The sidewalks will never be wide enough in Times Square: Not that Times Square doesn't have its merits -- quarantining certain investment banking institutions and media companies from the rest of the city, for example. It also functions as the urban planning equivalent of a bug-zapper. The sparkly neon billboards attract tourists like black lights attract mosquitoes. They get sucked in and ZAP! -- the rest of New York is safe from them. Veeeery clever, those urban planners.