Las Vegas

One of the first stops among the many planned for this upcoming year is Las Vegas. Having spent three years in Sin City, I was fortunate enough to get to know it better than most people who simply visit the Strip and don't venture beyond... One thing that always strikes me when I visit - well - maybe two things right off the bat. One: when flying into the city, it is incredible to see how much the city has grown over the last 15 years. Given the wide expanse of open desert, the city has developed in a checkerboard grid pattern throughout the valley. Perfect squares of subdivisions and shopping areas spread out as far as the eye can see. Second: the city is a monument to the automobile. This city has the widest thoroughfares of any place I have visited. Long, wide clean streets that divide Clark County into neat bundles of every day activities and allow a person to move quite well throughout the city. The freeway system is rather poor; but so what as it is easier to head out on the main streets to get to your destination of choice.

Something else stood out for me this last weekend. The Strip has become nothing but a bunch of large imposing buildings with very little character. Used to be that there was a distinctive skyline to the Strip from the Tropicana up to Circus Circus. Nowadays, condo projects compete with casinos as to who will build the next edifice for attention. And it is not just limited to the Strip. From the North end near Summerlin south to Henderson, new casinos with 30 plus storied buildings have popped up in the neighborhoods. Frankly, it all looks too contrived and fake. But hey, that's the Vegas creed for building. Why go with something original when recreating what already exists works?

There is one place, however, that stands out as one of the singular best features of Las Vegas: the Red Rocks and Mt. Charleston area west of the city. Stunning rock formations and coloring that can only be rivaled by southwestern Utah. And one can easily get out to this area within 1/2 hour. Every visit I make to Vegas includes a pilgrimage to the western part of town.

One final note about Vegas - this place isn't going through just a recession; it's going through a huge adjustment to the fact that it isn't immune to a recession. Kinda reminds me of the great Tulip bubble of the 1600s...