Statement of the Historic Districts Council
Before the NYC Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications
(DoITT)
February 26, 2004
Re: Proposed and Amended Rules relating
to the regulation of Public Pay Telephones
The Historic Districts Council is the advocate
for New York City’s designated historic districts and neighborhoods
meriting preservation. The core belief of the Historic Districts
Council is that the preservation and enhancement of New York City’s
historic resources – our neighborhoods, buildings, parks,
and public spaces – are central to the continued success
of the city. The Historic Districts Council is pleased to testify
before the Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications
today in support of the proposed amended rules prohibiting advertising
on new public pay phones in Manhattan Community Boards 1 –
8.
The Historic Districts Council has long been deeply
concerned about the proliferation of public pay telephones and
their effect on New York City’s historic neighborhoods.
In the past five to ten years, New York City’s sidewalks
have been bombarded with a proliferation of public pay telephones.
Usage of these pay phones is down, as cellular phones become more
common. However, ironically, the number of public pay phones has
multiplied. Pay phone companies argue that they are providing
a public service, but really the increasing abundance of the pay
phones is a result of the advertising revenue they produce, not
a public need.
Today’s public pay telephones are a jarring
presence in our historic streetscapes, as in essence they have
become billboards plastered throughout our neighborhoods. The
problem has been most severe in Manhattan neighborhoods like Greenwich
Village, Midtown, the Upper East Side, and the Upper West Side,
where telephone companies feel that they can profit the largest
from advertising. The Historic Districts Council commends DoITT
for recognizing that the over-saturation of public pay phones
and their corresponding advertising have had a detrimental effect
on the quality of life in Manhattan’s neighborhoods.
We strongly support the proposed amendments to
DoITT’s rules that prohibit advertising on new public pay
phones in Manhattan’s Community Boards 1 – 8. Although
these rules do not correct the problems created by the existing
over-abundance of telephones and their advertising panels, we
firmly believe that this is at least a step in the right direction.
These regulations are needed to ensure that Manhattan’s
neighborhoods are not further denigrated by inappropriate advertising
on public pay telephones.
While we fully support these proposed rules, we
feel that more needs to be done to protect our neighborhoods from
public pay telephone incursions. New Yorkers are besieged daily
with commercial signage on not only telephones, but also on building
facades, storefronts, newspaper kiosks, garbage cans, buses, subway
entrances and sign trucks. The Historic Districts Council urges
DoITT to further strengthen its rules to address the problem of
the existing proliferation of advertising on telephones. One key
step could be outright prohibiting advertising on relocated telephones.
Furthermore, we ask that the city limit the size
of the new telephone structures in Manhattan Community Boards
1 – 8. Most public pay phone structures are quite large,
merely to allow for the advertising display. These large pay phone
structures not only interrupt pedestrian flow but also block the
view of storefronts and New York’s wonderful architecture.
Large, dominating telephone structures will no longer be needed
in Manhattan below 110th with these new regulations, and we ask
that the city’s regulations reflect this by mandating smaller,
less obtrusive structures.
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