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Op-Ed: Feds say it’s ‘lights out’ for Times Square billboards

But turning out all those light? The iconic Times Square neon billboards that brighten Broadway and Seventh Avenue, stretching to West 42nd and to West 47th Streets are both garish and beautiful. Maybe it depends on if you’re standing in the middle of the street on New Year’s Eve, or just looking at a picture, but either way, they grab you.

Times Square has been called “The crossroads of the World,” and “The Center of the Universe.” But my favorite description of Times Square has always been “The Great White Way,” bowing to its place as being the center of the theater district. Times Square is also the center of the country’s annual ball drop on New Year’s Eve. But the feds say the lights have to be turned off. Period.

Night lights in New York City s Time Square.

Night lights in New York City’s Time Square.
Bartek Roszak


It seems the neon billboards are in violation of the 2012 highway spending bill, a piece of legislation that put a number of Manhattan streets under the Highway Beautification Act of 1965. That act limits the size of signs on roadways,

The fed’s ruling stems from one piece of paper, MAP-21. The map shows a number of New York City roads, including Broadway and Seventh Avenue where they intersect in Times Square, were added to the National Highways System.

New York City’s Department of Transportation commissioner Polly Trottenberg says. “Under the act, billboards over 1,200 square feet cannot be displayed within 660 feet of a highway. Failure to comply with the Beautification Act is penalized by a 10 percent reduction in a state’s federal highway funds.”

Trottenberg told Capital New York, “All these billboards, they no longer meet the Highway Beautification Act requirements, and so now we’re going to have to go through kind of a complicated process with the state to yank them off because the feds are threatening to take away 10 percent of our money.”

Regardless of what the federal government wants, the New York Department of Transportation is bound and determined to keep the gigantic and sometimes garish billboards in place. One thing city officials point out is the revenue generated from the billboards, a cool $23 million yearly.

Mitchell Moss, a professor of urban planning at New York University remembers when the Highway Beautification Act was enacted. He says it applied to rural areas, “I remember when the Beautification Act passed, Ladybird Johnson never wanted to touch the streets of New York, it was for rural America,” he told Capital. New York. “This is another example where the federal and state governments should stay out of New York. They have enough to do elsewhere.”

Frankly, I can’t imagine Times Square without the lights, can you? I remember when I was in my youth, standing arm-and-arm with friends in a crowd of what seemed like thousands and thousands of people, watching the ball descend on New Year’s Eve in 1965.

Years later, my husband and I took our daughter to New York City for New Year’s Eve. It was just as exciting then as it was the first time. But it all comes back to the lights. Without the gigantic neon billboards blatantly declaring “This is Times Square,” it wouldn’t be New York City.

A view of NYC skyline as taken from the Promenade

A view of NYC skyline at night as taken from the Promenade in Brooklyn Heights
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We are deeply saddened to announce the passing of our dear friend Karen Graham, who served as Editor-at-Large at Digital Journal. She was 78 years old. Karen's view of what is happening in our world was colored by her love of history and how the past influences events taking place today. Her belief in humankind's part in the care of the planet and our environment has led her to focus on the need for action in dealing with climate change. It was said by Geoffrey C. Ward, "Journalism is merely history's first draft." Everyone who writes about what is happening today is indeed, writing a small part of our history.

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