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Contemporary Issues at the Times
Square BID
Karla Quintero
Barnard College
It has been a two decades since Times Square became "the
sleaziest place in America." Every commercial expression
of social deviance imaginable found a home for its enterprise
on the once extravagant streets and avenues of Times Square.
The area, once a world-renowned center for theatre and entertainment,
descended deep into perversion post 1980. It became heavily
populated by social misfits; everything from pimps to prostitutes,
drug dealers to drug users, alcoholics, derelicts, chicken
hawks and many more of the like. When redevelopment plans
for the Times Square area began to surface in the 1980s,
it was obvious that addressing safety concerns was critical
to its successful regeneration. Times Square was a downright
sketchy place. It possessed some of the highest statistics
for crimes committed per year in the City. In order for
the area to be repopulated by respectable citizens, companies
and retailers, those individuals and businesses needed to
feel that they were safe from the seediness and crime that
saturated the area.
The Times Square Business Improvement District (BID), a
public-private partnership in its purest form, is a not-for-profit
organization that was founded in 1992. To attain its goal
of enhancing public safety in Times Square, the BID employed
forty-five Public Safety Officers (PSOs) and formed its
own private safety organization to supplement the security
provided by the New York Police Department (NYPD). The presence
of these PSOs was successful in making people and businesses
feel safe in Times Square. However after attending a special
security meeting hosted by the BID at the Hilton Times Square
of local building managers, high-level police officers,
BID senior staff and two lucky interns, it became evident
that this sense of security had faded.
The meeting was a nullifying response to the article Nuclear
Nightmare which had appeared in the New York Times Magazine
that previous Sunday and had caused quite a stir in Times
Square re-evoking some of the same fears experienced during
the aftermath of the September terrorist attacks. Whereas
public concerns regarding safety once concentrated solely
on the issue of protection from the area's unsavory past,
post 9/11 the public's concerns focused on the issue of
protection from terrorism. Times Square tenants wanted to
know what the BID was doing to keep them and the rest of
the general public safe from this threat. Throughout the
course of my internship I have struggled with the issue
of whether the roles of PSOs should change in the wake of
this new perceived threat of terrorism to keep the public
feeling safe.
Throughout the BID's existence, the role of PSOs has remained
very community oriented; giving people directions, resolving
disputes, interacting with the homeless, assisting at car
accidents. They were out on the streets, not just acting
as vigilantes, but contributing to the social milieu of
Times Square. However, the threat of nuclear terrorism to
the City, and more specifically to Times Square, has warranted
a change in the duties of PSOs. The controversial issue
of whether a quasi-public agency should be given the right
to provide security in a public space has resurfaced.
Given the circumstances, I believe deputizing the PSOs
working for the BID would be to New York City's advantage.
If the BID assumed some of the NYPD's street patrol functions,
then the NYPD would be free to concentrate more of its attention
on developing a force that was well equipped to deal with
cataclysmic occurrences. PSOs could easily be used to regulate
traffic in the area and to appropriate fines to quality
of life violators. After all, drastic times call for more
efficient measures and a more careful allocation of limited
resources.
In the wake of this new regional threat, it is important
that PSOs are given a specific role to fulfill in case of
an attack and are educated regarding likely targets and
suspects in Times Square. If PSOs assume police officers'
jobs of serving as barriers for keeping people out of danger
zones during and subsequent to a terrorist attack, it can
alleviate a burden from police officers allowing them to
concentrate their attention on more urgent matters. When
the City is in a state of alert, the NYPD should make use
of the PSOs by increasing the BID's authority to assume
some of its responsibilities. There is no doubt that the
events of September 11th necessitate at least a temporary
change in the City's strategy for reassuring the public
of its safety. Utilizing the PSOs as a resource for keeping
the Times Square area and its public protected is a good
to strategy for the City to pursue.
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