Times ‘Scare’: How NYC’s soaring crime is bleeding into Crossroads of the World

At the height of Times Square’s “bad old days,” prostitution, child exploitation and drugs were on every corner and there was so much blood-soaked violence, only Broadway was barely hanging on as a tourist destination. 

The Crossroads of the World has long since cleaned up its act but experts say recent broad-daylight shootings in the tourist hub reflect a new crime wave that’s beginning to envelop every pocket of the five boroughs — even the ones that have long been considered safe.  “The Times Square shootings are a wake-up call on how far things have deteriorated in the city,” Randy Mastro, a former federal prosecutor and the deputy mayor under Rudy Giuliani, told The Post.