Times Square Roulette Remaking the City Icon

by Sagalyn, Lynne B.

• ISBN13: 9780262692953
• ISBN10: 0262692953
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-08-29
• Publisher: The MIT Press

Summary

The spectacularly successful transformation of Times Square has become a model for other cities. From its beginning as Longacre Square, Times Squarers"s commercialism, signage, cultural diversity, and social tolerance have been deeply embedded in New York Cityrs"s psyche. Its symbolic role guaranteed that any plan for its renewal would push the hot buttons of public controversy: free speech, property-taking through eminent domain, development density, tax subsidy, and historic preservation. In Times Square Roulette, Lynne Sagalyn debunks the myth of an overnight urban miracle performed by Disney and Mayor Giuliani, to tell the far more complex and commanding tale of a twenty-year process of public controversy, nonstop litigation, and interminable delay. She tells how the troubled execution of the original redevelopment plan provided a rare opportunity to rescript it. And timing was all: the mid-1990s saw rising international corporate interest in the city as a mecca for mass-market entertainment and synergistic merchandising. Sagalyn details the complex relationship between planning and politics and the role of market forces in shaping Times Squarers"s redevelopment opportunities. She shows how policy was wedded to deal making and how persistent individuals and groups forged both.

Author Biography

Lynne B. Sagalyn is the Earle W. Kazis and Benjamin Schore Director of the MBA Real Estate Program at the Columbia University Graduate School of Business.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. viii
Planning: Creating Agents of Change	p. 1
Staging a Transformation	p. 2
The Late Great White Way	p. 30
The Public Takes Charge	p. 68
Deals for Development	p. 104
The Open Tab	p. 134
Implementation: The Politics of Complex Ambitions	p. 169
Troubled Execution	p. 170
The Litigation Trap	p. 206
Rescripting Renewal	p. 238
Inventing an Entertainment Agenda	p. 276
Business Buys Broadway	p. 308
Disney Deliverance	p. 338
Policy Scorecard: Assessing the Gamble	p. 373
The Reluctant Risk Taker	p. 374
Quiescent Policy Dilemmas	p. 408
The Messages of Renewal	p. 442
Epilogue	p. 476
Notes	p. 490
Bibliography	p. 562
Appendixes	p. 590
List of Abbreviations	p. 591
Executive Administrations	p. 593
Policy Strategies and Public Actions to Improve Conditions in Times Square	p. 594
Chronology of the Redevelopment of Times Square and West 42nd Street	p. 597
Formal and Informal Points of Accountability	p. 602
New Private Investment on West 42nd Street	p. 605
Index	p. 606
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