Gothamist: Making It Harder To Destroy and Walk In Times Square

Thanks Jen

Thu, 23 Sep 2004 17:25:03 -0500

Jen, that was a very dignified and gracious reply to nobody's gratuitous and petty rant. Keep up the good work.

Cheryl Gladstone

Thu, 23 Sep 2004 17:18:27 -0500

Midblock Passageways are the hidden jewels of Times Square! You should check out the 44th-49th Street connection (between 6th and 7th Aves)...

B Fox

Thu, 23 Sep 2004 16:25:45 -0500

Forgot the URL sorry: http://www.vision42.org

B Fox

Thu, 23 Sep 2004 16:22:18 -0500

I'm not involved with this but spending time in the European countries car free walking districts it seems this would be an ideal solution. Make Times Square on big pedestrian mall.

Ben

Thu, 23 Sep 2004 16:17:49 -0500

> Nobody, thanks for your catches. I do try to > read my posts before publishing, but things fall > between the cracks, given other demands, like > making sure the server is running and getting to > my job on time. Jen, don't change a thing. It's part of the charm of gothamist. Gothamist writes like New Yorkers walk and talk, which is wherever the most open path lies--sometimes that's at the light, sometimes not.

Tim N.

Thu, 23 Sep 2004 16:15:08 -0500

Jenny, I like your attitude. Replace the planters with tourist centers!

Max

Thu, 23 Sep 2004 16:14:09 -0500

L'Emmerdeur- wow- BOFR- blast from the past- what an excellent book. I will have to go brush up on my Samurai skills before tackling TS again.

King Hippo

Thu, 23 Sep 2004 15:34:58 -0500

Sidewalks? there are sidewalks in times square? If I find myself walking in the area I usually just haul ass in the street, just off the curb. Tourists are (rightfully) wary of walking slowly amid the onslaught of frenzied motorists, making it an ideal express lane for hurried (and alert) pedestrians.

L'Emmerdeur

Thu, 23 Sep 2004 15:02:18 -0500

Rush 'em, Knock 'em down, Leave 'em bloody on the ground. Or: read The Book of Five Rings. Learn how to focus your gaze on a point in the distance, then de-focus. This will give you a wide-angle perspective on activity, allowing you to see multiple threats (tourists, barriers) without focusing on any single threat. Your body will then naturally find a clear path through the chaos. Try this for a while, and you will wonder why you ever found Times Square annoying. Nobody: this isn't the LA Times, you know.

Aatom

Thu, 23 Sep 2004 14:48:36 -0500

I walk from Port Authority to Rock Center every day, and I tend to enjoy the challenge of zigzagging through the throngs of bovine-esque onlookers. It's akin to playing a video game, really. If I'm not in the mood, I take 8th Ave., which is the least offensive of the surrounding throughfares, and the late night crackhead/porn palace action is always amusing.

jenny

Thu, 23 Sep 2004 14:37:03 -0500

aren't the tourists enough of a barrier? why add to it? so a few people from Kansas die to save an entire building. so what?

Jen

Thu, 23 Sep 2004 13:23:18 -0500

Nobody, thanks for your catches. I do try to read my posts before publishing, but things fall between the cracks, given other demands, like making sure the server is running and getting to my job on time.

Times Square Lawyer

Thu, 23 Sep 2004 12:16:14 -0500

I work at the law firm in the Morgan Stanley building. Another reason for the planters on the sidewalk was the crowds from the double-decker buses and fake sunglasses vendors. The crowds from the lines of tourists waiting to board the buses were out of control and had snaked around the corner. Of course, the lines are still there, so nothing's changed.

mike c

Thu, 23 Sep 2004 12:12:28 -0500

The convenient walk to and from my office on 7th and 37th and my house in Hell's Kitchen is always an exercise in choosing the best of the worst situation. Walking 9th Ave has the least amount of people but the most undesirable characters (drunks, crackheads), and you have to walk under the Port Authority overpass. Scary stuff, at times. 8th Ave requires walking past the front of PA (ugh!) and playing human Frogger as you avoid getting run over by the Garment District push carts. And 7th is just pure Times Square hell, but smells better than the other two options, and you do get to see some attractive foreign tourists.

mike

Thu, 23 Sep 2004 12:02:19 -0500

I avoid Times Square whenever possible, including the subway station (mainly 'coz I get lost in it!). They should expand the sidewalks, and get rid of those stupid planters. This town is turning into a fortress.

Tim N.

Thu, 23 Sep 2004 11:59:45 -0500

Stuff like this reinforces my thought that things like these planters don't stop terrorists but do make it a little harder for New Yorkers to enjoy their city. Measures are vital, no one argues that. But when the powers that be aren't trying to keep us safe from Cat Stevens, they might want to get some input from the folks who live/work in the area.

nickel

Thu, 23 Sep 2004 11:32:07 -0500

Sadly, the popular wife-husband coffee/egg sandwich cart was booted from their ideal location in front of Morgan Stanley because of those humongous planters. They've been moving spots along that street, but business is not so good now, the wife said to me the other day. Last I saw them, they were packing up their cart in front of the W Hotel this morning, perhaps ordered to do so by a policeman standing nearby.

nickel

Thu, 23 Sep 2004 11:30:33 -0500

Anon

Thu, 23 Sep 2004 11:29:18 -0500

Throw dem bows.

pete

Thu, 23 Sep 2004 11:27:35 -0500

Rollerblades, pads, and a hockey stick.. :)

pete

Thu, 23 Sep 2004 11:27:24 -0500

Rollerblades, pads, and a hockey stick.. :)

jay kay ess

Thu, 23 Sep 2004 11:22:45 -0500

My "strategy?" To never, ever go above 34th St. Ick.

Nobody

Thu, 23 Sep 2004 10:55:35 -0500

Don't you read your posts before you click Submit? You're working with perhaps the easiest publishing medium in history -- you could at least take sixty seconds to read your own posts, as a courtesy to your readers. Also, spellcheck would be nice. "Dunlap determines that the obstrusive [sic] '41 dark gray, eight-foot-long concrete planter tubs and 16 cylindrical planters." "why Morgan Stanley or anything organization" "(the JCC on the Upper West Side a perimeter of concrete on its corner)" "we look at the mammoth barriers are almost as bad as the teeming packs"

Jaclyn

Thu, 23 Sep 2004 10:44:05 -0500

Avoid it at all costs