Eyeful or eyesore? Topless panhandlers of Times Square test New York mayor’s patience

Mayor Bill de Blasio has launched a multiagency task force to address what he calls the “growing problem” of panhandling topless women and costumed characters in Times Square and said that one option under consideration is removing the famed intersection’s pedestrian plazas.

The plazas are widely popular with tourists, theatergoers and office workers who throng Times Square daily and are a signature accomplishment of de Blasio’s predecessor, Michael Bloomberg. They have been widely hailed by urban planners as an innovation in city design.

But the popular spots have also become favoured stomping grounds for aggressive panhandlers dressed as characters like Elmo and Batman - and, more recently, for topless women wearing body paint and thongs and seeking money to pose for photographs. The painted ladies’ presence has become a tabloid sensation during the sleepy end of summer, with editorial pages warning that they foreshadow a return to Times Square’s seedy past and demanding their removal.

“I don’t think it’s appropriate in one of the busiest squares in New York City for women to display themselves that way,” de Blasio said Thursday.