Good ol' Mantis, the fire-spewing fixture of Container Park in Downtown Las Vegas, has become a local mascot of sorts. Japan gets to have thousands of local mascots, after all, so why shouldn't we have some fun of our own here? Like our locals here in Vegas, the Mantis can be a wise-cracking oddball with a bit of a hot streak... in that, he actually spews real flames from his majestic antennae. Sometimes he'll sing, sometimes he'll play catchy tunes you might remember from yesteryear ("Who let the dogs out?! WHO?! WHO?!") before tooting out bursts of flame. He's been downtown for years now, greeting guests to the Container Park and scaring tourists with unexpected bursts of sound or flame all the while. Needless to say, I've grown a bit fond of the big beast. Since we live pretty close to his home base, we try to stop over and say hi every so often. He's a local legend, but don't be shy. As far as we're aware, he's never used those massive claws of his on anyone...yet.
Being in such close proximity to Fremont Street experience, you get a lot of the same traffic overflowing into the area. Some of it is fun, charming, goofiness... and some of it is blunt and to the point, like this guy. I've had homeless people in the area shoulder check me (walking across the street at the same light and he rammed my shoulder with his) and also had people shout compliments or insults in the same few blocks. With so many people, and a lot of them down and out, it's always going to be a medley and you never know what you're going to get. There's been a lot of gentrification and upward shifts in the demographicss of the area as Zappos brought in a lot of higher-paid tech and sales industry workers, and new expensive condominiums and apartments were built to accommodate them. Some of the residents have been priced out in the immediate downtown area, but if you go further east or north you'll still find some more affordable and questionably maintained living spaces and residences. There's a lot of empty businesses and buildings just a few blocks from the main hub of Fremont. Some have been painted over, to give a fresh and lively veneer to the urban decay occurring throughout the city. I highly recommend exploring more of Las Vegas than just the glossy, high-trafficked tourist areas so that you can get a more nuanced vision of what the city really is. There's a lot more here than just slots and casinos.
