Mayor Giuliani cleaned Times Square of the crime and a lot of the porn, but left the gritty, raucous, random parts intact. Good choice.
Times Square is the colorful, crowded, tacky, lively tourist center of the city and the heart of the Broadway theater district. NYC is not Florence - a small antique town. Times Square will never be the Piazza del Duomo, thank goodness.
John Tierny (with whom I often agree) has another vision: Reimagining Times Square. He is being a party-pooper.