Vegas: Cloudy Afternoon Downtown

The city of Las Vegas, and all of its varied constituent parts are a rapidly growing and evolving organism where the only predictable constant, as is true throughout much of life, is change itself. With the impending relocation of the Raiders football team and the boon to the local population that's bringing, along with years of work from Zappos Head Tony Hsieh to re-invest in Downtown Las Vegas, the area has grown to be particularly visibly affected in comparison to some of its other neighbors. It's not at all unusual to drive past an empty lot, its only contents a ramshackle accumulation of belongings and detritus that vaguely resemble a campsite and actual shrapnel of garbage littering the area only to see the next lot is a shiny new micro-apartment complex. A typical commute to work for the past couple of years sees us driving along Maryland Parkway, which feeds into the University district- which is it's own traditionally rough-around-the-edges neighborhood as well. They've changed a lot since I was younger, of course, like all things in Vegas, but it's gained some momentum in recent years. Rent prices are starting to go up, as our house prices in general, which is only natural I suppose after that epic bust we had back in the early 2000's, when contractors were in such a rush to build up new developments and make that money while it was hot that scores of homes went up that, to this day, have yet to have occupants. Strange, this, the prevalence of empty lots and spray-paint spackled buildings with boarded up windows, as land and real-estate prices soar again. 

This view is familiar, a daily sort of commute, for now. We've watched it ebb and change over a previous couple of years as we went from one job to the next, one shift after the other... in this way, much like growing up, the changes seemed small and almost imperceptible to us. This post is to conserve the way things were, because soon we won't be tracing this old familiar route on a daily and by the time we make our way back to this old stretch of road it will invariably look quite different than it does at this moment in time. Curious to see how it evolves, but for now, here's how it was. 

Vegas: Downtown night shoot

 Downtown Las Vegas and Fremont are symbiotic areas, in ready walking distance from one another but still somewhat disparate entities. The farther you get from the casinos on Fremont street, the thinner the tourist crowds become- sometimes literally given that the Heart Attack Grill on Fremont street actively advertises to the larger crowd with advertisements encouraging you to "gain all the weight you ever wanted" and free food for people over 350 pounds. The Heart Attack grill greets you at the corner of Las Vegas Boulevard and Fremont- meanwhile, a couple streets over in what is dubbed "Fremont East" or Downtown you'll find vegan restaurants, sushi, small hipster bars and juice bars a plenty.  There are still plenty of hotels, motels and hostels on either side of the coin though again, the farther you get from the casinos and telescreen of Fremont Street experience the more different (and run down) it may feel. It's a bit of a patchwork of old and new as Zappos moved into the area and started investing into it there have been pockets of luxury apartments and shiny new murals and shops catering to their tribe. 

While the area was the original Vegas strip it had cascaded into near oblivion with the newer casinos farther south...a lot of money has been poured into rejuvenating it over the past few decades and it's brought a lot more life into it while trying to maintain the charms of it's original state- things like 99 cent shrimp cocktails and cheap surf and turf compete with bikini-clad dancing DJs and a zipline that sends shouting thrill seekers overhead in a parade of butts or bellies.  

There's always something going on downtown, and we live relatively close to the area as a whole so we've enjoyed going out for a stroll or bike ride with our friends or visitors. On this evening our good pall Ceedro joined us in our jaunt, and it was a lot of fun. We even found the Ghostbusters's sweet ride! This post will cover the photos I took downtown while tomorrow's will focus on the actual Fremont Street Experience. Enjoy!