In Wake of Crimes, a Call for Crackdown on NYC's Costumed Characters

[Vibranium]

you fix the problems you can fix

it should be addressed before something really serious happens

from a comment on the original article

these people are not fans expressing their passion for a character by wearing their shirt or cosplaying. These are anonymous people looking to make a buck by posing with tourists, they somehow got ahold of a second hand Mickey Mouse or Woody from Toy Story costume and use them to stand in the busiest intersection in the country panhandling. Performers and Venders in NYC are required to get a permit. These folks should be no different. This isn’t “Marvel’s Civil War” and this isn’t persecution against fans. It’s simple regulation of an increasingly unsafe situation.

[Vic Vega]

you fix the problems you can fix

They can't address the in city speed limit? Or the fact that viruallly every cabbie in NYC willfully ignores the law against talking on cell phones while driving?

it should be addressed before something really serious happens

from a comment on the original article

Old ladies get run down left and right because they weren't quite fast enough to make it across the street...its a tragedy, but these things happen. A few tourists get jostled and we gotta make a new law?

Where are the priorities?

These costumed dudes are getting arrested now, arent they? Just like any other dude acting out in public would.

What's the point?

[ish kabbible]

They can't address the in city speed limit? Or the fact that viruallly every cabbie in NYC willfully ignores the law against talking on cell phones while driving?



Old ladies get run down left and right because they weren't quite fast enough to make it across the street...its a tragedy, but these things happen. A few tourists get jostled and we gotta make a new law?

Where are the priorities?

These costumed dudes are getting arrested now, arent they? Just like any other dude acting out in public would.

What's the point?

I got no idea what you're point is.These costumed "heroes" trick gullible tourists into taking a pictue of them with their child and then demand $5-10 and get very abusive if you refuse.
The way NYC became one of the safest big cities in America was enforcing the law,all the laws including the smaller ones like 3-card Monte hustlers or the menacing auto windshield cleaners who would trap you at a red light,wipe your windshield without asking and demand money.Thats part of what it was like in Times Square 20 years ago. Those characters were driven away,police enforced the laws,crime plummetted and tourism skyrocketed.
I live in Manhattan. Do You?

[Vic Vega]

I got no idea what you're point is.These costumed "heroes" trick gullible tourists into taking a pictue of them with their child and then demand $5-10 and get very abusive if you refuse.
The way NYC became one of the safest big cities in America was enforcing the law,all the laws including the smaller ones like 3-card Monte hustlers or the menacing auto windshield cleaners who would trap you at a red light,wipe your windshield without asking and demand money.Thats part of what it was like in Times Square 20 years ago. Those characters were driven away,police enforced the laws,crime plummetted and tourism skyrocketed.
I live in Manhattan. Do You?

I'm in Times Square nearly every other week.

Somehow I never had a problem with costumed characters.

And rising rents and gentrification had way more to do with cleaning up Times Square than the Cops did.

[Motown Rage]

I just posted a pic in the thread showing me taking a pic with Cap and Spidey, both guys were really polite and didn't ask for money, I gave them a $10 bill for their time. The costumes were top of the line, looked just like the movie characters and being my first time in Manhattan I figured why not, the kids will love it at least.

Then I continued on to other touristy stuff, such as hitting the FAO Schwartz store to see the stuff from the movie Big, inside they had a guy in an Iron Man costume working, I tried to take a pic of him from a distance and I was told to delete the picture or pay for it. I deleted it, but as I stated, the two guys on the street didn't ask me for money, the d*ck in the store demanded it or for the picture to be deleted.

[ish kabbible]

I'm in Times Square nearly every other week.

Somehow I never had a problem with costumed characters.

And rising rents and gentrification had way more to do with cleaning up Times Square than the Cops did.

Since there's hardly any private residences in that section of Manhatan I don't see how rents and gentrification changed Times Sq from a red-light district of street walkers,pimps,hustlers,dealers and the like to what it is now.As for the city in general,there are as many poor as ever as well as the rich.It's the middle class that are being squeezed out of town.

[Vibranium]

I just posted a pic in the thread showing me taking a pic with Cap and Spidey, both guys were really polite and didn't ask for money, I gave them a $10 bill for their time. The costumes were top of the line, looked just like the movie characters and being my first time in Manhattan I figured why not, the kids will love it at least.

Then I continued on to other touristy stuff, such as hitting the FAO Schwartz store to see the stuff from the movie Big, inside they had a guy in an Iron Man costume working, I tried to take a pic of him from a distance and I was told to delete the picture or pay for it. I deleted it, but as I stated, the two guys on the street didn't ask me for money, the d*ck in the store demanded it or for the picture to be deleted.

Capitalism baby!

[Michael P]

Since there's hardly any private residences in that section of Manhatan I don't see how rents and gentrification changed Times Sq from a red-light district of street walkers,pimps,hustlers,dealers and the like to what it is now.

"Gentrification" is probably the wrong word, but commercial rent in the area has skyrocketed as the city has transformed it into a tourist destination.

[CliffHanger2]

I don't go to the city as much as I used to but I've seen the naked cowboy more than people dressing up as superheroes. I'm not sure if he has a license to perform though. Obviously some groping women needs to be arrested but there used to be alot more street vendors in New York but they're mostly all gone due to the city "cleaning up."

[ish kabbible]

Oh yes those old street vendors,selling bootleg DVDs,bootleg designer handbags and watches,and the earlier street trade of hookers,drug dealers and 3 card monte artists.
Lets remember the order in which things happened.Times Sq was a cesspool with loads of porn shops and x-rated movie theaters.20 years ago towards the end of the Dinkins administration,Pres Clinton made federal dollars available for certain cities to hire more police.Under the Guiliani administration,police began to enforce laws that were already on the books.Street hookers,hustlers,gangs who claimed certain blocks as their own-if a crime was committed police no longer looked the other way.The word got out that you would get picked up and actually spend time in a cell.Porn shops were zoned out of the city.Crime rates plummetted at unheard of levels throughout the rest of the decade.By 2000 new business started coming in The ESPN Zone,Vigin Megastore,Toys R Us,Disney,WWF store,many new restaurants. Crime came down first,then the new enterprises,then tourism rose and finally rents started going up.
Getting back to the superhero hustlers,thats what they are.Aggressive in targetting parents with their children.If they commit a crime like threatening or extorting people for money because you took a picture then they need to be regulated. You cannot go back to the old times of looking the other way.It's bad for tourism and it sends the wrong message

[the4thpip]

Oh yes those old street vendors,selling bootleg DVDs,bootleg designer handbags and watches,and the earlier street trade of hookers,drug dealers and 3 card monte artists.
Lets remember the order in which things happened.Times Sq was a cesspool with loads of porn shops and x-rated movie theaters.20 years ago towards the end of the Dinkins administration,Pres Clinton made federal dollars available for certain cities to hire more police.Under the Guiliani administration,police began to enforce laws that were already on the books.

How quickly we forget our heroes.

[sonofspam1972]

How will registering these people help with the accusations?