Las Vegas - Hate it? Love it!

[EarlJam]

I'm having a debate with someone.

Basically, the question is this....

Would you want to live in Las Vegas for the rest of your life?

-EJ

[sue71, esq]

I have lived there. Still own a townhouse there. Would move back in a heartbeat if I could (job situation would have to be worked out).

[sue71, esq]

So you hate Veges but how do you feel about Vegas?

[kinghoops]

love to visit, wouldnt want to live there, i would be totally broke!!

[brevity]

I feel I should contribute to this thread.

Would you want to live in Las Vegas for the rest of your life?

I've lived here for over 5 years. I don't feel like I know Las Vegas very well, though. I'm not sure I ever will.

But I have no complaints. Having lived in humidity for most of my life, dry heat is easy. Having shoveled snow on occasion, I am pleased with knowing that I will probably never do that again.

I have my doubts that I'll spend of the rest of my life here, but I would very much like to stay in the Western US. The Pacific Time Zone rules. Aside from basketball, and maybe dining, East Coast life is inferior in every way.

[YmoBeThere]

love to visit, wouldnt want to live there, i would be totally broke!!

My thoughts exactly...

[Lavabe]

love to visit, wouldnt want to live there, i would be totally broke!!

Love to visit, wouldn't want to live there, I wouldn't get any sleep.

[devildeac]

Love to visit, wouldn't want to live there, I wouldn't get any sleep.

How would that be any different than now? (I've seen those 3 and 4 AM posts)

[Duke4Ever32]

Hate it. I took a trip 3 years ago in which I spent 2 days in Vegas and then went to California for 3-4 days. Upon returning to Vegas for my flight back to Florida, I had about 5 hours to kill before I needed to be at the airport. I could either spend that time on the Strip or at the airport. I choose to just go to the airport 5 hours early and spend the time there. Vegas is a waste of time and money.

[throatybeard]

James Howard Kunstler sums up what I feel about Las Vegas beeter than anyone else could. This is only an excerpt; the complete essay is in The City in Mind.

http://www.kunstler.com/excerpt_lasvegas.html

The trouble with Las Vegas is not just that it is ridiculous and dysfunctional, but that anybody might take it seriously as a model for human ecology on anything but the most extreme provisional terms. That they do might in itself be proof that American civic culture has reached a terminal stage. Even the casual observer can see that Las Vegas is approaching its tipping point as a viable urban system, particularly in the matter of scale. In evolutionary biology, at the threshold of extinction organisms often attain gigantic size and a narrow specialty of operation that leaves them very little room to adapt when their environment changes even slightly. This is the predicament of Las Vegas. Its components have attained a physical enormity that will leave them vulnurable to political, economic, and social changes that are bearing down upon us with all the inexorable force of history.

...the experience of actually being on this gigantic motorway lined by buildings of such monstrous scale -- or, at some stretches, vacant lots that appear to be the size of Rhode Island -- is not apt to gratify many human beings with normal neurological equipment. In fact, if ever a setting was designed to ravage the central nervous system and induce acute agoraphobia, the Strip is it.

[CathyCA]

Las Vegas is a beautiful town. I love the weather. One of my favorite family vacations (yup, we took the kids) was in Las Vegas. I would enjoy living there.

The problem for me is, my family and most of my friends are on the east coast, and I just moved back here to be near them, so I don't think I will be moving to Las Vegas any time soon.

[CameronBornAndBred]

I don't hate Vegas, but I definately would not want to live there. I was having fun with my wife when we went earlier this year checking out some of the land prices. Dirt cheap if you go out far enough. But that's pretty much all you get...dirt.

[Lavabe]

James Howard Kunstler sums up what I feel about Las Vegas beeter than anyone else could. This is only an excerpt; the complete essay is in The City in Mind.

http://www.kunstler.com/excerpt_lasvegas.html

Quote:
...the experience of actually being on this gigantic motorway lined by buildings of such monstrous scale -- or, at some stretches, vacant lots that appear to be the size of Rhode Island -- is not apt to gratify many human beings with normal neurological equipment. In fact, if ever a setting was designed to ravage the central nervous system and induce acute agoraphobia, the Strip is it.

I get the same feeling in New York City. But I like both cities.

rthomas: did you get the same reaction as I when reading the bit in the quote about evolutionary biology?

Cheers,
Lavabe

[duke74]

Would live there in a second. I go every year with my family between Christmas and New Year's (slow time in my profession). And, I don't gamble. Most folks I know that moved there (retirement/quality of life) do NOT frequent the casinos. They basically live the same boring lives that most of us do.

They use the benefits that the casinos offer (shows, restaurants), but do not gamble. Of course, many who move there do so for the gambling...

Alomost bought a second home there a number of years ago. Should have...

[Jim3k]

I go to Vegas once or twice a year on business and have since the early '70s. I find it to be in constant change. Not only does the gaming/resort industry never stop making permutations, the city keeps growing and seems to have little zoning control. Traffic has certainly worsened.

Having said that, once you separate the the Strip from the rest of the town, you find that the neighborhoods are similar to most western deseert cities -- see Tucson or Phoenix -- even Albuquerque. (I won't count El Paso, because that place is the pits; does anything grow green there?) But Vegas has a home-town charm even if it is car-driven like LA. It's a sprawl but no worse than the others I mentioned.

Clearly the weather is moderate compared to the East or Midwest -- no real winter (although I saw snow there 2 years ago; it stayed on the ground for a day.). OTOH, the summers are what one would expect in the Southwest and it can be very windy. Still, if you are a golfer (I'm not) there are plenty of green courses to play on. And, there is AAA baseball, a major university, high (and low) quality entertainment and excellent eateries. I'm not certain about the quality of the public schools, but I think they are better than many. Beautiful red mountains to the west and Lake Meade not far to the east.

There are a lot of nice things about Vegas so long as you keep the glitter out of your eyes.

[wilson]

I've never been to Vegas, and it won't be much skin off my back if I never make it there. I'm not a gambler, but I would like to see the place, if only to marvel at its absurdity for a couple of days (and then get the hell out). As for living there for the rest of my life, I'd rather stab rusty nails in both of my eyeballs.

[Indoor66]

I've never been to Vegas, and it won't be much skin off my back if I never make it there. I'm not a gambler, but I would like to see the place, if only to marvel at its absurdity for a couple of days (and then get the hell out). As for living there for the rest of my life, I'd rather stab rusty nails in both of my eyeballs.

Those are incredible statements about a place you have never seen or been to. On what do you base your opinion?

[2535Miles]

Vegas is great in 24-48 hours (maybe 72) hour doses. I definitely wouldn't want to live there. Then again, I've lived in LA for over a year so perhaps my judgment isn't the best.

[wilson]

Those are incredible statements about a place you have never seen or been to. On what do you base your opinion?

The Vegas of the strip and its environs is just not my cup of tea. Residential Vegas, from all I've read and otherwise learned, embodies the sprawl that is my least favorite element of Atlanta, and that I hope to avoid as much as possible in the future.

[YmoBeThere]

You might want to put that in your eHarmony profile...