Concerns about disorder and urban safety have moved to the forefront in debates about the urban condition and the nature of city governance. In the contemporary rationales of housing and urban policy, symbols of reassurance have become key magnets in attracting people and capital to move to, invest in, or remain, in certain urban locations and residential areas. This article argues that in governing urban safety, the normative governmental agendas that seek to remoralize and cleanse city spaces and promote certain values of appropriate consumer-citizens often clash with commercially-driven imperatives to excessive consumption and the allure of cities as places of difference that exhibit relaxed normative constraints, more so in the nighttime economy. In addition, it is argued that the manner in which these forces are played out is conditioned by the interplay between different actors and organizations. The resultant pressures have produced mixed experiences of the city as a meeting place for loosely connected strangers, as a place of indulgence, and as a place of cultural expression. Notes and references