How de Blasio is Failing the Test of the City's Success

The good news: New York isn't going back to the '70s — at least not today. The bad news: Success breeds its own problems. Even a wildly successful city needs a mildly competent mayor who's got some vision for the future.

So far, Bill de Blasio isn't that.

To see how we can never rest on success, look at Times Square. It's natural that people who lived through the '70s and '80s would think that Elmo and his topless friends are evidence that we're going back to 24 murders a year in Midtown, like we had in 1990, instead of two, like we had last year.

In fact, it's the opposite. Elmo and the topless gals are in Times Square because Times Square has never been safer.

The painted ladies aren't desperate crack addicts selling their bodies to New Jersey lowlifes. They're rational free-market entrepreneurs selling selfies to foreign tourists.

The reason they're in New York is the same reason you're in New York: There's money there. And there's money there because there are people there — more people than Times Square has ever had.

Consider just one stat: In 2000, a pretty good year, 71.5 million people passed through the five subway stations in Times Square. Last year, that number was 94.9 million. Since 1992, when crime was still high, subway commuting through Times Square's stations has nearly doubled.

Every subway rider is also a walker, which explains the massive foot traffic that forced former Mayor Mike Bloomberg to give pedestrians more space in the area nearly a decade ago.

And yes, many of those pedestrians are tourists who think it's fun to give a hustler a few bucks for a funny picture. Last year, we had 12 million more tourists than we did in 2006, before the plazas. Almost all of those people pass through the Bowtie, on foot.

In short, Times Square's problem is the same problem that plagues all of New York: It's too crowded.

If you want to get rid of the topless ladies, the best way to do that is to bring back high crime. The tourists will go away — and so will the people who want their money.

That doesn't mean de Blasio is powerless. He just needs to think. And nothing works likes competition.

If the city wants to neutralize dirty Elmo who works for tips, the city should hire some people to entertain tourists for free in clean Elmo suits. New York could set up a little kids' play area in the Bowtie and hire people to paint faces for free, too — and no tips.

To make the scene more interesting for locals and commuters, the city could set up pop-up stores featuring local wares, and allow for drinks and appetizer service at some of Times Square's tables and chairs.

But de Blasio can't think of anything interesting to do, besides move the clock back a decade in ripping out the plazas — and so his police commissioner has taken charge. Bill Bratton can't fix Times Square, though, because Times Square doesn't have much of a policing problem.

Look at some of New York's other woes, and you'll see the same thing. If you want to find a real threat to human life, look at the city's out-of-control construction industry. A construction worker died just west of Times Square last week. Over the past year, 11 have died — nearly twice the previous year's figure, Politico reported last week.

Elmo didn't kill Manhattan pedestrian Tina Nguyen in March; a careless developer did, by leaving plywood unsecured, which then hit her. De Blasio should be making sure a development boom doesn't equal a death boom.

The city's traffic-congestion problem, too, is a problem of success. Uber drivers aren't that different from Times Square hustlers in this respect: They follow the money.

Yet de Blasio has taken multiple inconsistent positions on traffic congestion in recent months. The mayor can't make a coherent case to New Yorkers because he doesn't seem to understand the issue himself.

New York can deal with failure. We've done it before, and we may have to do so again.

For now, though, we have to deal with success — or we'll face the fate that the great Yogi Berra once predicted: Nobody goes there anymore because it's too crowded.

This piece originally appeared in New York Post