Full disclosure: I hate Times Square. The Missus and I go to the theater in New York a lot, and walking through Times Square is always the worst part of the evening, no matter how bad the play is. See “Enron” for particulars.

(Fun fact to know and tell: In the 1940s, playwright George Bernard Shaw said “[Times Square] must be beautiful to someone who cannot read.”

(True that even today.)

As for tomorrow, Times Square is about to become Timecode Square, thanks to a plan to install a high-tech security network in Midtown Manhattan.

Via, appropriately, the New York Times:

The Police Department has been planning a high-tech security network for Midtown Manhattan involving surveillance cameras, license plate readers and chemical sensors, although it was not clear whether it could have prevented the attempted car bombing in Times Square on Saturday night.

The network, patterned after one under development in Lower Manhattan, would eventually use public and private security cameras and license plate readers and would be able to record and track every vehicle moving between 34th and 59th Streets, river to river. But because neither the S.U.V. used in the attempt nor the license plate on it had been reported stolen, it would not have raised any immediate red flags.

Campaign Outsider Red Flag®:

Is this really what we want our government to be doing?

Discuss among yourselves.