After 30 Years, Times Square Rebirth Is Complete

[Shortline Bus]

After 30 Years, Times Square Rebirth Is Complete

 

By CHARLES V. BAGLI, NY Times Writer,

December 3, 2010

 

"Next month, 11 Times Square, a new, glassy 40-story office tower at 42nd Street and Eighth Avenue, will formally open with its first tenant. Compared with the metamorphosis that has occurred around it, there is nothing extraordinary about the building except for this: Its completion officially marks the end of the long and tortuous redevelopment of Times Square, an effort that began 30 years ago.

 

The plan, to radically make over 13 acres, between Broadway and Eighth Avenue, primarily fronting 42nd Street, outlived three mayors, four governors, two real estate booms and two recessions. It faced widespread derision in the beginning from jaded New Yorkers who were wise to grand plans. It faces occasional derision today from New Yorkers who speak of the old Times Square with newfound fondness.

 

It embodied both the hubris of urban master planning and its possibilities, and showed the value of ripping up blueprints and starting over in midstream. And it has been a touchstone experience for a city that is now building, or trying to build, several multibillion-dollar projects, including ground zero, the Atlantic Yards, Willets Point and the Hudson Yards.

 

“So often, people say New York can’t build large-scale projects anymore,” said Lynne B. Sagalynn, a professor of real estate finance at Columbia University and the author of “Times Square Roulette: Remaking the City Icon.”

 

But, Professor Sagalynn said, “Times Square is an example of how a city was able to think on a grand scale and carry it out.”

 

“It can take a decade or two for the complete vision to become a reality,” she continued. “But it happened here.”

 

Success is evident. Crime is down significantly from the days when pimps, prostitutes, drug addicts and dope pushers prowled Times Square and the Deuce, as that stretch of 42nd Street was known. The number of tourists is up 74 percent since 1993, to an estimated 36.5 million last year, and attendance at Broadway shows has soared to nearly 12 million.

 

Morgan Stanley, Allianz Global Investors, Viacom and Condé Nast now make their corporate homes there. Retailers are paying rents as high as $1,400 a square foot, second only to those on chic stretches of Fifth and Madison Avenues.

 

And while many billboards in Times Square were blank in 1979, today the area is a kaleidoscope of moving images depicting financial institutions, automakers and fashion houses, with the best spots on 1 Times Square’s facade commanding as much as $4 million a year in rent.

 

“The irony is that this place represents in many ways the epitome of free-market capitalism,” said Tim Tompkins, president of the Times Square Alliance. “But its transformation is due more to government intervention than just about any other development in the country.”

 

Times Square, of course, has certain unique qualities that none of the city’s current projects enjoy: it sits in the middle of Manhattan, has a rich, century-long history and is recognized internationally as the crossroads of the world. Even at the worst of times, tourists from England to Italy, Algeria to Japan came to New York to have their pictures taken in Times Square.

 

But the often painful rebirth also took perseverance and a long-term approach, rare characteristics in a city obsessed with making things happen in a New York minute.

 

The concerted effort began in 1980, when after years of complaints and false starts, Mayor Edward I. Koch and state officials announced the coming rejuvenation of Times Square.

 

The developer George Klein, who later formed a joint venture with Prudential, was selected to build four sedate skyscrapers at the famous intersection of 42nd Street, Broadway and Seventh Avenue. The state would take over the decrepit theaters, evict the peep shows and X-rated movie houses and restore the former dignity. The subway stations would be refurbished, and a huge merchandise mart would be built on Eighth Avenue, between 40th and 42nd Streets, across from the Port Authority Bus Terminal."

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/04/nyregion/04square.html?_r=1&hpw

[R68 Subway Car]

I dont want back the Old Times Square. The Old Times Square was a abandoned and violent area. Times Square and New York City for that matter is safer now than it was 30 years ago.

[GojiMet86]

I dont want back the Old Times Square. The Old Times Square was a abandoned and violent area. Times Square and New York City for that matter is safer now than it was 30 years ago.

 

I was reading "The Dangers of Glorifying Penn Station and the 1970s" on the Second Avenue sagas, and I read that Times Square was filled with peep shows and sex stuff. Good thing we have that tourist Times Square of today.

[Nova RTS 9147]

It embodied both the hubris of urban master planning and its possibilities, and showed the value of ripping up blueprints and starting over in midstream. And it has been a touchstone experience for a city that is now building, or trying to build, several multibillion-dollar projects, including ground zero, the Atlantic Yards, Willets Point and the Hudson Yards.

 

“So often, people say New York can’t build large-scale projects anymore,” said Lynne B. Sagalynn, a professor of real estate finance at Columbia University and the author of “Times Square Roulette: Remaking the City Icon.”

 

Interesting that SAS wasn't mentioned........

 

It faces occasional derision today from New Yorkers who speak of the old Times Square with newfound fondness.

 

I do deride Times Square, but only because the tourist make it hella-difficult to navigate through. There is nothing about the old Times Square to be fond of, and not a place to be proud of.

[lilbluefoxie]

next stop, Grand Concourse!

[Messino]

I was reading "The Dangers of Glorifying Penn Station and the 1970s" on the Second Avenue sagas, and I read that Times Square was filled with peep shows and sex stuff. Good thing we have that tourist Times Square of today.

 

The peep show booths and sex shops are still there, they just shifted them around the corner and down the block..

[Forest Glen]

I don't support peep shows and sex shops, but at the same time, Times Square had become too touristy. A freaking Disney store? Broadway City was the best arcade I've ever been to and because of one idiot who decided to bring a gun, they shut the whole place down.

[St Louis Car 09]

 

The peep show booths and sex shops are still there, they just shifted them around the corner and down the block..

Yep.Across the street from PA on 8th ave.

[Dan05979]

1994 era, while in highschool, walked right into a peepshow with my buddies and bought plenty of porn withought a hassle, I remember the fake concord on top of a building on 7th ave and four two, the record store near the 1/9 subway trains, tads disgusting steaks and the juvi prison also on 42. Oh, those were the good 'ol dayz.

[Shortline Bus]

Like or not as a little boy growing up in the late '70's/80's, Times Sq did respresent the 'wild west' and violent crime of that era.

[INDman]

At one point, 42nd Street from 7th to 8th Av was the most dangerous block in the city. It's hard to think of it as the same place today.

[Messino]

At one point, 42nd Street from 7th to 8th Av was the most dangerous block in the city. It's hard to think of it as the same place today.

 

8th ave is still pretty dangerous. I dont know why but from 30th street to 50th on 8th ave , its really ghetto, heroin dope addicts everywhere trolling around, prostitutes, theives and scam artists. I dont know why they flock to 8th ave.

[INDman]

8th ave is still pretty dangerous. I dont know why but from 30th street to 50th on 8th ave , its really ghetto, heroin dope addicts everywhere trolling around, prostitutes, theives and scam artists. I dont know why they flock to 8th ave.

 

It's not dangerous, but it's still very seedy. 8th av is where all the peep shows moved but they are rezoning the area and trying to force them out.

[Princelex]

Times Square in the 80's and into the 90's was no place to be. Mom was very cautious about taking me there when I was a kid and once I was there, I understood why but it was still cool to me. Hell, when I was a teen, I used to buy porn there LOL Now, the place has changed dramatically. I hate that its hard as hell to walk down a block in that area but I'll take Times Square as it is today compared to what it was in 1988.

[Shortline Bus]

Times Square in the 80's and into the 90's was no place to be. Mom was very cautious about taking me there when I was a kid and once I was there, I understood why but it was still cool to me. Hell, when I was a teen, I used to buy porn there LOL Now, the place has changed dramatically. I hate that its hard as hell to walk down a block in that area but I'll take Times Square as it is today compared to what it was in 1988.

 

 

Kiddies too young or not yet born and also for old people like me here is what Times Sq looks like circa 1970/71 shown in attachment of the classic film "Shaft.':cool:

 

 

[Dan05979]

I don't know I like that 42 better than the one now.

[Shortline Bus]

I don't know I like that 42 better than the one now.

 

I am not saying either is better, but the Times Sq. of the '70 or '80's was an adult asument park that would make Larry Flint or Hugh Hefner smile.:eek: