Traffic Free Time Square?

[tking001]

Posted: 9/7/09 at 8:42pm

I remember reading that they were going to try it for the summer. I haven't heard anything about them opening it back up to traffic and honestly I think its a great thing to have a part of NYC traffic free. Anyone know if it'll stay this way?

[TheatreFan4]

Posted: 9/7/09 at 8:44pm

If you read the article when it was announced then you would know that it's a trial run until the end of the year. If the results are deemed positive then it will stay.

[Drunk Chita Rivera]

Posted: 9/7/09 at 9:12pm

It seems like they have made it pretty permanent. I think it is great and can't imagine it without the extra space. It has not made traffic that bad.

[wdwfreak]

Posted: 9/7/09 at 9:20pm

I think they made it permanent because they have curbs up where the chairs are and they added a new area of blacktop so its higher than the rest of the roads so I am imagining that it is staying.

[Lumen2]

Posted: 9/7/09 at 9:20pm

I think it's just another step towards making New York a little more like Disney World every day. Honestly, it's a city, cities have traffic, not permanent block parties.

[ashley0139]

Posted: 9/7/09 at 9:24pm

Lumen, I COMPLETELY agree with you. I expect soon they'll be charging admission to get into it.

[Eos]

Posted: 9/7/09 at 10:43pm

Lumen2, I agree with you, too. I was up there a few weeks ago - it's like a big outdoor mall. Ew.

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 9/7/09 at 10:50pm

It sucks. Times Square officially died when this happened.

[givesmevoice]

Posted: 9/7/09 at 10:52pm

I like it because now I can walk on the sidewalk without people slowing me down.

[SNAFU]

Posted: 9/7/09 at 11:01pm

Times Square died for me the day Disney stepped in. It made a gritty true New York area become a n Epcot style NYC attraction.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 9/7/09 at 11:20pm

I live in New York, I love it. It keeps the tourists from standing on the sidewalk, staring, they can stand out of the way. Also, TimeS Square.

[Chrysanthemum62001]

Posted: 9/7/09 at 11:22pm

Hate it. But I understand why it's there.

[Plum]

Posted: 9/7/09 at 11:57pm

Somewhere along the leap from "more pedestrian space in Times Square" to "Disney World" I must have lost the thread. I'm really not seeing the connection. Since when is Manhattan about cars, anyway? Cities are different than boring suburbs precisely because they're more pedestrian-friendly and cars are optional. That's what gives New York an active street life in front of its stores while a row of stores in the suburbs will be fronted by only a parking lot.

Besides, cities all over the world have outdoor plazas, so again, I'm really not seeing the Disneyfication thing here. If anything, fewer cars and a livelier street scene make the area more truly urban than it was before.

Maybe it's because I'm a perpetual pedestrian, but I love the new arrangement and all the many paths it gives me for walking around the slow-moving tourists in the area, the seating areas I can use while I'm waiting for showtimes, the way I can cross the street quickly instead of waiting for a bunch of drivers who should probably have taken the subway anyway. I find cars to be far more anti-city than the Disney Store. (I probably read too much Jane Jacobs as a child.)

[dramamama611]

Posted: 9/8/09 at 12:06am

I was one of those folks that thought it sounded ridiculous at first. I even laughed when I saw the first lawn chairs.

Now, after a summer of it? I kind of enjoy it. Nicer to move through it if you need to be in the area, and I like having a place to kick back for a few minutes.

[Lumen2]

Posted: 9/8/09 at 12:11am

In recent years, New York has become less about "real life" and more about "real money", to put it in the most inarticulate way. Closing off Times Square to traffic, which is an intersection, is basically Bloomberg's way of encouraging more tourist activity in the hot spot. It gives them safe havens from any woes, lots of cheap stores, and Broadway theaters crammed-full of musicals based on movies. Not to mention the patio chairs and tables and the ugly beige gravel. It's seizing one of the busiest intersections, a mainstay for New Yorkers who actually need to get to and from work, and handing it over to tourists.

It's not just Times Square; all of New York is getting plasticized, like that horrible new Hollister flagship store or basically anywhere on 7th Avenue. I chose "Disney World" as an adjective because that's exactly what this action is doing: turning a city into an amusement park.


"Cities are different than boring suburbs precisely because they're more pedestrian-friendly and cars are optional."

I have no idea what you're talking about.
Updated On: 9/8/09 at 12:11 AM

[Marianne2]

Posted: 9/8/09 at 12:13am

I love how the 7th Ave. side there is still open. I know, they have to keep it like that. But, that's the side to go to if you want to get hit by a car or something.

[AlfieByrne]

Posted: 9/8/09 at 12:40am

Some of you are acting as if the whole traffic free Times Square has prohibited New Yorkers from getting to work.

Sure, it might block one of the routes that they can take, but... I don't think it had any huge impact on any real New Yorkers. Plus, if you hate the tourists, why do you work in the most touristy city in the world?

[Love the Tussin]

Posted: 9/8/09 at 12:48am

I honestly couldn't care less how "plastic" Times Square is. Who really hangs out there? I go only to see shows every few months, and honestly, I like not getting approached by prostitutes. If tourists don't bother to get outside of the Times Square area, they can think NYC is one giant M&M, Disney, and MTV wasteland for all I care. If you want to complain about the commercialization of Manhattan, lament the current East Village instead (although I'm fond of 1st Ave. and east).

[SNAFU]

Posted: 9/8/09 at 1:00am

Tourists check in and they don't check out!

[heo1128]

Posted: 9/8/09 at 1:10am

What I hate is those lawn chairs...how tacky.

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 9/8/09 at 8:10am

It's a wonderful addition to the city.

[bjh2114]

Posted: 9/8/09 at 8:39am

As someone who lives right around the area of Times Square, I love it. It reduces pedestrian traffic on the sidewalk (especially between 46th and 47th where the scaffolding is). I love that I don't have to be stuck behind dumb tourists at all times of day.

[Eris0303]

Posted: 9/8/09 at 8:50am

I always seemed to get stuck on 46th Street because the crowd was so thick you could barely walk through it. This was, partly, because of the musicians who would plant themselves at that corner and draw a crowd. It's nice to be able to get through that area on the days I do choose to walk up 7th.

[TimesSquareRegular]

Posted: 9/8/09 at 9:49am

As a long-time resident of the area, I am thrilled that this has finally happened - yes, the tacky lawn chairs were off-putting, but they have now been replaced as promised. Pedestrian traffic is much more manageable through the theatre district, and every time I've looked, Seventh Avenue vehicles are moving along without any of the predicted traffic jams.

Assuming everyone who shows up on these boards is a Broadway enthusiast, I can't understand why having lots of tourists (who keep the engines of NY theatre up and running) is a bad thing, or why making their NY visit a more pleasant experience is wrong.

[iWannaBEaSedaris]

Posted: 9/8/09 at 10:50am

It gives them safe havens from any woes, lots of cheap stores, and Broadway theaters crammed-full of musicals based on movies.

Yes, all FOUR of them.