The payphones left behind, or not really

Ah, the payphone—perhaps one of the oldest and most exposed amongst the dying breeds of yesteryear's devices as technology marches on, the last bastion of physically shared, publicly accessible telecommunications services. As each year brings ever more payphone casualties, the ones that are (and are not) getting left behind—specifically in low-income areas—is fast becoming an issue as residents of said areas believe (rightfully so) that not having access to local payphones can be a safety issue when they can't even afford that other kind of phone feeling the cellular pinch,
the land line. But it's the low-income areas that are most likely to see their payphones disappear first, so what's a citizen to do but lobby for federally subsidized public telephones? Just don't get us started on Verizon's rigmarole about not even being able to recover the cost of a dialtone in some areas—we have a sneaking suspicion payphones don't cost nearly as much to maintain as they'd have us believe.