Results tagged “timessquarealliance”

       

Yesterday the Times Square Alliance held their Best of the Buskers auditions right at the crossroads of the world. The open call brought in musicians, dancers, magicians, performance artists and yes, even the Xylopholks. The alliance is aiming to bring the best performers together for their ongoing “Grate Performances - Best of the Buskers,” series, providing free entertainment to tourists and local passerby alike. Many of the performers have been legally, and illegally, busking for years. 49-year-old electric violinist Lorenzo Laroc told The Daily News, "I'm trying to bring my work above ground. It's time for me to come into the light and let everyone experience my unique sound." He's been playing the subways for two decades.

The Times Square Alliance and the Fashion Center Business Improvement District are holding court in the Port Authority transportation hub starting May 1st, Crain's reports, and they're inviting you to join them. The duo will lease 2,500-square-feet of ground-floor retail space, that has been vacant for 5 years, to emerging fashion designers and artists. Their talented tenants will have to cover some costs, of course, including electric and air conditioning, but the BID will cover the rent, which is just $1. The lease will last 6 months, but it's expected to be extended for a few years, and the BID president is hoping to eventually "bring in a local designer from TV’s Project Runway" (Kenley Penley?!). Tim Tompkins, president of the Times Square Alliance, says they "want people who haven’t thought about Eighth Avenue in a long time to take a fresh look at it and to recognize that there’s all this potential business."

File this one under unsurprising: The shiny new TKTS booth in Times Square that's supposed to finally open this month over 18 months late is also way over budget, the Post reports. The ambitious new discount theater ticket outlet, which features an all-glass skin with an amphitheater-style roof (pictured) and "a shimmering and floating carpet of color and light," has cost 100 percent more than its original $8 million estimate.

Remember the plans for that fancy new TKTS theater ticket booth in Times Square that were unveiled back in Aught Six? Producer Ken Davenport (Altar Boyz) does, and the other day he was just wondering, you know, why the hell it’s not ready yet, since they originally said it would be open for business in just six short months. (The Times Square TKTS has been operating at the Marriot Marquis in the meantime.)

For the first time since November 8th, Local One, the stagehands’ union, is meeting with the Broadway producers’ league to talk it out. (Local One has been on strike since last Saturday over proposed changes to their contracts.) Insiders are expressing guarded optimism about the talks because they’re proceeding with the help of Disney’s senior V.P. of labor relations, Robert W. Johnson. Disney is not a member of the producers' league and thus not directly...

We're less than a week away from the Times Square Kiss-In!

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: falling debris this afternoon on West 46th St. and 8th Ave. in Manhattan, an unstable building on Troutman St. in Brooklyn, and a dead body in the water off Manhattan's Battery.
• Reasoning it's not far and not hard to reach by water, Mayor Bloomberg thinks commuters will be happy to hitch a ride to Rockaway Beach on a ferry service from downtown Manhattan.
• A report from the Times Square Alliance claims that the area around the "crossroads of the world" contributes $55 billion annually to the city's economy and points out that this is more than the entire national economies of Panama and Bolivia combined.
• Not to be outdone by bored kids stuck in the suburbs with nothing better to do, more and more overstimulated city kids are reporting that what they like to do on the weekend is get "very drunk."
• Streetsblog went on a bike tour of the proposed Brooklyn Greenway and there's a link to video footage of the ride.
• A coalition of parents, bat manufacturers, and national high school sports associations are filing a class action suit to prevent the City Council's metal bat ban from going into effect this September.
• Advice to aspiring tv reporters, or current ones for that matter: when Busta Rhymes is being ushered into a courthouse for a hearing, do not whack him in the face with your microphone (with video).
• The New Yorker talks to the graffiti artist known as Banksy, who reveals that it's difficult to remain anonymous when Brad Pitt name drops you to the press.

Open House New York opens the doors to many New York spaces that you wouldn't likely ever see. Past tours have included 7 World Trade Center and the Lost City Hall Subway. Each October these tours are free, and throughout the year the series costs money. The Spring tours will include:

The Times Square Alliance is getting ready for New Year's celebrations. They have been testing confetti for "airworthiness" - an especially important step since there will be 7,000 pounds of confetti dropped onto revelers.

Starting on November 3 Times Square is going to be doing a shuffle. In an attempt to clean up the mess of tourists, cars, vendors, cowboys and other obstacles the Department of Transportation and the Times Square Alliance are going to run a six-month test of a new traffic pattern. The biggest change in the new plan is the shutting down of the traffic lane which allows cars to stay on Seventh Avenue at the "bowtie" on 45th Street. Instead all southbound Seventh Avenue traffic will be forced to go down Broadway. But that's not all!

There'll also be changes for bikers through Times Square. A 5-foot-wide bicycle lane on Seventh between 48th and 43rd will be closed, and new signs will direct cyclists through the area.

Continue reading "Times Square Is Changing"

With the mercury rising to high for the city's liking, Mayor Bloomberg held a press conference at the Office of Emergency Operations in Brooklyn to emphasize what the city is doing during the heat wave. We suspect he's trying to be extra visible and genially authoritative (check out the plaid shirt!) in order to salvage public opinion after the Queens blackout, but his words are important:

“The heat wave affects New Yorkers in all five boroughs, and that’s why the City is aggressively moving to protect New Yorkers from Tottenville to Co-Op City from this week’s oppressive heat and promote energy conservation. Hundreds of people have already tragically passed away due to the heat wave in other parts of the country, and I urge New Yorkers – especially seniors – to take the danger of high temperatures and humidity seriously. You can beat the heat by drinking plenty of water, staying out of the sun, avoiding strenuous activity, and taking advantage of City cooling centers and public pools. The City is also actively taking large energy users such as wastewater treatment plants off the grid and conserving energy at City buildings across the five boroughs to help cope with the increased demands on the electrical grid.”

Yes, the TKTS booth is moving from Duffy Square to the Marriott Marquis until December of this year while the new TKTS booth that looks like a huge red staircase (the ticket counters are under the stairs) is being constructed. But why did it take so long? Because the Times Square Alliance decided to spiff up Duffy Square, that sliver of land between Broadway and Seventh Avenues, between 47th and 46th Streets, in a $12.5 million project the meantime. The Times Square Alliance's Tim Tompkins says the TKTS steps will be "the Spanish Steps on steroids (it's okay to say "steroids" in development), and remaking Duffy Square is part of the bigger plan to make Times Square more pedestrian friendly. We can't wait!

The city is starting to brace itself for New Year's, with sanitation crews and the police at the ready. The weather is expected to break 50 degrees on Saturday, which means it won't be a New Year's Freezing Eve for once. Which also means insane crowds. (There is rain in the forecast, but that's supposed to clear up but hte evening). Have you rushed to the store to buy champagne, noisemakers, and low-fat food (for your resolutions)? What are you planning? Staying in, going to parties, heading to Times Square? Tell us!

Times Square, the crossroads of the world, wants to be a little less roady and more of a place for pedestrians to cross. The Times Square Alliance has a ten point plan to further improve Times Square, namely to make it look more beautiful and for pedestrians to have an easier time of it. Times Square Alliance president Tim Tompkins said, "While Times Square is gorgeous from the neck up, it needs a makeover from the neck down." Word - you can't walk more than five steps without bumping into someone who has suddenly stopped to be conned. Main goals of the plan: Rebuild and expand Duffy Square; increase the sidewalk space and reduce sidewalk clutter; redesign newspaper boxes and stands; do not let cars "cross over" where Broadway and Seventh Avenue meet; install new signal timing for traffic lights. Now, the problems with Times Square are familiar to all, from sidewalk planters in front of buildings to slow moving packs of tourists. Gothamist is intrigued by this plan, because we're all for keeping pedestrians a priority, but the idea of Times Square as anything but a logjam of people trying to get from one place to another (look at 1957's Sweet Smell of Success - all Sidney Falco does is elbow his way around) seems like a pipe dream.

is a slogan, though not necessarily one that will bring in more business of a certain kind. The Times Square Alliance is pitching companies to open shop mostly west of Times Square, along Eighth and Ninth Avenues, because there are a lack of core stores that residents need. However, some businesses are wary of bringing their shops to Times Square; a real estate brokerage representative said, "Who wants to shop where you get caught in that slow-moving crowd from out of town?" Or that slow-moving crowd from town but it moves slow because of the sidewalk barriers? Which makes Gothamist wonder if Times Square will become a true residential neighborhood, versus a tourist or after-work one. What do you think?

The Times Square Alliance has mucho information about New Year's in Times Square. Going to Times Square is not really Gothamist's cup of tea, but there are a lot of interesting things happening, like Kathy Griffin hopefully skewering celebrities, a wrap-up of the year's events by the Fox News Channel (ha!) and Lindsay Lohan performing for MTV - plus free confetti, balloons, pom-poms, glasses, etc. from the Alliance. It's also the 100th Anniversary of Times Square, so there's a special tribute between 11:05PM and 11:10PM. Here's the schedules of events.

The Post called the public bathrooms a triumph; the Times had a good editorial about the long-awaited public toilets, which are being stalled (haha!) because their introduction is being tied to the overhaul of newstands and bus shelters (Gothamist last year looked at the possibility of new public toilets).