Et tu, Caesar?
I am writing to express not only profound opposition to the proposed Caesars Palace Times Square casino backed by SL Green, but also to express outrage at their recent assertions that neither the theater community nor Broadway Cares represents the spirit or the interests of the Times Square community.
I was the president of the Times Square Alliance from 2001 to 2020. The theater community is Times Square. Full stop. And the Broadway League and Broadway Cares are the theater community.
When Times Square was struggling for decades, it was the theater community, led by the Shubert Organization — not Caesars or SL Green — which was fighting for Times Square and Hell’s Kitchen residents. Indeed, when pressed to do more, legend has it that Ed Koch said, “What are you going to do? Move somewhere else?”
The point is, the theater community has always been here and always will be, long after SL Green has picked up the tens of millions of marbles (and dollars) they have thrown at this appalling idea.
For Caesars and SL Green to assert recently, without irony, that theater organizations engage in “shadow influence” is rich (literally and sarcastically). Insiders know that SL Green and Caesars have bought every ounce of fragile “support” that they lay claim to. Look, I love the work the Lower East Side Ecology Center does — on the Lower East Side. But what do they know about Times Square? Do they have any idea of the environmental, equity and public space impacts of corporate citizens like Caesars Palace?
I do. There is not a single urban planner or journalist who has written about Atlantic City who thinks that placing the needs of parasitic casinos before community was a good idea.
That city invented the Boardwalk — a pedestrian promenade by the sea. Do you think any casino wants anyone doing anything outside of their byzantine, incomprehensible interiors? Of course not! It’s a roach motel. You check in but you never check out. (Well, except for chain-smoking seniors “checking out” by spending scarce Social Security funds for hours on end on soul-sucking slot machines).
And if you visit Caesars there, you’ll not only be treated to the most appalling architecture in the Western Hemisphere (quite an accomplishment when competing with other casinos), but you will also see the most enormous parking garages I’ve ever seen. Hell’s Kitchen traffic is already a nightmare. Anyone who pretends that the overwhelming proportion of tri-state casino customers won’t drive into Midtown — and blow horns and belch particulates while stalled in intersections — is deluding themselves.
Equally absurd, and frankly baffling, is casino proponents’ questioning the outstanding work of Broadway’s leading charity, Broadway Cares. They claim that Broadway Cares has “a profound disregard for Broadway itself” and that it “appears to have no genuine commitment to Broadway, let alone any legitimate authority or interest in speaking for the community it purports to serve.” What? Because they oppose this absurd casino?
There literally is no entity more representative of or passionate about Broadway, its employees and the Times Square/Hell’s Kitchen community than Broadway Cares. And voters know it. When deciding whether to believe Broadway Cares vs. Caesars and SL Green, I have zero doubt whom they will believe.
So elected officials should think twice before choosing outside opportunists over not only Broadway Cares, but also the Entertainment Community Fund (formerly Actors Fund), The Broadway Association, and the Broadway League — in short, theatergoers passionate about Broadway, all of whom vote in droves.
Times Square has challenges — believe me; I know. The people who gave me the hardest time about its problems were the theater community and the residents in Hell’s Kitchen whose daily lives were affected by it. The Shubert Organization and Broadway Cares always showed up, always stood up.
SL Green was at best a passive participant and at worst a no-show. Caesars never was — and never will be – anywhere to be found. Their pretending to care about Times Square is such an atrocious act that not only will they never get a Tony Award, they wouldn’t even get a participation trophy in an elementary school play.
For them to suggest that all of these organizations representing the theater — and especially Broadway Cares — do not represent the Times Square and Hell’s Kitchen communities is the ultimate betrayal.
Tompkins leads the NYU Marron Sustaining Places Initiative and lived in Hell’s Kitchen 1993 to 2008.
