Homeless in Vancouver: Pay phone paid the ultimate price

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      Here’s a relic of a bygone era: the pay phone in the 2500 block of South Granville Street—or what’s left of it.

      It's been left like this for months. One day it will be gone, never to return.

      Nine years ago, I remember all the professional panhandlers of South Granville gave the pay phones steady business calling their preferred dial-a-dope services. Now they all have cell phones.

      The only working pay phone I know of near South Granville is one street east on the corner of West Broadway Avenue and Hemlock Street by the Mac’s Convenience store—thank goodness for Google Street View!

      Stanley Q. Woodvine is a homeless resident of Vancouver who has worked in the past as an illustrator, graphic designer, and writer. 

      Comments

      2 Comments

      I

      Apr 27, 2014 at 9:41am

      There was another pay phone on Fir and Broadway, and it was in use until last year. Hopefully, no one will destroy the last one after reading this article.

      ringring

      Apr 27, 2014 at 12:57pm

      Sounds like some govt ruling that requires the phone co to maintain a certain number of pay phones since it makes sense in this age of the ubiquitous cell phone that all of them should be totally gone by now and we all know that the govt a lot of times does things that dont make a helluva lot of sense.