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The following commentary written by Ross Sandler is from the June 2009 issue of CityLand.
More Successful Razzle Dazzle for Times Square
New York City DOT on May 23, 2009 closed Broadway to traffic in Times Square. Lounge chairs, picnics and pedestrians seized the newly opened terrain. Broadway, as a traffic mover, had added limited mobility and much confusion. Now visitors sit in Broadway's glorious space to relish the greatest street show in the world.
I had the opportunity to enjoy the spectacle on the evening of June 1, 2009, following a ceremony at the Times Square Information Center on Seventh Avenue between 46th and 47th Streets. The American Planning Association's New York Metro Chapter honored CityLand with its 2009 Journalism Award. Among the other awardees were Kent Barwick, retiring head of the Municipal Art Society (leadership award) and the Times Square Alliance, the Theatre Development Fund and the Coalition for Father Duffy. The three Times Square organizations were honored for the reconstruction of Duffy Square, the site of the TKTS booth. Because the awards ceremony took place in the Times Square Information Center across from Duffy Square, a number of us took the opportunity to inspect the re-opened Square. A new user-friendly TKTS booth faces 47th Street, as it always has, but the rear is now encased in a glass structure. The backside of the glass structure facing downtown is a sloping, ruby-colored, back-lit viewing stand that provides sweeping views of the deliriously gaudy signs of Times Square, battalions of gawking pedestrians and dizzying rows of red taillights of cars heading down Seventh Avenue. The statue of Father Duffy stands guard at the base of the stairs. People pass by the statue as they climb the ruby stairs in order to view the excitement of Times Square from the roof of the TKTS booth.
As public art, the City has no finer new addition than the glowing ruby stadium stairs of Duffy Square. The stairs are permanent, but the closure of Broadway remains an experiment with a decision scheduled sometime this winter. I offer my vote now: make the closure permanent. The joy the new Times Square brings to everyone is welcome and obvious.
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