love and hope and sex and dreams are still survivin' on the street

Times Square is the worst. It's just the worst. I did not like it. It was crowded and noisy and hot and full of chain restaurants. I now completely understand how some people hate New York.

Traveling around the city I've noticed a lot of international tourists. Their guidebooks in Japanese and Spanish and German give them away. They tend to gather in the most touristy locations, which inevitably at some point in their stay means Times Square. And I do get it: it's where they drop the ball on New Year's Eve. It's the scene of the famous Alfred Eisenstaedt photo, where a sailor kisses a woman in celebration of V-J Day. It's the hub of the theater district. It's "the Crossroads of the World."

The reality will never match up with the glamorized vision created on TV and in the movies. Times Square is quite like Hollywood in this regard. You think it's a beautiful area, filled with movie stars and trendy coffee shops. But it's actually pretty dumpy, full street performers in superhero Halloween costumes and porn shops. New York City may have done away with the porn shops, but it's still not as great as you'd imagine.

So whenever I see foreign (and even some American) tourists on the subway, I want to warn them: DO NOT visit Times Square! Take a long walk through Central Park. Spend a day in the Met. Go to a baseball game. Don't judge New York by those few blocks around Broadway and Seventh Avenue. It's a tiny slice of a city that is somehow vast despite it's lack of acreage.

But maybe I'm being a little too harsh. As a Southern Californian, I've made my peace with Hollywood. I've even come to love it, seediness and all. I would never judge all of Los Angeles by it, but it is still part of the city's character. Maybe Times Square falls into the same category for New Yorkers-- something you must do once, but please don't judge my entire city on it alone.