Thaindian News

London, April 15 (ANI): Former US President Bill Clinton has described the early New York’s Times Square, when it was a crime-ridden danger zone filled with prostitutes and crooks, as “romantic and fascinating”.

The iconic square attracted hordes of hustlers, muggers and prostitutes - making it a no-go area for locals throughout the Sixties, Seventies and Eighties.

Women had used the square to ply their trade, either on the streets or in the proliferation of ’sex shops’ in the area.

Then during the late Nineties the square underwent a transformation into a tourist hot-spot filled with billboards and plush cafes.

Clinton said that as a teenager he had “vivid memories” of the region.

“I saw a hooker approach a man in a grey flannel suit. Pretty heavy stuff for a guy from Arkansas. My view is it’s way better now. You have to look at the overall numbers. Yes, look, I still have vivid memories of it. Romantic, fascinating,” the Daily Mail quoted him as telling the New York Post.

“When I was 18 years in November of 1964, a freshman at Georgetown, I first went to Times Square. I bought a steak at Tad’s Steakhouse. I heard a guy ream his mother out, poor working woman, because she’d given him a hi-fi instead of a stereo speaker. I remember everything about it,” he said.

The former president made the statement while discussing the improvement in the square’s air quality with New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg at an event.

He told Bloomberg that Times Square used to be dangerous and unhealthy.

“I think you did the right thing and I think there is no question that New York is better and the tourists are better off. And I love it,” added Clinton. (ANI)