Just in time for the warm weather, the city is taking the first step towards regulating the nearly naked women and cartoon characters that descend on tourists in Times Square. NY1's Michael Herzenberg filed the following report.
Nearly nude ladies parading around Times Square soliciting tips certainly stimulate opinions.
"They're cute, they're gorgeous," one man said.
"It's lewd," a woman said.
"It's crude, it's disgusting," another man said,
Most we spoke with believe the time and place for those undressed is not daytime in Times Square.
But many point to the dressed up characters seeking to pose for pictures in exchange for tips as a comparable problem.
Now, the city is stepping in, just as spring-like weather has brought a return of the nearly nude panhandling.
"Things have gotten a little out of hand over there. We need to bring a little order to the chaos," said City Council Member Daniel Garodnick of Manhattan. "And we want to give the Department of Transportation the power to makes some reasonable rules about where you can conduct certain activities."
Garodnick is co-sponsoring a bill that was introduced Wednesday that would allow the city's transportation department to regulate pedestrian plazas like the one in Times Square.
The goal is to carve out zones for commercial activity that would relegate the nearly nude women and costumed characters to a designated area.
Other areas would be set aside to allow pedestrians to walk through without any solicitations.
"We want to allow tourists and New Yorkers to be able to avoid the craziness if they want to," Garodnick said.
Most — but not all — of the people we spoke with at the crossroads of the world praised the measure, which was proposed by a mayoral task force after a surge in the number of painted ladies there.
"Finally a way to make a safe for the tourists and anybody who works here, because those panhandlers can be a little aggressive and even the naked ladies can be a little aggressive sometimes," a man in Times Square said.
"Honestly, I mean, get over it. They're breasts, we've all seen them," another man in Times Square said. "If they want to stand out here and freeze, let them."
The Times Square Alliance is on-board, looking forward to refine the bill and get it passed. Sponsors hope that can happen soon so the transportation department can get rules in place before summer.