[Sparian]

Hello everyone. My name is Julian and my family and I will be moving to the Las Vegas area within the next several months. We will be moving from Fairfax County, Virginia, to Summerlin.

When I heard this news, I was slightly excited, I have visited Las Vegas before on vacation; although only The Strip. I really enjoyed it, but what is the rest of Las Vegas like?

Unfortunately, I have read several dozen negative comments on other websites illustrating at how repugnant the city truly is. These comments disturb me, but the ones that bother me the most are the ones concerning crime. I have heard that a multitude of trashy individuals choose to make Las Vegas their home, especially ethnic gangs arriving from Los Angeles. What exactly is occurring? Also, what are the local authorities doing to halt this influx?

Another concern of mine is the Clark County school system; I have also read that the schools are awful. I'm currently in high school at the moment, I go to Langley High School in McLean, which was ranked 50th in the nation last year, therefore I do have high expectations. I'm not sure whether I will be attending public or private school, but the matter remains on my mind.

So, for those who live in Las Vegas, do you like it? Is it as worse as many people say?

Thank you.

[olecapt]

There are roughly 100 cities of above 200,000 in the US. With respect to crime Metro Las Vegas is approximately the middle city. Henderson NV is second or so. Summerlin is a very similar community to Henderson except you cannot seperate it from the metro statistics.

We have a more substantial hispanic populaton than most of the east coast. This tends to lead to certain xenophobic fears upon the part of some of our citizens. As a practical matter we are in the middle of the distribution even though the nature of our major industry creates huge numbers of visitors in party mode. We certainly do have gangs. But no more than similar cities and less than many.

The regular high school in Las Vegas are pretty hetergeneous. All have a mix of students. I doubt any of the regular high schools come up to the level of your school in Langley. However ATech, a magnet school and a couple of the private schools probably exceed it.

And welcome. It is an interesting place to live. You will shortly hear from our local teenager...who can fill you in even better...take it away LVwildkid...

[RedWingsFan]

I left Las Vegas after living there almost 10 years. One of the big reasons was because I didn't want to raise my kids there. I don't think it's a good place to raise kids. And I spent a couple of years subbing in the school district, going to middle and high schools all over the valley. The schools are awful. It's one of the worst school districts in the country.

Gangs are a big problem in Las Vegas. It's something that Metro has been battling hard for years but they aren't making much ground on it.

The school district is a majority minority school district, it has more minorities going to school in that district than white people (if that matters to you). Lots of spanish speaking students, lots of classes that are filled with hispanics and the classes are taught in spanish.

If you are moving there I'd highly recommend staying in a good area like Green Valley.

And ... take everything on these message boards with a grain of salt. Everyone has an opinion... remember they are all opinions and you may end up not agreeing with any of them. Just listen to them, take them into account, but learn from your own experiences in the end.

[Buzz123]

Julian, you are right. There have been a lot of negative remarks made here and I’m as guilty as anyone. Although most of my remarks have been to help people find the best parts of town to live it must sound really bad when it isn’t. It’s only natural you’d want to know what Las Vegas is really like. The truth is there is probably no better city in the country to live than Las Vegas. Yes, we do have some areas that are getting old and run down, and there isn’t the tendency here, like there is in the east, to renovate. That’s probably because up to now there hasn’t been any need to since there is so much new to chose from and so much open land to build on. Older parts of town mean lower rent which can attract a bad element. People don’t tend to live forever in the same neighborhood all their lives here where it’s easy to move up to a better home. The neighborhood ties that you find in older eastern cities don’t really exist here. You’ll find a huge cultural difference here from McLean, VA…almost, but not quite, like being in a different country in some ways.

I was born and raised in the east, not far from you, in West Virginia. As I became more accustomed to life in Nevada I noticed one important difference, and that difference is what has been bringing approximately 7,000 people a month to Las Vegas in particular and Nevada in general. Nevadans are not anal about telling other people how to live. In fact it is known as a live and let live state. In West Virginia I learned growing up that everything is bad for you, and that people need to be controlled and regulated. That kind of thinking is what has developed over 400 years of over crowded eastern cities. It just isn’t true and my biggest fear is that it will happen here as the population gets bigger. In fact I have been seeing signs of it for many years now. But the truth is people thrive when left alone and not tightly controlled by oppressive laws and suppressive people.

Nevada is the 7th largest state in the country; 110,000 square miles of mostly wide open unpopulated areas of beautiful mountains and desert, where you can go to lose yourself and not see even a sign of another human being if you want. Our mountains make the beautiful Blue Ridge look like ant hills. Our desert goes on forever with no fences to keep you out. 87% of our state is unfenced public land. I’m sure you’ll enjoy hiking Mt. Charleston which is the most prominent feature of the Las Vegas Valley. It is 11,982 feet high, and once you get up there the view is breathtaking. And to me, that is what Las Vegas is all about. Not the Strip or the beautiful new homes, or the Starbucks on every corner, but the desert surroundings and the mountains.

Las Vegas is central to some of the most beautiful and interesting and exciting places in the United States. A relatively short and beautiful drive up to Southern Utah puts you in several National Parks like Zion, Bryce, Capital Reef, Cedar Breaks, and the north rim of the Grand Canyon. A few miles out of town is Lake Mead, the largest manmade lake in the western hemisphere, where you can pretty much water ski and fish year round. Go across Hoover Dam, one of the seven engineering wonders of the world, and drive a few hours to the south rim of the Grand Canyon, the most beautiful, and awe-inspiring natural wonder in the world. Drive south for a few hours and you are in Los Angeles, the largest city in the country, and filled with all kinds of fun things to do. You can go to Disneyland every weekend if you want. In any direction you choose to go from Las Vegas, or even by staying in town, you’ll find things that most people in the east never dream of, or at least have only seen in western movies.

A very good friend of mine, who has passed away, was a man named Forrest Duke, who wrote an entertainment column for the local newspaper, as well as for Weekly Variety, the show business newspaper. Forrest always referred to Las Vegas a TBCOTA…The Best City of Them All. Even though he might not recognize it today with its nearly two million people, I know he’d still call it that if he were here.

[dude66]

I moved here about 3 months ago from Los Angeles. I live in Summerlin now and have had no problems or negative experiences as described on this board.

It's all about location. If you live in Summerlin, chances are you'll like Vegas. Outside of that area (and a few other nice pockets), Vegas can indeed feel scummy.

Prepare to love the color brown. That's all you get out here: desert brown. The land is brown, the mountains are brown, even most of the houses are brown (well, tan to be sure). Soak up all that east coast greenery, because you ain't going to see a single speck of it out here.

[lvkewlkid]

Olecapt, I have really nothing to say in response to the original poster, the original post never interested me, so I never responded (the beauty of these forums is that you can respond to anything you feel like responding to), maybe if someone brings something interesting, I will respond...

[lvkewlkid]

Originally Posted by dude66

I moved here about 3 months ago from Los Angeles. I live in Summerlin now and have had no problems or negative experiences as described on this board.

It's all about location. If you live in Summerlin, chances are you'll like Vegas. Outside of that area (and a few other nice pockets), Vegas can indeed feel scummy.

Prepare to love the color brown. That's all you get out here: desert brown. The land is brown, the mountains are brown, even most of the houses are brown (well, tan to be sure). Soak up all that east coast greenery, because you ain't going to see a single speck of it out here.

I don't particularly like Summerlin, its not extremely close to the Strip, isn't close to any major mall, but I do like how it is near plenty of movie theaters and restaurants...Outside of Summerlin, Vegas doesn't look scummy, it just looks like average people live there...Inside of Summerlin, it seems too perfect, boring, not urban, nothing in Summerlin really draws me, except for the Smiths at Rampart and Lake Mead (because of the K Experience)...

[Buzz123]

lvkewlkid, when Summerlin was first being built my wife and I looked at homes to buy there and decided we weren't the Summerlin type. It was like you said, too plastic, too perrfect, and too "Stepford" like. I hope you know what that means. We didn't want to live the way someone else expected us to live. Anyway, now we are sorry we didn't buy there because it turned out to be the best place in town for a real estate investment. It will be a long time before Summerlin is allowed to get seedy like other areas of town seem to get almost overnight. Neighborhoods go to he** way too fast here. I think it's because too many people don't have pride of ownership.

[dude66]

Originally Posted by lvkewlkid

I don't particularly like Summerlin, its not extremely close to the Strip, isn't close to any major mall, but I do like how it is near plenty of movie theaters and restaurants...Outside of Summerlin, Vegas doesn't look scummy, it just looks like average people live there...Inside of Summerlin, it seems too perfect, boring, not urban, nothing in Summerlin really draws me, except for the Smiths at Rampart and Lake Mead (because of the K Experience)...

I won't disagree with your point, Summerlin is a bit too "perfect" at times, but in Vegas I'm happy to have it. I've driven through other neighborhoods out here where there's obviously no planning at all, no zoning, just a random mish-mash of homes and industry and frankly, it gives East L.A. a run for its money in the yuck factor. At least Summerlin takes some care with landscaping -- medians actually have trees, homes do not abut right up against major boulevards, there aren't these eyesores of open dirt fields with trash in them everywhere, and you don't have a ton of autobody shops or industrial businesses nearby. Traffic is also MUCH lighter and the mountains are closer.

So when all is said and done, I'll happily stay in my Summerlin "cocoon".

[Sparian]

Thanks you very much for all of your replies, whatever the outcome, I'm sure I'll find my place in Las Vegas. I have seen pictures of the house in Summerlin, and I thought it looked nice. It's newer construction, but isn't akin to the other tract houses around. It's located on a golf course, but I have heard it is often too hot to play golf (I don't play anyways, but my father does).