42ns Street West of Times Square

There was a time...it seems so long ago now... the block of 42nd Street West of Times Square was undeniably the sleaziest place in the City. (outside of parts of the East Village). I once had a bad dream of being trapped there and surrounded by muggers!

Today of course it is all redeveloped but still with an agreeable air of the honky tonk or whatever...
Most popular place that I could see was Madame Tussauds, where throngs waited to get in.

As to redevelopment of the are, from the internet (article in NY Times a year ago):

Richard Perry/The New York Times

A look at 42nd Street at night. The redevelopment of Times Square, which started three decades ago, will be done with the opening of 11 Times Square next month. More Photos »

By CHARLES V. BAGLI

Published: December 3, 2010

Next month, 11 Times Square, a new, glassy 40-story office tower at 42nd Street and Eighth Avenue, will formally open with its first tenant. Compared with the metamorphosis that has occurred around it, there is nothing extraordinary about the building except for this: Its completion officially marks the end of the long and tortuous redevelopment of Times Square, an effort that began 30 years ago.

Multimedia

Interactive Feature

The Rebirth of 42nd Street

Slide Show

The Transformation of 42nd Street

Video

Cleaning Up 'The Deuce'

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The plan, to radically make over 13 acres, between Broadway and Eighth Avenue, primarily fronting 42nd Street, outlived three mayors, four governors, two real estate booms and two recessions. It faced widespread derision in the beginning from jaded New Yorkers who were wise to grand plans. It faces occasional derision today from New Yorkers who speak of the old Times Square with newfound fondness.
It embodied both the hubris of urban master planning and its possibilities, and showed the value of ripping up blueprints and starting over in midstream. And it has been a touchstone experience for a city that is now building, or trying to build, several multibillion-dollar projects, including ground zero, the Atlantic Yards, Willets Point and the Hudson Yards.