The DOT's $700,000 transformation of a seven block stretch of Broadway into a pedestrian esplanade with tables, chairs and planters is complete, and the Times has taken the anxious pulse of local workers lounging on their lunchbreaks. The consensus? A nice gesture, but it's only a matter of time before a cab swerves into the tables and turns the urban oasis into a scene of unspeakable carnage. Some choice observations from the men and women......

A few more details on the pane of the glass that fell from 1 Times Square (where the ball drops on New Year's) yesterday afternoon: The 3' by 5' chunk was "between the seventh and eight floors" of the 23-floor building. The glass landed on a car, and the police later closed the area. The Department of Buildings says somehow the pane "had become dislodged" (the building's owner received a citation). Apparently there is renovation......

Just last week glass fell from the Bank of America building at 6th Avenue and 42nd Street, and about a block away at 2:15 p.m. today the same thing has occurred. From the building where the annual New Year's Eve ball drop takes place, 1 Times Square, it's being reported that "A WINDOW HAS FALLEN FROM A 10TH FLOOR WINDOW. GLASS IS ALL OVER THE ROADWAY AND A LARGE CHUNK OF GLASS IS STILL ON......

Laugh Factory owner Jamie Masada has filed suit against his Times Square business partner, Show World owner Richard Basciano, claiming that he has been shaken down by the mob-connected adult theater owner. Masada alleges to have been threatened with a gun, coerced into contracts and even says that the club was told that "somebody could be killed" if a certain comedian was booked again. The suit pits the new, cleaned-up Times Square against its seedier......

Surprise! Without a formal public announcement, the city has been moving ahead with a $700,000 plan to shrink part of Broadway in midtown from a four-lane to a two-lane street and use the rest of the space for a public esplanade, which the DOT is calling “Broadway Boulevard.” The change will be complete on August 15th, when the east side of Broadway between 42nd Street and Herald Square is turned over to a bicycle lane and a pedestrian walkway, teeming with cafe tables, chairs, umbrellas and flower-filled planters....

Photo via d.billy's flickr. Not too long ago there was a behind the scenes glimpse of the Times Square billboards that light up the "Crossroads of the World" day in and day out. Now it looks like the old fashioned painted ads are more reliable, as AndIAmNotLying points out a glitch from last night in one electronic billboard on 8th and 42nd. Oopsy! It's a snafu that could be costing someone as much as......

Remember the plans for that fancy new TKTS theater ticket booth in Times Square that were unveiled back in Aught Six? Producer Ken Davenport (Altar Boyz) does, and the other day he was just wondering, you know, why the hell it’s not ready yet, since they originally said it would be open for business in just six short months. (The Times Square TKTS has been operating at the Marriot Marquis in the meantime.) So Davenport......

Following the announcement that a judge will allow some of Naked Cowboy's lawsuit against Mars Inc. to move forward, the tighty-whitey bearing Robert Burck appeared on the Today Show this morning. The 38-year-old entertainer is hoping to make some extra coin in the case, but Mars says they had a right to parody and are protected under the First Amendment. Amongst many, many other things, Burck noted: “I came to New York City to be......

Remember when the Naked Cowboy http://gothamist.com/2008/02/13/naked_cowboy_to.php">sued M&M;'s maker Mars Inc. for $6 million, claiming a commercial showing a blue M&M; in a cowboy hat, boots, and white underwear and holding a guitar in Times Square infringed on his trademark look? Well, a federal judge sent most of the lawsuit to pasture, but is allowing the Naked Cowboy's claim that it seems like he's endorsing M&M;'s to stand.......

Saturday as the Mermaid Parade finished marching through Coney Island, the Bubble Battle was going down in Times Square. It seems to have outgrown the previous year's location of Astor Place, as thousands showed up and millions of bubbles floated around the Crossroads of the World (video after the jump).......

The One Times Square building is empty. Why? Because the owner can afford it by selling ad space alone. It costs $300,000/month to advertise on that structure -- one of things you'll learn in this behind-the-LED-screens look at Times Square. Host John Woods takes a look at the crossroads of commerce, and even talks to the owner of Landmark Signs, Tony Calvano, whose company has been maintaining and installing most ads in Times Square since......

Posthumously joining an elite circle that includes Jerry Garcia, Stephen Colbert and Phish, ex-Beatle John Lennon has now been honored with his own Ben & Jerry's ice cream flavor: Imagine Whirled Peace. Guest of a Guest recites the ingredients: a caramel and sweet cream whirl with toffee and chocolate-covered peace signs. Reportedly the company worked with the estate of Lennon and "the promotion also includes a recreation of the 'Bed-In' staged by John Lennon and......

Chashama and Chris Rubino team up to present, "The Center of Something," an exhibit centered around the artist's "take on New York as a destination for both visiting and living." Since Chashama is in Times Square, the exhibit itself will become a temporary tourist attraction itself. But will the locals or the tourists be the ones flocking to it?The exhibit is modeled after the dozens of stores in the neighborhood selling the same inane......

The Village Voice’s Robert Sietsema stops by Soba Totta (pictured), the fourth addition to the Yakitori Totto mini-chain. He loves some charcoal shish kebabs and says “the sight of three yakitori chefs skewering morsels of chicken with military precision behind a hanging sheet of glass intended to forestall spatters is one of the great sights of midtown dining.” Eat your heart out Frank Bruni; New York Magazine’s Adam Platt is the first critic to score......

For the second time in as many years, the famous Stage Deli in Manhattan was shuttered by the Dept. of Health after inspections found the restaurant infested with vermin. The Times Square institution was last closed in mid-2006 after it accrued too many points during a health inspection (points are for violations and a score above 28 is a failure.) As reported in The New York Times, the DOH inspected the Stage last Wednesday and......

The police have taken fingerprints from the bike believed to have been trashed by the Times Square bomber. They are also looking for traces of DNA left on the bike and checking cellphone transmissions in the area during Thursday early morning, which is when a bomb exploded outside the army recruiting center. First, the police are " trying to eliminate nonsuspect fingerprints" because a number of people handled the bike when it was discovered and......

Large faces loom over Times Square every day, so why not yours? Join the ranks of over-sized famous faces with a 50-foot-high version of your own face hanging 48 stories above the tourists. The chashama gallery is currently running Raul Vincent Enriquez's "I in the Sky" project, which the artist says is about making eye contact (something most New Yorkers avoid). The Brooklyn artist recently told Wired, "We just need more eye contact; it's what......

The police think the 10-speed bicycle, left near the trash on Thursday morning, belongs to the person who bombed the army recruiting center in Times Square. The bike, left on East 38th Street, was found by some workers who heard about the bombing and contacted the police, who learned of the bike at 7 a.m. (the bombing occurred around 3:45 a.m.). Surveillance footage shows the suspected bomber on a bicycle near the recruiting center......

Photographs of the damaged recruiting center (above) and Mayor Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Kelly (below) by Mary Altaffer/AP The FBI said letters sent to many Congressional members with a photograph of a man standing in front of the Times Square recruiting center and an anti-war manifesto were not linked to yesterday's bombing outside the center. A law enforcement source did call the letters an "incredibly unbelievable coincidence," as they arrived in many offices yesterday,......

Some Capitol Hill offices received letters claiming responsibility for this morning's bombing in Times Square. WNBC reports that the letters, which arrived today, included a photo of the Army recruiting center "before it was bombed and...the words 'We did it.'" According to the AP, Senator Dianne Feinstein's office sent this email to other lawmakers:"A few offices on the House side have received a letter today addressed to 'Members of Congress' with a picture of a......

Images from surveillance footage via WNBC The NYPD released surveillance footage of this morning's explosion near the Army recruiting center in Times Square. The footage shows a bicyclist approaching the building and an explosion taking place after he leaves. The bicyclist is of interest because a witness told the police he/she saw a bicyclist acting suspiciously. Earlier today, Police Commissioner Kelly said, "The individual (on the bicycle) was wearing a hood and dark colored......

Photograph of damaged door by dhfdz on Flickr Around 3:45 a.m., a device exploded outside the military recruiting center in Times Square. No one was injured, but a glass entryway was shattered. The streets around Times Square were shut down (now traffic can pass through) and subway service passed through the Times Square station without stopping (it's back to normal now), as authorities investigated the scene. WNBC reports police were searching for a "suspect......

Photo: Carol Rosegg I hate going to Broadway shows: fighting through the mobs in Times Square, being herded into the theater like livestock, cramming into a tiny seat while feedback from hearing aids and hacking coughs reverberate on all sides. Admittedly, I’m a world-class grouch when it comes to these things, so it’s no faint praise that I’d eagerly subject myself to it again for Passing Strange, the multidisciplinary rock musical that just blazed onto......

America's Next Top Model is back in New York and in its second episode, which airs tonight, things are getting a little bit real. The episode brings the fourteen newest model wannabes to the not always fashionable streets. After the troupe mingles with the tourists at their fashion show in Times Square, it's off to their first photo shoot. For regular watchers of the show you'll know there's always a theme to the shoots, well......

Times Square Shuffle, by ShhPeKo at flickrToday on the Gothamist Newsmap: shots fired and a large crowd at 98th St. and Rockaway Blvd. in Queens, a carjacking on Ave. Y and Nostrand Ave. in Brooklyn, and an overturned auto on 28th St. and 7th Ave. in Manhattan. The New York Post continues to discover the brave new world of "twisted sex play," commonly known as BDSM. The gentrification of Harlem is colorblind, to the......

subway love, by presley at flickr Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a truck into scaffolding on West 39th St. and Broadway in Manhattan, a bank robbery at the HSBC branch on 33rd St. and Park Ave. in Manhattan, and a double shooting on East 57th St. and Ave. D in Brooklyn. The $8 million Jean-Michel Basquiat painting "Hannibal", which was smuggled out of Brazil, was located at a Manhattan warehouse on 61st St. and......

Last year, the Health Department unveiled its free NYC Condoms on Valentine's Day. For this year's Valentine's Day, not only will volunteers from the Health Department be distributing condoms again, there's a new packaging and a new ad campaign with the tag "Get Some." Don't worry - the condom is the same lubricated Lifestyles latex condom as before. The Health Department gave out 36 million NYC Condoms last year and Assistant Commissioner for HIV......

Times Square fixture The Naked Cowboy (Robert Burck) is singing a litigious song these days against Mars Inc., maker of M&M; candies. He is claiming that the company is infringing on his trademark, i.e. singing in tighty-whities, cowboy boots and a Stetson, with a six string slung on his shoulder. Burck wants $6 million after the company started broadcasting a film on a billboard screen in Times Square showing anthropomorphic M&Ms; re-enacting famous scenes, structures,......

“Anonymous”, the loose-knit anti-Scientology collective, staged a demonstration yesterday outside New York’s Church of Scientology Headquarters near Times Square; it was part of an international day of protest against the church. Anonymous has been expanding rapidly since their Message to Scientology video was posted on YouTube in January; it's been watched over 2 million times in the past three weeks. Among other things, the video accuses Scientology of censorship for threatening to sue websites who......

Itching to jump back into Liberty City yet? The New GTA IV website has been launched, in preparation for the quickly approaching April release. The previews so far have been somewhat light on details, but the site finally sheds some light into what kind of trouble you can expect to get into while traversing a virtual NYC. To start, our virtual Queens is a land called "Dukes." Here, we've got a baseball team not so......