“Throughout New York’s history, Times Square has served as a bellwether of … perceptions of the city, both for those who live here and those who don’t.” High glamour in the 1920s, bawdy burlesque in the ’30s, grime grit and vice in the ’70s, cleaned-up and “Disneyfied” through the ’90s and ’00s. And in 2015? Cartoon characters and topless women in body paint hustling endless hordes of tourists for selfies (and tips), and those tourists taking pictures of the selfies they just took, transmitted onto a billboard.
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