NYC to Kick Cars Off Broadway

New York is turning the Great White Way into the Great Walk Way, the New York Times reports. Mayor Bloomberg announced plans yesterday to turn five blocks of Broadway around Times Square into a pedestrian zone complete with tables and landscaping starting this May. City officials say the plan will ease the area's fearsome congestion but some worry the area's spirit will be lost.

"It’s the craziest place in the world. Why change it?” one tourist told the Times. Bloomberg, however, believes the area will benefit from the breathing space. "People don’t come to look at cars stuck in traffic,” he said. “They come to look at the lights, the buildings and the excitement, and this is going to have a lot more of it." (More New York City stories.)