Broadway ticket sales drop, industry reps blame pedestrian plazas

The Times Square traffic jams, scary Elmos, and naked painted ladies are scaring suburbanites away from Broadway.

A recent survey of Great White Way attendance found ticket sales have dropped dramatically among suburban ticket-goers to Broadway in recent years — and industry reps are blaming problems that have arisen since the city installed pedestrian plazas.

 

In 2010 — the year the pedestrian plazas went up and closed off huge swaths of Times Square — some 21% of all ticket sales went to people from Long Island, Westchester and Rockland Counties, and northern New Jersey, according to the Broadway League’s “Demographics of the Broadway Audience” survey.

EXCLUSIVE: Queens mosque instructor charged with molesting 9-year-old girl

A 46-year-old religious instructor at a Queens mosque has been arrested on charges of molesting a 9-year-old student, the Daily News has learned.

 

Mohammad Rana of Queens was charged with sex abuse and endangering the welfare of a child for groping the girl at the Masjid Abu Huraira Mosque on 31st Ave., police sources said.

Visitors struggle with Hours-long waits, Multiple checkpoints on Rikers Island

It’s probably easier to get tossed into a city jail than it is to visit someone who’s been locked up on Rikers Island.

 

Parents struggle with cranky toddlers as they endure hours-long waits, facing chaos and confusion at multiple checkpoints that could take nearly an entire day just to have an hour-long visit with a loved one who’s behind bars.

Wait times continue to increase even as the number of inmates in the sprawling penal facility goes down. Even those seeking to drop off packages and pay bail must be screened at the jail’s main entrance.