Urban Reflections

This was taken after a visit to NYC’s most amazing Camera store, B&H while strolling back to Times Square.

Another bit of History: The general atmosphere of Time’s Square changed with the onset of the  Great Depression in the 1930s. Times Square acquired a reputation as a dangerous neighborhood in the following decades. From the 1960s to the early 1990s, the seediness of the area, especially due its go-go bars, sex shops, and adult theaters, became an infamous symbol  of  the city’s decline.

In the 1980s, a commercial building boom began in the western parts of the Midtown as part of a long-term  development plan developed under Mayor Ed Koch. In the mid-1990s, Mayor Rudolph Giuliani (1994–2002) led an effort to “clean up” the area, increasing  security, closing  porno theaters, pressuring drug dealers to relocate, and opening more tourist-friendly attractions and  upscale establishments. Advocates of the remodeling claim that the neighborhood is safer and cleaner. Detractors have countered that the changes have homogenized or ”Disneyfied” the character of Times Square and have unfairly targeted lower-income New Yorkers from nearby neighborhoods such as  Hell’s Kitchen. www.kerstenbeck.com

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