[MtnDude]

Had a question for LV residents. I'm considering moving to LV from So.Cal possibly a little later on. I was in LV this weekend and struck up a conversation with a resident that I had met. She told me that she has lived there for 11 yrs and hates it. I told her that I was thinking about relocating and she tried to talk me out of it.

She said:

1. LV is just one big transient towns and people come and go like pairs of socks and don't actually get to become real aquainted with anyone.

2. Most families that move there only reside there for about a year and then split.

3. She said that crime is beyond soaring everywhere and it's the grand theft auto capital of the U.S

4. She said terrible place to raise kids because the schools are terrible and now matter how far you live away from the Casino's whole Ora presence is still there.

When she told me all of that I kinda scratched my head and realized yes this is the reality that she see's and not me, but with 1 persons opinion I can't condemn the whole area....What are your thoughts and input on it?

[AA702]

We've already talked about this subject many times. Some people just hate Las Vegas, some people love it. There are many people here who love to live here and all the negative things about the city is overblown. There are many positives to counter that..Its basically just like any southwestern city.. I guarantee if you ask that same question from 100 people, you are going to get a more diverse answer. I suggest checking it out for yourself and see if it fits you or not.

[MtnDude]

Of course i will check it out myself, but needed some general input....Now is the list of things I mentioned true at all?

[LIS123]

You should definitely search for old threads on this topic, which has come up many times. You'll receive many peoples' opinions.

I've never lived in LV, but have heard that 1 and 2 are true but not to the extent that the person you spoke with said. It is considered a somewhat transient town, but the data don't confirm that it is as transient as people say (or think).

Three: I think LV has relatively lower violent crime than many other cities. You can check with Clark county or Metro (the Police Dept) to check. My take is that, in Vegas, you might be a bit less likely to fall victim to violent crime than other major cities. But, you're probably a bit more likely to be the victim of a scam or rip off than in other places.

Four: I have heard that Clark Country has bad schools, but there are some that are certainly better than others. The 'sin' part of LV is hard to eliminate totally, but you can minimize it by limiting your time on the Strip and in certain activities (gambling, etc.) I have heard many parents on these forums who have been very happy with their LV experience, even as it relates to their children and their progress in school. Good parents are likely to get good results.

[uncle_el]

Originally Posted by MtnDude

Of course i will check it out myself, but needed some general input....Now is the list of things I mentioned true at all?

what might be true for one person may be true for some people... doesn't make it true for everybody.

i've lived here for 6 months and like it. unless something crazy happens, i don't see myself moving anytime soon.

1. i guess it could be true. there are a group of people who were born and raised in vegas... and the rest moved here. i suppose that could be true in a lot of cities. many people i meet are not from here.

2. i'm single, and thus don't hang out with a lot of families.

3. a lot of people say crime is high. but they say that in every city i've lived in (new orleans, atlanta, la). i've never felt unsafe anywhere in vegas. of course that's not necessarily meaningful. i do know 2 people who were victims of petty crime- purse stolen from a car, and a debit card stolen.

4. i don't have kids. casinos are everywhere here. but there are casinos in a lot of other cities as well, they're just not as obvious/open with it. with that said, i think there's a lot more to raising your kids then being worried about the things that are around. but what do i know?

as has been stated, there are plenty of threads rehashing the same thing. there are people who like it and live here. there are people that like it, but move. there are people that don't like it, yet stay. there are people that don't like it, and move.
the only group that really concerns me is the people that don't liike it, but stay. like the lady you talked to. lived here 11 years, but hates it. some sort of circumstance(s) keeping her here from which she can't remove herself. probably not the type of person i'd want any type of advice from.

[Meeshee]

1. & 2. I would agree that it is a transient town, however, there are many people who choose to stay. It is a little hard to meet people but it comes with time, as I would assume most places would be like that. You usually meet people through work and school. I have been here for almost 4 years and have made some really great friends. Only 1 of which has moved away due to the military.

3. Crime is everywhere. I don't think it is worse here than any other place. As long as you steer clear of the bad neighborhoods then I think you will be fine. So far neither of my cars have been stolen ::knocking on wood::

4. I wouldn't say that it's the worst place to raise kids... I would prefer to raise my kids here than a place like Compton or even the neighborhood I grew up in in Seattle, however the schools are not the greatest (from what I have heard, my kids are still in preschool). We are zoned for a brand new school so it shouldn't be too bad. I think that a child's education depends on both the school and the parental involvement. Many parents expect the school to teach their kids everything, however the parents need to help out with homework at home and be involved. We live 20 miles from the strip and seem to like it... We feel like we live in any other suburb. We may move eventually to somewhere more "family oriented" but that's not to say that Vegas is a bad place to live. We have enjoyed the last 4 years that we have spent here... minus the deflation of the housing market...

Good luck on your decision.... Remember, you can always try it, and if you don't like it, then move back to So Cal... You only live once!

[lexusman199]

You guys REEEEAAALLLYY scare me when y'all talk about all this. I mean crime!!! X-/

Not good.


Is there a lot of crime in the strip clubs?

[flyingtigers]

Originally Posted by lexusman199

Is there a lot of crime in the strip clubs?

Yes. Many, many dollar bills are being stolen at strip clubs all over Vegas everyday. You go in with 100 and come out with zero.

[Buzz123]

1. It isn't the easiest place to make a lot of close friends, but I'm told that's the case everywhere these days. Very sad, but you can blame institutions like public schools and the news media for that. I've lived here 44 years and have had many good friends. But things have changed, and like I said, it's everywhere. I mean, did you ever hear the term "play-date" for kids even ten years ago? Sad.
2. If most families move here and then leave in a year, why have we grown by 1½ million people in the last 20 years? If they left we wouldn't have grown at all. I've heard that one for 44 years too, but everyone I've ever seen leave came back within six months once the reality of how boring everyplace else is compared to Las Vegas. (Not to mention the bad weather you find every place but Las Vegas).
3. Knock on wood I have no personal experience with it, but I do understand there are a lot of cars stolen here. I believe the story is we're close to Mexico and that's where they end up. If that's true I think SoCal is probably worse. The only guy I know that had a car stolen was when he went to LA for something.
4. I didn't know casinos had an "aura" but that story started with the early Mormons when they discovered there were Indians here that didn't like their moving in on Indian territory. I raised my daughter and partially raised my son in Las Vegas. My daughter went to UNLV (and Cal State Fullerton) and became a school teacher. She doesn't like public schools period even though she will some day retire from CCSD. My granddaughter goes to a private school. I would hate to send a kid to any public school in any state, even a small town in the mid-west. I once sent my son to spend a summer in my small home town in West Virginia so he could get a taste of what small town values were like. Know what he learned? All about smoking grass. And I thought that since that was looked down on so strongly by everyone, even the kids, when I lived there, it would never happen in Clarksburg, WV. Wrong again. Drugs are everywhere, and IMO they are worse in small towns where there is nothing much to do. Here the kids grow up fast and aren't impressed by teen age rebellion all that much. They seem to be more world wise in Las Vegas.

The thing is though, we aren't begging anyone to move here. If we didn't have all this housing inventory now it would be the other way around.

[MtnDude]

All of this info helps out a lot. I guess it's like anywhere you go. You pick and choose on how you live your life and associate with. 1 thing I do like about NV , it's not so strict and militant like CA. Speaking of laws and regulations. CA makes a 20 different new laws and new taxes each year on how to screw people over out of money, on top of it being already tough to live affordably here. Doe's NV have the same same stupid law as CA, where you can't talk on your cell phone while you're driving and hands free wireless head set only?