Times Square - New York, New York
Posted by: 
Vermontish
N 40° 45.398 W 073° 59.149
18T E 585607 N 4512235
"Crossroads of the world"
Waymark Code: WM7J68
Location: New York, United States
Date Posted: 10/30/2009
Views: 95
Formerly Longacre Square; when the New York Times moved into a new skyscraper on 42nd Street in 1904, the publisher convinced the city to build a subway station there, and the Square was renamed after the newspaper.
That same year, the first electrified advertisement on the Square appeared on the side of a bank building at 46th and Broadway. Today (or, more appropriately, tonight) the area is known for the massive digitally animated signage (called spectaculars). In fact, Times Square is the only neighborhood in New York with zoning ordinances requiring building owners to display illuminated signs.
Starting with the Great Depression but mostly from the Sixties into the early Nineties, the Square became a symbol of the city's decline, with a proliferation of pornographic theatres and other adult-oriented businesses, drug dealers and the like. With a midtown building boom in the Eighties came a push to clean up the Square, driving out the undesirables and attracting more family friendly businesses. Some complain that it has become "Disneyfied," while others applaud the cleaner, safer atmosphere. Thank you, Mayor Giuliani.
The Times has since left the area, but also left a legacy. Its former home is now the Allied Chemical Building, from which "the Ball" drops each New Year's Eve.