Las Vegas has its share of not only interesting but off-the-wall lifestyles.
The anything-goes, freewheeling concept is unique and weird at the same time. Hunter Thompson’s fascinating book “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” chronicled the strange and almost mind-boggling way of life.
Thompson portrayed a city where the sober and sane are out of place. People racing motor homes in off-road races and human beings stoned for days at a time fit well in Las Vegas.
What’s normal in Vegas is unwelcome elsewhere.
Bars are open all hours and slot machines are in virtually every convenience store on every corner of the city. The 24-hour lifestyle literally kills people, and morticians await the next stiff like traffic cops awaiting another accident.
Driving the streets of this city has become tantamount to dodging land mines. Aggressive drivers hyped-up on mind-altering drugs or alcohol make Las Vegas an around-the-clock demolition derby. The most frightening day of a parent’s life is the day his or her son or daughter starts driving.
The “What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas” marketing campaign utilized in television commercials portray a side of life where there are no laws or morality. Billboards commonly show scantily-clad women.
Las Vegas is a town of heathens and disbelievers, a place where know-it-alls are a dime-a-dozen.
To anyone with values, Las Vegas makes no sense -- or at least that’s the way it seems.
People with big ideas attempt to rebound in the city of second chance. They are many times carrying baggage, hurt feelings and credit problems which many times lead collection agencies to their front doors.
It’s a place where winners become losers and losers become winners.
Las Vegas is a city with an abundance of jobs, but a great percentage of them pay minimum wage salary.
You can make a living here, so much so that this may be called the “City of the Golden Handcuffs.”
Once you’re here, it‘s easy to get stuck. There are no day trips in Southern Nevada because it takes a day to get somewhere else.
It’s an addictive atmosphere where during the boom times, 6,000 a month arrived, 3,000 a month left. With Las Vegas now rated No. 1 in the nation for foreclosures and unemployment (more than 14 percent more now), the population is now in decline and so are the tax revenues.
It’s the city of swinging doors so much so that neighbors seldom know one another.
If you’re interested in living three feet from your neighbor in a three-story house once priced at $300,000 stacked on top of a garage that is a few feet from the street, become a Las Vegan.
While the health care industry is undoubtedly improving in Las Vegas, there was a time when the sick headed for McCarran International Airport for a trip to a Scripps, Mayo or UCLA medical centers.
If it’s gangs you admire, head for the tattoo parlor and become one of them. If you like being a part of a city rated first in teen pregnancy and near the bottom in education or health care, you’ll love this place.
When it comes to graduation rates, 80.4 percent graduate from high school on a national basis, while 78.5 percent graduate in Las Vegas.
On a national basis, 25.2 percent of people 25 and older have a bachelor’s degree. In Las Vegas, 18.2 percent of those 25 and older have a bachelor’s degree.
Bring your big ideas because Vegas welcomes people who think this place is easy. Big shots hit town in a Cadillac and leave in the back of a Greyhound.
Las Vegas Review-Journal Sports Editor Joe Hawk once warned a new resident and high-ranking executive, “You’re a nice guy. But just remember, this town turns nice guys into jerks.”
He couldn’t have said it better.
Just remember not to let the door hit you when you leave.
The weather is unbearable in the summer. Development has created heat-absorbing stucco and cement so temperatures many times don’t drop below 100 degrees until well past midnight. Air conditioners run so long that power bills drive people into the poor house.
But while Las Vegas has no hurricanes and it snows once a decade, it has virtually no change of seasons. In fact, Vegas has the most boring climate and weather of any city in the country.
In the words of KSNV TV-3 weatherman Kevin Janison, “It’s pretty much the same all the time.”
In fact, being a weatherman in Las Vegas could be the most boring job of all. If you can predict clear skies and windy conditions, you’ll be right most of the time.
And if you can add a prediction of wind into your forecast, you’re a superstar. Hell, there’s nothing to it.
Through all of this, though, Las Vegas is also a city of spiritual believers. In the past, Las Vegas has been touted the city for having more churches than any other city in the country.
Pastors and priests move here to open churches, perform marriages, care for the sick or counsel the weak. They have 24-hour calling cards so they can save marriages and save lives 24/7.
And for God’s sakes, why would any man or woman who carries a deep religious belief want to move to Las Vegas?
Religion and Las Vegas just don’t seem to mesh.
But they do – even in a place many refer to as “the gates of hell.”
When everything caves in, it’s the priests, pastors and rabbis who provide the faith and keep the dignity. They’re the ones who never rest, because there’s always some poor soul who needs a kind word or a prayer.
One minute, you’re a hero. The next minute, you’re a zero. You need help, and Southern Nevadan’s church leaders are there to pick you up by the bootstraps.
On one side is the evil, the devil taunting you to overindulge in alcohol, gambling and the rest of the Devil’s Den.
On the other side is a city of believers, people who would sincerely do anything for you.
