[UPDATE BELOW] Cantankerous NY Post columnist Steve "He Who Yells At Cloud" Cuozzo is OBSESSED with the Times Square pedestrian plaza, which he says "gutted" Times Square's "unique energy," and turned it into "a campground for mostly low-spending tourists." Since the plaza debuted in 2009, "Yells At Cloud" has ranted about it with a virulent single-mindedness that makes Ahab look like Silent Bob. It is Cuozzo's white whale: He piles on the plaza's capacious hump "the sum of all the general rage and hate felt by his whole race from Adam down; and then, as if his chest had been a mortar, he burst his hot heart’s shell upon it." And you didn't think we'd close out 2011 without one more harpoon for the road? more ›

As if "traffic pricing" and and pedestrian plazas weren't enough, Bloomberg announced today that he will use robots technology to reduce congestion and promote air quality in Midtown. Dubbed Midtown in Motion, the plan, which the mayor probably thought of after watching the director's cut of Blade Runner, will utilize "100 microwave sensors, 32 traffic video cameras and E-ZPass readers at 23 intersections" to monitor real-time traffic flow. The system will allow "engineers… to clear up Midtown jams at the touch of a button," the mayor says in a release. Wow! Will it also release "soothing light patterns" so we can finally sleep through all that honking? more ›

When the Times Square Alliance announced plans to bring food and beverage concessions to the slightly controversial pedestrian plaza, the world held its breath. What ever would NY Post columnist Steve "He Who Yells At Cloud" Cuozzo think? Cuozzo loves nothing more than going on a cantankerous rant about the pedestrian plazas, which he originally derided as "block after block of prison-yard asphalt devoid of meaningful landscaping, furniture or other amenities, crowded mainly with Big Mac-chomping tourists." But now that there's furniture and plans for amenities and landscaping, would Cuozzo change his tune? Ha: more ›

We were pretty sure that nothing could make the Times Square pedestrian plaza feel like the lonely hills of Nebraska. But then yesterday, Professional Bull Riders (PBR) held a bull riding competition there, hauling in 50,000 pounds of steel and dirt to recreate the mood. Flanked by skyscrapes and projected onto giant TV screens, it was an odd but compelling juxtaposition for the spectators who crowded around to watch ten of the world's top riders take turns on the raging bulls. In years past, PBR put on their show in or near MSG; this was the first year they were able to take advantage of the pedestrian plaza. You can see a video of the event below. more ›

Today the City Council is holding hearings on the Bloomberg administration's controversial plan to ban smoking in all city parks, pedestrian plazas, beaches and boardwalks. Queens Councilmember Peter Vallone, who has been a longtime supporter of anti-smoking legislation, is introducing a compromise bill that would stop short of a full ban, and create smoking sections in parks larger than two acres. His proposal would also allow smoking in the city's new pedestrian plazas. more ›

Yesterday marked the DOT's official opening of the long-awaited improvements to Union Square north and Broadway. The redesign includes four separate lanes across 17th street: a pedestrian lane, a bike lane, a separated lane for cars and trucks, as well as a section specifically for parked vehicles, designed to improve congestion spurred from the Green Market trucks. In addition to the traffic changes, DOT has turned the street into a pedestrian plaza, complete with several of those bright green chairs and tables we've been seeing all over the city lately. more ›

Embattled smokers reacted bitterly to the news of increased restrictions on their activity yesterday. In the wake of Mayor Bloomberg's announcement that, pending City Council approval, the city would ban smoking in parks, beaches, pedestrian plazas and boardwalks, smokers took to the streets to defiantly light up. Here are some of the most indignant reactions: more ›

Now it all makes sense: First the city bans cars from some of the busiest blocks in NYC, turning them over to bums and tourists. And once New Yorkers come to accept these spaces as lazy plazas, not bustling thoroughfares, the Nanny State moves to tighten its grip. Today Mayor Bloomberg declared that his new law banning smoking from city parks and beaches will also cover pedestrian plazas. Oh, and boardwalks, too. Say goodbye to your postprandial cigar on the Coney Island boardwalk, Boris! What's next for the city's health Nazis, no fatties? more ›

Well, looky here: Despite the knee-jerk opposition from local property owners, the DOT is marching forward with big changes to Broadway and Union Square north. As you may recall, the city is turning a block of Broadway north of Union Square into another pedestrian plaza, which would extend along East 17th Street to the eastern corner of the park, at Park Avenue South. Pedestrian Plazas: Everywhere and Forever. more ›

Move over, Old Spice guy, there's a new player in the personalized YouTube response to Twitter questions game. And it's former mayor Ed Koch! The 85-year-old, whose current effort, New York Uprising, is to remind voters to demand reform in the Empire State, answered questions like "How can we get from the government we deserve to the government we need?" and "what is your take on Pres. Obama's comments about the 'wisdom' of building a mosque downtown" more ›

Grab your trunks and inflate your inner tubes, because Times Square is getting a "river." Brooklyn-based artist Molly Dilworth beat out 150 other artists for the commission to paint the pedestrian plazas on Broadway from 47th to 42nd Streets. Her "temporary" design, titled "Cool Water, Hot Island," is composed of a graphical representation of NASA's infrared satellite data of Manhattan. Here's why she won, according to the DOT: more ›

The NY Post is gonna love this: A NYC Transit report has found that the Broadway pedestrian plazas have slowed down travel times on four out of five bus routes affected by the street closures. In the worst case, the M6 bus took more than 10 minutes longer to get from Central Park to Union Square during the evening rush! So does this mean the Post's dreams will come true and the DOT will let cars take over Broadway again? more ›

Last night representatives from the city DOT met with the Community Board 5 Transportation Committee to present the department's plan [pdf] for turning a block of Broadway north of Union Square into another pedestrian plaza, which would extend along East 17th Street to the eastern corner of the park, at Park Avenue South. Though some committee members seemed open to the idea (no vote was taken), grievances were aired during the public comment portion of the evening. more ›

The city has pedestrian plaza fever: Now that Times Square and Herald Square have traded in cars for cafe tables (a plan in store for 34th Street, too), Union Square may be getting its own pedestrian mall. According to the NY Times, "Almost all traffic would be banned from the block of Broadway north of Union Square, between 17th and 18th Streets," and "East 17th Street, meanwhile, would become one-way, with only westbound traffic allowed in a single lane." more ›

Now that the Department of Transportation has revealed its latest congestion-fighting strategy—creating another pedestrian mall in Herald Square and giving buses half of 34th Street—the reactions are coming from pedestrians and drivers. Naturally, they have very different opinions! One driver complained to NY1, "Bad enough they closed Broadway. We can't even turn up and down Broadway. It will make it even more worse than what it already is," but a pedestrian said to the Daily News, "I wish they would do it tomorrow." more ›

As promised, the DOT is moving quickly on a plan to radically transform 34th Street to prioritize buses and pedestrians over passenger cars. The proposal [pdf], which was completed at the end of February, would essentially cut 34th Street in half, with the section west of Sixth Avenue running one way toward the Hudson River, and the section east of Fifth Avenue running one way toward the East River. Buses would travel in both directions in their own special lanes, and in the middle there will be another pedestrian plaza on the block between Fifth and Sixth, the part of town informally known as Clusterfuck City. more ›

The NY Post has made no attempt to disguise its contempt for the Times Square and Herald Square pedestrian plazas, which transformed seven blocks of Broadway into 2½ acres of pedestrian oases. Columnists for the tabloid have criticized the plazas for attracting vagrants, smokers, and lazy people, while simultaneously killing local businesses and snarling traffic. So it comes as no surprise that today's Post article about the DOT's plan to create more pedestrian plazas around town should begin with the lede "Motorists, beware." First they came for Times Square, and we said nothing... more ›

It's happened! The lawn chairs, placed in the Times Square pedestrian plazas to much derision, pain and enjoyment, have been gathered up to make way for more permanent chairs. The Times Square Alliance asked sculptor Jason Peters to create some art from the chairs, and the Post says he used "zip ties to lash about 70 of the chairs together Friday morning in an installation that will stay up until 9 p.m. tonight. Maybe you can say adieu before the public screening of the Mad Men premiere in Times Square at 10 p.m. (details). more ›

Opinions remain bitterly divided on the merits of the new Broadway pedestrian plazas that opened on Memorial Day, and an official analysis of the pilot program's traffic impact won't be available any time soon. The Times has found that the DOT's previous timeline for studying the changes has been pushed back because the department still isn't finished hanging traffic signals, painting roads, building out the plazas and adding concrete barriers. Officials won't start measuring the program's effects until the middle of August and won't submit a final report until December, when Bloomberg will decide whether to make the changes permanent. DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan says, "When we have finished the project, we will begin collecting the data. You wouldn’t want to look at a Picasso that’s halfway done." But some critics are already trashing Sadik-Khan's masterpiece; cab driver Fhahidul Hossain tells the Times, "If you have one fare to go to the theater district, your day or night is finished. A 10-minute fare is going to take you an hour or so. It's a nightmare. In Manhattan, you have to move, man. You cannot do it like this. This is not Europe. This is New York City, for God's sake!" And don't even get Hossain started on those lawn chairs. more ›

Andrea Peyser isn't the only tabloid columnist with a deep disdain for the new car-free sections of Broadway; Mike Lupica at the Daily News is now pouring out the Haterade with an article dismissing what he calls "Bloomberg Beach" as "Bloomberg's revenge." In his eyes, the whole thing is just Bloomberg's petulant way of bending New York's traffic patterns to his will after his congestion pricing plan got sandbagged by Albany. Which, yeah, Bloomberg's a little prince who throws tantrums when he doesn't get his way, but Lupica's determined to toss the baby out with the bath water. more ›

Mayor Bloomberg says those down-market beach chairs in the new car-free sections of Broadway have got to go. Speaking about the new pedestrian plazas on his weekly radio show, Bloomberg revealed his disdain for the inexpensive chairs, which have been subjected to savage criticism from the likes of cranky Post columnist Andrea Peyser, who derided them as "flimsy furniture that littered the streets like a going-out-of-business sale." Hizzoner has sided with the haters, and wants everyone to know that once work on the pedestrian plazas is complete, "there will not be those kinds of lounges." Street furniture controversy aside, the mayor declared the experiment, which reroutes southbound traffic to Seventh Avenue in an attempt to reduce congestion, an overwhelming success: "So far, it is working exactly as the computer modeling says it will." Of course, not even the most powerful computer in the world can accurately gauge New Yorkers' capacity for complaining. more ›

On Wednesday, frothing New York Post demagogue Andrea Peyser dropped her instant-classic diatribe against the new car-free pedestrian plazas on Broadway, deriding those European tourists who flocked to the open space while finding solidarity with... one homeless man. Joe Miller, who Peyser says "carried his earthly possessions in plastic bags" also shares the columnist's hatred for any human challenge to the automobile's supremacy: "It's terrible. I live in the streets. People smoke in the shelters! I can't stand it." more ›

The new, car-free Broadway blocks of Times Square are still being appraised by pedestrians, drivers, and pundits alike. But one thing they can all agree on: It's quite a sight. On Panoramas.dk, there's a 360-degree image taken from Duffy Square (on top of the new TKTS proscenium) by Jook Leung—check it out here (the above image doesn't do it justice). Update: As eagle-eyed readers noticed, this panorama looks like it was taken before the car-ban went into effect but it was taken on Sunday (here's another shot from Sunday); from the TKTS steps, it looks like this on Memorial Day. more ›

The reviews are in on the new car-free Broadway's impact on the first day of business since traffic was diverted from the main stem between 47th and 42nd Streets and between 35th and 33rd Streets. Unsurprisingly, the Post has been breathlessly scaremongering in an attempt to milk the populist fear of change for all it's worth, with columnist Andrea Peyser leading the charge in an article headlined "Real NYers 'Malled' by Incredibly Dumb Idea": more ›

With seven blocks along Broadway in Times Square and Herald Square closed to vehicular traffic for pedestrian promenading pleasure (oh, and to ease traffic congestion too) on Sunday, New Yorkers and tourists alike have been testing out the suddenly clear streets. The Broadway pedestrian plazas are between 42nd and 47th Streets and between 33rd and 35th Streets, and in the Times Square stretch, there were lawn chairs for perambulators. more ›