For more than a century, Times Square has mesmerized the world with the spectacle of its dazzling supersigns, its theaters, and its often-seedy nightlife. New York City’s iconic crossroads has drawn crowds of revelers, thrill-seekers, and other urban denizens, not to mention lavish outpourings of advertising and development money.

Many have hotly debated the recent transformation of this legendary intersection, with voices typically falling into two opposing camps. Some applaud a blighted red-light district becoming a big-budget, mainstream destination. Others lament an urban zone of lawless possibility being replaced by a Disneyfied, theme-park version of New York. In Money Jungle, Benjamin Chesluk shows that what is really at stake in Times Square are fundamental questions about city life—questions of power, pleasure, and what it means to be a citizen in contemporary urban space. 

Chesluk weaves together surprising stories of everyday life in and around the Times Square redevelopment, tracing the connections between people from every level of this grand project in social and spatial engineering: the developers, architects, and designers responsible for reshaping the urban public spaces of Times Square and Forty-second Street; the experimental Midtown Community Court and its Times Square Ink. job-training program for misdemeanor criminals; encounters between NYPD officers and residents of Hell’s Kitchen; and angry confrontations between city planners and neighborhood activists over the future of the area.

With an eye for offbeat, telling details and a perspective that is at once sympathetic and critical, Chesluk documents how the redevelopment has tried, sometimes successfully and sometimes not, to reshape the people and places of Times Square. The result is a colorful and engaging portrait, illustrated by stunning photographs by long-time local photographer Maggie Hopp, of the street life, politics, economics, and cultural forces that mold America’s urban centers.

Benjamin Chesluk holds a Ph.D. in cultural anthropology from the University of California at Santa Cruz. He lives in Philadelphia.

Alternately Herculean and Sisyphean, the struggle to clean up Times Square has never been chronicled with more thoroughness or insight, nor with greater sensitivity to the ramifications of the attempt.

Money Jungle is a compelling ethnography that takes the reader on a layered and vivid tour of the people and forces that produce urban change. With his imaginative and multifaceted approach to an iconic site, Chesluk makes a strong contribution to anthropology, sociology, and cultural studies.

The strength of this book lies in Chesluk's ability to ground his ethnographic inquiries with a historically informed sensibility of the cultural career of redevelopment efforts in Times Square. Unique and innovative, Money Jungle represents an important contribution to urban anthropology and to the studies of cities generally.

The strength of this book lies in CheslukÆs ability to ground his ethnographic inquiries with a historically informed sensibility of the cultural career of redevelopment efforts in Times Square. Unique and innovative, Money Jungle represents an important contribution to urban anthropology and to the studies of cities generally.