De Blasio: Regulations for Times Square characters under review
Mayor Bill de Blasio has launched a multiagency task force to address what he calls the “growing problem” of panhandling topless women and costumed characters in Times Square and said that one option under consideration is removing the famed intersection’s pedestrian plazas.
The plazas are popular with tourists, theatergoers and office workers who throng Times Square daily and are a signature accomplishment of de Blasio’s predecessor, Michael Bloomberg. They have been hailed by urban planners as an innovation in city design.
But the popular spots have also become favored stomping grounds for aggressive panhandlers dressed as characters like Elmo and Batman and, more recently, for topless women wearing body paint and thongs and seeking money to pose for photographs. The painted ladies’ presence has become a tabloid sensation during the sleepy end of summer, with editorial pages warning that they foreshadow a return to the Times Squares’ seedy past and demanding their removal.