It wasn’t that bad. Seriously. It was actually pretty cool, but then again, I didn’t have the typical experience that most revelers have.

I was actually working in Times Square. That night, more than ever, the value of the press pass became all the more apparent to me. I could walk around wherever I wanted inside the police lines.

So I got to see a lot of cool things right up close.

However, no press pass gets you through the sea of people all trying to leave Times Square at 12:01am.

I was shocked by how quickly the area clears out. I talked to a cop nearby about this, and he let me in on a little secret…

They turn off cellphone towers in the area for about 10 minutes before and after midnight. Why? One reason is to prevent terrorists from detonating a cellphone triggered bomb at midnight. The other is to discourrage people form lingering in the area after midnight.

What happens is people stand around and call their friends to make plans for the rest of the night. By turning off service, people natually start to wander out of the area because they can’t contact their buddies on the other side of town. They just go.

Pretty interesting, but I bet you won’t hear that one getting mentioned by the NYPD publicly.

Written and published via Blackberry.