NYC considers eliminating Times Square pedestrian plaza to drive away topless hustlers

Mayor Bill de Blasio said he would consider eliminating the Times Square pedestrian plaza to drive away the tip-hustling topless women and costumed characters who congregate there, but the idea quickly came under fire from plaza supporters as an overkill solution.

De Blasio was speaking about a suggestion made earlier Thursday by Police Commissioner William Bratton, in an interview with WINS radio, about removing the plaza, which stretches for five blocks north of 42nd Street on Broadway and Seventh Avenue.

"I'd prefer to just dig the whole damn thing up and put it back the way it was," Bratton said. Former Mayor Michael Bloomberg created the first plaza there in 2009 from what had been traffic lanes.
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Reaction to de Blasio from the plaza's backers was swift.

Tim Tompkins, president of Times Square Alliance, a business group, said: "Sure, let's tear up Broadway. We can't govern, manage, or police our public space, so we should just tear them up. That's not a solution. It's a surrender."

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