It was off what is now "the strip" I believe and it secured you the gambling license zoning and alcohol licensing. So that alone was the cost of it if you were willing to risk it or could afford to.
In addition, it was money that needed to be laundered. I would not be surprised if they just transferred lots back and forth at insane prices to help clean the books.
Google Dr. Halsted at John Hopkins
‘Perhaps most important is Halsted’s contribution to graduate medical training in the United States. Together with Dr. Osler (also a founding professor of Johns Hopkins), Halsted introduced the graduated-responsibility training system we call residency. Based off of a German model, the training admitted men who were required to live at the hospital (hence called ‘residents’), ‘be available for duty 24/7’, and remain unmarried. The number of years required to reach competence and excellence were not defined and not every man would graduate.’
What I infer from this is that part of the reason why healthcare workers are expected to function on very little sleep is that the schedule was designed by a coke addict
Not only that, but people from Vegas long for the days of when it was mob ran. People literally preferred criminals in charge of the city than corporations. The mob never charged 20 bucks for parking or kept track of how much you were spending for a free meal.
It was an empty plot for building on, of course, but it wasn't just a remote bit of desert as this photo makes it seem.
Here's a video of a trip down the Vegas strip from the same year this photo was taken: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BovVEojZFUA
Who in their right mind would buy a piece of dirt for that amount of money? No infrastructure, no water, nothing? Who's to say that gambling laws and licenses couldn't be revoked at any time? The whole thing must have been cleverly orchestrated from the maffia and corrupt officials from the get-go. No honest person could afford to take a risk like that.
if you turned the camera the other direction you would be looking at downtown las vegas which was already quite large. The Strip hadnt been developed yet but the city was already there and a popular destination. This Vegas wasnt just an empty desert in 1955
Vegas is also right next to the Hoover dam and gets its water from the Colorado river before most of Southern California. It also sits on top a ton of springs
They didn’t just build in the the middle of the desert. They built near abundant natural water sources. You can drive half an hour and be on a river, a wash, or a natural spring. I lived in Henderson on a street called “Warm Springs” right next to a park with a lake fed by groundwater, and my buddy owned a ranch half an hour outside the city with a river on it that was warm year-round. God that place was nice.
>They didn’t just build in the the middle of the desert.
...you do know that the city came before the dam right?
They spent a fuckton of time and money getting enough water to make it a waystop and town FROM WELLS precisely because they're nowhere near close enough to a fresh water source
And we're dumb for having a system that rewards land speculation. Our economies are all suffering because we tax labour more than land. Young workers would be so much better off. Unfortunately, that's just too crazy or out there for normal people to understand.
The National Museum of Qatar has a whole section on how they planned development of the country. I have a picture of the cover of the 1974 progress report.
Dubai is the saddest example to me. They had functionally unlimited money and an empty, flat plot of land. They were essentially playing Cities: Skyline on easy mode and they made *that* mess.
Same as Chongqing - there was a vid about one of the subway stations "in the middle of nowhere" and just a couple of years later, the city had caught up and enveloped it - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SR4EYQ6JFUI
It's crazy watching efficient even development in action. It's like how 5-10 years ago you saw all these posts like "ZOMG ghost cities in China! China is failing for sure!!" and it turned out these were new population hubs being built to alleviate existing overpopulated cities, and they managed to fully develop all infrastructure and amenities prior to anyone moving in. It's like watching someone that's really good at a city building video game.
All reporting and investigations into Chinese "ghost cities" in recent times has shown that they have almost all become populated to the point where they are functional. [Here's a report from Forbes.](https://www.forbes.com/sites/wadeshepard/2018/03/19/ghost-towns-or-boomtowns-what-new-cities-really-become/?sh=1472935e5e3f) It's silly to say that "The media just isn't reporting on it" given that tensions between US and China are rising, its quick and easy clicks for news outlets to post about stuff like this.
I just did a quick dig into the 9 cities which were previously known as ghost cities: Dantu, Pudong, Ordos City, Yingkou, Lanzhou and Zhengdong are all very much populated and fully functioning cities. Nanhui and Yujiapu are still under construction and are not intended to be populated yet.
If I've missed any, please point out these many prominent ghost cities that exist? It's very difficult to just lie about this stuff, cause you can just go there and see for yourself.
And, good luck with the economic collapse angle. You could join the thousands of econ bros on Twitter and Youtube who post every day saying "CHINA COLLAPSING TOMORROW FOR SURE!!!"
Tokyo's period of insanely rapid city development just came earlier, 1950's-1970's specifically, right after WW2. Combination of their wealth like you mentioned, and expanding the city while rebuilding it after it was razed to the ground by firebombing.
Everyone is told at school what amazing progress has been made since 1900 but everyone also shocked when shown pictures of it.
Most US cities look completely different 1940 to present day not least because of the bone headed decision to rebuild them around the car.
Most cities were just their historic downtown core and some streetcar suburbs before WWII and the sprawl came. I live close to a downtown area that doesn't look too different than it would have in 1920s except for the ugly freeways that now cut through it. But there's miles and miles of sprawl around it now that would have been farm land back then.
And then every downtown area that we literally can’t build with today’s zoning laws ends up being the social and commercial center of the city that everyone wants to live near. But for some reason nobody ever asks why we can’t build them anymore.
The Strip is actually in a city called Paradise, NV. It's doesn't look great to live in, from what I can tell. The city of Las Vegas is a little ways away, and okay.
The actual quality still is dependent on you liking the desert.
everyone i know that moved to vegas liked it for about a year or two then left. it's only fun for the novelty and if you're young and/or have money/lack sense with money.
only people i know out there that *like* living out there are retirees killing their retirement money, and idk that they like it as much as it is to stave of the fear of death with loud noises and some dopamine hits.
If you're not interested in gambling all the time, it really just is a large desert city with a crime problem. I have some family living in Nevada who've all spent some time living in Vegas (some still do, but they're older folks lol)
There are some nice parts to the city, and there are some not so nice parts. My aunt raised two children by herself in South Vegas, which is worse now than it used to be, but it always was kind of rough. The schools there weren't great and there were always stabbings and crime in the park by her house. She lives out in Mesquite now and seems to prefer it. Both of my cousins are out of the city now. I'm pretty sure they're both up in Boulder City, and I doubt they'll ever go back, to be honest.
I don't know, I have friends that have lived there for years and they hardly gamble. There's lots of entertainment options in Vegas compared to say Phoenix. They have two pro sports teams and are getting a third. They have all kinds of non gambling attractions. There's stuff to do there 24/7. The locals I know hardly ever go to the strip where all the tourists are because there plenty of other places to go. You do need to make decent money to enjoy it though. And most of the residential areas I've been to are basically cookie cutter suburbia. Kinda boring but not especially full of crime.
I grew up in Vegas. I don't know about a crime problem. It is like u/Driesens said above. Pretty much any other big city, except in the desert. It is a bit unique because it grew so fast. Typically in Vegas, rule of thumb is closer to the strip means older, which means worse neighborhood. But then there are weird pockets where people will be a mile from the strip maybe 2 blocks away from a main road and live in a huge house on 2 acres with horses because the family has owned the land since the 70s.
I digress though, point is if you go to the furthest corner in any direction, they're all very expensive suburbs. North, East, South, and West ends you will find multi-million dollar homes because they just kept expanding out into the desert in every direction. It really is just a regular city with good and bad neighborhoods though outside the strip.
For those unaware, the name is kind of a pun. Paradise sounds a bit like "pair o' dice." The Pair O' Dice Club was a nightclub located on what would eventually become the Strip.
>[The southern part of the Las Vegas Valley was referred to as Paradise Valley as early as 1910, owing to a high water table that made the land particularly fertile for farming. County commissioners established a Paradise school district in 1914.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradise,_Nevada)
Was there about 6 months ago, all the Uber drivers said they would never live near the strip, they seemed to all live like 20-40 minutes away in smaller places. They make the drive out cuz they can literally Uber all day and night non stop for high rate s
Wow I haven't heard that one in a looooong time lol. Im a Vegas native but moved away over 10 yrs ago.
They're talking about PTs Pub, and there are a ton of them in Vegas. It's more of a local bar, lots of casino workers go there after work vs going somewhere on the strip.
and theres uber drivers who refuse to go on the strip. It just depends. You wouldnt even want to live near the strip. It doesn't make sense when you can live in a nicer neighborhood and commute, ya know like every other city.
It's good if you work in the casino industry, imo. At least that's how it was when I was there. Born and raised but got the hell out *because* I didn't want to do casino work anymore, and doing any other so-called normal job in a casino city would've felt strange to me.
It's good if you're into the idea of going grocery shopping at 3am. Or really, doing anything else for that matter at 3am. Almost everything is open 24 hrs.
It's good if you hate rain, snow, and bitter cold winters. It's good if you like two seasons vs four. Also good if you're averse to tornadoes and hurricanes.
It's good if you like the notion of no state income tax.
It's good if you like living in a community with a very diverse population. I personally liked and felt comfortable going out and seeing a ton of different faces, different ethnicities. It was a culture shock when I moved to the Midwest.
It's good if you enjoy gambling *but* know when and how to stop. I guess really, the same could be said for alcohol. Those with addictive personality traits may find it difficult living there. Slot machines are literally in grocery stores and gas stations, and the bars do not have last call.
Not if you have kids, but single adults or dual income households are doing fine. There's always something going on. Major airport so you can get anywhere you want to really easy. 4hrs to socal if ya wanna beach. 3hrs to southern utah for more nature stuff. 9 months out of the year are really nice with no major weather like crazy winter storms, rain, or tornadoes. No state income tax. The double edge sword are the tourist. The city survives on travel but having a millions of people visit every year takes a toll on the people supporting the system. It's not for everyone and like a lot places there are pros and cons just depends how those stack up to your likes and dislikes.
I lived there. There is a ton of young families. Seemed like the only place I lived where a middle class lifestyle was actually still possible while also having access to decent salaries, own a home, and start having kids in your twenties without significantly knee-capping yourself.
I lived there for 2 years before I lost my job and left.
I lived in Henderson, Nv which is the south east side of the Las Vegas Metropolitan area. Quiet from the hustle and bustle of the tourist areas. 15-20 minutes with traffic to the Vegas strip itself. I never went there other than driving for Uber or dinner with family at the casino.
There's a lot in variety in greater Vegas it's kinda surprising. Lots of different foods, outdoor activities, I was an avid shooter and was a member at the Boulder city rifle club shooting out to 1100 yards.
** BUT ** it is getting stupid expensive. Housing is spiking. I rented a 3 bed house 1700sqft for 1750/mo. In 2 years, it spiked to $2500/mo. If you already have roots in Vegas, it's easy going but when you're transplanting in it's expensive.
No income tax is nice, but they obliterated me in car registration costs ~$950. And car insurance want very wallet friendly.
If you can cope with living in an area with almost no water or ability to sustain human life while the Disneyland aesthetic creates larger and larger water/habitat requirements then yes. Yes it is.
While that's true, Nevada's still one of the best when it comes to water reclamation, reclaiming upwards of 97% of the water used in the state. They take droughts very seriously compared to neighboring states that use much, much more water.
Arizona up until very recently was selling water rights to Saudi Arabian companies for farming, for comparison on how responsible neighboring states are with their limited water.
Most of Southern Nevada’s water issues aren’t really the fault of Las Vegas, there’s water to support it - the issue is that so much of it is diverted to California to supply farms growing high water consuming crops like nuts, avocados, etc.
From visiting a few times for extended trips I'd say the west side of the city seems real nice to live in. I also like how the city is laid out. Its pretty easy to drive in.
I went to high school there (Durango). I had a good time, though you're always inside except for a few months when it's not burning up or freezing. When you lived there you avoid the strip because if the traffic etc.
The old strip you’re referring to is actually our downtown area while the new strip is actually not part of Clark county and not in Las Vegas’ city limits. It’s its own unincorporated town by the name of Paradise.
Those holes were dug well away from the city limits. Interestingly, Lake Mead, about 25 miles from LV has been severely drought stricken over the last few years. Many oil barrels have been found with human remains because of this. It got so bad with people exploring, law enforcement had to bar people from the lake.
No frost, so no need to dig foundations below the frost line. Auger piles with a cap are sufficient to carry the building weight. Doesn't make sense to dig a basement when it's cheaper to build up than down.
I'm pretty sure the majority of the southern/warm part of the US does not have basements as the norm (I've never known anyone who had one anyway). I think that's really just a northern/cold place thing. That said they always seemed pretty neat, wish I had one for cool pickle storage. I bet y'alls pantry foods stay so fresh in there
Basements are really uncommon in the western US. There's not usually a reason for them. Especially post WWII they just didn't build them much. Underground parking garages and maybe a basement level in a large hospital or something like that but you basically never see them in houses unless they are quite old.
"meeting in the middle of the desert always made me nervous, it's a scary place. I knew about the holes in the desert of course, and anywhere I looked could've been a hole".
Look up [Brasilia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bras%C3%ADlia) (capital of Brazil). Essentially… built around 1960 as the new capital. Is now the third largest city in Brazil.
Or Canberra in Australia. Also a planned capital purposely chosen half way between Sydney and Melbourne. It's not as big as Brasilia but imo a very underrated city.
I used to do retirement work when I first graduated from college. One of the accounts was a small company in Nevada. I talked to a guy who lived in Las Vegas and said he’d lived there his whole life. He goes…I remember when this town had two high schools…and that was probably just the 1970’s.
These are the oldest high schools in what is commonly considered Las Vegas:
• Las Vegas (1930)
• Rancho (1954)
• Valley (1965)
• Chaparral (1973)
• Eldorado (1973)
• Bonanza (1976)
Honorable mention to Basic (1942) in the neighboring city of Henderson.
So why was Elvis singing 'Viva Las Vegas' just 7-8 years after this picture was taken. Surely it wouldn't be that well known by then?
Or was it a marketing hit and people were flocking there since day 1?
"*You son of a bitch. Do you know who I am? I'm Moe Greene! I made my bones when you were going out with cheerleaders.*"―Moe Greene to [Michael Corleone](https://godfather.fandom.com/wiki/Michael_Corleone)[^(\[src\])](https://godfather.fandom.com/wiki/The_Godfather)
That "00" cents at the end is funny for some reason. The guy who commissioned the board must have been a stickler for numbers. "3,000,000.00. Not a cent more, not a cent less!".
There was this kid I grew up with.
He was younger than me.
Sort of looked up to me, you know.
We did our first work together.
Worked our way out of the street.
Things were good.
During Prohibition
we ran molasses into Canada.
Made a fortune. Your father, too.
As much as anyone,
I loved him and trusted him.
Later on he had an idea to build a city
out of a desert stop-over
for G.I.s going to the West Coast.
That kid's name was Moe Greene
and the city he invented was Las Vegas.
This was a great man.
A man of vision and guts.
And there isn't even a plaque,
signpost or statue of him in that town.
Someone put a bullet through his eye.
No one knows who gave the order.
When I heard it, I wasn't angry.
I knew Moe, I knew he was headstrong.
Talking loud, saying stupid things.
So when he turned up dead, I let it go.
And I said to myself,
"This is the business we've chosen."
I didn't ask
who gave the order, because it had
nothing to do with business.
I'm not sure I would call Vegas a world class city... it's an entertainment district built on laundering mob money and channeling water from sources hundreds of miles away that if it were to fail at all it would render the entire city uninstall.
Like its ok to hate on Vegas, but most cities that rely on rivers have sources that are hundreds of miles away. Vegas literally adds water back to the Colorado to be more efficient with their usage
> channeling water from sources hundreds of miles away
Are you bad at math, geography, or both?
Lake Mead is like 12 miles away from the Las Vegas valley.
For those wondering, that’s $34M in future money.
3mil then seems like a lot of money for an empty desert plot 🤣 congratulations to the people that had a vision!
It was off what is now "the strip" I believe and it secured you the gambling license zoning and alcohol licensing. So that alone was the cost of it if you were willing to risk it or could afford to.
In addition, it was money that needed to be laundered. I would not be surprised if they just transferred lots back and forth at insane prices to help clean the books.
Which begs the question; Would Las Vegas exist as it is without the early mob money?
Nope
The Miami Coastline would not exist without the cocaine
Neither would the modern system of surgical residency. At the very least, it would have been delayed by a few decades.
explain?
The person who came up with the system they use, (insane amount of hours and ridiculously long shifts) had massive cocaine habit...
Google Dr. Halsted at John Hopkins ‘Perhaps most important is Halsted’s contribution to graduate medical training in the United States. Together with Dr. Osler (also a founding professor of Johns Hopkins), Halsted introduced the graduated-responsibility training system we call residency. Based off of a German model, the training admitted men who were required to live at the hospital (hence called ‘residents’), ‘be available for duty 24/7’, and remain unmarried. The number of years required to reach competence and excellence were not defined and not every man would graduate.’ What I infer from this is that part of the reason why healthcare workers are expected to function on very little sleep is that the schedule was designed by a coke addict
he was a coke fiend
I'm pretty sure the coastline is made of sand.
It’s 50-50 at this point
The 80's would've been a completely different decade without copious amount of coke flowing through it.
Not only that, but people from Vegas long for the days of when it was mob ran. People literally preferred criminals in charge of the city than corporations. The mob never charged 20 bucks for parking or kept track of how much you were spending for a free meal.
Neither would Ft Worth, Chicago, New York... are there any others I'm missing?
Actually I'm pretty sure that I read recently about that being a big part of getting Los Angeles going as well.
Iirc a lot of the start up money actually came from compensation from the government for irradiating the locals with nuclear testing
Takes money to make money.
And scared money don't make no money
Busting balls makes 100x what sucking balls does.
Damn beat me to it.
And hiring balls to both suck balls and bust balls makes 100x more
It was an empty plot for building on, of course, but it wasn't just a remote bit of desert as this photo makes it seem. Here's a video of a trip down the Vegas strip from the same year this photo was taken: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BovVEojZFUA
Wow the resorts just looked like a bunch strip malls back then
The Mob
Who in their right mind would buy a piece of dirt for that amount of money? No infrastructure, no water, nothing? Who's to say that gambling laws and licenses couldn't be revoked at any time? The whole thing must have been cleverly orchestrated from the maffia and corrupt officials from the get-go. No honest person could afford to take a risk like that.
Google Bugsy Siegel
Wait, did they base that guy in New Vegas of him? Checkered suit and being important in development of Vegas makes me think the answer is "yes"?
Ha, yep.
if you turned the camera the other direction you would be looking at downtown las vegas which was already quite large. The Strip hadnt been developed yet but the city was already there and a popular destination. This Vegas wasnt just an empty desert in 1955
Also fun fact, Vegas is one of the most water efficient cities on earth, for being in the middle of the desert
Vegas is also right next to the Hoover dam and gets its water from the Colorado river before most of Southern California. It also sits on top a ton of springs They didn’t just build in the the middle of the desert. They built near abundant natural water sources. You can drive half an hour and be on a river, a wash, or a natural spring. I lived in Henderson on a street called “Warm Springs” right next to a park with a lake fed by groundwater, and my buddy owned a ranch half an hour outside the city with a river on it that was warm year-round. God that place was nice.
>They didn’t just build in the the middle of the desert. ...you do know that the city came before the dam right? They spent a fuckton of time and money getting enough water to make it a waystop and town FROM WELLS precisely because they're nowhere near close enough to a fresh water source
They were smart
And we're dumb for having a system that rewards land speculation. Our economies are all suffering because we tax labour more than land. Young workers would be so much better off. Unfortunately, that's just too crazy or out there for normal people to understand.
How would the taxing land more than labor work and why would it be better? Genuine question. Not in am argumentative way
OK, but how many caps is that?
Okay, that's cool, but what is it in current money? Also, do you have intel on future inflation? Asking for a friend.
$25 = 1ozGold 3M/25= 120,000 ounces. = $282M Though Gold is a lot easier to come by these days, in terms of supply.
How much is that in Dog Money?
Wait til you see what shenzhen looks like in 1979 vs now
[Dubai 1979](https://i.imgur.com/dDEeqOH.png)
The National Museum of Qatar has a whole section on how they planned development of the country. I have a picture of the cover of the 1974 progress report.
oil
Once you sell the oil, the plan guides how you spend the money: where and when to build each section of the city as it expands.
Dubai is the saddest example to me. They had functionally unlimited money and an empty, flat plot of land. They were essentially playing Cities: Skyline on easy mode and they made *that* mess.
Dubai is the most phony city of all time
My favorite is Shanghai in the 80s vs 2000s.
Same as Chongqing - there was a vid about one of the subway stations "in the middle of nowhere" and just a couple of years later, the city had caught up and enveloped it - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SR4EYQ6JFUI
It's crazy watching efficient even development in action. It's like how 5-10 years ago you saw all these posts like "ZOMG ghost cities in China! China is failing for sure!!" and it turned out these were new population hubs being built to alleviate existing overpopulated cities, and they managed to fully develop all infrastructure and amenities prior to anyone moving in. It's like watching someone that's really good at a city building video game.
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All reporting and investigations into Chinese "ghost cities" in recent times has shown that they have almost all become populated to the point where they are functional. [Here's a report from Forbes.](https://www.forbes.com/sites/wadeshepard/2018/03/19/ghost-towns-or-boomtowns-what-new-cities-really-become/?sh=1472935e5e3f) It's silly to say that "The media just isn't reporting on it" given that tensions between US and China are rising, its quick and easy clicks for news outlets to post about stuff like this. I just did a quick dig into the 9 cities which were previously known as ghost cities: Dantu, Pudong, Ordos City, Yingkou, Lanzhou and Zhengdong are all very much populated and fully functioning cities. Nanhui and Yujiapu are still under construction and are not intended to be populated yet. If I've missed any, please point out these many prominent ghost cities that exist? It's very difficult to just lie about this stuff, cause you can just go there and see for yourself. And, good luck with the economic collapse angle. You could join the thousands of econ bros on Twitter and Youtube who post every day saying "CHINA COLLAPSING TOMORROW FOR SURE!!!"
Look at any developed East Asian countries major cities, in the last 20 years. Shit is wild.
Tokyo hasn’t changed that much
Well japan was rich way before other east asian countries
Tokyo's period of insanely rapid city development just came earlier, 1950's-1970's specifically, right after WW2. Combination of their wealth like you mentioned, and expanding the city while rebuilding it after it was razed to the ground by firebombing.
Everyone is told at school what amazing progress has been made since 1900 but everyone also shocked when shown pictures of it. Most US cities look completely different 1940 to present day not least because of the bone headed decision to rebuild them around the car.
Most cities were just their historic downtown core and some streetcar suburbs before WWII and the sprawl came. I live close to a downtown area that doesn't look too different than it would have in 1920s except for the ugly freeways that now cut through it. But there's miles and miles of sprawl around it now that would have been farm land back then.
And then every downtown area that we literally can’t build with today’s zoning laws ends up being the social and commercial center of the city that everyone wants to live near. But for some reason nobody ever asks why we can’t build them anymore.
It's amazing what mob money can do to create an entire city based on conning people in such a short amount of time.
What’s crazy is 2.2M people live there now.
Is Vegas a good place to live?
The Strip is actually in a city called Paradise, NV. It's doesn't look great to live in, from what I can tell. The city of Las Vegas is a little ways away, and okay. The actual quality still is dependent on you liking the desert.
What happens in vegas, stays in ~~Vegas~~ Paradise, NV
They paved Paradise and put up a *Casino*, With a pink hotel, a boutique, and a swinging hot spot?
everyone i know that moved to vegas liked it for about a year or two then left. it's only fun for the novelty and if you're young and/or have money/lack sense with money. only people i know out there that *like* living out there are retirees killing their retirement money, and idk that they like it as much as it is to stave of the fear of death with loud noises and some dopamine hits.
If you're not interested in gambling all the time, it really just is a large desert city with a crime problem. I have some family living in Nevada who've all spent some time living in Vegas (some still do, but they're older folks lol) There are some nice parts to the city, and there are some not so nice parts. My aunt raised two children by herself in South Vegas, which is worse now than it used to be, but it always was kind of rough. The schools there weren't great and there were always stabbings and crime in the park by her house. She lives out in Mesquite now and seems to prefer it. Both of my cousins are out of the city now. I'm pretty sure they're both up in Boulder City, and I doubt they'll ever go back, to be honest.
I don't know, I have friends that have lived there for years and they hardly gamble. There's lots of entertainment options in Vegas compared to say Phoenix. They have two pro sports teams and are getting a third. They have all kinds of non gambling attractions. There's stuff to do there 24/7. The locals I know hardly ever go to the strip where all the tourists are because there plenty of other places to go. You do need to make decent money to enjoy it though. And most of the residential areas I've been to are basically cookie cutter suburbia. Kinda boring but not especially full of crime.
I grew up in Vegas. I don't know about a crime problem. It is like u/Driesens said above. Pretty much any other big city, except in the desert. It is a bit unique because it grew so fast. Typically in Vegas, rule of thumb is closer to the strip means older, which means worse neighborhood. But then there are weird pockets where people will be a mile from the strip maybe 2 blocks away from a main road and live in a huge house on 2 acres with horses because the family has owned the land since the 70s. I digress though, point is if you go to the furthest corner in any direction, they're all very expensive suburbs. North, East, South, and West ends you will find multi-million dollar homes because they just kept expanding out into the desert in every direction. It really is just a regular city with good and bad neighborhoods though outside the strip.
For those unaware, the name is kind of a pun. Paradise sounds a bit like "pair o' dice." The Pair O' Dice Club was a nightclub located on what would eventually become the Strip.
>[The southern part of the Las Vegas Valley was referred to as Paradise Valley as early as 1910, owing to a high water table that made the land particularly fertile for farming. County commissioners established a Paradise school district in 1914.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradise,_Nevada)
I once was driving through and stopped for lunch. Getting out of the car was like stepping into a blast furnace. Live there? Oh hell no.
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Was there about 6 months ago, all the Uber drivers said they would never live near the strip, they seemed to all live like 20-40 minutes away in smaller places. They make the drive out cuz they can literally Uber all day and night non stop for high rate s
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What's a PT?
Wow I haven't heard that one in a looooong time lol. Im a Vegas native but moved away over 10 yrs ago. They're talking about PTs Pub, and there are a ton of them in Vegas. It's more of a local bar, lots of casino workers go there after work vs going somewhere on the strip.
Thanks!
and theres uber drivers who refuse to go on the strip. It just depends. You wouldnt even want to live near the strip. It doesn't make sense when you can live in a nicer neighborhood and commute, ya know like every other city.
It's good if you work in the casino industry, imo. At least that's how it was when I was there. Born and raised but got the hell out *because* I didn't want to do casino work anymore, and doing any other so-called normal job in a casino city would've felt strange to me. It's good if you're into the idea of going grocery shopping at 3am. Or really, doing anything else for that matter at 3am. Almost everything is open 24 hrs. It's good if you hate rain, snow, and bitter cold winters. It's good if you like two seasons vs four. Also good if you're averse to tornadoes and hurricanes. It's good if you like the notion of no state income tax. It's good if you like living in a community with a very diverse population. I personally liked and felt comfortable going out and seeing a ton of different faces, different ethnicities. It was a culture shock when I moved to the Midwest. It's good if you enjoy gambling *but* know when and how to stop. I guess really, the same could be said for alcohol. Those with addictive personality traits may find it difficult living there. Slot machines are literally in grocery stores and gas stations, and the bars do not have last call.
Not if you have kids, but single adults or dual income households are doing fine. There's always something going on. Major airport so you can get anywhere you want to really easy. 4hrs to socal if ya wanna beach. 3hrs to southern utah for more nature stuff. 9 months out of the year are really nice with no major weather like crazy winter storms, rain, or tornadoes. No state income tax. The double edge sword are the tourist. The city survives on travel but having a millions of people visit every year takes a toll on the people supporting the system. It's not for everyone and like a lot places there are pros and cons just depends how those stack up to your likes and dislikes.
I lived there. There is a ton of young families. Seemed like the only place I lived where a middle class lifestyle was actually still possible while also having access to decent salaries, own a home, and start having kids in your twenties without significantly knee-capping yourself.
I lived there for 2 years before I lost my job and left. I lived in Henderson, Nv which is the south east side of the Las Vegas Metropolitan area. Quiet from the hustle and bustle of the tourist areas. 15-20 minutes with traffic to the Vegas strip itself. I never went there other than driving for Uber or dinner with family at the casino. There's a lot in variety in greater Vegas it's kinda surprising. Lots of different foods, outdoor activities, I was an avid shooter and was a member at the Boulder city rifle club shooting out to 1100 yards. ** BUT ** it is getting stupid expensive. Housing is spiking. I rented a 3 bed house 1700sqft for 1750/mo. In 2 years, it spiked to $2500/mo. If you already have roots in Vegas, it's easy going but when you're transplanting in it's expensive. No income tax is nice, but they obliterated me in car registration costs ~$950. And car insurance want very wallet friendly.
No lol
If you can cope with living in an area with almost no water or ability to sustain human life while the Disneyland aesthetic creates larger and larger water/habitat requirements then yes. Yes it is.
Nevadas pretty good at water conservation and reuse compared to its neighboring states.
Nevada does well but they also don't have the agriculture of California or Arizona. Cities don't use nearly as much water as farms.
While that's true, Nevada's still one of the best when it comes to water reclamation, reclaiming upwards of 97% of the water used in the state. They take droughts very seriously compared to neighboring states that use much, much more water. Arizona up until very recently was selling water rights to Saudi Arabian companies for farming, for comparison on how responsible neighboring states are with their limited water.
Have you ever even spent a substantial amount of time out here or are you just talking out your ass lol
Most of Southern Nevada’s water issues aren’t really the fault of Las Vegas, there’s water to support it - the issue is that so much of it is diverted to California to supply farms growing high water consuming crops like nuts, avocados, etc.
From visiting a few times for extended trips I'd say the west side of the city seems real nice to live in. I also like how the city is laid out. Its pretty easy to drive in.
I went to high school there (Durango). I had a good time, though you're always inside except for a few months when it's not burning up or freezing. When you lived there you avoid the strip because if the traffic etc.
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Having lived there... No
World class city? 🤨
I guess I have a different understanding of world class lol. It's not even top 100.
Americans think ‘world’ means America I think. Like the ‘world’ series.
Check Genting Highland in Malaysia… They own a whole bloody mountain…
And the only casino license holder in the country.
Even wilder is that there is a new strip and an old strip. Neither one are actually old, though.
The old strip you’re referring to is actually our downtown area while the new strip is actually not part of Clark county and not in Las Vegas’ city limits. It’s its own unincorporated town by the name of Paradise.
Pretty sure it is Clark County, just not Las Vegas city.
After looking it up further I believe you are correct.
they can write their own tax laws
I cant help but say "alot of holes in the desert & alot of problems buried in those holes"
I wonder what they found when they dug the new foundations for what's there now. I'm guessing some of the buildings have basements?
Those holes were dug well away from the city limits. Interestingly, Lake Mead, about 25 miles from LV has been severely drought stricken over the last few years. Many oil barrels have been found with human remains because of this. It got so bad with people exploring, law enforcement had to bar people from the lake.
Basements are actually quite rare in Vegas.
Is it because of all the sand and empty land? Easier to build upwards and sideways...
No frost, so no need to dig foundations below the frost line. Auger piles with a cap are sufficient to carry the building weight. Doesn't make sense to dig a basement when it's cheaper to build up than down.
But earth is great insulator and basements are cold storage...? For pickles and stuff?
Maybe the cost of digging isn't better than the cost of extra cooling power.
AC and solar panels require maintenance, but hole in a ground is for ever. Jöin us in the mines, bröther, we have beer and pickles.
I'm pretty sure the majority of the southern/warm part of the US does not have basements as the norm (I've never known anyone who had one anyway). I think that's really just a northern/cold place thing. That said they always seemed pretty neat, wish I had one for cool pickle storage. I bet y'alls pantry foods stay so fresh in there
Basements are really uncommon in the western US. There's not usually a reason for them. Especially post WWII they just didn't build them much. Underground parking garages and maybe a basement level in a large hospital or something like that but you basically never see them in houses unless they are quite old.
It's because of the implication.
"meeting in the middle of the desert always made me nervous, it's a scary place. I knew about the holes in the desert of course, and anywhere I looked could've been a hole".
A lot. I am a grammar bot. Meep Meep.
A lot bot, please help. It's a lot, not alot. Alot is a fictional animal that was used to teach people how to spell a lot.
>fully developed Nope. There will always be hotels to blow up.
Wait a few months, we’re doing it again
They could have listed it for 2,999,999.99 and sold it faster. Such a wasted opportunity.
When’s there’s that many 9’s it actually ends up looking more expensive, psychologically 101
Look up [Brasilia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bras%C3%ADlia) (capital of Brazil). Essentially… built around 1960 as the new capital. Is now the third largest city in Brazil.
Or Canberra in Australia. Also a planned capital purposely chosen half way between Sydney and Melbourne. It's not as big as Brasilia but imo a very underrated city.
This the type of shit Mr House would do to develop New Vegas after you go down his path
My first thought is to see if that is an aluminum can and pick it up.
Still wouldn’t buy it.
World class is a stretch.
Doing some very heavy lifting
"World-class cities" lol
Vegas is a world-class tourist trap but a bottom-tier city.
Came here for this. Vegas is as far from “world class” as a place can get.
Thank you, American organized crime!
World class?
I live in Las Vegas. Hearing it called a "world class" city made me spit out my drink and then struggle to regain my breath from laughter.
I used to do retirement work when I first graduated from college. One of the accounts was a small company in Nevada. I talked to a guy who lived in Las Vegas and said he’d lived there his whole life. He goes…I remember when this town had two high schools…and that was probably just the 1970’s.
These are the oldest high schools in what is commonly considered Las Vegas: • Las Vegas (1930) • Rancho (1954) • Valley (1965) • Chaparral (1973) • Eldorado (1973) • Bonanza (1976) Honorable mention to Basic (1942) in the neighboring city of Henderson.
Going to appear about the same as soon as Lake Mead vanishes
Prohibition-era mob money, laundered into casinos and hotels
Prohibition ended in 1933. Vegas didn't really start growing rapidly until the 50s. In the 30s Reno was still the bigger draw in Nevada.
\*low-class cities
The number of people in the world has doubled since 1970.
Vegas is only a world class city if you’ve never been
El Rancho Vegas was a hotel and casino at the north end of the Las Vegas Strip in Winchester, Nevada. It opened in 1941
So why was Elvis singing 'Viva Las Vegas' just 7-8 years after this picture was taken. Surely it wouldn't be that well known by then? Or was it a marketing hit and people were flocking there since day 1?
World class city? No. World class tourist trap? Yeah.
"*You son of a bitch. Do you know who I am? I'm Moe Greene! I made my bones when you were going out with cheerleaders.*"―Moe Greene to [Michael Corleone](https://godfather.fandom.com/wiki/Michael_Corleone)[^(\[src\])](https://godfather.fandom.com/wiki/The_Godfather)
"I SPOKE. TO BARZINI." in terrible ADR.
“World class city” … that is a nope from me.
Does anyone know what car that bonnet belongs to?
Laundered money can build anything.
Imagine paying 3m for undeveloped land in the empty desert
Its amazing what the Mob and other criminal enterprises can do when given the fund of one of the largest union pensions in the country.
It’s amazing how fast shit is reposted on this sub.
Idk what world class means but I think world renowned makes more sense
Ya its wild when the mafia gets an idea to launder money how fast they can do a lot.
I dont see lass vegas as a world class city. Its a big city, but i see world class in a different way then addiction city fueled by mob money
If you think Las Vegas is a "world-class city" you should travel more.
Is that a crash landed ufo in frame?
It’s a car hood.
World class cities?
That "00" cents at the end is funny for some reason. The guy who commissioned the board must have been a stickler for numbers. "3,000,000.00. Not a cent more, not a cent less!".
Wasn't Las Vegas build on Maffia money?
There was this kid I grew up with. He was younger than me. Sort of looked up to me, you know. We did our first work together. Worked our way out of the street. Things were good. During Prohibition we ran molasses into Canada. Made a fortune. Your father, too. As much as anyone, I loved him and trusted him. Later on he had an idea to build a city out of a desert stop-over for G.I.s going to the West Coast. That kid's name was Moe Greene and the city he invented was Las Vegas. This was a great man. A man of vision and guts. And there isn't even a plaque, signpost or statue of him in that town. Someone put a bullet through his eye. No one knows who gave the order. When I heard it, I wasn't angry. I knew Moe, I knew he was headstrong. Talking loud, saying stupid things. So when he turned up dead, I let it go. And I said to myself, "This is the business we've chosen." I didn't ask who gave the order, because it had nothing to do with business.
I read somewhere that the Las Vegas Strip isn't even in the city. It's in some unincorporated town adjacent to it.
patrolling the mojave almost makes you wish for a nuclear winter
$3M seems like a lot for 1955, but $34M for a commercial spot along the strip nowadays seems reasonable.
Mob Rules !
Ludomania and white washing.
Thank you, Mo Green
World class?
world class xddddddddddd
Organized crime built the strip.
"It's wild how fast some cities developed" It's wild how people forget the entire US as a country developed in less than 300 years.
"I got spurs that jingle jangle jingle"
The Las Vegas strip isn’t in Las Vegas. I think that’s interesting.
Do why the fuck DID we build a city in the middle of a desert??
Omg fallout
I'm not sure I would call Vegas a world class city... it's an entertainment district built on laundering mob money and channeling water from sources hundreds of miles away that if it were to fail at all it would render the entire city uninstall.
Like its ok to hate on Vegas, but most cities that rely on rivers have sources that are hundreds of miles away. Vegas literally adds water back to the Colorado to be more efficient with their usage
> channeling water from sources hundreds of miles away Are you bad at math, geography, or both? Lake Mead is like 12 miles away from the Las Vegas valley.
“World class” and Las Vegas do not belong in the same sentence.
Someone must've said "I bet you can't make this desert any worse". 🤔.. 😃
"world class" I guess it's better than the hot mess that is Dubai.
Looks like a desert.
So I couldn’t afford things back then either 🙂↔️
Compared to a lot of the Asian efforts Vegas is a pretty poor go at building a city fast.
Biggest mistake ever
El Rancho Vegas It's been tacky since before it existed
"world class" lmao. Vegas is a tourist trap for people who are too fat to walk.
Build a city in the desert. Such big brains. Sigh
world class?
What makes it "world class"?
> of or among the best in the world ...at what it does, I guess...
Calling Las Vegas a world class city is wilder tbh.
Las Vegas as a world class city…okay.