[HN Gopher] The Last Public Payphone Kiosk on the Streets of New...
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       The Last Public Payphone Kiosk on the Streets of New York
        
       Author : ecliptik
       Score  : 12 points
       Date   : 2022-07-26 21:08 UTC (1 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.atlasobscura.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.atlasobscura.com)
        
       | abeppu wrote:
       | > https://www.firstpost.com/world/how-hurricane-sandy-forced-n...
       | 
       | This was a decade ago! I wonder if cell service (and power
       | infrastructure) is significantly more durable now than then? Or
       | in the next crisis of that sort, will there be no way to call
       | out?
       | 
       | At one point after Sandy, when lower Manhattan was still dark, I
       | could stand in a spot by the East River and send text messages
       | using what I think was a signal from Brooklyn -- voice and data
       | were not successful.
        
       | blowski wrote:
       | In the UK, the iconic red phone boxes are now used as public
       | libraries, defibrillator stations, and general photo backgrounds
       | for tourists. A few people even bought one for their back garden.
        
       | woodruffw wrote:
       | Maybe they're not technically public, but there's at least one
       | left at 100th and West End[1]. That photo is from August 2021,
       | but I believe it's still there.
       | 
       | [1]: https://goo.gl/maps/1rfTFRdjS6Anxz6L6
        
         | blatherard wrote:
         | Yeah, there are booths on West End and 90th, 100th and 101st
         | that I pass by on a regular basis (I live in the neighborhood).
         | There's also one on 66th, I think, but I can't say I've
         | personally been by it anytime recently.
         | 
         | Added: Here's a recent article about them
         | https://www.westsiderag.com/2022/05/24/rumors-of-the-phone-b...
        
       | Animats wrote:
       | Aw, they put it in a case where it can't be touched, rather than
       | hooking it up to a phone line and letting people make calls. Come
       | on. It's not like they're fragile.
       | 
       | When I used to do steampunk conventions, we had a telegraph
       | office, with working teletype machines and messengers. We also
       | had an old "French style" dial phone (actually a replica from the
       | 1970s) wired up for calls. This was a hit with small kids who had
       | never seen such a thing. "It's so heavy" said one little girl who
       | lifted the handset.
        
       | pvg wrote:
       | thread from May 2022, 252 comments:
       | 
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31512496
        
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       (page generated 2022-07-26 23:01 UTC)