Murray Hill Neighborhood Association

Your Help is Needed

Feb 21, 2001

The owners of those sprouted telephone booths have not yet responded to the pressure MHNA and other civic groups are applying . Our Council members are doing the best they can but they too need a barrage of letters to exert the necessary community pressure. There are several provisions of the regulation upon which we base our demand that they be removed. Please see the partial list that follows, make note of the one(s) that apply to the booths in your neighborhood, and write to:

Dir. of Enforcement and Community Affairs
Dept. of Information Technology and
Telecommunications (DOITT)
11 Metro Tech Center, 3 Floor
Brooklyn, N.Y. 11201

Then send copies of your letters to:

Councilwoman Margarita Lopez
237 First Avenue, Room 405
New York, NY 10003
and
Councilwoman Christine Quinn
265 West 40 Street, Suite 803
New York, NY 10018

Unless authorized by the Commissioner in writing, public pay telephones shall not be installed within:
?• 5 feet of a canopy
?• 4 feet of a mailbox located at the curb line
?• 4 feet of a street light
?• 3 feet of a parking meter
?• 5 feet of a tree (without a tree pit)
?• 3 feet of the edge of a tree pit or planter located at the curb line
?• 3 feet of a sign pole

Pay phones must be located at least 50 feet from any other such pedestal or structure on any one block and adjacent corner quadrant, and they may not be located within 10 feet of the extended building line at the corner of intersecting streets. In addition, according to DOITT, advertising may not be placed on the kiosks in residential areas and even in non-residential areas advertising is not permitted unless the dial tone is operational.

There are many other restrictions, too numerous to list here. Therefore, we urge you to write as requested above?—if you send a copy to your councilwoman, she will send you a list of requirements regulating the installation of phone booths.

Please do your part ?— Write today!