Welcome to Times Chair: the crossed legs of the world.
The $15 beach chairs that have displaced Broadway’s hustle and buses are too cheesy and flimsy for the city that never rests its feet, New Yorkers said yesterday — and they will not sit for it.
“Did Kmart have a sale on lounges?” Rich Fromm, 33, an events planner from Astoria, complained after strolling through the newly car-free Times Square yesterday. “It looks like someone’s front lawn in Florida.”
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Broadway is not supposed to be a place to relax, said hotel manager Nelson Hairry, 39.
“What is this, a lazy day? This encourages people to be lazy,” he said.
The 376 chairs, which range from Day-Glo colors to muddied earth tones, will be put out between 9 a.m. and 9 p.m., and folded up and chained together overnight, said Tim Tompkins, president of the Times Square Alliance.
This temporary furniture will be replaced when the city completes construction on the new pedestrian plazas this August.
“We purposely chose ones that were very light and simple so we can fold them up and chain them together at the end of the day,” Tompkins said.
The chairs were bought from Pintchik Hardware in Brooklyn at a steep discount from the $15 retail price, owner Matthew Pintchik said.
“As a community service, we made them an offer they couldn’t refuse,” he said. “They bought every last chair we had.”