"This may be the busiest day EVER in Midtown"

Crowds in Midtown during the holiday season are nothing new, but this year's crowds appear to be thicker and denser. It is a change that has not gone unnoticed by the people and machines that monitor such things.
Daniel A. Biederman, executive director of the Bryant Park Restoration Corporation, said that by Wednesday a number of Manhattan business people "were saying to each other independently that this may be the busiest day ever in Midtown."
Cristyne L. Nicholas, president of NYC & Company, the city's tourism bureau, agreed, saying that the economic benefits of such crowds may help ease the losses suffered during the 60-hour transit strike. She said Manhattan hotels were at more than 90 percent occupancy by midweek, higher than usual for the holiday week before the arrival of visitors for New Year's Eve.
"I don't recall seeing these kinds of crowds, ever," she said.

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