New York Moves to Clean Up Times Square After a Spate of Crimes

Despite highly publicized attacks, most major offenses are down. But quality-of-life problems tarnish the “Crossroads of the World,” the city says.

A man attacked with a machete. A young woman killed after the police said a 22-year-old woman stabbed her in an unprovoked attack near the Port Authority bus terminal. A carpenter waiting for a co-worker in the bus station stabbed nine times as he sat and read.

Times Square, the gaudy icon of Manhattan, and the surrounding streets have seen a string of attacks since April — sometimes in broad daylight — that have led to blaring headlines. They came just months after a winter spate of violence fed fears, inflamed by accusations from Republican politicians, that New York was sliding toward chaos and violence.

Those who live and work in the area say they are also concerned by the desperation they see every day in the place that styles itself as the Crossroads of the World: heroin users shooting up on the sidewalk, people suffering from mental health crises screaming in the streets and pervasive homelessness.

But despite the conspicuous incidents, most major crimes in Times Square have actually fallen, the police said, as officers, city officials and community groups work to improve conditions.

Mayor Eric Adams and Alvin L. Bragg, Manhattan’s district attorney, said this week that they are working together to fight those problems and a slew of others that residents and businesses in Times Square have complained about for months, including illegal cannabis shops, shoplifting and scaffolding on buildings that gives cover to drug users and dealers.

Their new Midtown Community Improvement Coalition is one of five such groups the city has assembled across the five boroughs to take on chronic complaints.