I really do live, legally and physically, in Paradise, Nevada.

The United States Census calls Paradise Township a Census Designated Place (CDP.) That means that you can look up the population, demographics, and even a map of Paradise, Nevada on the Census Bureau Web Site. For easy access to dull statistical information about the Town of Paradise, check out this article in Wikipedia. Here is the Census Bureau map of Paradise Township, which as you can see covers a large portion of the Southern part of the Las Vegas Valley. Now that I have the dull, statistical information out of the way, I want to talk about why Paradise is what it is, and why Paradise is such an interesting place to live.

Paradise Township became the largest unincorporated town in the United States in 1950. The reason they made Paradise Township was because the mayor of Las Vegas was pressing for annexation of the Las Vegas Strip. This was not in the interests of the owners of the newly thriving businesses along the Las Vegas Strip, so those owners, some of whom were mob connected, managed to get a law passed in Nevada forbidding a city from annexing an unincorporated town. Then all they had to do was form a new township and Las Vegas could forget about annexing the Las Vegas Strip. The stratagem worked, so that, ironically, very little of what most tourists come to Las Vegas to see is actually in the City of Las Vegas. In fact, all of the strip South of Sahara, plus even the Rio and Palms Hotels, are located in Paradise Township, not Las Vegas. For a short video from the Clark County Centennial collection about Paradise Township, click here.

Other Townships in the Valley include Sunrise Manor, Whitney, Spring Valley, Winchester, and Enterprise. None are nearly as large, however.

There are about 200,000 of us living in Paradise. That makes Paradise a small city in its own right. Fortunately, for a small city, there is plenty of entertainment in town. Paradise is blessed with world class dining, some of the most famous casinos in the world, a plethora of shows and exhibits, art galleries, and McCarran Airport. Celine Dion used to have a regular show in Paradise, and, I just now learned, is returning soon. Terry Fator performs regularly on a Paradise stage. Carlos Santana is a regular in a Paradise hotel. The University of Nevada, Las Vegas is in Paradise. We also have the Liberace Museum, the Atomic Testing Museum, Pinball Hall of Fame, and, well, you can check out any source of Las Vegas tourist promotion to see much, much more that can be done right here where I live. As towns go, Paradise is a pretty interesting place.

And if you get tired of all that high-energy entertainment, Paradise is also a place to live, with things like recreation centers, parks, restaurants, shopping centers, Laundromats and copy centers. A fairly large portion of the things I have reviewed for Living-Las-Vegas are in Paradise, including several restaurants, the ReVision house, the Erotic Heritage Museum, and of course the subdivision of Paradise Palms.

So I write about “Living in Paradise” because I really do live here. It’s not a perfect place, of course. Anything you may like or dislike about Vegas is really about Paradise. Since the Post Office never uses the name, though, most people never know that. Besides, nobody you’ll likely ever run into at the supermarket lives in those big hotels, but a whole lot of ordinary folks live along the streets of Paradise, and they’re what really make it such an interesting and fun place to make a home.

And that is why I’m all about Life in Paradise!