I feel the same way. But then I'm also one of those cranks that insists on using public transit instead of owning my own car, which is the expected standard for most of the U.S., so you could say I just have a general chip on my shoulder in terms of expecting certain services to be available to the public and not suck. Pay phones are really becoming scarce, it's true - there was a big controversy here in SF a few years back about pay phones at bus stops, because the residents of a particular neighborhood insisted that people use them to sell drugs! Gasp! How that translated to nobody else should be able to use a public phone, I've never been able to figure out.

But... yeah. I really should have one. I've been trying to arrange for more contract work too, and I'm almost postive it's working against me to not have one.