A day in Times Square, New York's nerve centre with a chequered past

 Times Square in New York.

New York, one of the most famous global metropolises, is a city that never sleeps. Its vibe has captured the world of business and entertainment for decades. It caters for the interests of almost anyone who sets foot here. The city has a rich repertoire of fashion, architecture, theatre, food and music, and a visitor has more to do and much to see than time will ever allow. This is the Big Apple.

While New York state is America's top apple grower, New York city's monicker, 'Big Apple', has nothing to do with the fruit. It is one of those accidental phrases dropped by a local journalist John Fitz Gerald after hearing some horse trainers state their intention to head to the "big apple", owing to the city's big-time race tracks. The name stuck.

In early December, just as the biting cold was starting to have a stranglehold on the western hemisphere, I found myself in New York, walking up and down the busy streets, heading to nowhere in particular. Rather odd, you may think.

I had boarded the New York-bound Kenya Airways flight some minutes to one in the morning in Nairobi. It was a delay of more than an hour, a factor that would later cost me a connection in JFK International Airport to my final destination to the west.

We landed at JFK some minutes to eight the morning after close to 15 hours of flying. Then the rush began. A rush to the immigration counter where hawk-eyed officials scanned me like an escaped convict. A counter where I had to lay bare your life's secrets to a person I had never met before. A counter where the said officials were never in a hurry to stamp my passport and grant me the much-vaunted entry into the United States of America.

By the time I was through the immigration ordeal, the gate to my connecting flight had closed. The next available flight was not until 7 pm. They say where there is disappointment, there is an opportunity nearby, that silver lining in the dark cloud. I had missed my connection but now had a whole day on hand, a whole day to explore the immediate neighbourhood. A whole day to scour the inner sanctums of New York.

An air train from the airport connects travellers to the city's renowned subway. A day's ticket cost me $2.75 (Sh340) but it could as well have been a ticket to nowhere. Then an idea struck. Why not alight at the station just below 42rd Street, take the flight of stairs, escalators and a long walk to bustling streets of Manhattan? It worked.

Manhattan is one of the five New York boroughs. The others are Brooklyn, Bronx, Queens, and Staten Island. If Manhattan is the nerve centre of New York, then Times Square is the heart of the city and one of the most well-known tourism hotspots.

Here, street carnivals and comical performances are the order of the day and the area is best scouted on foot without having to worry about standing out. Almost everyone you meet in Times Square is a visitor.

And while one might be taken in by the glamour and the luminous billboards announcing new shows in Broadway, Times Square has a history, and sadly, a less glamorous one.

Originally known as Long Acre in the 1880s, the area was as decrepit as it could get, that was before Adolph S Ochs, the owner of the New York Times chose to erect the media house's offices between Broadway and Seventh Avenue and 42nd and 43rd Streets. He called it Times Tower (no relation with the taxman's offices in Kenya!)

It was George McClellan, New York's mayor at the time, who signed a resolution to name this place Times Square, perhaps to pay homage to the media house's presence despite Ochs' humble submission that his office had no influence in the name.

The Great Depression of 1929 saw Times Square degenerate into moral degradation. According to Times Square's official website, theatre business floundered and many showhouses became centres of peddling cheap, sexually explicit films.

This was followed by the arrival of commercial sex workers-both males and females-who took advantage of the thriving blue movies business to get out of the economic quagmire, an occupation described by one writer as "ostentatious flesh-peddling in an open-air meat rack."

The advent of World War II did little to slow down the carnal business at Times Square. Soldiers who needed to vent out their frustrations furthered the cause of prostitution. By 1970s, Times Square was reporting more crimes than any other part of New York. "Times Square had begun a descent into despair and depravity," states Times Square's official website.

They say that after one hits rock bottom, the only other way to go is up, and Times Square, by the 1990s, was ready to reclaim its lost glory as New York's vibrant segment. The city's development managers set off to rebuilt major segments of Times Square, bringing in the lustre that it is known for today. They faced opposition, stamping their journey of resilience in the documentary, Against All Odds.

Little of Times Square's former sleaze comes to mind as you walk along the streets, save for a beggar looking for donations to pay for some carnal services. Americans! But contrary to the former tag as a dangerous neighborhood, Manhattan is a friendly suburb, so friendly that taking selfies with the famed NYPD cops is literally a walk in the park.

All too soon though, it was time to get back to the airport, careful not to miss my connection for the second time and happy that I was able to enjoy a day in the city aptly described as "wonderfully chaotic".