Where exactly is Times Square? It’s very complicated.

Good morning. Today is Thursday. Today we’re going to look at Times Square – what its boundaries are, and why that question has suddenly become important. We will also look at tennis, New York City style, as it is played on public courts.

For many New Yorkers and tourists, Times Square conjures up a hub of bustling street life that stretches north from 42nd Street and Broadway to its many blocks.

But how many blocks exactly? And what is Times Square? realistic boundaries anyway?

For many, its parameters are perceptual. Can you see those flashing billboards? Smell the hot dog sellers? Are you frantically fending off furry costumed characters who are pestering you to play?

Then you’re still in Times Square.

But city officials have now codified what they call the official county boundaries, under a new state law that bans residents from legally bringing handguns into Times Square and some crowded tourist spots. other.

The new map – being promoted by the mayor’s office, the Police Department and the City Council – lays out quite generous numbers for Times Square: a wide strip covering about three dozen blocks from the Avenue 9 to 6th Avenue and from 40th to 53rd Streets West.

It includes the Port Authority station and stretches near Rockefeller Center.

What do New Yorkers think?

My colleagues Jonah Bromwich and Chelsia Rose Marcius spoke with New Yorkers to learn about their own conceptions of Times Square boundaries and see if they agree with open borders. newly formed or not.

While working at the fast food counter on West 48th Street and 9th Avenue on Tuesday, Adam Alkindi staunchly stated that the deli is definitely not in Times Square.

“It can’t be,” said Alkindi, 21, who had just been lifted a block away. “It’s so peaceful here.”

As Alkindi said: “The place is crowded, where there are a lot of big shops and lights. It’s Times Square.”

Another New Yorker, 62-year-old Robert Govan, thinks the line could reach as far north as West 52nd Street, but as far as the Port Authority Bus Terminal, Govan says he would never consider it part of Times Square.

“No. Impossible,” he said. “Will not happen.”

For some New Yorkers, boundaries can be flexible. Felecia Majette, 62, who has offices at West 49th Street and Sixth Avenue, says she sees part of Midtown Manhattan as an extension of Times Square.

“There is movement from here to there,” she said. “It’s all combined.”

Majette says she’s approved of the new boundaries. The last thing she wanted, she said, was “a bunch of people around with guns, even if they were allowed to have one.”

What created this new gun law?

The new gun laws involving Times Square and other counties are in response to a legal change that took place in June, when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a century-old New York law. century has placed strict limits on carrying guns in public.

With new rules set to begin, line has formed outside authorized offices across New York State, including the Niagara County Courthouse, where 150 people lined up Wednesday morning. Nearly 100 people camped overnight.

In Oswego County, the permit office has hired two full-time employees to meet demand. And one gun licensing specialist in Suffolk County received up to 50 phone calls a day from potential applicants.

In New York City, permit applications have increased 54% since June.

The city’s reaction

In response to the change in federal law, the State of New York passed a law that regulates locations that prohibit people from carrying guns. These include government buildings, places of worship, healthcare providers, libraries, playgrounds, public parks, subways – and Times Square.

The new map of the city is larger than the boundary held by the Times Square Alliance, which considers Times Square to include most of the territory from West 40th Street to 53rd Street between Sixth and Eighth Avenues, as well as the Great Wall. shop on West 46th Street on the west side of Ninth.

“Everybody has a different idea of ​​where Times Square is,” the union’s president, Tom Harris, told me Wednesday. “There are 365,000 people a day walking through Times Square and the NYPD has done an outstanding job in keeping those people safe.”

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US Opentaking place in Queens, which showcases elite athletes competing at the highest level.

But outside of the National Tennis Center, there are hundreds of New York City public courts that feature their own spirit of competition and colorful characters.

For some, the most competitive part of the game is simply trying to win an hour of court.

At Central Park and at Fort Greene Park in Brooklyn, players line up near dawn just to sign up for an hour of play later in the day.

In Hudson River ParkJust north of Canal Street, there are three pristine playing fields with stunning river views and waiting times so long that players have to sit on numbered benches to play on the next available course.

At other locations, a number of late New Yorkers tried to bribe the courtiers to play.

The first thing they asked was, ‘May I have your cell phone number,’ said Bernard Lewis, court judge at clay court in Riverside Park near West 96th Street.

“I’ve had people try to bring me coffee and cakes – a guy who owns a pastry shop and tries to bring me cakes,” he says. “But once you accept anything, they own you.”

There are courts in the Bronx and in parts of Queens that are still largely empty, although there are some parents who bring along kids in the hope they can become the next Venus or Serena Williams.

One such parent is Ronald Ewool, an African immigrant who coached his two teenage daughters – Alicia, 13, and Deborah, 12 – at Crotona park yard in the Bronx.

He was one of many people I met when I reported a story last month about a tight community of black players in Brooklyn, who are part of the rich culture of Black tennis on the city’s public courts.

Frederick Johnson Park in Harlem, long known as “The Jungle” for its competitive environment, once attracted top African-American players, including Althea Gibson and Arthur Ashe, and remains popular. with Black players. John McEnroe is known for personally looking out for players there because education program for underserved youth.

Naomi Osaka, who won the US Open in 2018 and 2020, played tennis as a young girl at Detective Keith L. Williams Park in Queens and helped fund an innovation of the courts last year.

Of course, there can also be a competitive flip side to training on municipal courts, Steven Turner, 75 years old, grew up in Greenwich Village and went from playing in Central Park to playing pro with the likes of Stan Smith, Rod Laver and Ilie Nastase in the 1970s.

Turner, who played at the US Open when it was still held at the West Side Tennis Club in Forest Hills, Queens, said: “Going from the city’s public courts to playing world-class tennis is almost a thing. can not. “Because New Yorkers are always trying to get involved and are supposed to help you with their tips – it messes up your game.”

METROPOLITAN . Diary

Union Square Station

Dear Diary:

I was leaving Union Square subway station when I saw an angry young woman in her 20s running towards a well-dressed elderly woman from about 30 yards away.

The young woman was causing an uproar, and everyone in the station was looking on with a mixture of anxiety and curiosity.

When she got to the old woman, she was already dead.

“Sorry,” she said excitedly, “but where did you get those shoes?”

– Kiho Cha