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The Fuglification of the Las Vegas Strip

Discussion in 'Misc. Vegas Chat' started by Funkhouser, Sep 18, 2014.

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  1. Breeze147

    Breeze147 Button Man

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    Why has The Strip morphed into what it now is?

    First thing is, the opinion of old timers like me matters not. (See my earlier post). Most of us are living in the past, thinking that the Rat Pack is still going strong and Bugsy Siegel is still alive, that the Mob is still running things at that's the way we like it.

    Those days are over, as surely as Frank will never sing another note. The people who run the show now are 20 - 30 years younger than us and more in touch with what the real people with money to spend are spending it on.

    All of the things that I don't like just don't matter. They are building the high end retail, the over-the-top rooms, the extravagant clubs for the younger rich and wannabe rich. They don't want the old farts like me sitting at $5 Blackjack tables pissing and moaning over the rules, because 99% of the other people, the one's with the money, don't give a shit about the rules.

    They want the whiz, bang and zing. They want to sit around fake Craps tables and bounce the dice on a trampoline. They really don't care about the gambling at all, unless, video game like, they see lots of colors and electronic music.

    They want the most expensive of every thing. Don't get into an argument with one of them because they will show you their Rolex and tell you that makes them better than you.

    It's all different. The ease and simplicity of obtaining designer narcotics is one factor. (Don't kid yourselves) The need to feed an ego trip is another. The ease with which sex is obtained and given away is yet another.

    See, The Strip used to be a Fantasy world, where the real stars partied. Now, everyone is a star in their own mind. Some steroid addled dope who knocks another steroid addled dope silly inside a cage, just like the gladiators, is the hero and star.

    And Fremont is going the same way. At least it's still funky enough to keep the nouveau riche away.

    It's called Evolution. Either jump on the bus or throw yourself under it.
     
  2. ruralhipster

    ruralhipster High-Roller

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    Unfortunately the strip lacks enough individual ownership to allow for pet ego projects like pyramids and big towers anymore. I think we are seeing a return to the development of the strip as it was done in the 60's or 70's. Instead of a property knocking down whats there and starting from scratch we will probably see more of this piecemeal construction for the foreseeable future. The difference was the properties involved in the 70's were less developed so tacking on a new convention center or hotel tower didn't feel that intrusive. These new projects that feel like they are impinging on the last remaining public spaces on the strip.

    Great cities are often defined by their "grandiose" architecture, public spaces, and thoroughfares. Get rid of the ridiculous resorts (often paying tribute to other famous city icons), make Las Vegas Boulevard unnavigable to pedestrians or cars, get rid of the fountains and volcanoes and really you've got Altantic City sitting in a desert and who wants that.
     
  3. leo21

    leo21 VIP Whale

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    There are no visionaries left. Everyone is playing follow the leader and it's the blind leading the blind. Also, I assume they are doing tons of market research but it doesn't seem like they talk to the right cross section of folks. They seem to be out to please a narrow demographic even though they know that they have to hit more than one bucket.

    As for the retrofits, I get it. You can't do a new project for less than $1B and that is going to require rooms that need to have an ADR of $200+ per night. I don't think the strip can support that anymore. But that doesn't mean you retrofit the hotel to look like every other hotel. Some of these would be more successful if they doubled down on their original concepts.
     
  4. shokhead

    shokhead No big spender unless eating drinking having fun!

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    They are out to please the young new money and this is what they want. I'm a little surprised that so many think Vegas doesn't know what they are doing. What they do I don't always like but I get I'm not their key target!
     
  5. smartone

    smartone VIP Whale

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    With all due respect... why do so many older people always say that? I know you're not alone Leo, so I'm not pickin' on you.... many others articulate a similar sentiment here and elsewhere. It's usually followed by how much better things were "back in the day" Today's cars are better, faster, safer and more economical to run. Computers... do you think I could have envisioned running my office from a lounge chair, with access to e-mail, text, opening documents, spreadsheets from a handheld device that fits in my pocket. I could go on and on, but my point is illustrated... it's just NOT accurate to say, "there're no visionaries left!" It's NOT true!!! You can certainly make the case you don't like what's being done, but please stop with the constant belittling of today's up and coming generations. I'm 56 and I think those behind me have a better feel for and are educated better to tackle the future than we were. When did it become "fashionable" NOT to root for the next generation?
     
  6. shokhead

    shokhead No big spender unless eating drinking having fun!

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    I'm 60 something.:beer:
    I liked Vegas when I got paid in real silver dollars and doesn't that sound great! NO! Who wants 40 silver dollars in their pocket.
    I like it when it was simple or another word might be a little boring. Vegas changes, always have, always will and it mostly has to do with money.
     
  7. ken2v

    ken2v This Space For Rent

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    Every generation of Vegas fanatics has said the newfangled iteration will lead to the ghost-townification of Vegas.
     
  8. shokhead

    shokhead No big spender unless eating drinking having fun!

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    Yep! So many said Vegas would close when it went family friendly.
     
  9. carolineno

    carolineno VIP Whale

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    Well maybe it will be a good thing in the end. For us old farts, the clubifacation and glass facades of the strip may push us back to downtown and to the off strip places, thus breathing new life into them, maybe even creating new destination neighborhoods. :) You can never discount how much people want to escape the Northeast in Winter, at any cost!!!
     
    Ladies getaway, somewhere on the strip with a pool :)
  10. shokhead

    shokhead No big spender unless eating drinking having fun!

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    If you don't think DT will do the same then your fooling yourself.. They may wait and see a bit but they will change.
     
  11. leo21

    leo21 VIP Whale

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    It's not the new generation making planning decisions. All those corporate suite aren't millennials. They are middle aged like us and they are planning based on what a middle aged person thinks a young one would want. I say that there are no visionaries because too many things are derivative of something else. All the hotels and restaurants are based on something else did in LA, NY or Miami. One hotel adds retail and now everyone else does it too. When's the last time there was something original (and good!) out of Vegas that other parts of the country wanted to emulate? Cosmo is the closest thing and it's such a financial boondoggle that you don't know whether to copy it or not. Maybe if it were actual millennials making some decisions we would be wowed again. I wasn't trying to bash the kids, just the short sighted suit mentality behind decisions right now.
     
  12. ken2v

    ken2v This Space For Rent

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    Two things come to my limited mind.

    First, no one ever has emulated Vegas. What, why and how? Hotels and building are buildings and hotels, Vegas just happens to have legalized gambling in its renditions, and on a scale that does render it rare in this land. They're still just structures. I'm not sure what LA or South Beach would want to bring back from Vegas? Everything is imported to Vegas, as well. Everything.

    As for food, VMBers -- general population, good numbers are just the opposite -- don't really care whether the food concepts were brought in from outside or genesised out of the Mojave. They want familiar, fast and cheap. Now Vegas does have a rather impressive local food scene, but the problem there is the average tourist, again, isn't going to let go of the edge of the pool. For many it is not easy or practical to get out to Summerlin or the foothills of Henderson. And why would they when Tony Roma's is right over there? And of course there is the slice of the demographic that is wowed by sizzle, be it by a Guy Fieri or a Guy Savoy. I guess you can fault the corporate suits for not doing reaching out in a more organic way. Then again, those bazillion dollar palaces ain't cheap so the rent ain't cheap.
     
  13. Jameezy

    Jameezy RIP Riviera

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    Honestly always loved the theme hotels in Vegas. They really give vegas that disney world for adults feel. Now I'm not saying vegas is going in the wrong direction with these new upscale resorts and shopping malls.Just saying I would have preferred more theme hotels being built. I do understand that Vegas wants to go in a different direction though.
     
  14. shokhead

    shokhead No big spender unless eating drinking having fun!

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    They follow the money.
     
  15. ken2v

    ken2v This Space For Rent

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    Indeed, but at some point, invariably, the Nth outfit following the money -- a.k.a. doing the same damn thing as everyone else -- will fail. A wave only goes on so long. So innovation will start again. But that innovation, that different thing, can be that guy who decides not to be Nth, that he wants to be first.

    I think what a lot of people are saying, and I agree with them, is there is ample room in Vegas for someone, some corporation, not to just follow along as just another of the sheep. That's what leo has been saying. McD is not the only way to do the quick-food biz.
     
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