Quote Originally Posted by apwiz View Post
Vegas is affordable by California standards. Coming from the East Coast, I was shocked how expensive Vegas is and what houses cost even in crap ghetto looking neighborhoods I would not want to walk on foot.

I am involved in gambling, but being surrounded by desperate degens is just depressing. It is depressing pulling up to a gas station to see homeless people scrounging together a dollar so that they put it in the slot machine inside. The city is just depressing overall, poor people everywhere, homeless encampments and druggies just a short walk away from the Strip. Vegas is largely composed of poorly educated people with not much going for them. It's a service industry town. I am talking about pre-Covid "good times"...

The strip itself is OK, but terribly overpriced for what it is. For a similar price tag, you get better entertainment here in NYC... and better restaurants, more variety, more everything.

On the positive side, I think the desert scenery is quite amazing. Great national parks and hiking/camping/etc opportunities. This could be a great spot to pursue outdoorsy hobbies, from gun stuff to atvs to dirt bikes to mountain biking etc... The weather is great; I would much rather endure the heat than freezing, cold, windy nyc days.

Also, Vegas is isolated to some extent, but the airport has great routes, including international routes that are competitively priced.
Pretty much agree with all of this. NYC is superior to Vegas for restaurants and entertainment, but it's on the other side of the country, and it has its own downsides (the weather being just one).

You described the depressing element pretty well. It really would get to me after awhile. I'd have to leave town and spend a little time away from all that, or it would start to really affect me. I was never really able to get numb to all of that stuff, and it seemed to be right in my face wherever I went.

sonatine mentioned the traffic. Definitely a factor, too, and it doesn't get mentioned much. I didn't bother mentioning it because I've dealt with it so long in LA, the Vegas traffic just seemed like the norm. But yeah, it sucks, even if you learn how to avoid driving on the strip by sticking to the various back routes and service roads.

I still feel that Vegas as a single dude and Vegas as a family man are two very different things. The former is far better.