The city’s burgeoning tech scene may be a recent development, but that’s all the more reason for its “It” boys and “It” girls to want to roll old-school. “A 212 can also make it seem like you are an early adopter — like you had a cell before they even devoted area codes to them. They are a conversation piece,” says Allison Mooney, media and marketing theorist at Omnicom’s MobileBehavior. “212 numbers are the new rent-controlled apartments,” chimes Ashley Granata, chief marketing officer at start-up Fashism. AT&T says it doesn’t currently have any 212 digits up for grabs. But that hasn’t stopped Foursquare co-founder Naveen Selvadurai from nabbing himself one by undisclosed means. Further proof that few things happen in New York that didn’t already happen in an episode of Seinfeld.
212 Lust: Old Phone Numbers Are New Thing in Tech Scene [Metropolis/WSJ]
