Puhleeeeeze, Can I Have a Quarter (or Two)?

Like every kid who grew up in New York City, the expectation was that you would be treated to a “ride” in return for being dragged by your parents to some shopping mall for school clothes. My parents used to display a sadistic glee in tormenting me, saying that they were all out of quarters and that I should think about getting a job. I was five. Eventually, after purchasing garments which my schoolmates would inevitably ridicule me for wearing, Mom and Dad would crack and give me a quarter so that I could get my payoff for consenting to wearing a turtleneck (it was the 1970s). You should have seen what they’d make me go through for a Carvel ice cream cake on my birthday, but that’s another story.

Coin Operated Vending Machines, that’s the official designation of these mechanical bits of street furniture.

The City of New York, as you’d imagine, has a series of rules governing these items. Page 18 of this DSNY document at nyc.gov offers regulation §16-118(2), excerpted below:

Coin Operated Rides Coin operated rides may be placed on a sidewalk adjacent to a commer- cial establishment. However, no portion of any ride may extend more than five feet from the building line. In addition, at least nine and one- half feet of unobstructed sidewalk must be maintained between any ride and the street. Coin operated rides may not be bolted to the side- walk or chained to lampposts or other street furniture. Coin operated rides must be removed from the sidewalk between the hours of 9:00pm and 9:00am every day…

The yellow horsey in the shot above, from Steinway Street in Astoria, is the same mold as the green one in the shot below.

It’s actually the paint jobs that draw my eye, not the remembrances of pre adolescent angst. There’s a real quality to some of these items. The equine mold enjoys a wide distribution, and I’ve seen it painted dozens of different ways. This one was found in Astoria as well, over on 31st Avenue around 34th or 33rd Street in front of a bodega.

Another common mold, spotted in Sunnyside on Greenpoint Avenue, sporting an outrageous paint job.

One of the local bodega owners told me that the machine he has in front of the shop is owned by a company with whom he splits the proceeds. Surprisingly, he said that the thing can earn anywhere from $600 to $800 a month. Not bad for an electric piston with a fiberglass mold and a speaker that plays a song.

Here’s another version of the mold above, again from Sunnyside.

I was getting myself prepared to research the heck out of Coin Operated Vending Machines in New York City, but thank God somebody else has already uncovered all the details and I don’t have to. Check out this fantastic article at The Awl, by Natalie McMullen, which tells the story of The Vending Company Inc. McMullen names the artist responsible for many of these rides as a fellow named Javier Agredo.

Right on the border of Woodside, Sunnyside, and Astoria on Northern Boulevard at 48th Street is this blue bunny.

I’d like to ask you a serious question right now, though. Do you have any quarters? I’ll wear the turtleneck, I promise.

Newtown Creek Alliance Historian Mitch Waxman lives in Astoria and blogs at Newtown Pentacle.