Do you wonder who uses that grimy pay phone on East Thomas and Broadway in front of Bank of America? With cell phones, who needs payphones? Inspired by this piece in the New York Times about a pay phone in Queens, I set about learning more about the pay phones of Capitol Hill.
The East Pike pay phone outside Neumos. Icky. Useful. (Photo: Justin Carder)
The City of Seattle does not own any of the phones. Qwest sold them to FSH Communications. The Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission regulate these ones. There are less than 60 of these payphones in the city compared to 143 in 2003. They must bring in $3 a day or else they consider it “low-revenue.” Other companies own many other pay phones on the streets. They are required to get a permit before placing it in the public right of way. The property owner is given the choice of paying that cost (about $50) on a monthly basis or having the phone removed.
FSH does not own the payphone at Thomas and Broadway and therefore no records are on file. Is that a surprise? By comparison, the nearest “legitimate” pay phone is the one by the U.S. Post Office. It nets a whopping $3.12 per day. This keeps it just above the low revenue mark. Isn’t that the price of a burger of Dick’s?
During the day, I stake out the East Thomas phone for about 20 minutes. No one came around to use it, not even checking the coin slot for change. I walked by it a few times and milled about hoping someone would want to use it. Nope. It was not until I was going out for an evening that I finally saw someone using the phone. I was on the other side of the street and I quickly crossed over. There was a man talking boisterously into the phone. He gestures were animated and urgent. It seems he was trying to get a ride back to Burien. It was late and although the collected safety of the energetic patrons from Julia’s and its dance music from across the street was enlivening the area, I was not compelled to ask him the nature of his phone call. It was too late and, well, it’s none of my business. He needed that phone in that moment. He wanted to get off the Hill and back to Burien.
The next day, in the light of the sun (or this past weekend’s gray gloom), I did observe another person using the pay phone on East Thomas. The Broadway Sunday Farmer’s Market was in full swing despite the overcast. People were walking around sipping from cups of Vivace coffee, clutching bouquets of flowers, and holding sacks of newly purchased produce. The air smelled of the spicy food cooking from one of the booths. A young woman, clutching a pink cell phone, was at the phone. She appeared to be retrieving a number from it. She spoke in indistinguishable pouty chirps. I asked her why she was using the payphone when she clearly had a cell phone. “I’m out of minutes,” she said. “I’m just glad there is one around to make a call. They are really hard to find.”
There is another one of these pay phones. It is the one attached to Neumos on East Pike. I stop by the pay phone for comparison. I ask the hot dog vendor right next to it if he ever sees people making calls from it. “Yeah, all the time,” he said. I trust the hot dog vendor knows a lot about what goes on in the streets at night. They see us all at our most vulnerable , after all – when we are craving delicious hot dogs.
The cost of a phone call from that pay phone is 25 cents. The East Thomas payphone is ugly and for being mostly made of plastic and it being in the outdoors where it rains, it is very dirty. You can just imagine all the nasty mouths that once spoke into that receiver. I nervously pick up the receiver. Now, I am not germ phobic, but something about pay phones is just disgusting. I hold the receiver away from my ear to listen for the dial tone. Check. This phone works. It provides a great service to that guy who needed to be in Burien and to the woman who ran out of cell phone minutes. This pay phone saved their night and day.
Are you still wondering who uses that phone? It’s anybody who is in a bind to make a phone call to get them moving on.
This phone is something that contributes to the ugly clutter on our streetscape. Since it gets almost no use, why not remove it? But who actually owns it? At least, it will be gone with the demolition planned for that block, in early 2011.
I’m sure those few people who occasionally use this phone can survive without it. It’s just plain unnecessary.
Cell phone batteries die. Signals are lost. And sometimes, you want a landline so the person at the other end of the phone can actually hear you. Keep the payphones. Yes, they should be cleaner and better taken care of.
It’s no wonder that no one uses pay phones any more. Considering that anyone can get a prepaid cellphone and pay $10 every 90 days why would anyone not have a cellphone. The phone companies came upon a neat idea! If no one was going to use their phones they’d just jack up the minimum price for a call! That would sure be a way to entice people to use it. Ya think? The telcos have been abandoning pay phones for years. Qwest (soon to be CenturyTel) was one of the last to do so. Bell South got out of the payphone market years ago and all their phones went to a payphone vendor such as FSK. Qwest/FSK abandoned central office controlled payphones a while back in favor of the “chip controlled” phones which is why when you place a call you get a robo voice saying thank you when you’re done dialing. There was a time when a public pay phone wasn’t so ugly. They had honest to god booths that you could sit at. Last time I saw a real booth it was at the HUB at You Dub. Public pay phones are part of yesteryear technology along with telegrams. Even though AT&T stands for American Telephone and Telegraph there’s probably not been a telegraph sent over “AT&T” in 30 or 40 years. MCI the same way. MCI is “Microwave Communication Incorporated.” They haven’t use microwaves (other than in the company break room) in many many years.
When payphone disappear from the public landscape. I remember the pictures of people in line to use payphones in NYC on 9/11. I saw the images of Hurricane Katrina survivors knee deep in water, using payphones. Cell phone towers can get knocked out. Personally I used a payphone last winter during one of the blizzards in the northeast – I wanted to save my cell phone minutes and needed to make some local calls. I was glad to find a payphone at a nearby gas station to do that. There is a place for cell phones, but there is a place for payphones too. People wishing for them to enter the land of the telegraph, typewriter and turntable will regret it when their cell phone is lost, dead, has no signal, a cell phone tower is out, and they need to make an emergency call. Yes, you may be able to ask someone walking down the street. But personally, my business is my business, and I don’t want a stranger to hear my conversations. I guess I’m in the minority in this “all about me” country we’re in now.
Actually, it has been about 97 years since AT&T handled telegrams.
I do know the person who owns the phone in front of Neumos and several others on Broadway. He’s got a couple hundred around the puget sound and yes, it’s a dying business. Even at $3 a day times 200 phones times 30 days a month is about $18K per month. Some phones do better so it’s enough to pay the bills when you don’t have any employees but it takes a lot of time to run around and collect all that coin, fix the broken ones and clean them up. They’re still a necessity for some people.
there’s also a nice clean payphone in the capitol hill library. i’d be surprised if it nets $3 per day.
And why is this a blog post? I guess I answered my own question
I disagree: this is functional clutter – at least it serves a noble purpose (as opposed to empty newspaper boxes, and a-frame condo ads, and display racks for clothing) and can be used to call 911 when your precious cell is stolen.
Public phones are perfectly necessary, like public libraries with public computers.
I remember, though, that I was trying to get in touch with people via payphone on September 11, when I was still living in NYC, before I even owned a cell phone, and I had to call many, many, many times before I could get any sort of dial tone. I have no idea what was wrong with the phones I tried, but I know I eventually borrowed someone’s cell phone. Similarly, I have been in many storms that have knocked the phone lines out. Payphones are by no means reliable in an emergency. They pretty much only come in handy if no one near you has a cell phone.
I have a payphone by Thomas model#1955/1956. What I’m looking for is a replacement of the handset cradle. Is that something you can help me with? I will look forward to your reply.