The dream dies in Vegas

[Liberal_in_LA]

The dream dies in Vegas
Four transplants found opportunity in a booming city: shiny cars, new homes, high-paying jobs. Then the recession took it away.

By Ashley Powers :: Reporting from Las Vegas

September 6, 2009


An arctic evening in Minnesota: Tracy Bridges shivered near her apartment window, weary of snowstorms and slender paychecks. She was 27, making $23,000 dealing blackjack at an Indian casino in Duluth, and couldn't shake thoughts of those dealers who had flown in from Las Vegas.

They were teaching the casino staffers and talked about high-rollers and tipsy celebrities, about the huge tips dealers pocketed. "I could do that," she thought.

That winter of 1997, Bridges quit her job, packed her Chevy Lumina and sped off across the state, the frozen Red River fading in her rear-view mirror. Five days later, she arrived in Las Vegas in darkness, the hot Mojave air flushing her cheeks, the skyline blazing with neon and possibility.

"Vegas," she thought. "Wow."

Bridges was part of a pilgrimage of aspiration that made Nevada the nation's fastest-growing state and Las Vegas one of its fastest-growing metropolitan areas. They came from New Jersey and Mississippi, from Los Angeles and San Diego, chasing the Vegas Dream: A good job, no college degree required. A cheap house, little money down. A seemingly secure niche in the middle class.

Bridges was able to build a life that made her a star at class reunions. Kami Bennett, with a $28-an-hour job at a home builder and a small inheritance, bought a black Mercedes S500, which she named Black Beauty. Craig Walsh, a union carpenter, got a tattoo on his upper right arm: a red phoenix soaring above the Luxor casino-hotel. Hope Camarena prided herself on showing her daughter that she could make it as a single mom.

They didn't know it would all crumble, quickly and spectacularly, in the manner of a casino implosion.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-vegas-dream6-2009sep06,0,2293950.story?page=3

[Jennicut]

1. I fould it hard to have sympathy for some people in the article

"Some days Bennett stared at her closet, filled with 3-inch peek-a-boo heels she once wore to work. She fired the housekeeper and the pool guy, found a cheaper hair colorist and once paid her $2,200 mortgage in keno winnings.

She has refused to walk away from her suburban home, with its pool, five waterfalls and those brand-new toilets. "I'll do what I have to do," she said. "I'll work three jobs if I have to.""

Five waterfalls! A haircolorist! A $2,200 mortgage! Wow...I never had any of those things so I don't miss them. Why do people think all this stuff will make them happier?

[create.peace]

2. "Jesus Spoils Me Rotten" probably voted, if she did vote, for Col. Sanders,

And I don't have any sympathy for any of the others either. They were looking not for the gold ring, but the gold plated ring, they had shallow goals, and probably had never heard of the 1929 crash, the Great Depression, and ignored the Wonderful Recession of the Reagan era....

[GreenTea]

3. Bubbleheads who believe in the bubble....and who will again in a heartbeat...

if republicans & their corporations are allowed to create more bullshit bubbles, bubbles pop...and when they pop only the slimy corporations make a killing from the splat they leave behind, with no real consequences for them, but profits and the taking of our tax dollars in bailouts & subsidies.

[izquierdista]

4. Easy come....

and easy go. Probably none of these people ever drove up highway 95 and paid any attention to Goldfield. Just as Goldfield was the big boomtown in 1908, Las Vegas is the big boomtown 100 years later. Goldfield is pretty stable now, but it also has a population of just 500 people. I wonder how many will be left when Las Vegas stabilizes?

[Retrograde]

12. Goldfield, Austin, Eureka, Candelaria

Nevada is littered with former boomtowns that went bust. Some of them eventually stabilize, others quietly fall apart and return to the desert: Candelaria, not far from Tonopah, has a population of 0 and no intact buildings.

I'm always surprised Las Vegas has lasted as long as it has. It has no business being that big in that location.

[izquierdista]

14. 200,000 would be a good size

That wouldn't overtax the groundwater off Mt. Charleston, and could be pretty sustainable. Now what to do with the extra 1.8 million???

[azmouse]

5. It isn't HOT in Las Vegas in the winter.

Why does everyone think it's 100+ degrees year round in the desert?
Yeah I know, off topic... but sheesh!

[renate]

6. "I can't live without Chanel now"

:wow:

To give her credit, she sounds like a really hard worker, and how people choose to spend their money is their business, not mine--but I simply don't understand that Chanel mindset, especially in an environment like that.

[SmileyRose]

7. Bad times in Vegas never last long.

Everything in Vegas is "the big casino". You take the big gamble sometimes you lose, sometimes you win. The gamblers WILL come back and the high paid jobs with it.

[Spider Jerusalem]

8. I find it hard to have any sympathy for shallow materialists who can't live within their means.

These people have a common problem: more stuff than they could realistically afford. Even while making a reasonably decent living. If they're fucked now because the bubble has burst, it's partly their own fault for being shortsighted and lacking thrift.

[XemaSab]

9. What a depressing article

Empty lives in an empty place.

[Systematic Chaos]

15. You done gone and nailed it again, XemaSab.

Jeanette and I have made up our minds; we're going to save up as much money as we can over the next 1 to 2.5 years, and beat feet out of this shit hole to somewhere sane. Our number one choice at this moment is Spokane, WA; but somewhere else in Washington or Oregon would be fine (with the exception of even more expensive Seattle).

This place has nothing to offer anybody except endless processions of mind-melted druggies, scam artists and hopelessness. Oh, yeah. And insane fucking heat for 4 months out of the year.

:puke:

[IDFbunny]

10. I would expect that TS attitude in freeperville.

Perhaps if they had lost their well paying jobs in a different city maybe some here would care.

[t0dd]

13. Thank you.

I think even if their motives for going to Vegas in the first place were dubious, these people do not deserve scorn. They were looking for better lives and some material gain (that many are guilty of), and they have yet to find it. Maybe they'll always be chasing some elusive ideal, as happens to many, but I'd never want to see anyone lose sight of what is important to him. More importantly, I don't want to be the judge of what that should be. Nor do I want to condemn people for recklessly pursuing better lives. As someone else said, it is their money, and they can spend it as they see fit. In the meantime, I'll sympathize that their dreams have yet to be realized.

[bvar22]

11. Chasing a dream to Vegas ????

The town that SUCKERS built?

Might as well chase a dream to Death Valley.
The odds are better.