The sidewalk side effect of a Vegas Strip project

The Las Vegas Strip is under construction again.

The biggest site is the 68-acre, $8.4-billion CityCenter development comprising six towers that MGM Mirage is building between the Monte Carlo and Bellagio. You expect a project as big as this to snarl traffic, and it does. But CityCenter’s construction has also, oddly enough, forced the growth of a little outpost of old, less sanitized Vegas.

The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority does not keep exact numbers of pedestrians but estimates that in 2007, 36% of the 39.2 million tourists in Vegas chose walking as the way to explore the Strip. But these days, to walk the Strip sidewalk in front of the CityCenter construction site, these millions of pedestrians are steered into an uncomfortable tunnel between the Monte Carlo and Bellagio. The tunnel is cramped, smelly and hazy with cigarette smoke.

So, to avoid the construction, more pedestrians are going to the other side of the Strip and walking the stretch of Las Vegas Boulevard between Harmon Avenue and MGM. This area is still more like old Vegas than the slick mega-resorts that shadow and surround this oasis of small businesses and freelance entrepreneurs. This extra traffic is offering a brief renaissance to this little sidewalk bazaar that is one day slated to be torn down for an Elvis-themed casino.

Walking this stretch of the Strip, I am accosted by a group of young people who hand me a compact disc of their hip-hop group. Then the men demand a donation for the disc I did not want. But at first they are reluctant to take the music back and aggrieved when I insist that I am not giving them a donation. After some words, I am able to return the disc.

But the customer base of pedestrians on the Strip is irresistible. There are so many people that on a recent Monday afternoon I stood still for two minutes and counted at least 220 folks walk past me.

Lacking the ability to provide a volcano or dancing fountain, many of the barkers, sellers and frontline folks on this tiny part of the Strip are costumed lures for the many small kiosks, bars, travel services, ticket discounters and cheap eats that make up this quarter.

For the last two years, Philippine native Isabelo “Billy” Fausto, painted head to toe in silver, has worked on a pedestal, making mime movements to persuade people to ignore the large resorts all around and instead enter the tiny La Salsa Cantina for drinks and slots. He works as a self-described dynamic living statue. Next to him works a man in a sort of Smurf Elvis outfit. “People love taking pictures with me,” Fausto says. “I am a performer, and I love what I am doing. I used to be an acrobat, but the group broke up. And so I developed this.”

Fausto says he has seen so much on the Strip that nothing fazes him. When the Monte Carlo’s roof caught fire in January, Fausto was pleased that his show managed to distract the tourists who came to view the flames.

A couple of blocks away, dressed as Elvis in his heavier Vegas guise, Shane Patterson, 43, works a few hours a day in front of the Harley Davidson Cafe posing for photos with tourists. The 6-foot 5-inch New Zealand native landed on doing the King three years ago for cash. The Harley gave him permission to hang out in front of the restaurant, and he is simply working for tips. He estimates his income ranges from a few dollars to a few hundred, depending on the day. “You see crazy things out here,” he says.

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For more of what’s happening on and off the Strip, see latimes.com/movable buffet.