The Strip IS for locals

By Joe Brown

Thursday, Jan. 14, 2010 | 12:49 p.m.

I used to live in Washington, D.C., and then in San Francisco. And like many residents of those much-traveled-to towns, I pretty much steered clear of the places tourists came in droves to see: The Mall, the Smithsonian museums, the monuments, the Golden Gate Bridge, Fisherman's Wharf.

That was dumb. I moved away, and I could kick myself now.

Last week, the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA) announced that nearly 30 million people visited the Las Vegas Strip last year.

Do they know something we don't?

Directly or indirectly, the Strip is important to most of us for our livelihood. Vegas is like any other company town — even Xanadu fades and becomes the mundane backdrop of life and work.

Lots of us locals have come to see the Strip as a gigantic cubicle farm.

It's easy to lose sight of what everyone else comes here for. We can't see the artificial forest for the fake trees.

As Vegas locals, we're proud of never having set foot in Circus Circus, or anyplace tainted by the phrase "where the tourists go." We brush purposefully and contemptuously past herds of out-of-towners wandering aimlessly (and slowly), or waiting bovinely in buffet lines.

Like residents of all tourist towns, we disdain the tourists for wanting a picturesque, theme-park experience. Maybe we particularly scorn them because that experience is our most important industry.

And yet every tourist we see is someone whose idea of a well-spent vacation was not to stay on a beach and read — but to come to Las Vegas.

Tourists are people, too. They naturally would rather not be "tourists," as we would rather not be tourists when we go to other cities.

And tourists have their own misconceptions of us: We all live in mega-hotels. We all walk around with drinks strapped to our necks. We all moonlight as delivered-to-your-room hookers.

We want your kidneys.

Don't skip the Strip!

The LVCVA constantly monitors the attitudes and behavior of visitors, but until recently there was little, if any, hard information on Clark County residents and how they use the Strip.

So in 2008, LVCVA commissioned a survey of 1,200 residents (a new study is due to be released later this year) which, among other things, reported that only 16 percent of locals prefer to gamble at the Strip corridor — the Strip was beaten by Boulder Strip/Green Valley (19 percent) and Summerlin (18 percent). Nearly one-half said they avoided the Strip because of crowds, tourists, traffic and parking difficulty; 21 percent said other places were just more convenient. Five percent said they just plain old don't like the Strip.

These findings are probably more surprising to people who don't live here. The rest of us take it for granted.

In an online poll, Las Vegas Weekly asked locals how often they visit the Strip for something other than work.

Some 32 percent of the more than 400 respondents told us they visit the Strip only when visitors are in town; 23 percent said "almost never."

"I have skipped events just because they were located on the Strip," commented Calvin Paniagua on the Weekly's Facebook page. "I am not attending the amateur MMA fights tomorrow because they are at the Rivera instead of their usual location at the Orleans."

"I avoid the Strip as much as possible," said Cornel Ormsby, also on Facebook. "If I wanted to spend time with Californians, I'd move to California!"

Even MGM's Jim Murren, who has a vested interest in seeing the Strip — and CityCenter in particular — succeed, has said he knows that locals, including himself, often don't go to the Strip unless they are acting as a tour guide for family and friends.

"I've lived here for 11 years and I know people don't go to the Strip unless friends are in town, but they will come to CityCenter," Murren said, hopefully.

Take back the Strip!

The holidays are behind us, and with them the seasonal flood of visitors.

And their money.

Yes, the Super Bowl and Chinese New Year are on their way, but after those big tourist draws, visitors are more likely to stay home, their money already spent.

It looks like it will be left to us who live here — the locals, the townies — to prop up the Las Vegas Strip during the dry months to come.

This is not all bad news. The local economy will eventually bounce back (fingers crossed), but until then, at least for the next few months, we'll have this big playground in our backyard to ourselves. At least more so than usual.

Now is the time for locals to take back the Strip. The weather is comfortably walkable. The streets — the everything — are less crowded. And everything is on sale now that the tourist tide has retreated.

Why not make a simple change in attitude and be a tourist in your own town?

Here's what we're thinking: Book a room — rates are down — and "staycation" a few miles from home. Get a spa treatment or swim in a heated pool. Eat at one of the hard-to-get-into restaurants. Go dancing. Ride the rides.

Try to see the Strip area with fresh eyes. There's so much to see and do and smell and taste and hear and experience, there's no way even a born-and-raised Las Vegan could know it all.

Even those who have lived here all their lives still experience that startling moment, that epiphany, when you realize: Wow. I live in Las Vegas. And it's just minutes away.

Claim your birthright and citizenship and enjoy what we contribute to every day. Don't let it pass you by. Don't leave without getting some of that fun. It's our town, too.

— Originally published in Las Vegas Weekly