Seriously, I think I felt more comfortable with how Times Square was before with all the traffic (and even before that when it was really, uh, gritty…) … this is totally geared to tourists. It feels antithetical to what New York is (and can be). Now it is reported that the Bloomberg Administration is selling off the rights to use this “public space,” a definite pattern, according to an article in yesterday’s New York Times:
When Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg announced plans in February to close stretches of Broadway to traffic to create pedestrian plazas, it was billed as a way to ease congestion and create oases for walkers, people watchers, idlers (chairs and tables were provided) and cyclists. Since the car-free zones were opened in May, they have been home to predictable urban vignettes: tourists resting with their shopping bags, New Yorkers pausing with their cellphones as buses go by a few feet away.
But the plazas can also make money for the city.
Fred Kent, founder and president of Project for Public Spaces, is quoted about the risks involved:
“If it’s a public event, then that’s O.K., but what can happen very quickly is they can be privatized and limit public use and public access,” Mr. Kent said. He cited the Bryant Park fashion shows as an example of the latter, calling them “the most egregious private use of public space anywhere in the world.”
These “pedestrian plazas” are located: “on Broadway at Times Square from 47th to 42nd Street, at Herald Square from 35th to 33rd Street, and where Broadway and Fifth Avenue meet between 22nd and 25th Streets. Smaller plazas, called Broadway Boulevard, take up one lane of Broadway between 42nd Street and Herald Square.”
Photos: Cat
Cathryn,
I suppose life will take me to this New new Times Square, but I have no desire to go there of my own free will. And as for The Giuliani Disneyfication: What a terrible terrible job. Things could have been restored with respect and appreciation for the history and this would only have enhanced the tourism. I agree with you about preferring the old Times Square to this blunder. At least a lot of the old theaters were not disturbed.
I agree with Jennifer, Times Sq. has become a hodge-podge and it makes no sense. It would be better to have a purpose in mind rather than “urban sprawl”.