Why is NYC's theater district so ugly?

With so many tourists pouring money into the area why has no one ever done a little urban landscaping or ANYTHING to beautify the area? Most of it is drab and ugly as can be. And the restaurants there mostly suck. WTF? With all the gay boys in Hells Kitchen can't somebody please fix this area up? And the same could be said about Chelsea.

• You know, New York is not a new modern city. It's an historic city, an international city, and it's a city where virtually every block and neighborhood has a story. THe theatre district is historuc. leave it the fuck alone. It's not "ugly." It's the Theatre district. You talk about the theatre district like you talk about your mother? Is your mother "ugly?" Is she? Is she?

• [quote]And the same could be said about Chelsea. You leave my daughter alone!

  Hills

• The theater district is black, black like your soul.

• OP, the theater district and chelsea existed decades before the subdivision you live it. It reeks of history and nyc energy, especially before curtain time.

• "It reeks..." Well, that's something everyone can agree on...

• What, you don't like the pedestrian malls?

  Michael Bloomberg, Urban Landscaper

• Making NYC prettier for the tourists is what it's all about, OP!

  Rudy%20Giuliani

• There are great restaurants within walking distance of Times Square. And in Chelsea. OP just isn't cool enough to know about them.

• R1, put down the vodka. R8? Bitch please.

• Entire blocks were and are being swallowed up by gigantic grey office boxes or condos or mega-hotels. On some streets in the district, there is perhaps one single plot with an old building or theatre on it, and everything else is a recent development with bland empty storefonts or utility vents at sidewalk level. I think this is the definition of ugly.

  Ada%20Louise%20Mumford

• how did you know...

  R1

• OP please visit some other city that meets your flyover standards.

• sometimes I step in vomit

• [quote]it's a city where virtually every block and neighborhood has a story. Someone should call Kathie Lee Gifford. She can wrote a song about how every block has a story.

• hg

• R1/R11, I can smell it on you from here.

• i think it's hilarious that some replies above assume that I'm from some suburb or a "flyover" state. I'm not. I'm from Manhattan. And I know more about the history of every single block than any of you. But if your eyes do not allow you to see how ugly the theater district is, I guess we are destined to remain surrounded by drabness forever. I had assumed that there must be bureaucratic obstacles to making the area pleasant, but now I understand that it is visionless morons. Right now the theater district is about as attractive as a long-abandoned suburban strip mall and you do not see that.

  OP

• "THe theatre district is historuc. leave it the fuck alone." WTF? The theater district has not been left "alone" for 20 years. Giuliani ruined what it historically was. Now it's Las Vegas.

• Rudy Giuliani, I did not say making NYC prettier for tourists is what it's all about. It's all about making NYC nicer for RESIDENTS OF NYC.

  OP

• Yeah, turn Times Square into Disneysquare! Prop up facades and even painted blue sky! Turn it into a perfect stage set! We could pave the walks with yellow brick.

• While we're kvetching about the theatre district, why is it that no theatres there have updated their facilities to accomodate the handicapped? You have to walk a million stairs to get to a lousy restroom in most of them. The Palace is the only I've seen with a bloody elevator.

• r21 most, if not all, theatres in the theatre district have accessible restrooms on the main floor. You have to know where to look.

• No, the last few theatres I've visited had no elevators. I asked. They apologized.

• Why are the plays so crappy? I used to go to NYC a couple of times a year and there would be at least one or two plays a human could watch. Now it's total dreck as opposed to the 70 or 80 percent dreck that was on display a few years ago.

  yes%2C%20I%20know%20I%27m%20a%20flyover%20redneck

• I live in and love New York but with the exception of some very nice residential areas - Hell's Kitchen not included (but, for example, parts of the Village, Gramercy Park, the upper east side, brownstone Brooklyn, and prime Harlem) it is not what most people would call pretty. I live in Chelsea, love it, but with the exception of a few blocks, it's not pretty. And the influx of huge new 6th avenue apartment buildings that look like crap and "budget" hotels (hah!) everywhere doesn't help.

• [quote]And I know more about the history of every single block than any of you. Mary! Get a whiff of you!

• Hissssss!

  The Hissing Eldergay (THE)

• It's like much of New York City, dingy. And unfortunately many New Yorkers (mainly the transplants) like dingy because they think it makes them (and it) more authentic New Yorkers. Born and raised New Yorkers (the ones who haven't already escaped) would love nothing better than to have the these areas freshened up. But they're now outnumbered by former hick towners who want everything left as is simply because they think that's the way it's supposed to be.

• OP - Cole Porter wrote this song particularly with you in mind - in 1940:

  http://youtu.be/X_H3iB2gpmg

• Likewise, r24. This flyover hick can't believe the dreck being presented in "sophisticated" New York. Make the district as ugly as you like, but how about putting on some decent shows for grown-ups?

• What, you don't like old movies being turned into musicals with lousy scores, starring American Idol contestants?

• Lol. Nope, r31. I most certainly do not. I'd barely cross the (ugly) street to see any of these.

  http://www.broadway.com/

• Stand at 8th Avenue and W. 46th Street. Then tell me it's not insane that such a location is that ugly.

• Only tourists would, R32

• If you think the theater district is ugly you should've been here twenty years ago It was dirty, filthy, and filled with slimy street characters.

  Joe Franklin

• Yeah, it's always been a tourist attraction. It was never a neighborhood. People came to see movie and plays. What beauty exactly did you want? It's always neon and lights. I for one like the Red Stairs over the TKTS Booth and walking mall now.

• This fall hasn't given us the strongest theater offerings, but it's not like there's NOTHING to see. The Heiress Golden Boy Enemy of the People Mystery of Edwin Drood Ivanov Vanya Sonya Masha and Spike and a stunning production of Virigina Woolf. That's enough for any of you self-described hick flyovers to fill a trip to New York with.

• It's too touristy. And most of the tourists are trash people!!!

  Lana%20Kane

• Idiots vote Republican and then bitch about the results.

  Giuliani%20Bloomberg

• [quote] You know, New York is not a new modern city. It's an historic city, an international city, and it's a city where virtually every block and neighborhood has a story. HA! And every block's story is "There used to be an historic building here, but it was torn down decades ago and replaced by disposable crap."

  Philadelphia%20%26%20Boston%2C%20the%20real%20historic%20cities

• Chelsea and Hells kitchen, including the theatre district are two of the ugliest neighborhoods in NYC. Chelsea West of 9th Ave in block between 19th and 23rd have some nice brownstones and in the past 5 years both neighborhoods have traffic control/bus lanes that have improved them both. But the theater district has never been about pretty blocks. It is about theatres and pre/post theater hangouts. There ARE some very good restaurants in the neighborhood- my guess is as much as the OP says he knows- it is obvious that he does not! The theater district is about the THEATERS and what's playing in them- I suggest you present a plan to the NYC planning board that levels the real estate and you rebuild all those theatres and ugly building between OP. What a strange post! (I mean the OP.) If you want a beautiful neighborhood go to Brooklyn Heights- go to Riverside Drive, go to West Village, go to Gramercy Park- go to Central Park South and 5th Avenue- go to Central Park West., etc. The theatre district has always been one the grimiest, most crowded, frenetic and ugly places in Manhattan- full of theater and tourists. It is what is is and not nearly as messy as it was a few decades ago.

  charlie

• Strange, but I've never considered the Theatre District to be drab or ugly at all. Tons of marquees all lit up, displaying the show inside, lots of hustle and bustle, and gorgeous old theatre buildings. How on earth does one improve upon that without destroying the District? Add a few trees? Is that all this is about?

• I didn't build it FOR YOU.

  One%20Percent%20Real%20Estate%20Developer

• I didn't say there were no good restaurants in the theater district. I said there are not a LOT of good restaurants. I love some restaurants there, but there are a lot of substandard joints there. It still seems odd that some of the gayest areas of NYC are so drab & ugly. We should be able to conjure up some scheme for making those areas more livable, more interesting, more fun, and more artistic. Would it kill us to have a few park-like areas to wait for shows in or to gather in to chat after the show in a pleasant park-like setting, even if just a small space?

  OP

• Hs anyone gone to The Bubba Gump restaurant in Times Sq. It's survived a long time.

• Wow, no one at DL has any imagination at all.

• Hell's Kitchen is overrun with whores.