Photo
So-called desnudas, covered by little more than body paint, have drawn complaints about their solicitation of payment to pose for pictures in Times Square. Credit Nicole Bengiveno/The New York Times
Mayor Bill de Blasio said on Tuesday that he sees the women parading around Times Square covered in little but body paint not as creative artists, but as pushy panhandlers whose efforts to separate tourists from their money should be regulated.
The topless women, known as desnudas, have attracted more scrutiny than usual this summer amid complaints about their aggressive solicitation of payment to pose for pictures. Mr. de Blasio placed them in the same category as the gaggle of costumed characters that have become nearly synonymous with predatory panhandling in and around Times Square.
“It’s wrong,” Mr. de Blasio said of the topless women’s tactics, during a news conference. “We are going to look for every appropriate way to regulate all activity that involves either begging, or asking people for a contribution based on, you know, the opportunity to take a picture, for example.” The mayor added, “I don’t like the situation in Times Square, and we’re going to address it in a very aggressive manner.”
Photo
Christine Gilski photographing her son Michael, 11. She said the characters complained her tip was too low. Credit Nicole Bengiveno/The New York Times
Still, Mr. de Blasio acknowledged that reining in the desnudas was complicated by the protections afforded to artistic expression by the First Amendment. “That doesn’t mean we can’t find legislative and regulatory solutions that still fall within constitutional protections,” he said.
The mayor’s staff declined to provide any details about what restrictions he is considering, saying that lawyers were still studying the issue. Toplessness is legal in New York; aggressive panhandling is not. Corey Johnson, a City Council member whose district includes Times Square, said that he and another councilman, Daniel R. Garodnick, were working on a bill that would limit when and where the desnudas and costumed characters could ply their trade.
Mr. Johnson said on Tuesday that the model would be the “time, place and manner restrictions” the city has placed on street vendors in crowded areas of certain parks, including Central Park and Union Square Park. Those rules created designated spots for a limited number of sketch artists and other street vendors to set up.
Mr. Johnson said the goal was not to rid Times Square of the characters and other street hustlers but to rein them in so they do not drive away the throngs of tourists.
“People come to Times Square from all over the world because it is a little quirky and slightly chaotic and because there’s some allure to that,” Mr. Johnson said. “But if it becomes unsafe and creepy, that becomes a problem that we have to address.”
The proliferation of the costumed characters and topless women has gone beyond being the subject of jokes by late-night comedians to being a frequent source of drama and cause for police intervention, Tim Tompkins, president of the Times Square Alliance, said.
Mr. Tompkins said that a survey of people who work in and around Times Square found that 45 percent of them had either had or witnessed an unpleasant interaction with a costumed character or someone else soliciting payment from tourists. During one week in late June, the alliance counted more than 120 costumed characters and 11 “painted ladies” in the area.
The topless women often accost men as they walk through Times Square, grabbing their arms or rubbing up against them while offering to pose for pictures, Mr. Tompkins said. The costumed characters — outfitted to resemble Elmo or Minnie Mouse or the Incredible Hulk — have been employing similar tactics for years, he said. They pose with wide-eyed children, then seek payment of $5 or more from their parents, sometimes berating the tourists for not handing over enough money.
On Sunday afternoon, the police arrested a man dressed as Olaf, a character from the movie “Frozen,” after a woman complained that he had spurned her offer of $1 and angrily demanded $20, Mr. Tompkins said. The allegation did not surprise him at all.
“This is happening thousands of times a week,” Mr. Tompkins said. “If I spend 10 minutes in Times Square, I will witness someone being deeply upset.”
Mr. Tompkins said he often tells tourists who are being harassed by costumed characters that they do not have to pay them, but he said that he tries to avoid confrontations with the people wearing the costumes. He said he had also consoled people who appeared to have been upset by such run-ins.
“If you talk to someone after they’ve just been ripped off, they are crying and embarrassed,” he said. “We deserve better in our public places.”
Mr. Tompkins said the alliance supported Mr. de Blasio’s proposal of regulating the desnudas and costumed characters as businesses. In all the interviews of them he has seen, he said, they have described themselves as workers trying to make a living, rather than artists exercising their constitutional right to express themselves.
Mr. de Blasio put it this way on Tuesday: “Let’s face it. The women in Times Square, or the furry creatures in Times Square, are engaged in a business. We believe that that opens the door for us to enforce the way we would any other business. And we will do so, while still respecting constitutional rights.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/19/n...on=top-stories-below&WT.nav=top-stories-below
So-called desnudas, covered by little more than body paint, have drawn complaints about their solicitation of payment to pose for pictures in Times Square. Credit Nicole Bengiveno/The New York Times
Mayor Bill de Blasio said on Tuesday that he sees the women parading around Times Square covered in little but body paint not as creative artists, but as pushy panhandlers whose efforts to separate tourists from their money should be regulated.
The topless women, known as desnudas, have attracted more scrutiny than usual this summer amid complaints about their aggressive solicitation of payment to pose for pictures. Mr. de Blasio placed them in the same category as the gaggle of costumed characters that have become nearly synonymous with predatory panhandling in and around Times Square.
“It’s wrong,” Mr. de Blasio said of the topless women’s tactics, during a news conference. “We are going to look for every appropriate way to regulate all activity that involves either begging, or asking people for a contribution based on, you know, the opportunity to take a picture, for example.” The mayor added, “I don’t like the situation in Times Square, and we’re going to address it in a very aggressive manner.”
Photo
Christine Gilski photographing her son Michael, 11. She said the characters complained her tip was too low. Credit Nicole Bengiveno/The New York Times
Still, Mr. de Blasio acknowledged that reining in the desnudas was complicated by the protections afforded to artistic expression by the First Amendment. “That doesn’t mean we can’t find legislative and regulatory solutions that still fall within constitutional protections,” he said.
The mayor’s staff declined to provide any details about what restrictions he is considering, saying that lawyers were still studying the issue. Toplessness is legal in New York; aggressive panhandling is not. Corey Johnson, a City Council member whose district includes Times Square, said that he and another councilman, Daniel R. Garodnick, were working on a bill that would limit when and where the desnudas and costumed characters could ply their trade.
Mr. Johnson said on Tuesday that the model would be the “time, place and manner restrictions” the city has placed on street vendors in crowded areas of certain parks, including Central Park and Union Square Park. Those rules created designated spots for a limited number of sketch artists and other street vendors to set up.
Mr. Johnson said the goal was not to rid Times Square of the characters and other street hustlers but to rein them in so they do not drive away the throngs of tourists.
“People come to Times Square from all over the world because it is a little quirky and slightly chaotic and because there’s some allure to that,” Mr. Johnson said. “But if it becomes unsafe and creepy, that becomes a problem that we have to address.”
The proliferation of the costumed characters and topless women has gone beyond being the subject of jokes by late-night comedians to being a frequent source of drama and cause for police intervention, Tim Tompkins, president of the Times Square Alliance, said.
Mr. Tompkins said that a survey of people who work in and around Times Square found that 45 percent of them had either had or witnessed an unpleasant interaction with a costumed character or someone else soliciting payment from tourists. During one week in late June, the alliance counted more than 120 costumed characters and 11 “painted ladies” in the area.
The topless women often accost men as they walk through Times Square, grabbing their arms or rubbing up against them while offering to pose for pictures, Mr. Tompkins said. The costumed characters — outfitted to resemble Elmo or Minnie Mouse or the Incredible Hulk — have been employing similar tactics for years, he said. They pose with wide-eyed children, then seek payment of $5 or more from their parents, sometimes berating the tourists for not handing over enough money.
On Sunday afternoon, the police arrested a man dressed as Olaf, a character from the movie “Frozen,” after a woman complained that he had spurned her offer of $1 and angrily demanded $20, Mr. Tompkins said. The allegation did not surprise him at all.
“This is happening thousands of times a week,” Mr. Tompkins said. “If I spend 10 minutes in Times Square, I will witness someone being deeply upset.”
Mr. Tompkins said he often tells tourists who are being harassed by costumed characters that they do not have to pay them, but he said that he tries to avoid confrontations with the people wearing the costumes. He said he had also consoled people who appeared to have been upset by such run-ins.
“If you talk to someone after they’ve just been ripped off, they are crying and embarrassed,” he said. “We deserve better in our public places.”
Mr. Tompkins said the alliance supported Mr. de Blasio’s proposal of regulating the desnudas and costumed characters as businesses. In all the interviews of them he has seen, he said, they have described themselves as workers trying to make a living, rather than artists exercising their constitutional right to express themselves.
Mr. de Blasio put it this way on Tuesday: “Let’s face it. The women in Times Square, or the furry creatures in Times Square, are engaged in a business. We believe that that opens the door for us to enforce the way we would any other business. And we will do so, while still respecting constitutional rights.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/19/n...on=top-stories-below&WT.nav=top-stories-below
