Queens Plaza - The New Old Times Square

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.

Last year's NYPD sting operation smashed a "lucrative sex ring by arresting pimps who recruited girls as young as 12," but the area just off the Queensboro Bridge remains a hot spot for prostitutes and their clients.

Partly it's the transportation hub in the area (7, E, G, N, R, V, and W trains) and its proximity by car to Manhattan, Brooklyn, and the Bronx that make it a center of low-levellife crime. But the same strengths should make the area attractive to developers and eventually to residents and businesses. It's time for the area to stop being the "New Old Times Square" and become the New Queens Plaza.

NYC's plan to redesign Queens Plaza through an investment of $30 million is currently in the design phase and the work is not scheduled to start until 2007. Jeez, that's a long time in New York real estate years.