I just came from Times Square, where I went to see a play -- and the transformation is amazing. Noise, smell and gridlock replaced by happy people talking, walking around, hanging out -- going in and out of stores, spending money, etc. -- and this on a miserable rainy day. Pushing back the cars and making Times Square pedestrian-friendly is a huge success. I've lived in Manhattan all my life and seen nothing like it. It makes me wonder when "nice" neighborhoods like the Upper East Side will get the same treatment -- they will be enormously better off.

This has the potential to be Bloomberg's biggest impact on the City: and as far as I can see, it is 100% positive, and huge.

Hey Bloomberg- When you hire a DOT Commissioner that prioritizes the economic impact of his/her decisions on LOCAL businesses and population; we will “stop ganging up.”

John puts down The Post, yet I’m sure he has The Daily installed on his iPad, and strokes himself at the very thought of being employed by them.

Tourist and shoppers can get off their fat butts and walk like most New Yorkers. This is all about people who live in ghetto cul-de-sacs being inconvenienced when they come in to town to shop at Macy's.

People who live in the suburbs like people in any other culturally isolated region react violently to change because they see so little of it. Suburban types see this as a class war on which they are the losing side. You couldn't live in the suburbs without your car, using your car on public roads is seen as a right not a privilege. They take that provincial world-view to New York when they come to eat at Bubba Gumps.

Fear is always the the flip side of hate. Adept politicians can smell and use fear, ask almost anyone in the Middle East Senator Schumer and his wife, who works for a conservative newspaper aimed at the 8th grade reading level, have been very able in using this heightened sense of smell.

Urban types see this as recovering what make living in cities rewarding and naively did not see this playing out. Senator Schumer and other politicians throughout history know you need a scapegoat, a human form for people to focus their fear/hate on. Ms Sadik-Khan has apparently won that distinction.

this woman is disastrous to NYC, and doesn't have an original idea that wasn't force fed to her from bloompolean, then he pulls the little string in the back of her head and she chirps.

as if closing down parts of broadway wasn't boneheaded enough, she dreams of just eliminating thoroughfares in random spots.

can't wait for her to leave with the midget in a year and a half - hope they don't do any permanent damage.

The DOT Commissioner may be many things to many people, but a puppet is not one of them. Take a second to follow the hyperlinks in the story you are commenting on - the criticism is centered around her being too independent and being too forceful with her original ideas.

Bloomberg may not be the greatest person in the world, but why is that his most vocal opponents don't seem to have any grasp on factual information?

He is the man behind the curtain, that he's pulling over all of our eyes. There is not one thing, one agenda item, or one initiative that he hasn't been instrumental in setting in motion. In his world you're either with his program or you are cast out. He is the puppetmaster; a dangerous megalomaniac with power and money.

Sounds like a (paranoid's) description of every mayor this town has ever had. I would hope that the mayor is instrumental is setting all the City's initiatives in motion. You think the mayor of New York would better be a poor, impotent, insecure pushover?

I have a grandmother, and a mother, I don't need a self-righteous, transplanted, and illegally elected insecure little man setting policy in the most arrogant of fashion, telling me what's best for me, rather than looking out for all the citizens of this city.

(sorry for the run-on but this little bastard makes my blood boil)

I agree but it's kind of fine line between looking out for people and setting policy telling them what's best for them - I think it's all in how you portray it. Cycling is up and smoking is down - isn't that a good thing in general?

Just three comments before someone makes a Sadik-Khan name joke! Well done! The NY Post will be calling with a copyright infringement suit soon.

Ed Goldberg of Macy's is pretty shortsighted. The Thanksgiving parade is huge, no doubt, but it's just one day of the year. Macy's is a giant tourist draw for the rest of the holiday season, not to mention the rest of the year, and imagine how much more money those tourists would spend in the neighborhood if they had room to move. Instead, they'll spend more money up in Times Square where the pedestrian plazas have actually made moving around up there a little easier.

I'm pretty sure not too many of the tourists who shop at Macy's arrive in the neighborhood via car and cruise for the first spot to open up near the store.

tourists and local shoppers alike should be able to have a cab drop them off, and be able to walk out of the store and pick one up; but then again, anything to thwart commerce from our businessman mayor - monkeybusinessman is more like it!

Wonderful - that's just what we need. Encouraging a bunch of short tempered lunatics in yellow death machines to further clog up Times Square.

Taxi cabs are an inefficient response to the question of transit in 21st century Manhattan - at best a few should be kept around for people to point and laugh at.

You're kidding, right? It's mostly impossible to hail a cab in that area unless you walk over to the taxi line at Penn Station. It's probably even harder -- and more expensive -- to get dropped off right at the store's front door. Most tourists stay in midtown hotels, meaning that walking from the Times Sq. area to Herald Square is probably faster than getting in a cab.

Moving people faster is the best way to facilitate a lot of business. Having them stuck in traffic or on a slow moving bus instead of outside shopping or walking easily from store to store is what really thwarts commerce.

We have to stop living in this fantasy where traffic in New York City was just fine until Janette Sadik Khan came along and put in bus lanes or bike lanes. Traffic in NYC has been a mess for years. This is the city that coined the term gridlock...in the 1970s.

to both you and the marmot; you have to be two of the unluckiest taxi hailers in the city. I worked in that area for over 10 years, it's an intersection that was madness, but incredibly easy to get a cab, in multiple directions.

The real threat to commerce isn't moving people, and yes tourists and locals alike will walk and take public transit often - the threat is moving goods into and out of the area. I rely on vendors and customers being able to get into the area, with access to loading and unloading. By re-directing traffic, closing off access, creating detours and no stopping/parking zones - the added delays and absolute refusal to enter the area wreaks havoc on local businesses.

I have no problem with bike lanes, and sharing the roads, but eliminating them is sheer fantasy.

Have you ever tried to catch a cab outside of Macy's? It's already impossible!

Up until a year ago you at least had a shot on Broadway, now you can have a seat and watch the bums pick their toes on a folding chair.

Bullshit. I used to work right across the street, and it was completely impossible to catch a cab unless you walked several blocks away from Macy's. In fact, in the five years I worked there, I NEVER successfully caught a cab within three or four blocks of Macy's. Not in nice weather, not at weird hours, never. The area has been total gridlock forever.

Anyone that thinks Charlie Sheen is crazy clearly doesn't know about Sadist-Khan.

you guys ever look outside the petri dish? the woman is like a worldwide super hero in progressive urbanism circles.