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It’s not unusual to see New Yorkers walking quickly in the street, or waiting for their trains in the subway stations while holding big coffee cups that they drink en route. Europeans, instead, see coffee not only as an energizing drink, but also as an excuse to sit and mingle with friends, spend some time chatting, or even just to read a newspaper.

The perfect place to do so is often the coffee tables at the bars, or in the “piazzas.”

Naked Cowboy with fans in Times Square

Today, the Italian espresso has made it to New York City and New Yorkers can drink it in the middle of Times Square: the vibrant heart of the most dynamic city in the world. We went there for a week to film and tell the amazing story of the world’s busiest crossroad that is now closed to traffic since May 24th, 2009 so that pedestrians could enjoy that space.

Mayor Bloomberg decided to close the area as an experiment to turn it into a more pedestrian-friendly space. This and the lawn chairs have earned Times Square the nickname of “Bloomberg beach.” We decided to look for New Yorkers who could tell us more about this story.

The first character we met is the famous “Naked Cowboy.” If you don’t know him, he’s to Times Square what the characters dressed like Roman Senators are to the Coliseum in Rome. The only difference is that the Naked Cowboy only wears a cowboy hat, a pear of cowboy boots and his underwear… and he’s running to be the next Mayor of New York City. For the rest, just as the Romans, he’s always there and tourists line up to take pictures with him. We lined up with our camera, gave him 5 dollars, and asked him to sing a song for our video. He also told us that he liked the idea of closing Times Square to make a Piazza and he added that “what’s good for the Naked Cowboy is good for New York City”. Who wouldn’t agree with that?

Visitors relaxing on Times Square's lawn chairs

The next day, we found a big group of people dancing in the middle of Times Square. It was the opening event of the movie (www.gottadancethemovie.com) “Gotta Dance” and visitors were asked to dance alongside the actors starring in the movie. People of all ages were there. A group of them came all the way from New Jersey and they were thrilled at being able to dance in the heart of New York. One of the topics that arose during the interviews was traffic. People thought that, while visitors were happy spending time in Times Square, drivers might not be so happy about it. However, during our stay we asked taxi drivers about the street closure and they said that it didn’t significantly affect traffic. The only difficulty was bringing people in front of the Broadway Theatres.

Finally, we met some senior American travelers. They were part of a traveling group and some of them had already been to New York before. That day, they told us they were happy to be able to be there and watch people passing by and mingling, just as Europeans do in their piazzas.