Thefull transformation will take a few months to set up, but come Memorial
Day, pedestrians will finally have some breathing room in New York's Times Square.
This is a really exciting weekend for our Streetsblog colleagues in New York City, as Ben Fried writes:
When Memorial Day weekend rolls around, here at Streetsblog we usually take the opportunity to note the advent of the summer driving season -- and all the waste and violencethat entails. This year's going to be a little different, because we'vegot a major livable streets milestone to celebrate in New York City.
With all those cars headed out of town, DOT is going to re-route traffic at Times Square around Broadway and onto Seventh Avenue. Come Memorial Day morning, New York City will have brand new public spacescarved out of the street, smack in the middle of Midtown. If you'restaying in the city for the long weekend, it's time to party.
The Times Square Alliancewill be out bright and early Monday setting up beach chairs. Virgil'sBarbecue will be firing up the grill. At some point, a giant moviescreen will get unfurled for a noon showing of "On the Town" (it's thelast day of Fleet Week, folks). I suspect that I won't be the only NewYorker heading over to Times Square for the first time in ages.
I wish we had something as grand to announce, like come Monday we'll have a car-free Market Street. Wouldn't that be sweet? We're taking the day off anyway. Have a great Memorial Day weekend! We'll be back Tuesday.
