New Times Square or New Old Times Square (Queens Plaza)
In the 1980s and 1990s, Times Square in Manhattan was cleaned of its seedy image and strip clubs. Many of the strips clubs re-opened at Queens Plaza. Times Square was being called “the new Times Square,” but so (in a very different way) was Queens Plaza.
Queens Plaza was called the “New Times Square” by at least 1999. John Roleke, the Queens writer on About.com, used the title “Queens Plaza—The New Old Times Square” in 2005.
About.com: Queens, NY
Long Island City Neighborhoods
The Many Faces of Greater LIC
By John Roleke, About.com
Queens Plaza
The lower span of the Queensboro Bridge spits cars out into Queens Plaza, the new “old Times Square.” Weekend nights it’s bachelor central with packs of guys roving in and out of strip clubs. Almost underground below the vast metal jungle gym of the bridge, and known for prostitution and drugs, Queens Plaza is a sad introduction to Queens, though an upturn seems inevitable as major corporations bring jobs into the area.
New York (NY) Times
NEIGHBORHOOD REPORT: LONG ISLAND CITY; An Area That Doesn’t Want to Be a ‘New Times Square’
By RICHARD WEIR
Published: September 26, 1999
Nine months after a judge ordered a topless club called Goldfingers closed in Rego Park, it has found a new home about five miles away, in an industrial area at the foot of the Queensboro Bridge and in the shadows of the elevated subway tracks.
Yet with three topless bars amid the fast-food restaurants, factories and government buildings in Queens Plaza, and another possibly on the way, local leaders say the neighborhood has become a victim of the city’s anti-pornography law. With its manufacturing zones and its long distance from residential areas, schools and houses of worship, the area has become one of few places left in the city for adult-entertainment businesses.
’‘They cleaned up Times Square,’’ said Dagny Du Val, the chairwoman of the Long Island City Development Corporation and the owner of a landscaping company. ‘‘Well, we don’t want to be the new Times Square.’’
About.com: Queens, NY by John Roleke
Queens Plaza - The New Old Times Square
Wednesday November 2, 2005
Queens Plaza, what should be one of the best locations in the whole borough, is a throwback to the Times Square of the 1970s and 1980s and Taxi Driver.
A Daily News article reports on prostitution in Queens Plaza, but that’s no surprise to anyone who’s spent time in the area. It’s home to strip clubs and drug dealers and one of the most dilapidated parking garages in the city.
topix—Rudy Giuliani
RC THE BRONX
Jan 4, 2008
The new Times Square: Just go along Queens Blvd,some of the neighborhoods in Brooklyn,Bronx and Staten Island and you will see exactly what used to be on 42nd street.
All that was done was relocation of those sleazy business.Also they still exist in pockets of some Manhattan neighborhoods.It was swept under the rug,not eradicated as some make it out to be.
Times Square is nothing more but an over priced tourist trap.
New York (NY) Observer
Long Island Rock City!
A Lower East Side theater refugee and a Soho motorcycle king want to bring downtown Manhattan to Queens
by Chris Shott | April 1, 2008
(...)
It sounds like a bit of a stretch in a part of New York City where nightclubs tend to veer toward more adult-oriented entertainment. Particularly around Queens Plaza—nicknamed “the new Times Square”—Long Island City is busting with strip clubs.
“At one end of the 59th Street Bridge, you’ve got Scandals, and at the other end, there’s Scores,” noted Mr. Prichard, laughing. “I know that from riding my bike—no ex-girlfriends there. Not yet anyway.”