Day 1: Arrival

Whilst the attacks of September 11 2001 had worldwide repercussions in terms of airport security and immigration, it is apparent that the process is a lot more stringent in the U.S. While this may be scarcely surprising given the shock the destruction of the Twin Towers created, it is remarkable how wide-reaching and entrenched the response has become nearly 15 years later. The U.K., for example, does not require the provision of fingerprints as part of the entry process, and visitors certainly do not see several security staff with holstered guns prominently displayed at their hips patrolling the arrival area. As we waited to be processed, an immigration officer quickly spotted a woman using her phone, and directed his colleague to tell her to switch it off, a small illustration of the tension and nervousness that pervades America when it comes to the issue of terrorism. Things were not like this for those arriving at Ellis Island a century ago. The 'Land of the Free' is under threat.

The New York skyline as depicted is just one of the many examples of 'simulation' one can encounter on the Strip of Las Vegas. 

Escaping the port of entry, we travel in to Las Vegas, often characterized as a “postmodern” city, “one that is ever-changing and reinventing itself to new markets and cultural shifts” (Smith et al, 2002:1). We reach the heart of the city’s prosperity, “the Strip” or Las Vegas Boulevard, where the truth of this becomes abundantly clear. Passing the iconic Las Vegas sign, we are welcomed by Luxor’s Sphinx and Pyramid, quickly followed by a replica of the Statue of Liberty and a skyline mimicking that of New York. This is clearly the world of the imitation and the fake, everything out of context, which is unsurprising in a city reinvented by the Mob (McGowan, 2016), who loved 'glamour', whose essence is cheap and without substance. The gigantic replicas were not created to reflect the culture of their original locations in the middle of a desert, but rather to “create impressive simulations…that result in an even better experience than the original” (Smith et al., 2002:2). No one comes here for aesthetic purposes, so there is only a need to lay the thinnest of veneers across the reality of money, to briefly entice visitors and ultimately encourage bravado in the casinos. The essential purpose of Las Vegas, or to be more specific, the Strip, is to distract and console those who must inevitably lose. The whole experience is deliberately unreal and unconvincing, given that most of the buildings are for the most part modern in nature and retain little character of the past. There is always a need to “build again, and build bigger” (McGowan, 2016) on the profits to be made from 'suckers'. But they need to be made to feel important.

McGowan, P. (2016) Why Las Vegas is the Ultimate American City. The Conversation. Available at: https://theconversation.com/why-las-vegas-is-the-ultimate-american-city-54370 [Accessed May 14, 2016]

Smith, R., and Bugni, V. (2002) Architectural sociology and post-modern architectural forms. AIA Connections. Available at: http://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1003&context=sociology_pubs [Accessed May 14, 2016]

Day 2: The Strip

With it not being uncommon for people to spend their entire stay in Las Vegas at one casino resort, it appears paramount that they try to cater to every need, to the point of installing a ceiling mimicking that of the sky, to offer an sensation of being outside. (At Caesars Palace)

Walking the streets of the Strip (which in itself is a very un-American experience because of the prevalence of cars) only serves to reinforce the notion that this is a city founded upon a belief in the worst aspects of American consumerism, the appeal to vanity, the notion that goods are a means to happiness. Indeed, even before entering any of the casino complexes, multiple neon signs and large scale advertising seek to encourage consumption, whilst the sidewalks are also filled to the brim with ways to spend, whether that be in the various shops, outdoor bars, or by taking photos with show girls/movie characters. The casinos themselves also seek to encourage and sustain this consumption through various means, whether that be by offering free bets and drinks to those gambling, or providing other amenities in the form of shopping and celebrity chef-sponsored restaurant dining.

In contrast to the glamour of the Strip, the presence of numerous homeless people on the streets (as well as the poor residential areas and half built complexes observed on Day One) offer a different perspective of the city, an environment still suffering from the effects of the financial crisis of 2008. Indeed, with lower income households in Las Vegas having “lower incomes in 2013 than they did in 2007” (Berube et al., 2015), and the people protesting to have the minimum wage raised, one might legitimately whether the American Dream, that is the notion of rags to riches, and of reward for hard work, is still alive in Las Vegas, or indeed whether it has ever been. This is somewhat ironic for a city, that outwardly is built on the premise of promising riches, and perhaps offer some insight into why income inequality has become such a salient topic in American politics today.

Berube, A., and Holmes N. (2015) Some cities are still more unequal than other – an update. Brookings Institution. Available at: http://www.brookings.edu/research/reports2/2015/03/city-inequality-berube-holmes [Accessed May 14, 2016]

Day 3: Red Rock Canyon

Writing on the rocks like this, are an common example of vandalism one can find in Red Rock Canyon.  

Red Rock Canyon, a National Conservation Area “located [just] 17 miles west of the Las Vegas Strip”, and managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) provides a different perspective on what constitutes the 'real' America; the “wilderness”. It has been argued that Americans seek to preserve the “wilderness” mainly because they perceive it as allowing them to momentarily and “recover the true selves we have lost to the corrupting influences of our artificial lives” (Cronon, 1996:16). Furthermore, the “wilderness” is also seen as offering a crucial link to America’s past, that is to the “American spirit” which helped shape American democracy (Cronon, 1996:13). There seems at last an element of reality in this, since after two days of the hustle and bustle of the Strip, our hike on the terrains of Red Rock Canyon offers a form of respite and relaxation. At the same time, though, there is clear evidence that this is not a purely natural environment. Even this area has been encroached upon. Under the BLM’s management and its principle of “multiple use and sustained yield of our nation’s resources” (Bureau of Land Management), the place has become a huge tourist attraction, resulting in the building of roads to facilitate access to the site. Moreover, Las Vegas’s exponential population growth in the past thirty years has resulted in the development of suburbs such as Summerlin, and the city’s expansion towards Red Rock Canyon also seems to point towards the prospect of further encroachment. This has in turn made preservation of the site difficult, as attested by evidence of vandalism. 

An image not associated with Las Vegas, Summerlin also represents an example of encroachment on Red Rock Canyon.  

Our drive back through Summerlin also serves to call into question the 'glamourous' image of the Strip that one has become accustomed to when thinking of Las Vegas. Summerlin is unflashy, underwhelming even, consisting of rows of plastered grey-colored houses, presumably built this way to blend into the desert and not disturb the landscape. Yet the willingness of the middle class to relocate here also suggests their desire to have access to the outdoors and the “wilderness”, rather than material possessions.  

Bureau of Land Management (n.d.) The Federal Land Policy and Management Act (FLPMA) of 1976: How the Stage was Set for BLM’s “Organic Act”. Available at: http://www.blm.gov/flpma/organic.htm [Accessed 14 May, 2016]

Cronon, W. (1996) The Trouble with Wilderness: Or, Getting Back to the Wrong Nature. Environmental History, 1, (1) 7-28. Available at: http://faculty.washington.edu/timbillo/Readings%20and%20documents/Wilderness/Cronon%20The%20trouble%20with%20Wilderness.pdf [Accessed 14 May, 2016]