In today's edition of A NY Times Study In Rich People, a couple moving to New York from Boston yearns for "his-and-her" 212 area codes, because nothing says MANHATTAN like shelling out hundreds of dollars for a "status symbol."
The couple in question, Kelli Parker and Andy Lippitt, reportedly purchased 212 numbers from a broker, presumably before swapping out their wardrobes for I <3 NY t-shirts and dining at Famous Ray's Original. Living in this city without the same area code as '90s television characters is as bad as, say, living in Boston, after all:
Ms. Parker did not want to get stuck with a number that started with 646 or 917 — the other area codes that will cover the borough until a fourth is added in a few years. To her, and others who recall New York City’s original first three digits, the only acceptable area code for a Manhattanite is 212.
“It’s New York City’s phone number,” Ms. Parker, 40, said. “It’s a status symbol most definitely.”
I should, for disclosure's sake, point out that I received a cell phone with a 917 area code—the first cellular code for the city—in 2001, and I care for it deeply. If I were forced to change my cell phone number in order to avoid contact with an ex who left me at the altar after six seasons of will-they-won't-they tension, I would go through the five stages of grief.
But if New Yorkers who've stuck around here long enough to have a 212 home line (because 212 is a home line code, not a cell phone code, geez) are selling their numbers to transplants who say things like, "I happened to tweet to a couple of friends that we got the number, and they were jealous," doesn't that lessen the whole idea of 212 as status symbol?
The demand for 212 numbers is apparent from the persistence of businesses like 212areacode.com, a phone number brokerage managed by David Day. Mr. Day said he had been selling 212 numbers for more than six years. He gets many of the numbers from businesses that are closing or shrinking, he said.
The legality of his operation had never been challenged, he said, but “as a precaution,” he recently changed his business model. He now charges a fee to allow people to have their calls forwarded from a 212 number of his to their own phones for a month. After that, he said, the customer can continue the call-forwarding service on a monthly basis or have the 212 number reassigned to a different phone.
Mr. Day said some people wanted 212 numbers for their cellphones to serve as conversation pieces. “People say, ‘A 212 number on your cellphone, how did you get that?’ ” he said.
But once all the old New Yorkers trade in their 212 landlines for 786 ones, won't post-646 numbers become the new badge of jaywalking courage? Think ahead, newcomers. Go for 347 while you've still got a chance—in fifteen years, a 212 cell number will mark you with a scarlet T.
Then again, according to this Times article, people are spending over $1000 on those 212 numbers, so if anyone wants to buy my parents' home line, let me know. I'm saving 917 to fund my retirement.
