In a blog post last week, I talked about how Las Vegas has no soul or spirit. Because the city is full of industry icons and techies this week, CES week isn’t really representative of everyday Vegas. And while I still think the city feels soulless, here’s a reason to come.
The quality of customer service in this country is sub-optimal and seems to be getting worse. Whether it’s the outsourcing of airline telephone banks, filthy public restrooms, or rude or indifferent people behind the desk looking out at you with half-closed eyes too bored even for contempt, it can be disheartening to have in front of you a modern day of phone calls and errands.
Come to Vegas. People who work at the resorts and casinos are friendly and eager to help. It seems that as soon as a question forms on your face, someone shows up and asks if they can be of service. From what I could see, this treatment isn’t reserved for the folks who look like they have money, but is available to everyone.
In addition to the benefits in helping you get things done, find your way, save time, etc. etc., it’s also a wonderful positive boost to be on the receiving end of someone’s self-respect and pride in their work.
Also noteworthy and welcome is that in the heart of The Strip, the casinos themselves feel like they’re tucked into a corner of the resort, only one of many options for play. Move away from The Strip and the gaming rooms still dominate.
The transformation of The Strip into an adult DisneyWorld makes the contrast with the seedier side of town more interesting. Drive up Industrial Road, which parallels The Strip to the West. One long block away from the glitter and shine, the Eiffel Tower and pirate ships, and you have the “gentleman’s” clubs and railyards and dimmed streets.
It reminds me of Acapulco more than 20 years ago, where the tourist strip along the horseshoe bay was two streets deep and behind that was another world, full of waist-high trash, open-air toilets, and skinny cats and dogs running to and fro.
In Vegas, every time you pass a car idling on the shoulder you figure they’re having sex or doing something that could put them in jail for awhile. That underbelly thrill is another reason to come. Seedy, relentless, devouring, restless, rootless and nocturnal with a nighttime sky you can read by.
Ray Lewis heads up the tax consulting business, Tax Therapy, based in Boulder and San Francisco. Ray writes about everything from finance, taxes, business and technology to sports, travel, politics and music.
He was formerly a technology consultant at The New York Times and the Philadelphia Inquirer, and served as a faculty member of The Sawtooth Writers Conference in Stanley, Idaho, an annual event dedicated to teaching fiction and poetry to gifted teenagers.
