Times Square

Times Square

Times Square is what the world expects of New York--loud and frenetic, one large, omnivorous mass of theatrical commercialism. This is, of course, the result of a recent makeover. As recently as the early nineties, the area was a crime- and drug-infested miniature metropolis of desperation, navigable to a tourist only during the day--exactly what was expected of New York in those days. In the fifties, the area was a kind of bohemian underbelly, the stomping grounds of the resolute nonconformists who later came to be known as the Beats. Throughout the nineteenth century known as Longacre Square, a public hourglass-shaped intersection indistinguishable from those other places where diagonal, insurrectionist Broadway crossed New York's long avenues, Times Square was consecrated in 1904, nearly a full year before the paper moved its headquarters here, announcing itself as the new "crossroads of the world." (Herald Square, a few blocks south, was the less famous home of the less famous New York Herald). Today, the Times operates several blocks away, but the intersection can make the claim perhaps more legitimately in a globalized world than ever before. For starters, the place is always packed, the only place in New York, and perhaps the entire world, where pedestrians must swim through each other during the witching hours of three or four in the morning. Within a radius of four or five blocks, visitors will be able to find a representative of just about every chain restaurant in business, and knick-knack shops offering overpriced goods suitable for tourists of all nationalities. MTV's studios are here, as is ABC's Good Morning America set (complete with a running news ticker for those on the street). Times Square is also the capital of New York theater; the cross-streets that dissect Times Square are lined with the city's most well-known, most profitable shows and theaters, each offering entertainment any day of the week. At the center of the square stands the essential TKTS stand, which sells day-of-show tickets for all the shows at as much as a 50% discount.