U7 Part2 B exercise

  It is another typical morning in Times Square: Taxi cabs blare their horns, 15 foot billboards look down over throngs of people hurrying by, and in the middle of it all, members of a smash Broadway musical climb up on a stage to dance and sing for the tourists.
    The entertainment is being organized by the Times Square Business Improvement District, the people responsible for making the area as welcoming to tourists as possible. Right now, the square is crowded and business is booming. So much so, in fact, that several sidewalks had to be widened recently to cope with the increase in visitors. And some New Yorkers are even pushing for the entire area to be off limits to traffic: modeling Times Square after a European plaza.
    It has not always been this way. Until a decade or so ago, Times Square had the well-deserved reputation of a seedy neighborhood teeming with prostitutes and drug dealers. A sizeable part of the area’s economy came from stores selling pornography or cheap knock-off goods. The city government neglected the area, spending little of its tourism budget on improvements.
    But today, theaters, restaurants and upscale stores have replaced the sex shops. A thriving partnership between City Hall and private businesses, such as Disney Company, has revitalized Times Square.
The current mayor of New York City, Rudy Giuliani, has made it a priority to clean up the area. Crime rates have declined and visitors feel a lot safer on the square. Part of that effort has involved the Times Square Business Improvement District and its President, Brendan Sexton. 
    Mr. Sexton and his colleagues are launching a new line of Times Square clothing and accessories which, they hope, will compete with everything else on offer to visitors to New York. Instead of just passing through Times Square and stopping only to take a picture of all the flashing lights and neon signs, Mr. Sexton hopes tourists will stop and shop, and bring a little piece of the revitalized Times Square home with them.