“I was around for the bad old Times Square, and this is starting to remind me of the bad old Times Square”, Cuomo said in an interview on NY1.
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At least a dozen topless women usually turn up each day, but the furore has kept all but the most defiant away.
Because both female toplessness and panhandling are protected under New York law, that “something”, will likely manifest as new laws aimed directly at these Times Square performers.
Cuomo separately told a reporter, “This activity is illegal”.
De Blasio said he’s already discussed the idea with Police Commissioner Bill Bratton, the co-chair of the city’s special task force charged with ridding the jiggly pests – as well as the overly aggressive costumed characters – from the Crossroads of the World.
“To ensure all are welcome”, de Blasio said, in the press release, “and to continue the great success that is Times Square, the City will aggressively pursue every avenue for regulating these behaviors”. The officers, who were based out of the 71st Precinct in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, were assigned to a counterterrorism drill in Times Square on Monday when the photos were taken.
A historic hotel’s rooftop air-conditioning unit is the source of a Legionnaires’ disease outbreak that has killed 12 people and sickened more than 100 in the Bronx, the city’s health commissioner said Thursday.
Maybe instead of attempting to chase the friendly, naked panhandlers from New York’s tourist districts, the city should raise taxes on the super-rich and create programs so that people aren’t working ridiculously long hours and putting up with degrading treatment in order to survive?
“After a weekend, people are pretty much broke”, she said. We see the same thing with the painted women.
The city says concerns have been raised in recent months about the appropriateness of the topless women in Times Square, and the mayor says the laws now in place don’t allow the topless women and costumed characters to be regulated properly. “I don’t know if he thought it would stop us in Times Square-it’s actually going way better than before the mayor even acknowledged us, to be honest”. They may also be protected under the first amendment’s free speech provisions. “Let’s not throw the baby out with the bathwater here”, he said. “But I don’t think that’s the end of the discussion”.
“Our lawyers believe squarely that constitutional rights demand that we address this situation in a legal manner”.
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“I’ve been all painted with nothing on, so I’m not particularly against that part of it”, said 40-year-old Trineka Tucker of New Castle, Del. Reclassify Times Square as a park, where solicitations are prohibited, it says.
