Man on Light Pole in Times Square Stops Traffic
He sat. He rapped. He handed police officers his demo tape.For nearly two hours on Tuesday morning, a man held court atop the traffic-light apparatus on 44th Street and Seventh Avenue, attracting a camera-wielding crowd and closing down three blocks of traffic in the middle of Times Square.
At 11:12 a.m., the man climbed down a small ladder onto the roof of a police vehicle, where four officers in hard hats were waiting to handcuff him. By 11:35 a.m., the throngs had been dispersed, and the streets re-opened.
The police identified the climber as Raymond Velasquez, 34, of Sea Gate, Brooklyn.
Dressed in baggy gray shorts and a flat-brimmed black hat, Mr. Velasquez climbed the pole, roughly 25 feet tall, shortly after 9:15 a.m., according to witnesses. Once he reached the top, he supported himself on two small struts attached to the traffic light, above the sidewalk.
“He just kicked back like he was in a lawn chair,” said Carlos Hambrick, 34, from Jersey City. “Then he got bored and starting doing pull-ups on the beams.”
It was not Mr. Velasquez’s first intemperate act of seeking publicity, law enforcement officials said: On Feb. 22, he jumped the metal barriers outside the “Today” show studios at Rockefeller Center and tried to approach the show’s hosts. He was not charged in that incident.
Mr. Velasquez raps as “Coney Island Joe.” His Myspace page shows him barging into several other proceedings.
By 10 a.m. Tuesday, police vehicles had swarmed onto the scene. An emergency services truck was parked directly beneath the traffic light, while a police team assembled an inflatable landing spot on the adjacent sidewalk.
As officers pleaded with him from the roof of the truck, Mr. Velasquez offered his CD, witnesses said.
Around 10:30 a.m., he stood up on the struts, raised his arms to the sky, and, as the traffic light shook, lifted his shirt, flexed, and began rapping. Alternately facing ABC’s “Good Morning America” studios on Broadway and the MTV building across the street, he unleashed, to cheers, rhyme after rhyme, inaudible to his audience.
“What’s his name?” someone in the crowd wondered.
“That’s the 44th Street Rapper,” said Juan Figueroa, 35, who was watching from in front of the MTV building.
Annette Vandenheuvel, visiting from Wisconsin, called it the second most exciting event of her day. She had scored a Shia LaBeouf autograph at a taping of the “Today” show earlier in the morning.
Eleven Times Square - News
For nearly two hours on Tuesday morning, a man held court atop the traffic-light apparatus on 44th Street and Seventh Avenue, attracting a camera-wielding crowd and closing down three blocks of traffic in the middle of Times Square. At 11:12 am,
consumers across the country with its Times Square Jumbotron Celebration. From Chico, Calif. to Dorchester, Mass., 50 lucky winners will have their photos appear larger than life June 30 from 11 am through 11 pm on America's most famous Jumbotron.
He said he did not know how much that would cost the city, but said it would be about half as many workers as are used to clean up Times Square on New Year's Day. This year, that effort cost more than $108000, Mr. Turso said, but he noted that the
(Mainichi) NEW YORK (Kyodo) -- Japan on Friday started airing images and messages at New York's Times Square expressing its gratitude for US support over the March 11 quake and tsunami that devastated the northeastern part of the country.
NEW YORK, July 11 (UPI) -- The National Debt clock was reactivated on July 11, 2002. Disconnected in 1999 when Washington faced a budget surplus, the clock, located in New York City's Times Square district, has been reactivated to reflect spiraling
Aspiring Rapper on Light Pole Stops Times Square Traffic - NYTimes.com
He sat. He rapped. He handed police officers his demo tape.
For nearly two hours on Tuesday morning, a man held court atop the traffic-light apparatus on 44th Street and Seventh Avenue, attracting a camera-wielding crowd and closing down three blocks of traffic in the middle of Times Square.
At 11:12 a.m., the man climbed down a small ladder onto the roof of a police vehicle, where four officers in hard hats were waiting to handcuff him. By 11:35 a.m., the throngs had been dispersed, and the streets re-opened.
The police identified the climber as Raymond Velasquez, 34, of Sea Gate, Brooklyn.
Dressed in baggy gray shorts and a flat-brimmed black hat, Mr. Velasquez climbed the pole, roughly 25 feet tall, shortly after 9:15 a.m., according to witnesses. Once he reached the top, he supported himself on two small struts attached to the traffic light, above the sidewalk.
“He just kicked back like he was in a lawn chair,” said Carlos Hambrick, 34, from Jersey City. “Then he got bored and starting doing pull-ups on the beams.”
It was not Mr. Velasquez’s first intemperate act of seeking publicity, law enforcement officials said: On Feb. 22, he jumped the metal barriers outside the “Today” show studios at Rockefeller Center and tried to approach the show’s hosts. He was not charged in that incident.
Mr. Velasquez raps as “Coney Island Joe.” His Myspace page shows him barging into several other proceedings.
By 10 a.m. Tuesday, police vehicles had swarmed onto the scene. An emergency services truck was parked directly beneath the traffic light, while a police team assembled an inflatable landing spot on the adjacent sidewalk.
As officers pleaded with him from the roof of the truck, Mr. Velasquez offered his CD, witnesses said.
Around 10:30 a.m., he stood up on the struts, raised his arms to the sky, and, as the traffic light shook, lifted his shirt, flexed, and began rapping. Alternately facing ABC’s “Good Morning America” studios on Broadway and the MTV building across the street, he unleashed, to cheers, rhyme after rhyme, inaudible to his audience.
“What’s his name?” someone in the crowd wondered.
“That’s the 44th Street Rapper,” said Juan Figueroa, 35, who was watching from in front of the MTV building.
Annette Vandenheuvel, visiting from Wisconsin, called it the second most exciting event of her day. She had scored a Shia LaBeouf autograph at a taping of the “Today” show earlier in the morning.
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