Real New Yorkers Dig the New Times Square

We’ve been meaning to post this vid from culture mag ANIMAL New York (h/t Gothamist), which neatly undercuts the argument that the newly pedestrianized Broadway is "only for tourists." Sure, the tourists are grateful not to be jostling for space right next to traffic anymore, but so are lots of people from the five boroughs. It is, after all, where 158,000 people go to work every day. Take that, Andrea Peyser.

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AAA Plunges Dagger in the Heart of the New Times Square

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In a stinging rebuke to New York City’s street safety methods, the latest issue of Car and Travel, a.k.a. AAA New York magazine, serves up a razor-sharp critique of Broadway’s new pedestrian plazas: Newly digitized AAA mag: crazy for cars, mad about pedestrian streets. The “test project,” now four months old, has been criticized by […]

Mayor Speaks at Times Square Pricing Rally

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Supporters of congestion pricing rallied yesterday in Times Square, urging state lawmakers to act by July 16 on Mayor Bloomberg’s initiative or risk losing $500 million in federal funds. "The time is now," said the mayor, according to the New York Post. "We cannot walk away from this opportunity."  Shouting out to tourists in a […]

Bratton: Times Square Plazas Will Stay

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The de Blasio administration has finally put to rest the idea of yanking out the Times Square pedestrian plazas. Was that so hard? Erik Engquist at Crain’s reports that Police Commissioner Bill Bratton said City Hall will see through the $55 million capital construction project to cast the plazas in concrete, which has been in […]

In the Tortured Mind of Steve Cuozzo, Even Street Trees Are a Threat

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Well it finally happened. Steve “Quixote” Cuozzo has conceded that the Times Square pedestrian plazas, the project to which he has devoted two years of relentless tilting, are a hit. Not only are they “popular with burger-chomping tourists,” writes Cuozzo in Thursday’s column, such a draw are Times Square’s new public spaces that they threaten […]

Broadway Ticket Sales Are Through the Roof. Damned Plazas!

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In case you missed it, the Broadway theater business is booming. According to the Broadway League, the 2014-2015 season saw the highest attendance in at least 30 years. In 2009-2010, gross ticket sales topped the billion-dollar mark for the first time in history, and have only gone up since. Something else happened in 2009. It’s when New York City […]