Large urban areas around the world have several things in common: the usual shear numbers of people; lots of buildings (some magnificent in their architecture and historical value, some like most in Las Vegas spectacular for a few years then torn down to make way for something even more spectacular; a business community; and frequently a “catch” – something that makes that particular city unique.

Las Vegas’ uniqueness is not in its buildings, business, or people; but in its ability to frequently reinvent its external persona. Certainly the building and dismantling of “world class” casinos in the blink of an eye is quite an achievement; but if you do nothing with the extraordinary revenue the business of entertainment brings to this City except keep building and dismantling the same old things, what then gives the “real” Las Vegas, the one that more than 2 million people make their home, its own identity.

The “Strip”, as most locals call it, is an attraction for millions of visitors who enjoy a few days drinking, dancing and parting with wads of cash. Then they return to their real lives in regular town USA. Regular Town USA has people, buildings, businesses, parks, libraries and expressions of life in the form of art.

Las Vegas is a vibrant community of artists and is home to some of the best in the world. Yet, most of our attention both personally and politically is on the 3 day visitor’s experience and not on the long-term resident.

Continue reading "Arts in a grown-up world" »

Posted September 26, 2008 3:56 PM by Cate Berry | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email This

Las Vegas isn’t only about sex and What Happens Here, Stays Here, you know. Not too many people realize that this city is surprisingly cutting edge.

Not cutting edge in the sense that we’ve blanketed every square inch of the city with free Wi-Fi (a nice little pipe dream of mine), but more in the sense that Las Vegas is very good at watching you. Hell, with as much money going between gamers and casinos, surveillance can’t be anything but top shelf.

Looks like the government may be looking at us as sort of a security testing ground, according to an article by the Washington Post.

Continue reading "Las Vegas security – good enough for the government" »

Posted October 23, 2007 4:40 PM by Kevin Chomintra | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email This

I read in a book one time that a man can only achieve his utmost potential if he has an opponent. It may be a little unnerving to exist knowing there is someone working to undo everything you are, but it also presses you to work harder and more diligently.

So it is with UNLV and UNR and battle for the Fremont Cannon, which promises to be one of the most emotionally-charged games of the season.

It may not be USC vs. Notre Dame, but the rivalry is an intense one nonetheless. UNR will be hosting the game and will be taking measures to ensure the safety and well-being of attendants, even those visiting rebel fans.

Continue reading "UNLV just might need UNR to inspire school spirit" »

Posted September 27, 2007 2:51 PM by Kevin Chomintra | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email This

Tomorrow, August 25, 2007, wasn't supposed to happen. UFC heavyweight champion Randy Couture was expected to succumb to old age and then-champion Tim Sylvia when he came out of retirement earlier this year. Gabriel Gonzaga was seen as a sacrificial lamb to showcase Mirko "Crocop" Filipovic before the latter was given a title shot.

UFC 74: RESPECT will take place at the Mandalay Bay Events Center and could not have been more aptly named. Neither fighter was expected to win the fights their previous fights, which would ultimately destine them to meet tomorrow.

March 3, 2007. Although he's recognized as one of the best the sport has ever seen, Couture was fighting an uphill fight that few people thought he could win. He was coming out of a year-long retirement and staring directly at a title shot against 6' 8", 260 pound Sylvia, who hadn't lost a fight in two years.

Even if the crowd was behind Couture, so too was his prime. At 43-years-old, he didn't have the speed and strength of his glory days. In fact, he didn't seem to have any advantages — Sylvia was 13 years his junior, knew how to keep opponents at bay with his insanely long-reaching jab and was more than adept at blocking take-downs, a strategy many felt was Couture's only hope at victory.

But no less than eight seconds into the first round, Couture stunned the mixed martial arts world when he flattened Sylvia with a perfect punch. At the end of five rounds, the over-aged underdog would walk away the new UFC heavyweight champion in what could have been considered one of the biggest MMA upsets of the year. Until, of course, April.

Continue reading "UFC 74 Couture vs. Gonzaga is truly about respect" »

Posted August 24, 2007 5:43 PM by Kevin Chomintra | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email This

The Springs Preserve, opened recently by the Las Vegas Valley Water District to commemorate and perpetuate the memory of Las Vegas Springs at The Meadows, and the role water played in developing a desert oasis, is an impressive achievement.

Go see it. It’ll knock your socks off. And one visit won’t be sufficient to see all of it. Tune in online at springspreserve.org.

Yet several historical inaccuracies and questionable features need to be corrected to satisfy citizen observers with a Stuttgart eye for detail. To wit:

• The fake railroad car dubbed “Las Vegas & Tonopah RR.” First, why build a simulated car when a real one could have been purchased from, say, the railroad museum at Perris Calif.? Is Californiphobia at work here? There was no such thing as “Las Vegas & Tonopah RR.” Properly, it would be the Tonopah & Tidewater Railroad, which was not a major feeder of settlers and lot buyers into Las Vegas around 1905. The railroad that was instrumental in Las Vegas’ development was Montana Sen. William Clark’s San Pedro, Los Angeles & Salt Lake Railroad. Again, Californiphobia?

Continue reading "Las Vegas Springs Preserve is impressive despite some historical inaccuracies" »

Posted June 12, 2007 3:07 PM by Anthony Greno | Permalink | Comments (2) | Email This

It’s almost surely a re-run of the 2005 PBS two-part classic confected for the 100th anniversary of Las Vegas’ founding, but it’s worth watching the American Experience screening at 9 p.m. tonight (Feb. 26) of “Las Vegas: An Unconventional History” on KLVX-TV Channel 10.

(For those who might have missed it, the two-VHS set is available for $24.99 from www.shoppbs.org or from www.amazon.com for $22.99.)

Las Vegas started out as a railroad land promotion on May 15, 1905 with the auction of townsite lots conducted from the side of a boxcar. An abundant set of nearby artesian springs made the place a major watering stop for the San Pedro, Los Angeles & Salt Lake Railroad, later to become the Union Pacific Railroad.

Continue reading "Unconventional Las Vegas history airs Feb. 26 on PBS as repeat" »

Posted February 26, 2007 2:59 PM by Anthony Greno | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email This

Just on the heels of an announcement that the U.S. Postal Service would trash its stamp-vending machines as being obsolete came the launch on Feb. 15 of the new one-dollar presidential coin.

It makes a taxpayer weary, since those Susan B. Anthony dollars that spew out of the stamp-vending machines are more of an annoyance than a convenience. Who wants to go around carrying five or more Susan B. Anthony or Sacagawea dollars? Even convenience store cashiers look in askance if one tries to use the dollar coins in a purchase.

And where is the slot machine that will take today’s cupronickel dollar coins? Is there a casino magnate who truly wishes to go to all the expense of modifying slot machines just because the Federal Reserve, for starters, ordered 300 million of the new Washington dollar coins? It already has cost the casinos millions to convert slot machines to taking paper currency in four denominations.

Supposedly the new dollar coins will have a different president on them every three months until all the deceased presidents are minted and in circulation again. The schedule for 2007 calls for Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison to be coined on the anverse face of the new dollar version featuring the Statue of Liberty on the reverse side.

The presidential coins are scheduled to be struck from now into the year 2016. To appear on a coin, a president must have been deceased at least two years.

Posted February 20, 2007 4:01 PM by Anthony Greno | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email This

Since 1989 the beacon atop the Nevada Landing tower in Jean has signaled to motorists speeding along that last downhill stretch from California that the trip’s almost over, and Las Vegas is only a few more miles away.

Sometime in April, it’s been announced, that welcoming beacon in the desert will be doused forever. MGM Mirage said it will close the 303-room hotel and 35,800 square-foot casino featuring 734 slot machines—some of them loose—in order to build affordable housing for casino employees plus a multiple-use retail development on a 166-acre site.

In the latest chapter of Las Vegas gaming re-inventing itself every few years, the two “river boats” on each side of the Nevada Landing wharf will be demolished.

As an exercise in make-believe, the Nevada Landing casino was a fancy place. Several huge crystal chandeliers illuminated the gaming area with its slots and 19 table games. The décor was that of a river boat casino from the 1860s to 1890s. There was a Chinese restaurant that operated only in evenings. This is written in the preterit because time passes so quickly. But there’s still a chance to say farewell to the fantasy riverboats “moored” 12 miles from the California-Nevada border and 25 miles south of Las Vegas, in what’s left of February plus the whole month of March. Collectors of casino memorabilia—who are legion in these parts—will descend like locusts in the final days on the riverboat casino.

Posted February 15, 2007 4:11 PM by Anthony Greno | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email This

The infamous Yucca Mountain project to stash 77,000 tons of nuclear waste inside an old volcano northwest of Las Vegas may be moribund, slowly dying of inanition as funding is cut.

It couldn’t happen to a more deserving project.

Five years after then-Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham recommended on Feb. 14, 2002 to President George W. Bush that Yucca Mountain be used for storage of radioactive rods, the Department of Energy has scaled back its spending on the project. It probably represents a tacit recognition that storage in Nevada of radioactive waste from the nation’s nuclear power plants is a doomed project.

The DOE in early February sent Congress a budget requesting $494.5 million for the proposed nuclear waste repository in the federal fiscal year beginning Oct. 1. It was the smallest Yucca Mountain request since fiscal 2002, and $50 million less than the amount budgeted last year for 2007.

Continue reading "Yucca Mountain project may be dying" »

Posted February 8, 2007 1:13 PM by Anthony Greno | Permalink | Comments (3) | Email This

As it turns out, Las Vegas wasn’t the hoot that Hooters thought it would be. Alas, there’s too much T&A skin and cleavage on view at any given time in almost any Vegas casino for Hooters to show perky profits. Results have pointed downward and flopped to a loss of $16 million in the nine first months of last year, according to Dow Jones Newswires and the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

Barely a year after Hooters hotel-casino opened off-Strip on East Tropicana Avenue, a casino advisory group plans to buy the property and its operating company for $95 million, the R-J said on Jan. 23.

“Analysts charge that although the Hooters Girls and their bright orange short-shorts lure plenty of patrons in Little Rock, Ark., and Albuquerque, N.M., Las Vegas has flesh appeal everywhere,” said D-J in the R-J.

Local observers added that renovation of the former San Remo Hotel at 155 East Tropicana Ave. was cursory at best, noting also that the San Remo earlier had been a destination for el cheapo bus tours originating from Los Angeles and Monterey Park.

Thus the Hooters attempt to bust into the Las Vegas hotel-casino market went bust because, as the saying in Spanish goes, it was like taking a sandwich to a banquet.

Posted January 24, 2007 12:13 PM by Anthony Greno | Permalink | Comments (1) | Email This

Veteran automobile drivers know that California has its Hollywood stop, and Nevada has its Las Vegas light. Both are related as to danger of collision.

The Hollywood stop, dating from the days of automobiles with manual transmissions or stick-shifts, works this way: When approaching an intersection that has a stop sign rather than a traffic signal, slow down to a near crawl with your foot on the brake pedal. Look both ways for cross traffic. If it’s clear, downshift to second gear and gun it across.

Faster and considerably riskier is the Las Vegas light. It works this way: When approaching an intersection and the traffic signal turns red just as you’re about to enter that intersection, just keep going. Thumb your nose at the red light and any Metro cop sitting in a back-and-white. Motorists who stop for an orange light, or as it changes to red, risk being rear-ended.

Continue reading "The Las Vegas light may disappear if candid cameras are installed at intersections" »

Posted January 23, 2007 1:59 PM by Anthony Greno | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email This

Apparently a confrontation at a convenience store led to a shooting that injured two Western High School freshmen yesterday.

I find it sad that our teenagers live in an environment in which they may find themselves walking into school with gunshot noises ringing in the air. When I attended high school in the ‘80s, worrying about guns at school were the last of my worries. I was more concerned about fitting in, getting good grades and hanging out with the right friends.

I read recently that a truly great person is a humble person. Regardless of who instigated yesterday’s road rage incident, if either party was humble (even just a bit more humble), perhaps injury and alarm would have been avoided.

In the meantime, let’s support those freshmen who were injured and teach our children the importance of being nice. A little kindness goes a long way, even on the road.

Posted January 10, 2007 12:56 PM by Pete Codella, APR | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email This

When my friend Peter called me at 3 p.m. on December 31 to see if I was available to accompany him to the Danny Gans show at the Mirage that evening, I nearly had a panic attack. After living in Las Vegas for 32 years and proudly never having gone to the strip (that I can remember…there MAY have been a time or two in the ‘70’s), I don’t know what it was in me that said, “What the heck…how bad can it be?” After 18 years in media sales and being privileged enough to attend nearly every new show, lounge and restaurant opening, I have seen them all and thus have come to treasure my evenings at home. I was spoiled, but I was also done. Peter is fairly new to the city and fairly new to being on his own, so with one part compassion and one part optimism, I agreed to go with him. What’s the worst that could happen?

We weirdly moved through the evening as though protected in a bubble…you would never have known it was New Year’s Eve. Our city has a way of amazing me on occasion, and this was one of those nights. Peter wanted to approach the Mirage from the west side of town, even though we live in Green Valley. Good idea, since the Mirage is on the west side of the strip and the Danny Gans show is there. I thought Industrial would do it for us, but I was only back-seat driving, so we went all the way to Decatur and came in on Spring Mountain. We figured that our worst-case scenario would be that we would have to park at the Fashion Show Mall and walk over from there, so while we were dressed up a bit, our footwear was appropriate for a trek.

Continue reading "Not Your Ordinary Dinner and a Show in Las Vegas" »

Posted January 4, 2007 11:03 AM by Robin Jay | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email This

“The Best is yet to Come,” a song Frank Sinatra performed hundreds of times during the days of the Rat Pack, provides us with a phrase that rings true in today’s Las Vegas real estate market. The first phase of the condo boom has passed, but there is much more to come. The second phase of “Manhattanization” belongs to seasoned builders.

The initial lift of the market has dissipated. Now it takes more experience to finish a high-rise project. As developers face new obstacles, altering their original strategy to accommodate the change in the market may be necessary for success. And in this second phase, the divide between experienced and less experienced developers becomes more apparent. This will yield to new innovations in marketing, development, and design.

To remain in sync with “The Best is yet to Come,” developers these days need to do their due diligence and adequately prepare for the obstacles that accompany the changing market, in order to see their project to completion.

Posted October 11, 2006 4:01 PM by Paul Murad | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email This

Apparently affected by late summer doldrums, city bureaucrats have proposed the lowly desert tortoise as a mascot for an “urban pathway” of wide sidewalks, trees, banners, and areas for chess tables and tai chi.

“The desert tortoise? I don’t think so. It should be something else,” said radio talk show host Alan Stock, who proceeded to conduct an impromptu listener survey. Most of the callers on the morning AM radio show said a showgirl or Vegas Vic should be the mascot. Others suggested dice, slot machines, or a miner with his burro.

Trouble is, a desert tortoise isn’t exclusively native to Nevada. It’s found in native habitats in California, Arizona and Mexico. Further, it wouldn’t help promote Las Vegas among high rollers from China or Hong Kong because of the pejorative connotation a turtle has in South China. Calling someone a turtle in those parts of the world is equivalent to calling someone a snake, salamander or skunk in the United States. And, of course, Las Vegas moves considerably faster than a tortoise’s pace.

Continue reading "Las Vegas mascot sought – tortoise, showgirl or Vegas Vic?" »

Posted September 5, 2006 4:02 PM by Anthony Greno | Permalink | Comments (1) | Email This

Mainstream success, it’s what all bands dream of; the desperate clinging to hopes and dreams of a rock star lifestyle. Sadly, few ever make it. And it seems even fewer come from Nevada, breaking out of the proverbial Vegas Valley glass ceiling.

The emerging Vegas music scene (emerging for many, many years) has recently acknowledged a few bands who have managed to gain notoriety in the national and international markets.

The Killers, whose music is played on the radio without fanfare secretes a familiar comforting sound, reminiscent of 80s with undertones of modern Brit rock and a unique lyrical style.

Continue reading "Homegrown Las Vegas band, The Killers, find success" »

Posted August 31, 2006 10:12 AM by Kyle Zechel | Permalink | Comments (1) | Email This

Erstwhile Nevadan Mark Twain popularized the saying that there are three kinds of lies: lies, damn lies, and statistics. That goes hand-in-hand with news reporters’ common vernacular that statistics can do anything, and you can do anything with statistics.

It was statistics—erroneous statistics—that ostensibly burst the Las Vegas housing bubble last week, causing bankers and other lenders to wring their hands and scratch at their vestments…all in vain.

Turns out that what we said in our Aug. 24 blog was correct—It ain’t necessarily so.
Allegedly there occurred a July drop of 41 percent in new home sales compared with the same month a year ago, along with a fall of 35.1 percent of existing home sales in July as against July, 2005.

The 1,808 new-home sales closings in July were the skimpiest since April, 2003 and somewhat more than half of the closings in June, reported local research company SalesTraq.

Barely a week later comes a recognition that “July’s housing numbers do not signal a bursting of the bubble in Las Vegas, nor is the market as depressed as preliminary reports have suggested, a local analyst said Tuesday,” over which the Las Vegas Review-Journal headline read: “About that housing bubble…Sales up 6.1 percent; SalesTraq revises data.”

Continue reading "Bundling of Las Vegas housing statistics hurts the industry" »

Posted August 30, 2006 3:27 PM by Anthony Greno | Permalink | Comments (1) | Email This

It ain’t necessarily so, as the song goes in George Gershwin’s musical, “Porgy and Bess.”

New home sales have morphed into mid-rise and high-rise units as a new trend sweeps the Las Vegas housing market—vertical construction.

Almost unnoticed in the total Vegas housing picture are nearly 38,000 high-rise and mid-rise homes in various stages of development, Steve Bottfeld, real estate consultant with Marketing Solutions, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

Continue reading "So you think the Las Vegas housing bubble has burst?" »

Posted August 24, 2006 3:41 PM by Anthony Greno | Permalink | Comments (3) | Email This

How do YOU feel when you get a jury summons? Does your stomach go flippity-flop while your brain races trying to think of who you know at the courthouse who may be able to “fix” this for you and get you excused? Think again!

I just finished serving three days that ran the gamut of “kinda fun” to “Lord, get me outta here!” I was chosen as a juror for a criminal trial. I was elated to learn that none of the trials this week would be longer than four days. Hey, if they can wrap up a case in just an hour on “Boston Legal,” why can’t the US District Court in Las Vegas wrap up a case in less than a week? Made sense to me!

I think the collective jury pool breathed a collective sigh of relief upon learning that the three trials before us would each be wrapped up within four days – MAX. Okay, we’re trying hard to do our civic duty…SURELY four days won’t kill us. After a process that took approximately two hours, there we were: twelve jurors and two alternates, ready to make sure that justice would be served in the criminal case to which we were assigned.

Continue reading "Jury Duty 101" »

Posted July 3, 2006 11:56 AM by Robin Jay | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email This

Elvis Presley’s life-size bronze statue, which stood in the Las Vegas Hilton Hotel lobby for oh, so many years, is back in public view. First dedicated in 1978, the somewhat ungainly pose of Elvis, guitar slung over his shoulder and holding a microphone in his left hand, was re-dedicated June 21.

But it wasn’t inside the hotel. This time, Elvis the Pelvis has been kicked outdoors to a garden area, standing atop a pedestal with embedded spotlights. A new bronze plaque at the rock ‘n’ roll idol’s feet reads:

Continue reading "Elvis ‘The King’ statue returns to public view at the Las Vegas Hilton" »

Posted June 22, 2006 8:34 PM by Anthony Greno | Permalink | Comments (2) | Email This

“Etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. Head must not be higher than Mayor’s!”

That could be a line from a Las Vegas redux version of “The King and I,” the 1956 Rodgers and Hammerstein film musical hit starring Yul Brynner and Deborah Kerr.

As the Las Vegas Sun dutifully reported in its June 21 edition, “Mayor Goodman gets a gift fit for a king: With throne, he now has seat to match his ego.” Read story here.

Mayor Oscar’s new throne, which towers behind his City Hall desk, was the gift to the City of Las Vegas from the World Market Center furniture emporium earlier this month when Goodman and a group of visiting mayors attending the U.S. Conference of Mayors toured the center.

Continue reading "Mayor Oscar gets Bavarian throne replica for his Las Vegas City Hall office" »

Posted June 21, 2006 2:12 PM by Anthony Greno | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email This

Las Vegas bubbly will be on tap this summer. No, it’s not French champagne. It’s Las Vegas tap water brought to you by the Las Vegas Valley Water District.

The announcement came the other day in the U.S. mail on one of those pesky oversize post cards, yellow in color, 8½ inches wide by 5½ inches high. Part of the sparkling message reads:

“During the next few months, you may notice a change to your tap water’s clarity due to the presence of tiny air bubbles. The introduction of air, which tends to occur as groundwater wells are brought into service, can give the water a white or ‘cloudy’ appearance. It’s important to understand that this aesthetic change does not reduce the water’s quality from a health perspective, nor does it harm household plumbing systems. If you observe a glass of ‘cloudy’ water, you will notice that it begins to clear as the air bubbles rise to the top. Once the bubbles dissipate, the water should become clear.”

Continue reading "Murky water on tap for Las Vegans" »

Posted June 13, 2006 4:04 PM by Anthony Greno | Permalink | Comments (1) | Email This

I had an experience this week that I just have to write about, in the hopes of sparing our Blogging Vegas readers from ever having to go through a similar ordeal. Let me preface this “rant” by reminding you (and me!) that it’s not life-and-death. It’s just customer service. But isn’t great customer service one of the things that makes life so much sweeter? If you’ve ever had someone go out of their way to accommodate you, take extra special care of you or bend the rules a bit, however harmlessly, just for you, then you know how important getting great customer service can be. But if you encounter someone with a “tick-tock” mentality….someone who continues to recite the rules regardless of the circumstances….well, I liken them to the Nazi soldiers who said they were “just following orders.” Our society needs advanced free thinkers, innovators, and kind people who care about others. So, what is it that has me so riled?

Computer problems. But that’s not it. Computer problems are a lot like car trouble; if you’re going to have one, you’re going to have trouble. (Some people say the same is true for a spouse, but I’m in deep enough water without going there, too!) What I REALLY had was a CUSTOMER SERVICE problem.

My notebook crashed as I returned from a corporate training event I spoke at in Chicago. No one knows what the heck happened to my notebook, but by the time I got to the gate at O’Hare, the screen was solid white. Once home, I called the manufacturer who told me that my LCD was gone and that if I would send my notebook to them, they would be able to fix it for about $600 in about two weeks. I don’t know about you, but I would be out of business. This solution was not acceptable.

Continue reading "A Las Vegas computer store customer service nightmare" »

Posted May 9, 2006 2:50 PM by Robin Jay | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email This

Have you ever noticed how unpredictable Vegas roads are?

Ever been driving happily down the street when all of the sudden you’re forced several lanes to your left because your side of the street ahead hasn’t been finished?

It’s strange to me how Las Vegas municipalities require owners of property bordering roads to complete the sidewalk, curb and gutter infrastructure.

Wouldn’t you expect a city to take care of paving roads, adding curbs and lights, regardless of the adjacent landowners?

Perhaps that’s asking too much of our burgeoning valley’s municipalities.

So, drivers beware. Just as Las Vegas has mastered the façade for its tourists, it also keeps locals guessing on the real end of the road.

Posted April 14, 2006 1:58 PM by Pete Codella, APR | Permalink | Comments (1) | Email This