On New Year’s Eve, New York City, NY’s Times Square becomes the focus of thousands gathered in the cold and of a televisual nation that marks the countdown as an illuminated ball descends atop the former Times Building. Times Square, at the heart of New York’s theater district, with a giant subway exchange below and a variegated neon canopy above, has become a global emblem of the city The “crossroads of Broadway” has also sheltered talent agencies, souvenir stands, adult entertainment and prostitution, a seediness that preoccupied city administrators and tourists in the 1970s. Subsequent clean-up campaigns include a Times Square Business Improvement District (that taxes local merchants to provide extra cleaning and security) and promotion of national franchises and high-rise development. The new, clean Times Square represents both the Americanization of Manhattan and the dual city where public space is appropriated by urban elites.