Last week's class at the Springs Preserve was on Cultural Tourism. The basics are that when you go to Chattanooga, Atlanta, New York City, and many other towns, one of the first things you want to see is the historical base that made it a great city. Even in less historical cities, a new visitors guide will offer you all of the sights to see. If you go to travelnevada.com and click on cultural activities, and select Las Vegas, it gives you 4 options. Those are Chinatown Plaza, Reed Whipple Center, Springs Preserve, and the Summerlin Library. Most official Nevada tourism websites indicate Madame Tussauds as a top museum.
Las Vegas is on the brink of a downtown explosion. It's been in the works for many years and never caught on. Slowly but surely, many of the pieces of the puzzle are falling into place. More people are moving and living downtown. They need the basic infrastructure to support their daily life. The area behind the Plaza, all across the west side of the tracks is in the process of being developed. Fremont St East is not where it needs to be, although it has progressed since the days of when the cage was first built over the casinos. And there really is a cultural corridor. It starts at the neon boneyard and goes down the hill to the Mormon Fort. Funding has been secured to redevelop that area. First, they are going to redo the sidewalks, then the median of the street will be redeveloped and have at least 3 neon signs. So far, they have chosen the Silver Slipper and the big H that was in front of the Horseshoe. They are working on a pedestrian overpass that will not be an eye sore, and lit by neon at night. And there will be street banners hung from the light poles. Local developers seem to really like those banners.
One of the main questions of the night was how to get locals and tourists to visit the cultural aspects of Las Vegas without being in direct competition with the entertainment aspect of Las Vegas. We didn't get very far, but we tossed around some ideas that could be tried in better financial times. My point was that culture goes beyond the museums. There is cultural art, cultural music, cultural history and more, so the cultural corridor needs blend in rather than compete. One museum director said that she can call a press conference about a new exhibit, and the press just asks if there will be any fireworks, any implosions, or free food. So how can you increase awareness when the media isn't on board? Another hot topic was you can go to NYC and get on a subway with gangs and homeless people, but if you see a bum on Fremont St East, it taints the whole area.
It was a very fun evening. The next evening I went to Lynn Zooks book signing on her postcard book, followed by a discussion of Las Vegas history and postcards from 1905-1965. It's a great book with enhanced black and white photos of postcards and a short paragraph for each that tell a fairly accurate story of the true Las Vegas history. There's not a lot of strip pictures, nothing on the mob. Just stuff about how the town grew up.
One of the best stories that night was from a guy that helped Lynn with the book. His family came to Las Vegas in an old car with all of their belongings stacked 4 feet high on the back of the car. They were moving to California to seek the opportunity of a lifetime. He was just a little kid. His father was an electrician and refrigeration tech. In those days, both of those industries were in their infancy and considered high tech. As they pulled into a hotel/gas station one night where the big souvenir shop is today, their big stack of stuff on the back of the car caught and electric wire and pulled it out. The whole motel, gas station and street went dark. The owners of the hotel were in a panic. It was a friday evening and they couldn't get the town's electrician until Monday at the earliest, and he was always very busy. The guy's father found the breaker box, turned it off, repaired the wiring, turned it back on, and had everything back up and running in just a few minutes. People were amazed that he knew so much and made it look so easy. The guys father was the town hero for the weekend and got a job in Las Vegas and never made it to California.
I've said it before, but the real fun of these historical workshops and classes I go to is that the stories are told by people who were there and experienced everything first hand. It's not like the history books where you only read what the author got paid to publish. Sometimes the smallest detail can turn into a great discussion about something completely unrelated. I love it.
Next month we talk about architecture in Las Vegas with people involved in sign design, neon, and the mid century modern homes.
Previous Topic
Index