Those rickety old hot pink lounge chairs were OK in the beginning for the pedestrian mall in Times Square, but now the ever-fashionable Manhattan is angling for a style boost.
Gone are the garage sale-bought seats of yesteryear. Glossy new benches and tree-lined gardens now complement the closed sections of Broadway at Times Square, turning the mall into a virtual oasis where tourists and passerby can pause for a relaxing respite, according to The New York Post.
OK, maybe it's not an "oasis" – but it's nicer than a concrete slab with crappy chairs.
"I like it. You can sit and have a cup of coffee and see what's going on around you," 16-year-old Cassie Butler, who found herself a nice comfy baseball glove (huh?) to sit on, told the Post.
Silver couple-friendly benches have popped up in the last few days (but they don't have back support so you won't get too cozy), and about 420 new metal chairs and small tables ala Bryant Park will be added to the scene in the next week, the Post reports.
City officials are also working their green thumbs, turning concrete patches into beds of lush flora and fauna. Each bed has an oak or Zelkova tree artfully planted in the middle of the roadway and encircled by dozens of other small plants like Nepeta (Catnip) and Russian Arborvitae, park officials told the Post.
Passerby welcome the infusion of green in an otherwise traffic-, store- and people-infested Times Square.
"Any chance we have to plant something in New York is good," Kate-Erin Gibson, of Astoria, told the Post. "I spend a lot of time in Times Square and it's nice to have a lot of greenery in a place where you feel boxed in all the time."
Some tourists are bummed that the bustling streets they've heard about are taking a greener turn, but New Yorkers welcome the break from the constant irritation of traffic.
"Look, gridlock sucks," Long Island art professor Matt Gehring told the Post. "The new chairs and greenery make everything full of action, even though the beach chairs look a little more comfortable."
The Times Square makeover is scheduled to be finished by Aug. 16, and the Herald Square section should be done a week later – about three months after Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced his plans to shut down sections of Broadway to traffic.
