The Inevitble Downtown Backlash Has Begun

If there is one absolute truth on the internet, it's this: haters gonna hate. Thus, it's no surprise that the low rumble of backlash has already begun to surface in response to Tony Hsieh's ambitious plans for the future of Downtown Las Vegas.

In a recent column in Vegas Seven Magazine, writer Heidi Kyser criticized Hsieh's efforts to revamp the entire Downtown area using only private money. Kyser was responding to reports of a proposed dog park in Downtown that would be exclusively available to fee paying members. Now, I'm not going to argue the idea of a private dog park designed by a person whose job it is to design dog parks from San Francisco in which you must pay membership dues isn't a little silly, or even a lot silly to the point of absurd satire, but I also wouldn't be so quick to single it out as the reason why Hsieh's plans are doomed to only benefit the super elite rich cool yuppie hipster class. While the fees seem a bit silly, the fact is there is no dog park in Downtown yet even though residents of the neighborhood are hungry for one, and the fees will help pay for the building and maintenance of said park. If the place proves to be popular enough, I don't think that will detract city government from building a public dog park, I think it will only encourage it. Hsieh's vision is to turn a formerly uninhabitable swath of abandoned lots and crumbling buildings into a truly vibrant and livable neighborhood with a young and creative community. Perhaps a private dog park with a membership fee is not ideal, but it's better than no dog park.

Beyond Kyser's mild and not entirely unjustified criticism, I've noticed a bit more hatorade being poured on the Downtown Project in comment threads than I used to. Certainly, comment boards are the most vile corner of the interwebs, where the cockroaches skitter under the floorboards and make racist, sexist, and homophobic comments anonymously and without repercussion. But it's still disheartening to see people write things like the below comment, posted in response to Kyser's piece:

All hail King Tony and his downtown hipster land.   Stay tuned for the Fixies only bike shop, the super tight jeans store,  the pub that only serves PBR, the eye glass shop with the super thick black frames, a store that sells retro stereo equipment like Boom boxes and cassette players.  Stay tuned for the enormous cloud of irony and cynasism that will form as this new Downtown hipster land takes shape.  If you don't think your cool enough to be a part of it you probably aren't.   Cop an attitude and find it all a bit passe and you'll fit right in.  While we are at it lets import some trustafarians.

I don't even know where to start in responding to this post, between the fact that they haven't updated their list of hipster cliches since Bush left office (a "supertight jeans store," really?) or the fact that he doesn't know the difference between "your" and "you're" (and thus would never get a date on OKCupid), but it's still an attitude that depresses me. A dude is investing a large chunk of his personal fortune into turning a dead area into a cool neighborhood with a personality different from the tourist mecca of The Strip just down the street and this guy is accusing the imagined future citizens of Downtown of cynicism?

Or how about this gem from the comment section under The Las Vegas Review Journal story announcing plans for the dog park, in which the very idea that the designer came from San Francisco is proof positive that it's a bad idea:

A transplant fron San Francisco. Need I say more? She and those like her ruined California and now are planning to destroy Nevada. This why Obama and Reid are elected. A dog park, with security? Can't your dogs run in the yard? You don't have a yard, take the stupid thing to the park. I don't want to pay for it with my tax money. She is after all from San Francisco and they are very good at spending other people's money.

The funniest part of this comment is that it's a fundamental opposite of the Vegas Seven article criticizing the fact that the Dog Park is publicly funded... this person is angry that a liberal Obama and Pelosi lovin' San Franciscan tax and spend welfare baby vegan type will spend all their hard-earned tax money on a park for dogs, while failing to take in the part that the project is privately funded, but he can still enjoy his anger at the idea that he'd have to pay for it with his tax money (while a privately funded dog park would probably end up costing him a few dollars at most in taxes, but that's neither her nor there)... why be informed on the internet when you can be OUTAGED?

I'll say that there is one common complaint I've seen amongst the comment boarders discussing Downtown that I totally agree with... the lack of a grocery store currently in the vicinity. If they really want people to move there, open up a Trader Joe's in the middle of the action, stat. That way there is high quality food available in walking distance from where people live, which means less driving and pollution and more reasons for San Francisco-hating commentators to become angry for no good reason.

Listen, I know I'm cherry picking a few choice comments and one editorial here, but this is the first time I've started to see any volume of criticism for the Downtown Project's epically ambitious neighborhood revitalization and rejuvenation plans. While criticism is good and will keep Hsieh and his merry band of Downtown dreamers honest and on the right path to truth and freedom, some of these complaints are pretty ludicrous to me. I agree that the idea of member-driven dog park with security guards and background checks for the pets sounds a bit like a Portlandia sketch, but it's at least a well-intentioned service being brought to a part of town devoid of said service up until now. And that's the point... for all of the hatin' them haters be hatin' on the Downtown Project, thus far everything they are getting steamed about has all been well intentioned, if not completely perfect in execution. The Downtown Project people are trying something experimental and ambitious and exciting, and they're sure to stumble more than a few times along the way. Who would ever get outraged at people like that?

Oh right, comment board lurkers posting under the cover of anonymity. They call 'em Trolls for a reason.

Downtown Watch: Thinking Inside the (Hot Metal) Box

I've made no secret of closely following Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh's extremely ambitious plans to revitalize Downtown Las Vegas from a post-apocalyptic no-man's land into a vital, hip, artistic, and non-zombified neighborhood. Hsieh is a visionary who is probably the only person who can pull of the seemingly impossible task of turning an area that makes LA's famously derelict (though improving) downtown look more like Times Square in comparison into a livable and cool spot to work, socialize, and live.

Already, Hsieh has transformed Downtown by opening an indie coffee shop that's almost always filled with the coolest people in town, started plans to move his corporate headquarters to the area's abandoned City Hall, helped fund a beautiful new arts center that's brought an infusion of actual culture to the city, purchased the rights to and breathed fresh life into the monthly First Fridays art and music festival, moved himself and and many of his employees into a once failing condo complex that's transformed into a hub for the city's creative class. Hsieh doesn't just talk the Downtown talk, he walks the walk, as he's become a visible participant in the neighborhood's social life, as he is often spotted enjoying ballet at The Smith Center and throwing back drinks at The Downtown Cocktail Room.


But the latest part of Hsieh's masterplan has left me scratching my head a bit. The energetic and innovative CEO and his merry band of Downtown Project followers are moving forward on opening a group of businesses in old shipping containers.

That right's, Hsieh and his crew are super-cereal about opening a whole mess of bars, restaurants, boutiques, cafes, galleries, and other small businesses in those big, heavy ugly metal boxes (often referred to as "cans" by those in the know, or by those who have watched the second season of The Wire on Netflix) that are used to ship just about everything (including mail order brides) from port to port.

It's not a totally new concept. The idea has been given the buzzy-term "flexible urbanism," and has (to nobody's shock) already been adopted in places like Montreal, San Francisco, Portland and Brooklyn. Brookyln's Dekalb Market, with it's collection of boutique vintage shops, restaurants, and outdoor movie screenings, and San Francisco's Proxy Project, featuring a chill outdoor Beer garden, seem to be the models Hsieh is aiming to replicate... and surpass, as the Downtown Project website declares their goal of turning Las Vegas into "the shipping container capital of the world," a selling point that will probably not replace the city's famous "what happens here, stays here" slogan anytime soon.

The idea makes a certain crazy kind of sense, in a way. Hsieh is eager to get cool small businesses to move into spaces in Downtown ASAP, and one way to so in a quick and environmentally friendly fashion without waiting for entire new buildings to be built from scratch is to create shipping container structures in the many abandoned lots that are the most common feature in the area. It also means that a small business owner with a cool idea can score a space for very cheap and start interacting with the community without much overhead. Once building does begin in one of the lots, shipping container structures are also very easy to move as well if needed. The price and flexibility, Hsieh and company hope, will draw creative and innovative entrepreneurs looking to get their businesses started immediately, and then keep them in the area for good as more permanent structures are built.

Hsieh and his team envision the project opening as soon as possible, as plans have already been submitted to build a park of containers stacked on elevated platforms over two empty lots, one on Fremont Street owned by a company with ties to The El Cortez and one on 7th Street owned by a company with ties to The Downtown Project.

While the plan does sound nice and intriguing, with irresistible elements of Hsieh's utopian-enthusiasm, the fact remains that we're still talking about giant metal boxes here. Giant metal boxes that will be sitting out in the Las Vegas heat, in the middle of a dessert where temperatures in the summer often spike into the 120s. I'm sure these converted containers will be ventalated and feature some kind of air conditioning system, but that does not change the fact that they are, in the end, giant metal boxes. And while some of the converted container projects I've seen have been creatively designed, they're not exactly going to be Frank Gehry level works of architectural genius that will inspire people into believing that Downtown has been completely turned around into a progressive haven. The boxes can be pieced together like Tetris blocks, cut open on sides, retrofitted with windows and doors, and repainted, but there will still be drawbacks to the fact that they're narrow metal boxes that afford customers little in the way of leg room. Then there's also the fact that, as one commenter on The Las Vegas Review Journal's recent piece on the proposal pointed out that the designers should "put graffiti on" the renderings of the project so the public has a "real idea" of what the proposed project will look like (and then there's the commenter who somehow used the proposal as proof that we can't compete with China, then somehow tied it all in to blaming Obama, even though I'm pretty sure the President has nothing to do with the Downtown revival plans. Ah, internet comment threads.). Critics of the plan also warn that visitors may be intimidated by the area's prominent population of panhandlers, as well as the less than optimal parking options nearby.

While these are all valid fears, Hsieh has proven time and again to be an innovative thinker who has been right more often than not even when his positive thinking initially borders on crazy talk. Hsieh has pulled off the impossible before and seems eager to invest his own personal wealth into improving the area, so you might just find yourself enjoying artisinal Ice Creams and craft Brews served out of locked together shipping containers in Downtown Vegas sooner than later. And as long as Hsieh and company figure out a way to keep those damned metal boxes cool in the summer, I'll be hanging out there as well, snickering at references to The Wire with my friends.

The Continued Evolution of Downtown Las Vegas

Apologies for the slightly supremely pretentious title, but sometimes excitement for cool new things is a valid excuse for pretentiousness.Or so I tell myself.

I've spent many, many reams of digital ink typing up my praises to Downtown Las Vegas as the neighborhood continues to grow from an empty lot filled mugging-zone where one would not dare spend time after dark away from the single large street of cheesy low stakes gambling parlors into the vibrant and interesting area filled with unique and cool local businesses its quickly becoming. Places like The Downtown Cocktail Room and The Griffin and events like First Fridays have thrived and encouraged the openings of distinct watering holes like Insert Coins, The Lady Silva,  Bar+Bistro, Artifice, Commonwealth, and resurrected classic Atomic Liquors, as well as hipster brunch spot Eat, quirky museums that illuminate the history of the Mob and Atomic Testing in Las Vegas, the soon to open (and surprisingly cool sounding) Shipping Container Park, coffee/vinyl/zine merchants The Beat Coffeehouse, world class cultural showcase The Smith Center... you get the idea. Basically, I'm trying to say that Downtown is pretty cool.

Clearly, Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh and Downtown Cocktail Room proprietor Michael Cornthwaite's masterplan to convert Downtown Las Vegas into a world-class neighborhood that will attract creative and artistic young people and innovative start-ups (as well as tourists looking for a more off-beat experience than The Strip can offer) to the area is already paying off, and will continue to do so. (Let's just pray that they're not trying to gather all of those people into one Downtown neighborhood in a relatively small city so that they can use their brains to power their brain-powered giant robots. I know this fear is far fetched, but we can't rule it out as a possibility, especially since Hsieh's massive investment of his own money is so generous that some sort of unseen ulterior motive may as yet be revealed.)

Downtown's evolution continues to roll on (to mix metaphors), as list of new businesses and projects are set to debut on or near Fremont Street in the next year or so. Below is a list of just a few #DTV coming attractions I'm most excited about.

The Velveteen Rabbit
Local sisters Pam and Christina Dylag are set to open their dream bar in Downtown as soon as construction finishes, and these crushable alt-chicks have a vision. Named after their favorite children's story, set to serve craft brews and cocktails, and promising to feature an imaginative and whimsical design inspired by its imaginative name (and teased on the bar's Facebook page), the place will most likely become an essential hipster mecca, frequented by Vegan-riding bicycle riders and haunted by food trucks just outside its doors, once it opens officially in 2013.


The Life is Beautiful Festival
No, it's not a weekend devoted to the Oscar-winning Robert Benigni concentration camp set tragi-comedy, but rather a music food and wine festival that promises to bring "arena sized acts" to Downtown in an event that's being organized by a powerful coalition, including the people behind San Francisco's popular answer to Coachella, Outside Lands, the marketing group behind First Fridays, and the guy who served as The Cosmopolitan's music director. Despite the terrible name and even though they have promised "arena-sized" artists, Life is Beautiful has the lot of potential to bring back a full-on music festival that's a little less corporate-driven than iHeart Radio to Las Vegas and features acts a little more interesting and outside-the-box than Lady Gaga or Usher (and which will hopefully be organized in a way that will lead to less diva-like onstage tantrums from mega-selling pop-stars who petulantly insist they're not Justin Bieber).

Bolt Barbers
The irreverent and dude-friendly barbershop, which gained some notoriety by promoting their bad reviews with a "people hate us on Yelp" flag that became so popular that they turned it into book form. Now the cutting-edge hair-cutters are moving to the Shipping Container Park in Las Vegas, in a converted train caboose. Obviously, this place could not be cooler, so get on the crazy train and score yourself a great new cut before you hit the bars on your next Vegas adventure.

Could an Ace Hotel Make it in Vegas?

Just over a decade ago, Downtown Los Angeles was a wasteland. When The Staples Center opened and brought The Lakers and Kings Downtown, things began to change, and just over ten years later, DTLA is on its way to becoming the hippest part of Los Angeles, with interesting new bars and restaurants opening there seemingly every weekend (if you haven't had the burger at Lazy Ox Canteen or an Old Fashioned mixed at Seven Grand yet, you're missing out). AEG is close to completing their evil master plan of building an NFL Stadium in Downtown, which will (in addition to downgrading Sunday traffic on the 110 from "pretty-rough" to "an endlessly horrific Lynchian/ Kafkaesque waking nightmare state from which the only escape is death or madness") bring even more people flooding to the area. A less publicized but equally important sign that the hood is becoming the hippest segment of Los Angeles is the fact The Ace Hotel chain have chosen the old United Artists building in Downtown as the site of their first Los Angeles location. The LA Ace will undoubtedly draw in hipsters by the droves looking to check out the cool bars, trendy restaurants, top DJs, eclectic films playing in the restored movie palace, and coke fueled hotel room parties that will inevitably be part and parcel of its raison d'etre.


For those not in the know, the first Ace Hotel opened in Seattle in 1999 in a converted halfway house and was designed to appeal to "the creative class" (sound familiar to anyone?). The quirky original hotel became a runaway success with Seattle's proto-hipsters in the early 00's, and now there are locations in Portland, New York, and Palm Springs (which seems like a strange location for a hipster-bait hotel until you realize its proximity to Indio makes it the number one choice for concert goers looking for a place to party and crash during The Coachella music Festival). The various Ace locations feature diners that serve organic foods and locally sourced Coffees while you eat at communal tables, lobbies that play indie rock and obscure classic cuts as background music, bars that serve Craft Beers and labor-intensive Cocktails, Hotel Rooms with bunk beds and animal murals, Green-friendly design, Spas that feature natural and organic treatments, "Swim Clubs" where you can enjoy DJ sets, concerts from hip indie bands, Yoga classes, and "impromptu dance parties," and a vibe that is just generally (and self consciously) cooler than any other hotel you've ever been to.

There is something inherently ridiculous about The Ace Hotels' calculated obsession with coolness, a ridiculousness exploited to perfect effect in a hilarious sketch from the first season of Portlandia. But there is also something irresistibly awesome and fun about them, as the hotels generally pull off their goal of being the heppest place to stay and play in every town in which they're located. I've had amazing experiences on the weekends I've partied at an Ace Hotel, which has led me to contemplate the question at the heart of this very blog post: could an Ace Hotel thrive in Las Vegas?

The obvious place to put the Las Vegas Ace would be in Downtown, preferably on or as close to Fremont Street as possible. Downtown has clearly become the center of Hipster-Vegas culture, as its the location of The First Fridays art walks as well as hipster approved watering holes like The Griffin and Beauty Bar. It's also a perfect location for an the chain since all of the previous (and future) Aces are located in refurbished hotels that build the classic style of the previous occupant into their design. Surely, there is an aging Casino that could be converted and face-lifted into an ultra-cool Ace location somewhere on Fremont Street?

Obviously, no other Ace Hotel has a Casino on its premises. The Ace Vegas could be a non-gaming boutique, but I actually think that if they teamed up with someone who knew how to manage a casino, they could do well... especially if they put more thought into their gaming floor than the owners of The Cosmo have. And if the Casino had an interesting theme, a cool vibe, minimum bets that were as low as the rest of the places in Downtown, and cute cocktail waitresses passing out free PBRs, you might end up seeing plenty of mustachioed gentlemen and glasses sporting women sitting around gaming tables and losing their money to The House.

The real question is if The Ace opened in Downtown, would people come? I certainly don't think an Ace Hotel that cost $2 billion to build and was the size of a Strip mega-resort would survive in Vegas. But if the owners of the chain could find a smaller old hotel to renovate in Downtown, they could do very well. If the theoretical Ace Las Vegas played its cards right, it could become the cultural center of the young and artsy, throwing First Friday after-parties with cool DJs spinning deep cuts, hosting up and coming bands that might not play in Vegas otherwise, showcasing alt-comedians who wouldn't feel at home sharing a stage with burlesque dancers, pouring the best craft brews and mixing the most creative cocktails in town, displaying interesting work from local artists, hosting indie film festivals, and  becoming the hotel equivalent of The Double Down Saloon. Hipsters are everywhere, even in Las Vegas. Isn't it time they got their own hotel in Sin City?

Perhaps the whole idea is just a crazy dream... I'm sure the operators of The Ace chain are planning on expanding to cities with well established hipster populations like Austin or San Francisco before opening a hotel in the consumer capital of America known as Las Vegas. An Ace Hotel opening on Fremont Street it could be just as positive a sign that Downtown Las Vegas has been fully revitalized as it was for DTLA. If they took a gamble on a venue in Las Vegas, I wouldn't bet against the owners of Ace Vegas hitting a hipster jackpot.

Escape from Douchery, Part 18: Downtown Cocktail Room

I've mentioned The Downtown Cocktail Room a few times in recent posts, and realized it was high time the place got an entire article devoted to it's unique brand awesome-ness.

I'll start this endorsement by admitting to being incredulous about the place before my first visit, mostly because I'm bored and annoyed by the whole faux speakeasy trend that seems like it will never come to an end (especially with the success of Boardwalk Empire on HBO). It's become a huge cliche to open justify the prices of your expensive cocktails at bars by attempting to sell an old-school prohibition era speakeasy feel, complete with costumed staff, vintage projections on the walls, 1920s era music playing on the speakers, and secret passwords uttered to gain entry. It was a fun gimmick when it first started, but I've been to far too many bars where customers are dressed up in striped suits, fedora hats, and ugly fake flapper girl dresses purchased at Forever 21 for it to be cute anymore. Manhattan's Please Don't Tell (or PDT, for those who are too cool to say full words) has a secret entrance through a telephone booth in the back of a hot dog shop where you have to say a password into the phone to get in. All of this is fun and nice, but the vibe of mot of these places place is thick with unearned pretension and smugness, like a Jason Reitman film given solid form. What's the point of going to a place just to boast that you've been there? The whole trend to me is the depressingly uncreative side of the cocktail culture trend; creating a speakeasy theme in your cocktail-centric bar is as lazy as wine bar owners who make their guests sit on wine barrel stools and use "clever" grape puns in their names.

The Downtown Cocktail Room does, in fact, employ the "speakeasy" label; yes, it does feature an entrance that's hard to find even when you're looking for it, and yes, the bartenders wear silly hats as they pour you complicated cocktails. But that's where the speakeasy BS ends, as the bar is much more relaxed than other places that use the "S" word. The Downtown Cocktail Room never seems to be populated by annoying people dressed up in "look at me" outfits (but perhaps that particularly annoying observation is something I notice more simply because most of the speakeasy bars I've been to are in Los Angeles, of all cities). The Downtown Cocktail Room's vibe can only be described as "totally effing chill," with DJs spinning relaxed tunes (as opposed to aggressive club bangers) and intimate corner booths where you can enjoy private conversations with your friends where you can actually hear each other speak (or enjoy some low-lit, sexy-times makeout sessions with a date).

Even though their fedora hates do carry the whiff of douchery, the bartenders know their stuff cold. I'm normally a beer guy, but when you go to the Downtown Cocktail Room, you have to indulge in their spectacular libations. Their Old Fashioned is one of the very best I've had in Las Vegas, and the lead bartender is always switching up ingredients behind the counter depending on the season. While fruity drinks are rarely my thing, I've had a few cocktails at the place made with muddled fresh fruits that made me rethink my stance (and my entire life philosophy, they were so damned good).

It helps that DCR owner Michael Cornthwaite (who also runs The Beat Coffeehouse and Emergency Arts) is evangelical about the possibilities of the emerging neighborhood, a pioneer who was on the first to believe that a cool local business could survive in the area. According to local origin myths, Cornthwaite famously sold Zappos CEO and Downtown Vegas savior Tony Hsieh on moving his company to the area (over stiff drinks at the bar, of course). Hsieh was more than sold... he decided to move his company into the former City Hall and invest much of his personal wealth into revitalizing the area. Nowadays, Hsieh can often be found sipping on seasonal libations in what has become his favorite bar in Las Vegas.

With an owner who is truly passionate about turning the derelict neighborhood that surrounds the place into a community, a quirky sensibility (the bar's website lists house rules such as "talk of religion and politics is strongly discouraged unless you are a priest, rabbi, or politician. In that case, it is probably past your bedtime)," and some of the most mind blowing adult drinks that Sin City has to offer, The Downtown Cocktail Room has become the unofficial ground zero of the neighborhood's slow but steady rebirth.

Tony Hsieh's Plan to Ressurect Downtown Las Vegas

I don't care about shoes.

My Converse All Stars are are basically a mess of ripped canvas, rubber, and duct tape that are an epic daily struggle to pull on before I stumble out the door in a caffeine-deprived fugue-state every morning. My philosophy on replacing shoes basically boils down to: I'll get new ones when my current pair no longer adequately protect my feet from hot asphalt, rocks, and used needles.

Though I could care less about footwear, I am a fan of Zappos.Com. The extremely successful web-shoe store (okay I know they sell more than shoes now, but it's what they're primarily known for) has an exceptionally creative and charismatic CEO in Tony Hsieh (whose youthful mega-success makes me feel insecure about my own life and accomplishments, but that's nothing new) who emphasizes transparency (offering tours of the company's offices to anybody who cares to take them) and employee happiness (as he strives to make his campus a fun, creative and vibrant place to work, complete with personally and elaborately themed cubicles, a nap room, and a closet filled with Razor Scooters).


But the most awesome thing about Hsieh and his Zappos team is their plan to turn Downtown Las Vegas into a vital metropolitan center where smart tech companies operate during the day and cool bars, restaurants, and music venues are filled with people night after night.

It's an ambitious goal. While The Strip is one of the most jam packed avenues in the world, Downtown is still largely a ghost-town. I have written extensively on this blog about the DTLV haunts that I love, like The Griffin, Beauty Bar, and Insert Coins. I've talked about the First Fridays Art Festival and how it's brings out the artsy types once a month. I've declared (and we all know how much weight and influence my declarations carry) that Downtown Las Vegas is essentially becoming the center of the young, urban, artistic, crowd, the hipster mecca of one of the most overly commercialized and gaudy cities ever built by man (don't take that as a criticism; you know I love you Sin City). So sure, there are many disparate hipster elements that have come together in Downtown to make it a neighborhood of growing coolness, but what the area really needs is a creative visionary who believes in the potential of the district to pull everything together in a coherent way and really help it reach its full potential. And it seems like that visionary just might be Tony Hsieh.

Hsieh and a few other investors bought the rights to the First Fridays event from non-profit group Whirlygig for $2 million. The move was a surprise to gallery owners and artists, but the biggest shock is that nobody has protested. While corporate interests taking over an art festival from a non-profit group would often be criticized as dangerously close to selling out, it's a credit to the goodwill that Hsieh and his company have built up in the Las Vegas community that people were excited about the change and the infusion of ideas (and cash) that it would bring. Hsieh has also moved Zappos HQ into the old City Hall building, a very cool historic structure that would probably have been demolished eventually otherwise. The influx of young employees is directly responsible for the existence of The Beat Coffeehouse, a super cool venue that hosts local bands and sells great beer, vinyl records, and excellent coffee.

The inventive CEO and his merry band of followers have bigger plans to continue investing in Downtown's revitalization, with the hope that more forward thinking companies who want to a taste of that Zappos magic (and lax Nevada tax codes), cool bars, restaurants, music venues, comedy clubs, record stores, movie theaters, and interesting hotels (Ace Hotel DTLV! Do it!) will take an interest in setting up shop there. It's a big dream that will take years to come to fruition, but Tony Hsieh seems like the type of guy who has the creative vision and resources (he's invested a bunch of his own money into the idea and claims he's as motivated by the desire to live in a cool neighborhood and support his city as much as he's doing for business reasons) to really transform Downtown into a special place.

And if it will help his plan at all, I might just order myself a new pair of Chuck's from Zappos. I'll call it my contribution to the cause.

Biggest Vegas Stories of 2011: A Year End, Traffic Baiting List

We're nearly two weeks into the new year... and since we're deep into the January doldrums, blogs, magazines, newspapers, and new aggregation sites are still putting together best of 2011 lists in shameless attempts to grab some extra traffic. And since I am by no means above shameless stunts, here's my list of the top Las Vegas stories in 2011:


The Cosmopolitan Opens for Business

The Cosmo opened at the tail end of 2010, technically, but really 2011 was the first year that the mega-expensive, mid-Strip property had to shine. The resort was designed to attract an all new demographic to Las Vegas, which the powers that be described as the "curious class." Many were confused by exactly what the demo was supposed to be, but the term basically translated to the rich young LA  elite looking for something a little different... essentially the people who party at The Standard Hotel locations in Downtown LA or on The Sunset Strip. And it worked, in a way... the rooms at The Cosmo are quite often filled with young partygoers, and the sexy Chandelier Bar has become one of the hippest new watering holes in town. The resort has done a good job of booking hip indie rockers, from all time icons like Morrissey (headlining in the main theater) to up and coming buzz bands like Best Coast and Fitz and the Tantrums (rocking out on the more intimate Book and Stage) played the resort last year, while a slew of Pitchfork approved acts like The Shins, Justice, The Rapture, and Foster the People are on the books to perform there in upcoming months. The Cosmo also has one of the hottest nightclubs in town, The Marquee, which ushered in the beginning of 2011 with performances by Jay Z and Coldplay. While all of this may make The Cosmo sound like a runaway success, The Resort is actually losing money because gambling revenues are not strong... and despite all of The Cosmo's outside the box thinking, the Vegas economy is still fueled by gambling. Which puts the owners of The Cosmo in the awkward position of successfully attracting a new demographic to Las Vegas... only to find out that the "Curious Class" isn't all that curious about the thing that most defines Las Vegas.


Downtown Draws the Hipster Elite
Downtown Las Vegas is not as cool as Austin, Portland, Silverlake, or Williamsburg (Williamsburg is dead anyway at this point, but that's another story), but the neighborhood is becoming more and more of a hipster enclave... which is a pretty amazing development, considering that Vegas was built on glittering consumer palaces. But indie alty artsty types have found a home in Sin City around Fremont Street, where some of the coolest bars in town are located, from The Griffin (a super chill hipster hang with a great jukebox) to Frankie's Tiki Room (kitschy old fashioned fun) to The Beauty Bar (the hipster dance party center of Vegas) to Insert Coins (a video game lounge designed for discerning geeks). The ever expanding arts and music First Fridays events take place all over Downtown and has become a mandatory event for the artsiest Vegas citizens, while the best food trucks in town often post up near Fremont Street. Downtown has been growing in hipster cred for years, but 2011 was the year when Downtown cohered into a formidable mecca for indie scene dwellers... even if its in the shadow of the super mainstream Vegas Strip.



The Economy Continues to Pound Sin City
This is the inescapable fact of Las Vegas these days. While the economy as a whole seems to be on the (very slow) mend, Vegas has been hit hard and 2011 was no better. Before the economy crashed in 2008, there seemed to be no end in sight for the Las Vegas bubble, as more and more multi-billion dollar mega-resorts were replacing classic casinos, and no matter how many new rooms became available in new hotels, the town was almost always at capacity. Expensive restaurants were overbooked and girls in too shirt-skirts waited in long lines outside even the lamest clubs. People were gambling their money away and the rest of the city beyond the tourist mecca area was expanding quickly as more and more people started to move to the quickly growing metropolis. But then everything crashed like a house of cards, or at least like a hacky metaphor. Construction halted on many of those aforementioned multi-billion dollar mega resorts, as giant empty lots sit where proud old Rat Pack era haunts once stood. The Cosmo did open, but only after a European bank took over its staggering debt. Hotel prices swing wildly from weekend to weekend, as resorts are often desperate to attract visitors (you can stay at The Wynn for about $100 a night if you book the right weekend, an astoundingly low rate for such a luxurious and expensive boutique hotel) and shows from iconic entertainers and restaurants from celebrity chefs were forced to shutter. The Strip itself feels strangely empty on many Saturday nights, as the bustling crowds of the midd 00's have thinned drastically. All is not lost in Vegas as the economy slowly recovers and the smartest Casino bosses will continue to innovate and succeed with the cards they've been dealt, but for now some of the glamor of the halcyon days of Sin City feels strangely absent. But Vegas is a town famous for reinventing itself every decade (remember that the 90's were all about trying to attract families and turn Vegas into Disneyland with gambling and liberal open container laws before things shifted to the more honest and direct "What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas" philosophy that launched a decade defined by the kind of debauchery and bad behavior celebrated in The Hangover), so maybe 2012 will be the year Vegas is reborn again, like a glorious Phoenix rising from the ashes.

Or the world will end. Either way. 

Escape from Douchery, Part 16: The Cabana Suites at El Cortez

As often as I sing the praises of Downtown Las Vegas, I had never stayed in a hotel on Fremont Street before my last Sin City excursion. I might slag off on the legendary D-Bag element that populates most of the popular spots on The Strip, but the main drag of Las Vegas Boulevard is where most of the action is. Plus, since the economy tanked, you can get really nice rooms at multi-bazillion dollar mega resorts super low rates... compare that to most Downtown lodging options and it's hard to turn down a $150 a night room at The Wynn (when you can find a miraculous deals every once in awhile) compared to a $90 room at one of the outdated Hotels on The Fremont Street Experience that are haunted by the permanent stench of stale cigarettes, sour booze, the perfume (and tears) of cheap hookers, and general desperation. You might not think desperation has a smell, but walk through The Las Vegas Club at 3 in the morning and you'll see what I mean.

But I finally bit the bullet on my last trip when I stayed a night at The El Cortez Hotel's semi-new Cabana Suites. Yes, I hedged my bets by booking a room at Aria on my second night (because they had a great deal that weekend and I was anxious to see what their almost completely automated future rooms were like) just in case staying Downtown turned out to be a tiny-huge mistake. The only mistake, it turned out, was not staying at the super cool suites for the entire weekend.

The El Cortez (double "thes" in the name for those who failed Spanish in high school) bought out The Ogden House Motel, a truly revolting old cheapskate fleabag relic, and smartly tapped into the growing hipster sensibility of the neighborhood by transforming the place into a uniquely designed 64 room non-gaming, smoke-free boutique hotel with style to burn. Suddenly, a hotel that had been open since the 40's and was once the property of Bugsy Segal was connected to one of the hippest spots to lay your head in Las Vegas.


The hotel's first smart move was to team up with The Las Vegas Design Center where they created a competition in which four winners were chosen and given free reign to "design a suite." These rooms are some of the most unique in Vegas, infused with the creative energy of young and hungry designers eager to share their vision with the world for the first time. These distinct suites range in their influences from retro 1950's hepcat cool to clean modernism, but they are united in the fact that they were designed with singular visions in mind. Very cool stuff.

Unfortunately, all of the Design-a-Suite rooms were booked solid on the Friday night in question (because I always have been and always will terrible at planning ahead for anything ever), but I was able to book one of their Junior Suites on the hotel's semi-frustrating website  (and while booking the room was a pain in the ass, the super cheap nightly rate more than made up for it). Once I checked in, I discovered that even the lobby was cool, with  a an art-deco design that was weaved throughout the entire property (including the hallways, with their funky carpeting and funkier wall art), that lent the place a coherent vibe.

 My Junior suite was not massive (as the term "Junior Suite" might indeed imply), but it was more than big enough for myself and my small band of merry travelers. The design was funky-fresh, with a that art-deco look subtly weaved throughout the room. We scored a flat screen television (which one of my suite-mates immediately turned on to flip through premium channels in search of any flashes of nudity), an iPod doc to curate our own pretentious playlist while we pre-gamed before hitting the bars on Fremont Street, and couches on which to chill out after tiring from one of our legendary in-room dance parties (to which you can only hope to one day be invited). Even the bathrooms were tastefully cool, with colorful walls and unique, raised sinks. I'm sorry, but a cool sink will always impress me. It's the little things in life, you know?

I stayed at The Cabana Suites before they opened their brand new pool area, which is set to start operating before summer. I'm sure that they've done just as nice a job on the renovated pool area as they have with the rest of the Boutique (after all, they did call it The Cabana Suites) and I'm secretly hoping it becomes the Vegas version of The Ace Hotel in Palm Springs' totally bitchin' Swim Club. 

While the small boutique hotel doesn't have its own bar or gaming floor (which is actually nice when you get back to your room late at night and you don't have to stumble through the haunting site of desperate souls losing their money at 4 in the morning), you can walk across the street to the El Cortez's main tower and enjoy a drink at the old-timey Parlour Bar, a reasonably priced yet delicious meal at The Flame Steakhouse, and some low-stakes gambling in one of the longest operating Casinos in town. And The Cabana Suites are conveniently located in walking distance to all of the great stuff Fremont Street has to offer, as the place is an extremely short walk from quirky Downtown hotspots like Insert Coins, The Griffin, The Downtown Cocktail Room, The Drink and Drag, and The Beat Coffeehouse.

While a hotel in Vegas is really just a place to do a few shots before spending a wild adventure on the streets of the city until the wee hours only to stumble back into for a few short and fitfully drunken hours of shut-eye, I will definitely be staying at the hip boutique in the near future. With its location in the heart of Downtown and super cool retro-modern design, The Cabana Suites at The El Cortez is the closest thing Vegas has to a truly hipster-approved hotel (at least until they get their act together and open an Ace in Downtown).

Plugging a Blackhole: The North Strip

The north end of The Las Vegas Strip was not doing well before the recession, but the collapsing economy has been catastrophic for the area. Once the site of the last remaining old-school casinos, The Stardust was imploded to make room for a hotel that was never finished, The Sahara has been closed down to make room for a planned SLS Hotel, and all that remains are the increasingly low-rent Riviera and Circus Circus (which is billed as a family friendly destination complete with a theme park but is also the kind of place where you immediately remove the comforter on your hotel room bed).

So what is Las Vegas to do with this large chunk of the iconic Strip? While Steve Wynn's luxury towers were built towards the north end of The Strip as they square off against The Trump across the street, as if the two exceedingly rich men (who famously have no love for each other) chose their locations in order to have the world's most expensive staring contest, the flow of Bellagio-like luxury stopped there and isn't likely to continue. The SLS gamble may well pay off and create fancy-pants luxury resort even further up The Strip, but the dead zone creates an opportunity for casino builders to think smarter instead of bigger. Being the visionary that I am, here are my personal (and only half snarky) recommendations for how to fix the north Strip.

Go Old School: Conservative scumbag casino mogul Sheldon Adelson knocked down The Sands in 1996 to make way for The Venetian Resort. The Sands is still a powerful brand name (why else would he call his company Las Vegas Sands even after knocking down the resort?) and nostalgia for old-school Vegas style is still palpable, with a trilogy of Oceans 11 films grossing over $1 billion (with a b) worldwide over the last decade by riding a tone of neo-Rat Pack cool. The Mob Museum has opened its doors recently in celebration of the seedy history of Sin City. And even though Las Vegas has lost market share to the more loose book-keeping practices of Macau as a destination for the world's gamblers, it's still friggin' Las Vegas. Sin City is the original and someone needs to make the smart move by building a casino that plays off that history of Rat Pack cool and bad behavior. It be a bit ironic to knock down a property and build a modern take on The Sands barely a decade and a half after the original was destroyed... but Vegas is ever changing, so why can't it change back and regrow some of its roots?

Niche It Up: I've already noted in the past how nichey Las Vegas is becoming. The North Strip could be a great spot to serve some of the niches who are not coming to Las Vegas. Put that Ace Hotel I keep talking about in one of those empty lots, build a Standard Hotel (for the d-bag Entourage loving crowd who thinks they're artsy and interesting), create a techy and gamer-centric destination geeks will love, build a gay resort, target Latin-Americans (a strategy that's been working for nearby Primm), market to pirates. Builders can think smart as they build these more modest places with specific target audiences in mind instead of spending billions as they try to become all things to all people. And while these niche based properties will appeal to smaller audiences, those same audiences will be fiercely loyal to the resorts that speak to their desires directly.

Go Downscale: The pre-recession Vegas boom witnessed the opening of more and more luxury resorts on The Strip, but those salad days are over (I've never understood that term, btw... salads are sensible and healthy meals, so why does the term "salad days" mean a time of youthful irresponsibility? Just sayin'.) and more and more resorts have seen the writing on the wall. While Treasure Island (or TI as it's known to the kiddies) was never an upscale resort (even before Steve Wynn sold it), the place is now smartly marketing to mid level audiences, replacing upscale nightclubs with more affordable party destinations like Senor Frogs, Gilley's Salon, and Kahunaville. The entrepreneurs of the North Strip's future would be wise to follow this model as they build out in the desolate area. There's enough luxury options for the 1%... open some fun options for the rest of us out there.

Connect to Downtown: I know, I'm obsessed with the continued development of Downtown Las Vegas, but I find Tony Hseih's plan to renovate the area inspiring and fascinating. The North Strip and Downtown will never actually physically connect to each other, but they can do so spiritually. Downtown is becoming the part of Las Vegas where the cool, bohemian, artsy, and progressive can hang out... why can't the North Strip open a few bars and establishments that appeal to the creative class who live in and visit Sin City. And who knows, maybe Hseih, the Santa Clause of Downtown, will reach into his bottomless moneybag and build a monorail that connects the end of The Strip to his beloved hood? It might sound crazy, but making it easier (and cheaper) to travel between The Strip and Downtown will bring more people out to the area, which is exactly what Hseih wants and needs for his vision to succeed.

Turn Failures into Wins: Sure there are now a ton of empty lots where historic resorts once stood and luxurious new properties were supposed to tower above The Strip. But why not turn those failures into wins? Don't think of them as empty lots, think of them as giant theme parks. The owners of these failed properties could stop losing money every day with unfinished products and turn the husks of resorts they've built into fun attractions, like haunted houses, spots to install ziplines, or "recession tours."

Okay, this is a terrible idea, but someone has to do something with these massive empty lots.