>Las Vegas Truth in Las Vegas

Straight to the point no nonsense no punches pulled opinion about Las Vegas:

Las Vegas is a hot dusty and very unpleasant place to visit during the summer.  In the spring, winter, and fall the temperatures are tolerable.  It's often windy, dusty, and polluted.  There is little vegetation and even less sense of community.  There are walls and private gates surrounding all the affluent residential areas and open run down barren shoddy looking homes in the less affluent areas.  It's a city of contrasts and turmoil.  The dry desert heat broken only occasionally by the occasional torrential downpour and flash flooding.

So why do people come here and pay in excess of $100 dollars a night (And that's for a pretty dumpy room - there are 130,000 to choose from ranging from the dives at $50 a night to the suites at a $1,000 and up) to stay in a cramped room with mediocre immunities and dump their money into games of chance where the odds are so stacked against them they haven't possibly got a chance of winning?  The answer might lie in the "hope of winning".

The answer might lie in the "escape" from rules and regulations of everyday life back in their own hometown.  How do your friends react when you say you just returned from Vegas.  A little envy?  But why?  It's certainly not for the place itself, I believe it's more for the fact that you got out of town.  Most people brag about their trip to Vegas - but it's nothing special.  I've walked the strip a dozen times in practically every month of the year.  I've been in and out of all the casinos.  They are all the same, the same tired slot machines and card tables, the Smokey air, the dim lighting, scantily dressed hostesses to liquor you up so you will keep spending.

And you know what else I see?  I see hundreds of people in each casino mindlessly pouring money into machines.  They look like robots, like machines, just putting in their coins and pulling that lever.  Seldom do these people look happy, and even less often do they look like they are having fun.  But ask them when they return from their trip if they have fun, and you'll hear the embellished stories.  I almost never see any of these machines paying off.  In fact I've never even seen a "big win" just several small wins - all of which get dumped right back into the machines.  Once in a while you hear about the big million dollar win.  But it's so few and far between that it's a major news event when it happens.  I'm not against Vegas I just don't get it.  I guess that's cause I am not a gambler.

I see the headliners - yesterdays news and has-beens.  These are the people who if it were not for Vegas would no longer have careers.  Entertainers come to Vegas when they can no longer draw as concert attractions in other cities.  Show Tickets are overpriced and offer little for the amount of money spent.  Sure the "Blue Man Group" is interesting - I've seen them on the Tonight Show.  But are they $110 dollars per ticket interesting?  Ask yourself honestly if the "Blue Man Group" came to your hometown would you pay $110 per ticket to see them?  For $61.95 you can see washed up David Brenner.  If David Brenner was coming to your town would you even be interested?  So it again begs the question why do 30 million people a year come to Vegas?  And my answer:  Because they have no lives back home, they have no idea how to take a real relaxing vacation, and because they like wasting money.  It's the same logic that gets people to play the lottery - the hope of winning.  The odds are so astronomically stacked against you in Vegas but that doesn't stop the masses.

Vegas is a town of Classes.  You have many wealthy suburbanites and many poor to lower class service workers.  I'm not down on Vegas, I just don't get why it's so popular.  I vacation in San Diego, in Santa Barbara, on the Oregon Coast.  You see fresh beautiful scenery, fantastic weather, you can golf and hike and swim and play tennis.  You are in the outdoors, the hotels are not Smokey and crowded with sickly looking sad faces.  It's actually fun.  I come back refreshed if not a bit tired, but energized by the beauty of nature.  When I get back from a trip to the Strip I am exhausted, bored, and wonder why I bothered to even go walk it.  Is anyone in Vegas really having fun.  Take away the alcohol and ask yourself the same question.

The porn peddlers

Prostitution is illegal in Las Vegas - but it goes on.  Try walking the strip and not having some annoying service worker shove a prostitution pamplet in your hand.  It's sickening.  It's litter, it's annoying, it's distracting.  You certainly don't want to take your kids through these panhandlers.

Dining and Shopping?

Dining is no longer cheap like it once was, shopping is neither cheap nor any better than your home town (Unless you live in the sticks with no local malls or stores).  Sure there is a lot of variety of Shopping - I enjoy walking the Forum Shops, but the prices are not for the faint of heart.  But please by all means keep dumping your money here (I need to make a living), because without the tourism the town would die a rapid and painful death.

Real Estate

During the late 90's and up until about 2001 Vegas Homes were a good Value.  Those days are over.  If a 1,200 2 bedroom stucco bungalo for $300 Grand is a good deal to you then come on and move her.  It's still a bargin compared to California, but it's not what it once was.  And think of the joy you will receive as you pay your tax bill on that little cottage of your, not to mention association fees to keep the community lawns watered and trim the grass.  Value?  Not anymore.  Look for foreclosure deals in about 3-5 years as the leveraged buyers of today with their ARM loans feel the sticker shock of rising interest rates.  Nirvana gone south.  It's not pessimism folks it's realism.  When gas hits $3.50 a gallon and the tourism slows watch and see what happens to the boom town.

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