Day 5 in Las Vegas

The Coffee Bean, near Red Rock Casino

I have discovered I like it here, so far. The area around Town Center and Summerlin Parkway is especially nice. Close your eyes and you could be in northern Tucson, Scottsdale, or any number of nice suburbs around the southwest. Out here, you can easily forget that The Strip is located a few miles east. Look west toward Red Rock Canyon and the mountains and forget you are in the world's biggest playground.

I've met a few locals, including a Keller Williams real estate broker, a entrepreneur who sells DVDs and books online and is a distributer for SendOutCards.com. I've met a photographer/mountain climber/trail guide from Seattle who has a Nikon D300 I covet. Plus a few business owners who I've met while looking for a job. Looking for work in this economic recession is a challenge, but one I enjoy. Looking for a job helps you learn the city, meet some locals, and you get a sense of what's happening in the local market and economy.

Whenever I've entered a new city, knowing that I'm going to stay awhile, I immediately begin looking for a job. In Las Vegas, as in many cities, the unemployment rate has skyrocketed. But jobs are still available; it just takes some footwork and patience to find them. If you haven't hit the job-hunting trail in a while, understand this: most companies now take applications online and it can be a real pain in the neck. Many sites use questionaires to test your personality type and work ethic, and these drawn out sessions border on the ridiculous.

I long for the old days when you could walk in for a job interview on the spot, fill out an application, get hired or not, then leave. While many small retail stores in shopping strips may post a Help Wanted sign, most franchise companies will simply send you to their web site.

I've been in Las Vegas before, but never for five days straight. I'm beginning to develop some impressions of the place and people who live here. It's no mystery that the health of Las Vegas is tied to the gaming industry.

For reasons I can't comprehend, many leaders in the casino industry were unable to see the current economic crisis coming. As a real estate broker, I attended meetings in 2000 that predicted this very situation. The signs were all there. A housing and credit crisis was coming. (We were told in our meetings in 2000/2001 that the crisis would hit in 2010. Evidently the 9/11 attacks pushed the timetable forward a bit.) So I'm really amazed when I read in the local press that no one saw this downturn coming, or that they are shocked to see a drastic decline in tourism and gaming. The old myth was that gaming and entertainment here was "recession proof."

The MGM Mirage, for example, is near bankruptcy. If it were to fail, the effects on the local economy would be devistating, says the newspaper. So here comes help, probably a bail out of some kind, to help a leading employer stay afloat. The MGM is developing a new complex, CityCenter, and the timing of such a project was always in question. Now with the current ecomomic atmosphere, the MGM is in trouble. But since they are "probably too big to fail", help is likely on the way.

Harrah's on the other hand, may have been the smart ones by holding off on developing their own new toy, the so-called "Epicenter." Back in 2006, they may have seen the writing on the wall and felt the timing wasn't right. They slowed down on their development plans. For MGM, however, it was "if we build it, they will come."

So now we find Las Vegas a little shaky, and more than a little nervous about the coming months. Signs are good that things will turn around, probably next year. But until then, I get the feeling the local business owners and residents are going to be holding their collective breaths to see what continues to happen on The Strip.

As for me, I'll keep pounding the pavement to see what job I can find.