Even for the guys and girls working in Times Square, myself one of them for a time in 2008, can have a hard time keeping their eyes from wandering the skyscrapers that fill hours of footage on the camcorders of so many tourist’s video cameras.

Not being a tourist in Times Square is key though.

The plasticized icons of corporate branding that serve food in Times Square are sometimes referred to as ‘restaurants’. These flashy behemoths serve food from cardboard boxes and charge on average USD$7 for domestic beers. Vendors, spying the expensive DSLR cameras (too often set to automatic) hanging around the typical tourist’s neck swarm like wild dogs around wounded prey looking for an easy kill and by the time you get from 52^nd and 7^th to 42^nd and Broadway most tourists feel a new found substantial lightness in their back pockets.

All this can be avoided by not being a tourist though. There are two components to this. The first is looking the part the second is acting the part. The easiest way to avoid the onslaught of vendors is to wear a suit and tie. This says, “I don’t buy anything West of Park Ave. and I’m just on my way to my flat on the Upper East Side anyways so don’t bother.”

For those of you not willing to don a suit and tie just to avoid the sales pitch by people selling everything from umbrellas to comedy show tickets to kakalash at least ditch the big camera around your neck, hip pouch and tilly hat. Don’t look around dazed and confused and walk hard and fast.

Walking hard and fast requires knowing where you are going. If you’re looking for a place to start not being a tourist check out Jimmy’s Corner.

Jimmy’s Corner on 140^th West 44^th street is a real salt of the earth place with enough seats along the bar for about twenty and tables of five or six more in the back. Beers are USD$3 and the owners, a family with a boxing background, are kind and happy to chat about the boxing paraphernalia that anoints the walls. Best of all the Pretzels are free.