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McCaffrey stood up for rights of outerboros

The late City Councilman Walter McCaffrey is now officially free from the scourge of term limits. How ironic that he was one of the first victims of term limits, which is nothing more — politically speaking — than the voters’ expression of a preference for a one-night stand.

Akin to fickle sweethearts, we now have profound remorse that Walter McCaffrey has departed the political arena. New Yorkers, however, can rest in peace as undoubtedly McCaffrey will be eternally embedded in the ultimate outerborough: heaven.

Given the scope of McCaffrey’s extraordinary legislative accomplishments, it might be easy to overlook the one that walked the talk. McCaffrey insisted that public pay telephones not be exclusive to Manhattan but that the city payphone franchise extend to all five boroughs.

In that bold and brazen act, McCaffery demonstrated that he did not forget where he came from — Woodside — and simultaneously created more jobs for pay telephone providers, many of which are small businesses, and brought more revenue to the city’s coffers.

Classic McCaffrey. Why hit a single when you can score a triple?

Oh, and we can still use that public payphone no matter where or when we might get stuck “between the moon and New York City.”

So take the quarter in your pocket and put it in the next public payphone you see — not in the coin slot, but in the bottom right return coin slot. Pay it forward: There is no better way to honor McCaffrey.

Frances E. Scanlon

Flushing