Vegas! or Las Vegas ? Which is your home? Vote here
Vegas! is a state of mind for most, and certainly to the casinos that anchor it. Las Vegas is the community that was here before legalizing gambling. The glitzy, more glamorous Vegas! is the country next door to the town of Las Vegas. The Strip is the center of Clark County and Fremont Street became the center of Las Vegas. In recent years, the Arts and Cultural circles have begun reclaiming the district around Fremont Street. With glacial and often failed movement towards restoration of its status as a proper downtown, with culture, took over a decade to grow. Initially, signs of ‘life’ in the depressed area outside the Fremont Street enclave at first opening up art galleries, boutique eateries and coffee/tea houses reopening stores
A personal note for me is a small anecdotal chapter in Las Vegas history. It is an example, to me, of the contrast of Vegas! and Las Vegas. Times have changed, and to some extent, the perceptions are shifting in casino management to see worth in endeavors outside gambling, evolving from none of their concern to somewhat their concern. My bias, of course, is abiding, due to personal awareness of encounters between the two populations. One in particular, hasn’t warranted much mention in local history tales.
In the 70’s a small zoo, the Las Vegas Valley Zoo, opened with fanfare and unceremoniously closed in five short years, marked by valiant works by locals. Located in Tule Springs, the Zoo was landed, opened and survived due to support from Mayor Oran Gragson and the City of Las Vegas, as well as a small and devoted following of locals. Some volunteers even succeeded in involving their own hobby organizations (Boy Scouts, etc), employee associations (Riviera Employees, Hacienda Employees) and church groups (all denominations) to donate services and cash. Volunteers kept the doors open for years, lobbying city and state for support. They appealed to Floyd Lamb, the legislature’s then Finance Committee Chairman, although never completing the handshake with the Zoo and the state.
Zoo staff, Board and volunteers diligently worked to expand financial support for a full-sized arid regions zoological park. When the city lost Mayor Gragson, the Zoo lost its staunchest, and truly pivotal support. In all attempts to interest the casinos et al, by then a driving force for Southern Nevada, no sparks could be fanned into support. Although common in those days, as they unilaterally ignored any enterprise that didn’t cause people to come to, and remain in, their properties, it was disheartening for locals.
Las Vegas had refocused, basically a support sector for the casinos, the original downtown withered. Vegas! reigned supreme. Torn between wanting success for something non-casino and acknowledgment of the casino block growing a population of casino service employees, locals did make attempts to get casinos involved outside their own boxes, largely meeting a mute indifference.
For many, being rebuffed by the casinos was difficult and spurred greater efforts. For me, it allowed a certain detachment to set in, which became motive for relocating to San Francisco. What a great place. I became ‘cosmopolitan.’ In the throes of a drought, the Bay Area was dry and dreamy, a cultural icon. Two years of fun in the sun, followed by two years of fun in the rain, when the drought broke. Wondering if it could rain forever, not able to see the horizon for the trees, I was fondly remembering wide, pastel desert landscapes, balmy evenings and stores open all night. I came home. Memories of why I left were now joined by new ones.
Las Vegas, in the 80’s was exploring a culture for herself, a community separate from the casinos, providing increasing numbers and varieties of diversions. Volunteerism was alive and well, busy in all sectors of cultural offerings. In the nineties some hearty souls pioneered a few of the abandoned sectors in the downtown districts surrounding Fremont Street. Initially, signs of ‘life’ in the depressed areas outside the Fremont Street enclave were art galleries, boutique eateries and coffee/tea houses, small stores reopening and closing, hi-rises built in a flurry of optimism. Businesses came and went, and yet a general revival was underway.
Ultimately, retirees and aficionados of the desert and sunshine lent their numbers to the region’s population, a large percentage without any affiliation to the gaming industry. These newbies wanted more, bits of what they had ‘back home’ and added their voices to the locals chorus wanting to see the community grow more cultural amenities. And finally, nearly fifty years later, Las Vegas is coming into her own.
Today, having seen the opening of the Smith Center, I join in the collective, self-satisfied glow of the cultural circles, having successfully added a cultural soul to the heart of Las Vegas, the new downtown. Long live Las Vegas.
So, Vegas! or Las Vegas, which do you call home ?
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