Ask any New Yorker, and the answer will be some version of “42nd Street, everybody knows that!” but it turns out to be more complicated than that, and a new law is making the answer important.
After the Supreme Court tossed out New York’s century-old limits on carrying guns, but allowed them to be banned in “sensitive locations”, the state passed a new law listing the sensitive areas: parks, schools, courthouses, public transit, health-care facilities, bars and Times Square. It was left up to the city to define Times Square and post signs.
The city, with approval from police and City Council, has drawn a definition that covers not only the core blocks that everyone recognizes as part of Times Square—essentially the ones with the major crossings of Broadway and Seventh Avenue around 42nd Street, easily identified by huge lit-up signs—but also a number of blocks around it that are its entrances, exits and spillovers, including the Port Authority Bus Terminal.
Both the map and the law itself are currently involved in lawsuits, with the outcome not yet clear.
