Snow Storm Call From 14th & 5th

 

I never noticed this pay phone before, it looks sleek and new. It looks like a pay phone booth in the Jetsons or some other imagined future that was imagined before the advent of the current mobile communication world in which snow now falls. 

14th & 5th, I’m here just about every week yet today during the beginning stages of a blizzard. This never struck my eye but that doesn’t mean it is or is not new and the telephone insignia and classic ma-bell logo are likely not retro details but signs this is a refurbished booth. Booth? Do you see any newspaper reporters changing into blue and red underwear? This be a phone Kiosk, baby. That’s what we are calling them now that everyone has a cellphone and nobody has to worry if they have a dime to drop when a personal emergency arises other than a thickening snow storm.

 

 

But the phone call is secondary, it’s the stupid ad on the side of the booth-like remnants of the kiosk where the real money is.

Titan. Why the hell is this kiosk promoting the largest moon in our solar system? It has nothing to do with the stupid ad on the side – promoting that worthwhile social activity – online gambling, now legal in New Jersey. And how do they do it? By highlighting the fact you do not have to go to Atlantic City – in “Jersey” – you know, because it’s just as much fun to sit in your cramped apartment as it is to go to a casino – and promotes this idea by using the term “nuts “ – you know, because refines to testicles are just so hilarious that they should be encouraged in any public space. Way to stay classy, New York City!

I digress. Turns out this Titan is not the home-world of Saturn Girl at all, but a company and a few years ago the Isle of Manhatto during the reign of the oligarch in chief, Bloomberg, awarded the pay phone franchise in the Big Apple, outbidding Verizon, who is now focused on ways to increase  your phone, cable and internet bills.

Some news gleaned by googling:  A couple of years ago Titan acquired “1,900 payphones at 1,300 phone kiosk locations in New York City from Verizon. This latest transaction will triple the Company’s inventory of New York Phone Kiosk media to over 5,000 advertising faces. This purchase follows a prior acquisition of 652 payphones at 462 Phone Kiosks locations from Verizon in 2009 and will complete the sale of Verizon’s entire New York City Phone Kiosk advertising inventory to Titan. With this acquisition, Titan will own the largest inventory of advertising Phone Kiosks in the five boroughs.”

“The phone kiosks generate $62 million in advertising revenue annually -- and last year the city got $13.7 million of the take, triple what it pulled in from calls.”

Apparently the contract is good through October 2014. Titan is already promoting another innovation, digital touch screens inside refurbished booths, oh shoot, I mean Kiosk.

 

The exteriors of course can still display ads that use retro Jersey jokes to and coarse humor that prey on gambling addicts by negatively impacting the tourist industry of a neighboring state, but the interior will be a touch screen that will automatically call 311 or hail a cab, you know, the very reasons why you bought that Big Apple App for your iPhone.

I found all that out though later, a few days later, when I decided to write up this latest installment of the Dislocations Pay Phone series.

I was bravely trudging through falling snow when I noticed the pay phone and thought about those calls of yore… hoping I get back to the suburbs early enough to pick up the kids or will I have to hear it from the wife. They have it so secure and happy with the lawn and the cable TV that I pay for and that driveway I pay fore that I will have to shovel before morning. I envy the freedom of my secretary with the rose tattoo on her wrist, her willingness to stay late because she only has to take a subway home to Williamsburg, where she’ll heat up soup her mother made, and the way she asked me if I have ever been to Williamsburg, her eyes shining hazel, those ruby red lips always moist and how her body reminds me of the body my wife used to have but instead of calling her I call the wife and tell her I’m heading to Hoboken right now and exaggerate how bad the snow is in the city and the way she tells me to be careful makes me forget about the secretary for a while at least.

 

 

 

So, the day dream swiftly passed and I noticed through the sheets of snow a pit and construction over that pit and remembered a story last week of a water main breaking and it knocked out electricity and water and even land phone service for like a ten block radius and Con-Ed had to make this pit to repair the damage and the repairs are still going on. The utility services were soon restored, but fixing that subterranean infrastructure takes more time. The construction workers out in the snow, doing their jobs, delaying the inevitable collapse of our decaying infrastructure. By maintaining what makes possible the quality of life for everyone within the vicinity of 14th and 5th these workers have homes to go to with food on their tables. 

 

 

 

14th & 5th pay phone, harkens back and ahead. The advertising space is more valuable than the function. Why let pedestrians going about their lives when you can however sublimely sell them something they don’t need – stay in your apartment and give your money to a casino without the free drinks, exciting atmosphere or campy lounge acts – what this city of commerce needs  are more messages of commerce.  Phone booths, oh, I mean, kiosks are mini-billboards and  in case of emergency, you can also make a call. Snow fall thickens, schools and business were closing early. Everyone here was busy getting somewhere else as quickly as they could, except for the blue collar workers who endured the inclement severity to repair what was in the pit that makes civilization possible.

Who notices Titan now  but I, now you.

 

 

Dunkin Donuts Pay Phone

Damn cell phone… no reception then the battery craps out… dunkin donuts, coffee, maybe a boston crème

 

 

I don’t remember a time when there was no Dunkin Donuts but it was never like now, with them everywhere. Not complaining. Coffee drinkers love their java. This one is on the edges of Downtown,  Grand Street. The lack of police enforcement of residential speed limits makes Grand Street a lawless highway, cross at your own risk. This Dunkin is on the edges of a strip mall anchored by Pathmark. This is now the last pay phone at the strip mall, where I documented one that is now gone. In fact, I believe this is the rare NEW pay phone. I have walked by here often and always have my eye out for pay phones for Dislocations long-running pay phone blog series. The pay phone I blogged about two years ago has been removed.

Probably this phone was put here for the emergency convenience of their customers. Maybe it was installed because Pathmark removed their last remaining unit. Pathmark used to be open 24/7, now it is not. Dunkin Donuts is perpetual and eternal.

 

 

What do you want from the store? Snow storm tomorrow, haven’t you seen the news? Pathmark. I’m right here. What do need?

Okay

Okay

Okay

Coffee. I thought we had coffee

Oh. Dunkin coffee. A cup.

All right, I’ll stop back here after the store. Chocolate Coconut too. Got it.

 

 

 

This Dunk is like a Dunkin superstore, you know, like the kind you find on the highway (gee, no wonder drivers and law enforcement alike ignore the legal Grand Street speed limit and pedestrians risk their life if they wish to head south).  It has a drive through, which was moving fast this afternoon. Coffee to go for our on the go society. I’m sure there’s an app so they can have your order ready upon arrival. But sometimes the plans go awry, order breaks down, and you need a pay phone.  At least it’s a call the NSA is not monitoring. 

No Dial Tone/No Pay Phone

 

Somebody in the pay phone business has a sense of humor.  I guess if you are still in that business you need a sense of humor. The personnel who collect the change from the pay phones put the No Dial Tone stickers on the receiver to notify the maintenance crews who still fix pay phones what the problem is. Apparently they came to this open phone kiosk and the pay phone was already gone – some have been designated to be removed, others will stay for emergency use when a cellphone malfunctions or by those smart enough to have realized that our wireless culture is increasing conformity and aliens are using your smart phone to insert those voices you are hearing in your head.

 

 

 

 

I think these individual pay phones are a newer species of this old technology. The older open booths were being maintained because they still provide some easy to ignore street advertising. No advertising here.

The battery is dead in my cellphone and I have to call 9-11 and report a crime.  There’s a pay phone shell at the corner – what! It’s gone! Only sarcasm remains. No dial tone and no phone is the same as no dial tone and a phone and probably preferable tot dial tone and no phone.

 

 

 

Live goes on in this neighborhood; the existence of a phone or not, a dial tone or not, matters not to everyone here, going about their business, living their life. But when you are here and you need a pay phone nothing else in life is as important as that dial tone.

New Platform, New Pay Phone

 

 

I’m calling from the platform. I’m using a pay phone. I’m about to get on the train, I hear it coming. Good Bye.

 

 

No new pay phones, you say. Guess you haven’t taken a N.J Transit Train lately, at least one that stops at one of their new platforms. Over the last few years, part of the shovel-ready stimulus spending I think, NJ Transit renovated several of their outlying stations in our Hinterlands. This phone was in Ridgewood, New Jersey and was even being used. There are still reasons to use a pay phone. Pre-renovation – which included construction of entirely new platforms – there was no pay phone on this platform before. Now the new platform has a new pay phone.

 

 

I wonder if the number of new pay phones in the United States number in the thousands, hundreds… dozens? Less? I even wonder about the word new. Is there a factory still making pay phones, or are they just refurbishing old ones? Those cast metal pay phone shells are built to last, survive all weather conditions. So many pay phones have removed. The transit system is one of the few sanctuaries left for this last century form of public communication, especially new ones and I wonder if the new ones are entirely new or are the old shells being recycled and refurbished.

 

 

 

I’m on the wrong platform. I’m waiting for the wrong train. I’m headed in the wrong direction. I need to call again, I’m going to be later… much later.

Exchange Place Calling

 Wasn’t there a row of open kiosk pay phones at the Exchange Place Path Station, a bank if you will? There, in the southern most corner, one last remaining open-air phone booth, a two phoner, with the WTC memorial in the background. What a nice view to call my baby and see if I should pick up milk on the way, oh wait a second. What century is this? That’s not the WTC, that was destroyed more than a decade ago, it’s the WTC memorial being constructed and the kiosk is empty, devoid of pay phone. I’ll have to use my cellphone. Oh crap, I’m in the PATH station, no reception.

 

The view is still nice. A woman feeds a hovering flock of sea gulls. People linger here, finishing their cup of coffee, and of course, leave litter where the phone used to be, like stones left by mourners on the tombstones in a Jewish cemetery. To be fair, because of security, there are no garbage pails within the PATH system. Safety first and besides, Jersey City has never been litter adverse.

 

 

 

I seem to recall that you could make a pay phone call without going through the turnstiles, but I guess that’s no longer true, you have to enter the PATH system to go to empty kiosk where pay phones used to be. Oh wait, in the other corner is an actual working pay phone kiosk. I’ve noticed this before, half the pay phones being removed – which leaves a half the number of pay phones and a glass half full optimistic attitude that the cell phone fad just might fade. Or maybe they just haven’t gotten around to removing this one yet. I know there were more phone kiosks here once upon a time

 

 

 

 

Exchange Place PATH only recently re-opened post Sandy. There is still abundant repair construction apparent. No one was using the working phones, not even for a place to leave litter and through the windows no seagulls were in view.

 

 

 

Tunnel Diner Calling

 I’m at the Holland Tunnel on the Jersey Side. I’m calling from a diner. I want to see you. I’m running out of dimes.

I wonder if the pay phone was removed before or after this diner closed. It’s been closed a while, think a couple years ago or so I took a picture of this closed diner. What a beautiful, classic neon Diner marquee. Tells us all we need to know. At the exit of the tunnel, 14^th street in Jersey City, the desolation that borders the Hoboken border. Just because the diner is closed, why should the pay phone be made defunct? Oh that’s right, everyone has a cellphone. Let’s hope it is working next time the car breaks down in the Holland Tunnel and they tow you to Jersey City. I realize this building has been fallow for a long time now, hard to believe some business couldn’t seen an opportunity here, what a location. In fact, I noticed it (but not the pay phone) two years ago. They sold the diner sign beneath the tunnel sign since then.

 

 

I don’t want to go back to the city. I’m here now. Tell me where you are. I’ll bring you a coffee and an egg sandwich.

23rd Street Station Calling

Sad, dingy, seen better days but who has not pay phone at the 23^rd Street Subway Station. Ever notice that as you head north up 6^thStreet towards uptown the PATH stations no longer are stand alone, NJ/NYC only transportation hubs but are conjoined with the New York subways, which are longer and traverse more geography and noticeably grimier.

Seems the receiver is new, but the pane of the phone kiosk is gone. Speaking of grime, seemed to be a film of it covering this relic of bygone public communication. I was actually getting a metro card before heading down the stairs toward the PATH and a friend called my cell – I guess you can now get reception at subway stations – and during our conversation I noticed this old pay phone. Life in Jersey City means you follow the PATH because why live here if you didn’t want (or is that need) to access the isle of Manhatt as easily and as often as possible. Yes, you use all the PATH stops eventually but life has a way of changing and you seem to frequent one more than the other for long stretches. When I first moved to J.C. , I worked near Chelsea and 23^rdStreet was the primary station; more recently it was 33^rd Street, from the late 90s to the early 00s, 9^th street.

So, 23^rd street is the rare one now, been a year almost since I was here I reckon. Now I know where I can use a Pay Phone when I feel the need to scream over the roar of the F Train.

 

Honey… I’m sorry we argued… I picked up sushi for dinner, at that place on 23^rd we ate at last Valentines Day? What… what did you say… you won’t be there, you’re leaving… there’s a train coming, I can’t hear what you’re saying... 

Pathmark Pay Phone

I’m on a payphone and wanted to axe you if you wanted oatmeal for Breafest. I am at the Pafmark and brought farina.

 

Now, before you accuse me of some sort of ethnic bias for that phonetic re-creation of a typical conversation from this phone, I’m here to say regardless of race, creed or color, if you were raised in Jersey City you pronounce the TH in Pathmark as an F or PH, which for whatever reason is the same as the pronunciation for the K in Breakfast. Just Axe (not ask) anybody. It’s some kind of inner city thing – just like saying brought for bought – it’s a rather obstinate bit of accent – technically might be a dialect– but it is quite common round these parts and really cuts across the board. I grew up in the suburbs, I do not have it and it has long ceased to grate my nerves but it still surprises me that you hear it from white, black and Spanish– regardless of background, all you need to possess this verbal tick is to be Jersey City born & bred.

I can’t believe I have never taken this phone before since I go to Pathmark just about weekly. It is there unused and not working (no dial tone so I assume it is no longer connected). One of the benefits of a mobile phone is that you can multitask, walk the aisles looking for provisions is good time to gab, even use the APP that shows you if something is cheaper at C-Town, I mean, a-hem, Key Food (very local humor here).

No Loitering. Let’s just make this clear. No loiter. Course, if youse are going to loiter the pay phone is primo spot.

 

There’s something end of the world about the Pathmark, separated by a fence and patch of lawn from the residential land on one side, then on the other Grand Street, which is anything but, just a grimy four laner. Old Colony Pathmark they call it, a strip mall nestled at the edge of Downtown.

 

There’s a pay phone. I keep remember those times, before our new common era, where we all have mobile communication, are rarely out of touch, when sometimes a pay phone was needed, your life dependent on it, and you knew where they were, the pay phones. There’s one at the Pathmark. There’s one at all supermarkets, more than one likely. Now this is the one that is left, the only one.

 

This puddle has nothing to with the pay phone; it’s in the lot on the other side of the building. Grackles were fluttering their wings, bathing in this misquote larva laden pond. It rained four days ago, the first rain in a week and Jersey City’s antediluvian drainage system means the puddles don’t go away, they just create bathes for birds and of course, the litter. This puddle was here when the pay phone was working and the only way to call from the supermarket

Bleecker Street Pay Phones

A Pay Phone was ringing/It just about blew my mind/when I picked it up and said hello/ this foot came through the line

 

Maybe this was the pay phone that inspired that Bob Dylan lyric, maybe this was the actual pay phone were a foot did come through the line, you never know, a lot of strange things happened in the pre-cellphone bohemia that was “The Village,” – before they had to classify it as the “west”village. Maybe not the same phone, but an earlier generation of the metal communication device operated by coinage that was in this exact same spot. This is the Bleecker Street Pay Phone Spot.

Easy to say that Bleeker Street is not what it used to be, and while maybe not as vibrant and certainly more subdued like all of New York, there remains a bohemianism (albiet more upscale) and general air of tolerance and freedom one cannot deny and that I always find refreshing when I find myself in this neck of the downtown Manhattan woods. 

Bleecker Street is still a Street of Dreams even if them dreams are only in your head.

 

There are still pay phones on Bleecker Street, well at least one. There used to be two here. Those following the Pay Phone Series on Dislocation might also have noticed this trend; one pay phone unit has removed.  I guess that due to non-use, the pay phone population has been reduced 50 percent. Not the kiosk, just the unit. The kiosk is left behind, a remnant of the past, a memorial to the drop a dime culture next to a functioning phone. You can tell it still functions cause of the wire that connects to the residential lines strung like world-weary spaghettis on along the poles. I love the line, it looks so temporary. I wonder when two empty kiosks will be here, when only pre-cellphone remnants are left on this corner.