Times Square Remade: The Dynamics of Urban Change. Lynne B. Sagalyn (2023).

What is it about?

Times Square Remade is a powerful and well researched account of Times Square and 42nd Street’s urban transformations during the last 150 years or so (...) Though Times Square’s main contemporary features are likely known to planners, they will still learn new perspectives from reading Sagalyn’s latest book: city–state expropriations; partnerships, including tax abatements to corporations; the physical relocation of old theaters to a different location on West 42nd Street; the partial closure of Broadway to traffic; the creation of pedestrian plazas; ambitious cultural nonprofits; and the relatively soft commercial urbanism strategies of the “clean, safe and attractive” genre.

Featured Image

Photo by Andreas M on Unsplash

Photo by Andreas M on Unsplash

Why is it important?

My main takeaway from the book is that unique among those various initiatives is the convergence of forces and interests aimed at increasing the vitality and vibrancy of Times Square and indirectly bolstering real estate values, sales volumes, and tax collections (...) According to Sagalyn, the benefits of these improvements are now also visible in the adjacent neighborhoods of Manhattan Community Board 4 (Hell’s Kitchen, aka Clinton, Chelsea, and Hudson Yards).

Perspectives

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Lynne Sagalyn’s in-depth knowledge of the district’s urban transformations, the evolution of the influential real estate interests, and the most important financial transactions and planning programs shaping the district’s urban environment and its main uses provides plenty of fodder for thought in our postpandemic uncertain and interconnected reality.

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