Feb 19 2007

Big, Even in a City of Excess

by Megan Edwards
Statue of Liberty
Statue of Liberty at NY NY

As President’s Day weekend draws to a close here in Sin City, I feel like heaving a big, “Whew!” And I didn’t even go to the All-Star Game, celebrate Chinese New Year’s, get married on Valentine’s Day, attend the MAGIC show, spend a three-day weekend on the Strip, or go hear Barack Obama give a speech. I didn’t even take today off, but I still feel as though I’ve run some sort of gauntlet. If the last three days didn’t bring a record number of visitors to my fair city, it sure felt that way. I’ve even heard it described as a “perfect storm” of a weekend.

If you live here, it’s wise to be aware of impending large influxes of visitors even if you think they don’t affect you. A typical conversation at the gym or hairdresser might go something like this:

Woman 1: I’m so excited! My husband is taking me to the Eiffel Tower for our anniversary this weekend!”

Woman 2: Whoa, during CES? Has he already made reservations?

Woman 1: God, I hope so!

Of course, big crowds don’t just affect romantic dates. When something huge is attracting hordes, the rest of town feels the effect. It’s important to know, for example, that on New Year’s Eve, even Moses would have trouble crossing the Strip.

I gave a friend a ride to the airport on Thursday, and things looked normal. As I write this, I’m watching television coverage that makes me glad my friend wasn’t leaving tonight. It looks like the whole world is trying to get out of Las Vegas tonight, generating mile-long lines stretching out of the airport parking garages.

What I find interesting is that I felt the crush of the big weekend even though I pretty much stayed home and worked the whole time. Of course, some of that feeling was purely vicarious, coming my way through news media. Even so, I still managed to get a firsthand taste. A drive that should have taken twenty minutes took over an hour on Friday, and even though I gave a wide berth to the Strip on my way home, traffic was much heavier than usual, even at midnight.

So if you’re wondering what it’s like to live here, and you’ve heard that it’s possible to ignore the tourist corridor if you don’t work in it, keep in mind that you’ll never be completely unaffected by its presence. I for one, enjoy that fact that I can see the Luxor’s mighty beam from my backyard, and I have friends who enjoy their view of the Stratosphere Tower. If vistas like that don’t thrill you, and if you don’t like the idea of modifying your behavior because of over-hyped basketball games and lunar holidays, you may never feel comfortable in Las Vegas. I think that might be why God created Phoenix.

Leave a Reply