2005/06/15 Council Agenda Packet

In choosing Control Blocks, we realized that there is no block like 42nd Street between Seventh and Eighth Avenues --our study block—anywhere. But we felt that by shifting our focus just one block to the west, we would have a block with no adult establishments but with similar uses and traffic patterns (though it does have the Port Authority Bus Terminal on its corner). _ As controls for our. Eighth Avenue Study Blocks, we took the similar parallel blocks on Ninth Avenue, which, although residential, have comparable though not identical land uses and traffic patterns. , Tax arrears data were obtained for the years 1988, 1989, 1992 and =1993, the most recent year available through the New York City MISLAND system. We compared the data for our control and study blocks with aggregated data by census tracts that roughly approximated the boundaries of the Times Square "Business Improvement District, and with Manhattan and New York C ity as. significant or consistent findings were obtained from this exercise. whole as well: No Gathering Crime Data Working closely with the Crime Analysis Division of the NYPD,-we requested crime data for the Study Blocks of 42nd Street, Seventh to Eighth Avenues, and Eighth Avenue, from 45th through 48th "Streets, fora period of one a amount of data proved too difficult for the Crime Analysis Division to obtain, and This were ultimately given these data for only a three 'month time period, from June through August, 1993. The same information was also supplied for our Control Blocks, which, for this subject, were slightly different: instead of the 42nd Street block between Eighth and Ninth Avenues which includes the Port Authority Bus Terminal, the next block west, between Ninth and Tenth Avenues was used. Selecting -the interviewees We initially obtained a listing of BID property owners for interview, by taking every fifth name on the BiD's 404. owners' list. =When an Individual or corporation owned several properties, the name was used only once. We also eliminated the owners of adult use establishments (though later we, did talk to one owner _and., operator of a number of such establishments in the area). We also deleted the many 42nd Street properties now'owned by the State or City of New York or the New York State Urban Development Corporation. Similarly, we disregarded owners with telephone numbers outside the tri-state area, or those without listed telephone numbers. Banks and hotels were omitted from this -first-list. This effort yielded a sample of 37 potential interviewees, of whom 20 were ultimately interviewed. The 20 included some of the largest developers and managers in Times Square and in New York City, with multiple holdings, as well as smaller residential and commercial property owners. It included as well the three major theatre -owning organizations, which control almost all the legitimate Broadwav 12 EVER00198