant has apparently been demoted to the lot. Would have loved to have been a fly on the wall when Mayor notified Rob of the change. B HUSTON
The problem, as pointed out in the article I referenced in my previous post about the abandoned pay phones https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/11/03/public-payphones-graveyard/18439123/, is establishing who owns them. The mayor cannot simply order DPW to remove them. They are private property.
ReplyDeleteWho is going to get on the phone and figure out who owns them? The Mayor or his assistant? Craig Haigh? Tom Depietro? No, it's Rob's job to figure out who owns infrastructure in our City. And if he comes up empty (no one claims them), then of course DPW can remove them. How long would it take to figure it out? Years?
DeleteA few years ago there was a phone "stall" in front of Grazin' and it was teetering badly. I emailed Mayor Hamilton about it and within a few weeks it was gone. Kamal should ask her who removed it. Was it DPW?
DeletePerhaps the "teetering badly" was the justification for removal . . . in the interest of public safety.
DeleteAnd perhaps Verizon removed the phone. Part of problem solved.
DeleteDuring my term, I did manage to get the pay phone in front of Grazin' removed. It was far from a simple task. It's been a while, so the exact details are a little fuzzy. Verizon no longer owns the pay phones in Hudson; they are now owned by various other companies. It took multiple calls to Verizon to figure out who actually owned the pay phone, then repeated outreach to that company to finally make contact with someone who offered hope of removal. Until the very end, no one I spoke or emailed with knew the protocol. Eventually I was able to connect with someone who understood the liability of the precariously leaning phone booth, and they agreed to remove it.
DeleteWhile these little things may seem like no-brainers, they're often not. If there is genuine will or need to have pay phones removed, I would recommend contacting the Mayor's office. They will be able to track down through emails and/or notes I kept on notepads, which are legally retained for a number of years, contact info of the person I spoke with and the process for removal.
AHA! Good luck, Kamal, you are going to need it! Can we really get sued if DPW takes them to the metal scrap heap at the dump? No company is ever going to use them again -- what reason would a company cite to keep them and sue us for not leaving them be? Sidewalk (PUBLIC-RIGHT-OF-WAYs) space is valuable and these things are ugly. We have enough uglies on our treacherous sidewalks.
DeleteI suggest we apply to designate it as an Historic Landmark!
ReplyDeleteThen end the historic use and apply for a grant to remove them. Problem solved, Win! Win!
DeleteWiFi hotspots?
ReplyDelete