[Tiger Beer]

I find the Strip to be safe (so many tourists, etc.).. and if you are FAR AWAY from the Strip, you would be safe (but nowhere to walk to).

BUT..if you are looking to live NEAR the STRIP...then you WON'T want to be walking around at 1am. Just off the strip, it gets really dicey. My girlfriend use to live near the Hard Rock Cafe and would try to walk home from work where she worked at a casino. I would encourage her to get a ride home, other times I'd walk up and get her. There WERE always people hanging around the gas station and all kinds of people propositioning any girl they would see (including my girlfriend who still had her work clothes on). In addition, while drunk tourists are fine, there are lots of shady people lingering around as well looking for 'an opportunity' which means someone in a vulnerable position - such as someone who doesn't have a car and trying to walk home at 1am.

Lots of the bus stops often have homeless drunks asking for a $1 or $2...so waiting around for buses iin those situations isn't fun. Drunks are in Vegas near and around the Strip pretty much all times of the day and night.

Personally, if you want to find safe places in Vegas, you have to be RIGHT ON THE STRIP (which means you'd have to be in a hotel, no local housing there)...or you have to be far far away from the Strip (which means nothing around you would be walkable, and you'd have no reason to be out at 1am).

My take on it anyways...

[aqualung8705]

Spotted dick? Isn't that what Michael Jackson has?

Feel lucky that our young friend isn't from Scotland, and bringing a haggis with him.

[Zohren]

LOL!

Hey man, even though I haven't eaten Spotted Dick in like, 10 years, it's actually quite tasty!

Saying that, I'd rather a tub of Mango Haagen-Dazs Ice Cream any day of the week! :P

Anyway, Tiger; thanks very much for the heads-up on that, and that's kind of how I imagined it to be. I'm not a big guy - I'm pretty darn skinny in fact, so I don't really want people coming up to me if I'm walking home late trying to hassle me.

As I said, I do plan on getting a car ASAP after I learn to drive, so my stay near the strip would be very temporary (No longer than 3 to 6 months.) but my current situation just doesn't really allow me to do anything else. I'm gonna try and learn to drive before I leave, in which case I can just avoid having to live in a rougher neighborhood at all, and go straight to a better one and get a car.

Thanks so much for the advice people, it's a huge help to me.

Just for the record, what are the best areas to live that are further out, but also reasonably priced? I've heard Summerlin is very nice, but also quite pricey, so where else is good? I think I've also heard Henderson (Or something like that) mentioned once or twice.

Thanks everyone!

[dynimagelv]

Better wait til you get here to learn to drive....remember....we're on the OTHERside of the road

[Zohren]

Haha, I'm sure I'd be able to adapt!

[LouB]

Hi Zohren.
I'm a Brit and I moved to Vegas last year. I would seriously think long and hard about moving to Vegas.
You will need a lot of money to get yourself set up over here. I went through about $15,000 in the first 6 weeks. Has your mother got a recent credit history for the US. If not you will have to pay large deposits to get utilities set up and will have to stick to PAYG mobile phones. It may also hamper you getting a decent apartment.
Groceries over here are about the same price as the UK, some things are more expensive as they have to be shipped in....and remember this is a tourist city, so it attracts tourist prices.
Having said that I'm loving my Vegas life! I don't miss the cold and rain at all!

[Zohren]

Originally Posted by LouB

Hi Zohren.
I'm a Brit and I moved to Vegas last year. I would seriously think long and hard about moving to Vegas.
You will need a lot of money to get yourself set up over here. I went through about $15,000 in the first 6 weeks. Has your mother got a recent credit history for the US. If not you will have to pay large deposits to get utilities set up and will have to stick to PAYG mobile phones. It may also hamper you getting a decent apartment.
Groceries over here are about the same price as the UK, some things are more expensive as they have to be shipped in....and remember this is a tourist city, so it attracts tourist prices.
Having said that I'm loving my Vegas life! I don't miss the cold and rain at all!

My mom has 6 years of credit history in the USA, and I have some myself aswell, although unfortunately that's gonna be.... pretty screwed up now. (Long story. Had a credit card, had a job, took a holiday WITH permission from the job to visit my grandmother here in London, came back, LOST the job, couldn't afford to pay off the holiday. Moved to England without paying it... Yeah, that's gonna haunt me when I move back)

Anyway, living in London, I'm used to ENGLISH Tourist prices, which I'm sure are still much higher than LV tourist prices, and I absolutely HATE the cold and rain. I don't mind using a Pay as you Go phone for the first few months until I'm settled in. My mother and I are both very good at moving/living on a budget, as we managed it two times now, first when we moved to Atlanta, and then I did when I moved back to London... Don't know how, but we do! XD

I'd love to say that online poker would be able to fund it, but I just (re)started up a week ago with the $20 I could spare, and it's nowhere near enough to live off of yet! Haha... Still, I've made profit on that $20 and it might actually be a reasonable figure by the time I move! Here's to hoping it helps!

[tonrob]

Originally Posted by dynimagelv

I am curious....how does a person in Mass become an expert on las Vegas crime?????? watching COPS??????

Enough with the half-baked sarcasm. I didn't claim to be an expert on Las Vegas crime. I listed a source - if you think it's wrong that's fine.

It's just a little peculiar to hear that someone who wants to leave London partly due to crime levels thinks that Las Vegas is the answer. Out of the frying pan and into the fire?

[tonrob]

Originally Posted by olecapt

Sportcrime is nuts. London crime rate overall is aboubt 2.5X Las Vegas. Not a lot bigger either. London has some of the same problems as Vegas. A large visitor population which does not appear in the crime population. London is likely worse as it has a vast commuter population.

Ok - what other sources of crime stats do you recomemend? It sounds like from what you're saying there are better ones so I'm happy to learn.

It also might be interesting to look at what geographical area different sites cover. When I looked up populations of the two cities (both happened to be based on 2006 figures) London was just over 7 million and Las Vegas just over half a million, which is a fairly huge difference.

In reality I suppose it all pales into insignificance as it depends on what neighborhood you live in and where you travel. I lived in London for three years I never witnessed a single crime agaisnt the person first-hand and none of my friends who still live there have ever had any trouble. Maybe we were all lucky, as it's obvious that crime does happen more often in certain areas.

[olecapt]

Originally Posted by tonrob

Ok - what other sources of crime stats do you recomemend? It sounds like from what you're saying there are better ones so I'm happy to learn.

It also might be interesting to look at what geographical area different sites cover. When I looked up populations of the two cities (both happened to be based on 2006 figures) London was just over 7 million and Las Vegas just over half a million, which is a fairly huge difference.

In reality I suppose it all pales into insignificance as it depends on what neighborhood you live in and where you travel. I lived in London for three years I never witnessed a single crime agaisnt the person first-hand and none of my friends who still live there have ever had any trouble. Maybe we were all lucky, as it's obvious that crime does happen more often in certain areas.

City of London? Or "London"? City of Las Vegas? or "Las Vegas"?

Both are compound places with many entities. London is far bigger than Las Vegas...but Las Vegas is actually a well contained metropolis of two million people. The strip for instance is not in the City of Las Vegas. But it is in "Las Vegas".

The metro police dept has a reasonable site from neighborhood crime.

That represents about 1.3 million people and most of the tourists in "Las Vegas". There are still another 700,000 people who are not in Metros jurisdiction.

I have spent a total of perhaps 6 months of my life in London. I never experienced a thing interestiing. Then again I stayed in Mayfair or the good northern suburbs and seldom ventured about the more colorful areas. My sister lives on the high street in one of the snobby northern burbs and never has a problem. The only thing they ever worry about is burglary...a crime that occurs much more in England than in the states.