Earlier this morning it was reported that 71-year-old John Swain confessed to burning down the Bryant Park Corporation's shoe shine booths on both March 22nd and April 6th, which he was charged with two counts of fifth-degree arson. The BPC's Jerome Barth now tells us that Swayne never actually worked at the Bryant Park stand, "he worked only at the Grand Central Stand, which our company put in place years ago when our team ran Grand Central Partnership. We had no dealings with him whatsoever at Bryant Park." So it seems his motive wasn't a soured relationship, but rather a rivalry! (Unsubstantiated!) more ›

As we await the Bryant Park shoe shine booth to be rebuilt, the mystery around it and its predecessor's demise linger. On March 23rd we reported on the first booth being torched in the middle of the night, and just yesterday at 1:30 a.m. the replacement booth met a similar fate. Now the NY Times has given the incidents some attention, wondering along with park administrators who exactly is targeting the booth. more ›

Dan Biederman, the president of the 34th St. Partnership and the Bryant Park Corporation is unambiguous in his dislike of the single boxes. "If you were to look around at everything that’s ugly here that you’d be embarrassed to show to a visitor from Maine or Nebraska or Paris, it’s the news boxes.” more ›