#Times Square crowds show NYC returning to life

Here’s something we never expected to cheer: The Mickey Mice are back in Times Square, along with the Batmen and other buskers, including the accept-no-substitutes Naked Cowboy. It’s a joy because it means the Crossroads of the World has returned to life.

As The Post’s Steve Cuozzo reports, 134,659 people are walking through the “bow tie” on an average day now, up from 33,659 last April — all as measured by the Times Square Alliance. It’s not the near-impassable mob of normal times, 355,302, but it’s up a healthy amount from the 105,000 daily average visitor tally The Post reported in February, and Broadway’s only starting to reopen.

Weekend numbers are better still: 151,605 visitors daily on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, four times the level of April 2020.

A handful of offices have reopened, but these are clearly mostly recreational visitors (hence the buskers), albeit mostly local ones. At least a quarter of New Yorkers are now fully vaccinated, and four in 10 have gotten at least one jab, and many are clearly enjoying their new freedom.

The bad days are ending; soon enough the city’s streets will be back to their natural, glorious chaos.