Federal government demands NY strip Times Square of billboards
We’re here to help you: Federal officials have ordered New York to remove the billboards that make Times Square famous or else the state will lose $90 million in federal highway funds.
The edict comes from a 2012 law that makes Times Square an arterial route to the national highway system. And that puts it under the 1965 Highway Beautification Act, which limits signs to 1,200 square feet. It took the feds until now to realize that Times Square was included.
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We’re here to help you: Federal officials have ordered New York to remove the billboards that make Times Square famous or else the state will lose $90 million in federal highway funds.
The edict comes from a 2012 law that makes Times Square an arterial route to the national highway system. And that puts it under the 1965 Highway Beautification Act, which limits signs to 1,200 square feet. It took the feds until now to realize that Times Square was included.
Readers!
Every February I run a fund-raising drive during my birthday month. This year I celebrate my 72nd birthday, and hope and plan to continue writing and posting on Behind the Black for as long as I am able.
I hope my readers will support this effort. As I did in my November fund-raising drive, I am offering autographed copies of my books for large donations. Donate $250 and you can have a choice of the hardback of either Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8 or Conscious Choice: The origins of slavery in America and why it matters today and for our future in outer space. Donate $200 and you can get an autographed paperback copy of either. IMPORTANT! If you donate enough to get a book, please email me separately to tell me which book you want and the address to mail it to.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. My analysis of space, politics, and culture, taken from the perspective of an historian, is almost always on the money and ahead of the game. For example, in 2020 I correctly predicted that the COVID panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Every one of those 2020 conclusions has turned out right.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
Hahaha! Serves NY right!
Absurd application of the law.
I would expect the people pushing this to have grey pony tails and Birkenstocks. And Hemp dresses. Doing their best to combat global warming by eliminating a huge carbon footprint. Businesses along “the Great White Way” are required by law to have lighted business signs. What a disgusting display of wealth and excess! They would have the whole world looking like PyongYang.
“It took the feds until now to realize that Times Square was included.”
I’m a bit confused as to why its part of the National highway system. The closest interstate is 495 and that runs several blocks to the west. Perhaps a historic state road once ran through the area. A competent Mayor could make it all go away by changing the streets any highway route follows. Just move the signs
I think they are referring to Broadway.
Not part of the Interstate system, but one of the only streets that completely traverses the island (north, crosses a bridge from the Bronx) to the bottom of the island.
I wonder how much money rounded to billions New York City alone contributes to the Federal government? So now they are going to tell the city what and where they can put things on thee major focal point and tourist attraction and icon of capitalism in what can arguably be the center of the capitalist universe?
This is a BS, red herring story IMO. An example of the slippery slope? Too many people with too much time with too little to do to justify their existence? Wait, isn’t that the definition of the majority of our government?
Think of it as highway gerrymandering.
Someone worked to include it into the federal highway system so the state wouldn’t have to pay for repairs.
I bet they also included the most expensive to repair bridges into it also.