Times Square characters head to Rock Center for the holidays
Visitors headed for Times Square have long been bedazzled by thick crowds, bright lights, and a cadre of costumed characters who sidle up to tourists, pose with them for pictures, then persistently pressure them for tips.
Complaints about the sometimes aggressive behavior of the performers prompted the city in 2016 to passed a law relegating the Times Square characters to 8by50 foot “activity zones“where they might annoy fewer people.
Now, with the holiday season in full swing, some of the costumed superheros, Muppets and Disney characters have headed to the equally crowded environs around Rockefeller Center and its iconic Christmas tree.
The scene on a recent weekend was a familiar one, though absent the activity zones that keep the characters penned in.
“All right, smile,“one dad said as he snapped a picture of his two girls standing with Minnie and Mickey Mouse on Fifth Avenue.
After he pulled out his wallet and handed over a few dollar bills, he was greeted by grumbling from Mickey that this wasn’t enough, because there were two characters in his picture, not one.
Ed Saverino, of New Jersey, brushed by the characters on his way to see the tree as someone else politely declined a photo opportunity.
“Don’t do it!” Saverino shouted. “It’ll cost you $100.”
“I’m from around here,“Saverino said.
“So I know the deal. These guys are predatory. If you wanna take pictures with people, then let them come to you. Don’t go running up to people and touching them.”
After a Times Square Elmo was arrested in September for grabbing a 14yearold girl’s buttocks as she posed for a photo with him, Mayor Bill De Blasio promised stricter enforcement to ensure harassment wouldn’t happen again, but didn’t outline how he’d do so.
On a recent Sunday, three Minnie Mouses and one Mickey Mouse character roamed the sidewalks outside Rockefeller Center. Each politely declined to be interviewed.
Some passersby defended them as harmless and fun.