Former President Bill Clinton on Wednesday said the city had improved Times Square by making it a family- and pedestrian-friendly place but said its former mix of prostitutes and colorful characters was “romantic” and “fascinating.”
Clinton appeared with Mayor Bloomberg Wednesday as they announced the merger of their climate groups — Climate Initiative and C40 — and boasted that turning cars away from the tourist mecca in the center of the city had improved air quality.
“When I was 18 years in November of 1964, a freshman at Georgetown, I first went to Times Square. I bought a steak at Tad’s Steakhouse. I heard a guy ream his mother out, poor working woman, because she’d given him a hi-fi instead of a stereo speaker. I remember everything about it,” he said, according to a transcript of his remarks published by The New York Times.
“I saw a hooker approach a man in a gray flannel suit. Pretty heavy stuff for a guy from Arkansas. My view is it’s way better now. You have to look at the overall numbers. Yes, look, I still have vivid memories of it. Romantic, fascinating.”
Clinton said Times Square was now a better place after the hustlers and crooks of the past had made way for the giant electronic billboards, theme restaurants and droves of wide-eyed, camera-clutching tourists of the present.
“It was dangerous from the point of crime and it was unhealthy from the point of public health,” he said, adding later, “I think you did the right thing and I think there is no question that New York is better and the tourists are better off. And I love it.”
Mayor Bloomberg said since the creation of the Times Square pedestrian plaza in 2009 the concentration of traffic-related pollutants nitrogen oxide and nitrogen dioxide dropped by 63 percent and 41 percent respectively.
“We created pedestrian plazas right in the heart of our city to straighten out some of the chokepoints in our street grid and to help traffic flow more smoothly and quickly through Midtown,” he said. “We also expected that by reducing the numbers of vehicles in and around Times Square, we would also improve the area’s air quality, and that’s exactly what the numbers now show.”
Another breath of fresh air is expected to be added to the “Crossroads of the World” this summer with al fresco dining areas in the works. Up to five vendors will be contracted to take orders and serve food to people sitting at the 350 red chairs and 100 tables within the car-free area, according to a request for proposals released last month.