CityBridge has rolled out a small number of LinkNYC units in Forest Hills, along Queens Boulevard. I had seen mention of the Queens Links several weeks ago but did not take note of exactly where they had been placed. So I encountered them on Saturday purely by chance.

With only a few devices activated along this stretch of road the Links do not yet hog sidewalk space as greedily as they do on Third and Eighth Avenues in Manhattan. But residents should expect that to change. Links could be as close together as every 50 feet, forming oceanic waves of ceaselessly blinking advertising. If their quantity Third Avenue is any indication we should expect to see hundreds of Links up and down Queens Boulevard, as far as they eye can squint.

As one of the very few New Yorkers who actually looked forward to the arrival of Links I find that my empathy for them has evaporated. I wanted to like them but I just do not. They are ugly towers of aluminum and irritatingly blinking advertising. Seeing these Queens Boulevard Links unexpectedly and in a new context only reinforced that sentiment. I mean really, does anyone consider this thing to be truly iconic or even remotely beautiful?

I had to laugh, however, when I first spotted the Link at Queens Boulevard and Ascan Avenue. The irony of this would be lost on most but it stood out to me like a blinking billboard in the desert. That particular Link unit is outside Portofino restaurant, where the payphone seen in the photo on the right used to be. Portofino was the meeting place of the Independent Payphone Association of New York (IPANY), an organization which essentially ceased to exist when CityBridge was awarded its monopoly franchise. CityBridge acquired the payphone assets of about a dozen small payphone service providers, buying out those companies’ equipment at what was described to me as a laughable pittance.

If the IPANY’s meetings still take place at Portofino then the proceedings would now occur under the blinking, watchful eye of the LinkNYC monolith that put its membership out of business.

The picture above of the woman using a Titan payphone was taken in April, 2013, at the only meeting of the IPANY I ever attended. I was there at the invitation of a couple of IPANY members, and over the objections of others who either hated or did not understand the Payphone Project web site. It truly was one of the oddest encounters of my life, one which probably should never have occurred. But that story is for another day. Suffice it to say that one of the unfortunate assumptions people make about me and my otaku-like interest in payphones is that I must have a background in phone phreaking or deathly hacker anarchism. I am nothing like that, and I have no connections to speak of with those worlds.

Admittedly, it’s been a while since I publicly articulated why I maintain this interest, though I may have an opportunity to do that on national television in a few weeks. I’ve been taking something of a low road on web site content of late as I focus once again on my slow-moving book project.

While CityBridge rolls out its LinkNYC project the consortium remains responsible for maintaining thousands of outdoor payphones it acquired from IPANY member companies such as BAS Communications, American Payphone, TCC Teleplex, and others. As far as I can tell the CityBridge consortium has actually done a pretty good job of keeping the dial tone humming. Outdoor payphones around town can generally be expected to work.

Each payphone contains a placard — which absolutely nobody reads — containing rate information, collect calling instructions, and other minutiæ. CityBridge’s placards most closely resemble those formerly found on Van Wagner’s payphones, and appear to have been printed from that template.

For some reason the IPANY logo appears on CityBridge’s payphones. I don’t know if the IPANY’s former membership would take offense but I think it is strange for CityBridge to brand itself with the logo of the organization it essentially erased. I mean, if a professional athlete were traded from one team to another would she still wear a jersey with the logo of her former team? Probably not.

As far as pouring salt on the wounds CityBridge might as well have put the IPANY logo on its LinkNYC devices.

HOMELESSNESS AND LinkNYC

The verdict on social media seems to be that LinkNYC devices are magnets for vagrants, the homeless, and inebriated derelicts. It is hard to argue with that conclusion. Speaking for myself any time I see someone sleeping on a sidewalk I assume that a LinkNYC device had been installed nearby.

Social media, of course, has a way of blowing things out of proportion. I’ve seen the same encampments as anyone else but I’ve also seen plenty of people using Links in the manner they were intended. That is to say I’ve seen people bent over and screaming as loud as they can to make a phone call that can be heard in its entirety half a block away. I’ve seen travelers and tourists nervously standing there, charging their phones as the world shuffles past, bumping into them.

On Saturday I spotted this gentleman, who emerged from a subway station and made a beeline to the LinkNYC device. He told his friends (not seen here) that he was going to use this device to get directions to whatever place they were headed.

But the balance of what is washing up on social media paints a troubling picture of the company and its product. Whoever manages Twitter and other accounts for LinkNYC is very selective about whom they respond to and which comments are not deleted. Every bit of smart city propaganda and every cheerful reply to a LinkNYC user seems to be followed by a steady parade of complaints and pictures of homeless people setting up encampments at the devices.

CityBridge actually deleted a Facebook conversation in which I and woman named Emma commented on the godawful call quality of Links, particularly when compared to traditional payphones. I won’t be offering CityBridge any more constructive feedback, but I hope Emma will.

Now I worked corporate for a bunch of years so I know what it means to maintain the party line, so to speak. It can be a damned uncomfortable position to be in. You find yourself, a human being, formulating responses that defend your business plan with propagandistic double speak that essentially responds to questions no one actually asked. It’s a genuinely tough spot to occupy.

But I also know from experience how condescending corporate entities can be to their customer base, particularly when the product they deliver is passed off as “free”.

But if a company is paying you to do something you gotta stick to script, however bad it makes you look. You’re lucky when you can hide behind an anonymous screen name.

I spotted one particularly funny exchange earlier today. I won’t bother looking for a screengrab since they probably already deleted it. Someone posted a comment about an issue they had with a LinkNYC device. The response from LinkNYC was to please send them a screengrab, so they could assess the situation. The response to that was something like “I’m a LinkNYC user, I don’t have a smart phone!”

Next!