Times Square is looking a lot like its bad old self, with vagrants, boozy migrants, junkies, and scofflaws making the Crossroads of the World look more like the third world, infuriating those who played an important role in its cleanup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On three separate days over the past week, The Post saw junkies brazenly smoking crack pipes on West 43rd Street, drug dealers peddling their wares within eyeshot of cops, hobos conked out wherever they can find a spot, and scores of aimless migrants loitering the day away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cA lot of people are worried about [Times Square] collapsing. And unless they start getting it together for a rebuild, it might actually collapse,\u201d said William Bratton, the NYPD commissioner who helped then-Mayor Rudy Giuliani clean up the area in the 1990s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe had a lot more to work with than the current commissioner and the mayor have in 2023,\u201d Bratton added. \u201cThere was a lot more of a criminal justice system back then. The courts, district attorneys, and the police were pretty much united about doing something about crime in Times Square. So you had a collaboration that is not in place today.\u201d
Vagrants, boozy migrants, junkies, and scofflaws are making the Crossroads of the World look more like the third world.
\u201cA lot of people are worried about [Times Square] collapsing,\u201d said William Bratton, an ex-NYPD commissioner.
Homeless man sleeps in front of Times Square store
Over the last two weeks, The Post saw hordes of homeless passed out on nearly every sidewalk.
By contrast, \u201cwe [now] have a number of district attorneys not wanting to deal with a lot of \u2026 the so-called \u2018broken windows\u2019,\u201d signs of social disorganization and lead to crime, he explained \u2014 referring to the far-left, soft-on-crime Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who critics say is pushing \u201creforms\u201d which favor criminals instead of victims.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cUntil we get better collaboration between various elements of government, we\u2019re not going to see it improve dramatically,\u201d Bratton warned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The lawlessness, vice, and depravity that ruled Times Square since the 1960s came to a screeching halt in the mid-90s, when Giuliani cracked down on crime and closed down the area\u2019s notorious sex shops and peep shows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The redevelopment plan then accelerated in the 2000s under billionaire former Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who helped lure national store and restaurant chains to the new-look area and complete its \u201cDisneyfication,\u201d as some critics whined at the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Since the pandemic, there\u2019s been \u201ca lot of change for the worse,\u201d in Times Square, said Raymond Kelly, the city\u2019s police commissioner from 1992 to 1994 under then-Mayor David Dinkins, and again from 2002 to 2013 under Bloomberg.
Since the pandemic, there\u2019s been \u201ca lot of change for the worse,\u201d in Times Square, said Raymond Kelly.
Homeless begger in Times Square
\u201cWe [now] have a number of district attorneys not wanting to deal with a lot of \u2026 the so-called broken windows,\u201d Bratton said.
\u201cYou can feel it when you walk through there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
New Yorkers and tourists alike said they were mortified the city\u2019s brand has turned into something out of \u201cTaxi Driver.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s so bad around here. There are homeless and crazy [people] and [they\u2019re] doing drugs and everything,\u201d said Sidek Mohammad, 55, who has sold nuts at a kiosk on the corner of 42nd Street and Eighth Avenue for 16 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not safe here,\u201d agreed Syed Hossain, the owner of a newsstand on 42nd Street and Seventh Avenue, who recently watched a disheveled man aggressively shove a small child \u201cvery hard\u201d in broad daylight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAnytime, that kind of thing can happen here,\u201d Hossain, 53, said. \u201cI feel bad because I know it\u2019s not supposed to be that way.\u201d
\u201cIt\u2019s so bad around here. There are homeless and crazy [people] and [they\u2019re] doing drugs and everything,\u201d said Sidek Mohammad.
In the last two years, major crime has rocketed 50% in the NYPD\u2019s Midtown South precinct \u2013 which encompasses Times Square, Grand Central Terminal, Madison Square Garden, and the Port Authority Bus Terminal \u2013 and is up 28% compared to 13 years ago, according to NYPD data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tourist Sylvana Kulscar from Alberta, Canada, expected the pristine Times Square she sees on TV \u2013 but was shocked by the reality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe saw a man today and the only thing he had on was a garbage bag around his waist. He didn\u2019t know where he was going and it was just bad. We had this expectation of Times Square, and then to come here and see it,\u201d said Kulscar, 35, shaking her head.
New Yorkers and tourists alike said they were mortified the city\u2019s brand has turned into something out of \u201cTaxi Driver.\u201d
Roxanne Fleury, a 26-year-old from Quebec City, said a \u201ccreepy man\u201d tried to lure her and her friend to an unknown place while they were in Times Square on Wednesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHe was like, \u2018Do you want to come with us someplace?\u2019 It was strange,\u201d she recalled, adding that the conditions in Times Square were \u201cvery different\u201d than those in Soho, where they were staying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Adding to the seedy new tableau are the thousands of migrants being housed by the city in three nearby hotels-turned-shelters \u2013 who constantly loiter and cause issues, according to a doorman at the New Amsterdam Theater on West 42nd Street.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAll of the drinking and delinquency out here, all of these immigrants, they\u2019re changing things. Their trash is everywhere,\u201d he griped.
The Candler Building on West 42nd Street, the Row Hotel on Eighth Avenue, and Hotel Mela on West 44th Street are all now being used to house migrants as they flood into the city.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The nonprofit responsible for the upkeep and improvement of Times Square recently pushed for the managers of the nearby migrant shelters to increase their outdoor security patrols \u2014 and to take out their own trash.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve been working with NYC Health + Hospitals \u2014 the folks that manage [The Candler Building] \u2014 and been trying to make sure they increase their outdoor patrols of the area, which I\u2019ve heard from several businesses in the area that they have,\u201d said Tom Harris, president of the Times Square Alliance.
But the amount of trash the shelters produce, and who has to deal with it, are still prevalent problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThey\u2019re are making a lot of money catering to this crisis, and they need to make sure that they maintain their building. It\u2019s not the city\u2019s responsibility to make sure that the outside of these buildings is clean, it\u2019s the building manager\u2019s,\u201d Harris said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n