Everyone loves the city’s new car-free, pedestrian plazas stretching from Times Square to the Flatiron District, except for drivers. Imagine that! The Department of Transportation has yet to release traffic speed figures that has at least one official branding as disappointing and to which we say too bad. |NYT|
The oft-hated lawn chairs in car-free Times Square are falling to pieces, a symptom of their immense popularity. Even after falling through one of the tattered temporary chairs, a Florida tourist still remarked, “This is unbelievable, uh, to be able to sit in Times Square.” Higher quality chairs will be in place by mid-August when the car-free project is expected to be completed. |WCBS|
As more and more people descend on Times Square to enjoy the newly created pedestrian spaces and temporary cheap furniture, it was inevitable that the NYPD would dispatch one of their citizen-surveilling towers. This SkyWatch turret was posted up on Broadway and 47th Street to keep a intrusively observant eye over tourists and transient New Yorkers alike.
Photo by ANIMALnewyork
Although many are eager to critique Times Square’s partially completed pedestrian plazas, Department of Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan says that the full assessment will begin when construction is completed in mid-August, adding, “You wouldn’t want to look at a Picasso that’s halfway done.” |NYT|
Weeks after even the Post stopped wasting words whining about the temporary furniture and plastic bollards in car-free Times Square, the Times mounted their own attack. Susan Dominus critiques the pedestrian space, a work in progress, saying it has “a rough, slipshod feel” and “looks a little unworthy of New York.” It’s the same analysis that could be made of Atlantic Yards, the World Trade Center, as well as every partially-finished construction project in the city. And she has a solution: Read more »
After Andrea Peyser’s unsuccessful attack on the new car-free Times Square, the New York Post dispatched two more “reporters” to the scene and later deployed a catchy headline. This time around they didn’t find European tourists puffing cigarettes in between layovers at Newark, but did spot some “hot-dog wrappers” and “McDonald’s bags.” Evidently, there’s a correlation between larger crowds and increased litter. Shocking indeed, but as we recall, overflowing garbage bins in Times Square—especially in front of that trashy Sabaro’s on West 47th Street—is about as common a sight as tourists and surveillance cameras. Read more »
Andrea Peyser isn’t the only columnist getting ranty about car-free Times Square. Following the Post columnist’s lead, Mike Lupica at the Daily News characterizes the pro-pedestrian project as “Bloomberg’s revenge” for Albany’s failure to pass congestion pricing. Then he calls the new Times Square a homeless shelter after spotting just one person taking a nap. |NYDN|
After reading Andrea Peyser’s pigheaded piece in the Post earlier this week describing how “Real New Yorkers” were pissed off about the prospects of a car-free Times Square, ANIMAL hit the streets to speak to the people, the ones sitting in all that “cheapo furniture” the philippic pundit railed against. As it turns out, the locals love it and the tourists are in heaven, despite being forced to sit in temporary plastic chairs like plebeians. Press play and watch their testimonials firsthand.
Times Square has always been a photogenic place, but more so now with its newly car-free blocks, the ones Andrea Peyser feels irrationally ranty about. Photographer Jook Leung shot several 360-degree panoramas of the pro-pedestrian project: atop the TKTS booth in Duffy Square and further south at 45th and 43rd Street. Click the images above for a preview but make sure to get the big picture of the new Times Square.
On the first day (the first day!) of the Time Square traffic renovation project, the New York Post’s ranty columnist, Andrea Peyser, wrote an op-ed already blasting the public space reclaiming improvement as an epic failure. She cites her disdain of all the “flimsy” and “cheapo furniture” people were sitting in, plus it’s apparently going to promote more cigarette smoking amongst European tourists filing in from Newark in between layovers. |NYP|
Editor-in-Chief:
Bucky Turco
Contributors:
Copyranter
Kari Ferrell
Marina Galperina
Website design:
Michael Ian Weinfeld
