“It was intriguing to me that you can have a valley of 2 million people spread around the suburbs without the logical counterpoint that you would typically find in large metropolitan markets, having a large urban core.” — MGM Mirage CEO Jim Murren, describing the genesis of CityCenter. It’s from an article on the metaresort that I’m in the process of writing … so if you don’t hear much from S&G over the next day or so, that’s why.
“It was intriguing to me that you can have a valley of 2 million people spread around the suburbs without the logical counterpoint that you would typically find in large metropolitan markets, having a large urban core.”
Because after all, there wasn’t any centerpoint to the city, no tourist corridor that essentially was the landmark and the center of the city region.
Any real city center that I’ve ever encountered springs up at a transit hub. After all, downtown Las Vegas started with a railroad station. If Las Vegas City Center, with it’s interesting density, is to succede in the long run (I think we all know the first few years will be very difficult) I think it’s going to have to have more of a public transit component that I’ve heard about so far. Transit has been a big disappointment of the \new\ Las Vegas, the monorail is a huge flop. Is there any hope for a real transit system in the area that would connect the south strip, the airport, \Downtown\ and North Las Vegas?
Might be easy to say that from all the way in Ohio, Jinx, but he’s basically right. For reasons political (Clark County holding so much land unincorporated to hog the Strip taxes to itself), cultural (transient population), and down-right bone headed (the most piss-poor urban planning ever seen by man, a government happy to hand developers the license to whatever they please), Vegas is a classical doughnut city.
Of course, it probably also hurts that Metro has never been able to get crime on Fremont under control past 6th or so, leaving Downtown as “a wretched hive of scum and villainy” that nobody wants any part of. But the city planning is a mess and there’s no cultural/social focus point.
And don’t point to the Strip, really, because the companies there haven’t shown an interest in being a stand-in for a town square. The Strip is more analogous to an industrial/manufacturing smokestack sector in any other city like, er, Cleaveland. You only go there if you have business to do (eg spending money), despite their marketing they really don’t want people hanging out for the sake of hanging out.
Mike_ch, I understand there’s not a typical urban core. However a couple points, just because metro hasn’t cleaned up downtown to act as one, doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist as a cultural point, there are plenty of cities with an arts section that has crime run rampant. And comparing the strip to an industrial center is fine, however then saying that City Center was built to satisfy the need for an urban core, seems a bit inane. Let’s also take into account, that while CC is a monstrosity, it’s boiled down to hotel rooms, condos, convention space, and shopping. Where’s the difference in what was already on the strip albeit in a shiny new form and marketed differently.
There are plenty of cities, that don’t necessarily execute on what they have, in regards to Cleveland, the industrial sector and most of their attemtped entertainment areas are on top of one another and positioned so people will finish conducting business and partake in the available district.