I fail to see the problem here. There is no deception, nothing illegal, and aside from the price point being a little high (in my opinion), this seems like a pretty smart idea to make a few bucks for himself and the restaurants.

Gothamist team, this flyer is to DIE FOR. can't believe you used it for this story. There is nothing going on at Santos Party House or some obscure DIY space in Bushwick????

Let's just move Times Square to a supermall in Jersey or Vegas and take our cut of the action while using the reclaimed space for something useful like a dog track. The Deuce is dead.....Douchery lives on.....Might as well keep the revenue and lose the rubes...

The rubes are what help make this city money. When we visit somewhere else WE seem like the rubes, even though we fancy ourselves rather sophisticated.

Speak for yourself vic.... ;-)

Seriously I love tourists - I'd just rather they were coming to visit the City of NY rather than the generic corporate amusement park that replaced the awesome sleazy uniquely NYC entertainment district we used to call "Times Square".

So my modest proposal is win/win - We move the current faux Times Square to a Jersey supermall and market it as "The Original", then we franchise the "Times Square Experience" to other malls and theme parks the world over. We take 20% of the action in 100 "Genuine Times Squares" and make much more tax revenue than with one Original Fake Times Square. Then with the city's coffers bulging a new administration can spurn the funds of the jet set corporate types and give the city back to the people.

We can raze all the TGIF's and Madame Tussauds and restore the theaters that are left on the Deuce to porn and kung fu houses - maybe a little old school vaudeville meets neo-burlesque, bring back Hubert's Dime Museum, invite the whores and hustlers back and let people know the Deuce is about fun again!

(Andrew I know you can see the money in my plan....let's have lunch...)

People visit NYC because of the memory of how unique it was for 150 years. As the memory of that bygone city fades so will the tourist interest and everyone will be left with a sterile, generic, chain-store city like every other place on earth and no rubes bothering to visit....

Yeah, people bring their families to Times Square looking for hookers and porn theaters. Or do they come for Broadway shows, Empire State Building and restaurants? Please. NYC is just fine.

NYC is just fine? WTF??

I assumed too much from your old Coney avatar I think.....guessing you never lived in NYC before it was sold out and replaced.

Yeah people came from all over the world to Times Square because it was TIMES SQUARE. Whores and sin and real theater instead of generic revivals and plastic everything. NYC was the center of the fucking universe and people flocked here because of it.

Now it's a shopping mall that bears almost no resemblance to the real Gotham. There are still awesome and unique aspects to the 2012 NYC - primarily the intense ethnic/cultural diversity, but otherwise almost everything that made this city special has been stolen and fenced....I pity you and anyone else who thinks that "NYC is just fine", but am certain you'll enjoy the bland corporate future...

blah blah blah you know everything you've lived here your whole life you're Travis Bickle. Who cares.

You talking to me??!  ;-)

Well you don't care obviously, so that's fine....enjoy your TGIF world...

I take offense to you being so rude about my small business.
Maybe I’m not a fancy foodie power house like yourself but at least I’m not
protesting in the street that I don’t have a job. I really find it very
unsavory that you need to kick someone who is trying to earn a living doing
something they love – I mean really you take photos of food, do you really need
to be so hateful.

A

The Occupy Wall Street protesters aren't protesting because they don't have jobs. 70% of them are employed. Please educate yourself about the movement before you spout some bullshit on the internet. And your comment above makes you sound like a whiny little bitch. You're selling $1300 tables at a shitty chain restaurant in the most over-hyped and classless place in New York. Why are you surprised that you're being ridiculed? Develop a little sense of humor about yourself, please.

>> at least I’m not protesting in the street that I don’t have a job >>

It's about a lot more than that. You could protest even if you had a job!

Andrew, where are these photos of food you speak of on this site? My eyes is hungrys. 

This must be your first day on the internet, welcome.

Seriously. I only wish I was in on this business.

If this guy can make money off of assholes who want to spend thousands of dollars to hang out at Red Lobster in Times Square for NYE, why should that make me want to curl up in a ball? It's not like I or anyone I know would be caught dead anywhere near Times Square tomorrow night anyway. He sounds pretty genius to me.

On the one hand: douchetastic.  On the other hand, it's really hard to be upset at the prospect of fools being parted from their money.

dude's a genius.  it's not like these folks wouldn't be in the vicinity anyway.

If people are willing to pay $1300 just to sit in a Fridays, why blame this guy?

Great poster.