What Makes Las Vegas Las Vegas

VARIETY OF INFLUENCES: What Makes Las Vegas Las Vegas
City shaped by desert heat and dreams of getting a fresh start
By JOHN PRZYBYS of the REVIEW-JOURNAL

What is Las Vegas?

A place. An idea. A stereotype. And, for those of us who happen to live here, a city that defines us in ways we probably don't even realize.
Las Vegas is a place steeped in contradiction and shaped, either subtly or overtly, by both natural and man-made forces that, in turn, shape us.
That's why we batted around this question: What are the basic forces -- things, ideas, conditions -- that define Las Vegas and make it different from any other place in the world?
Here are our conclusions. We don't pretend that our conclusions are the final word. Feel free to do some batting around of your own.

THE DESERT
Las Vegas is shaped in large part by the desert. The heat, dryness and wind have challenged everyone from the earliest American Indian inhabitants to the Mormons who settled here to everybody who has since passed through, visited or come to stay.
"We've perfected the art of going from air-conditioned room to air-conditioned room," jokes Michael Green, a history professor at the College of Southern Nevada.
For many Southern Nevadans, summer here is akin to winter in the country's colder climes: Dig in and wait for it to end. But that attitude, notes David G. Schwartz, director of the Center for Gaming Research at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, "leads to a culture that's less communal, because people spend less time outdoors, and I think people kind of turn inward."
The harsh summer climate also creates a "privatization of public spaces," Schwartz adds. "You're not going to stroll around the park. You're going to be inside of a mall."
Living in the desert "requires that we adapt to it," Green says. "That has its good side -- solar energy is becoming more important -- and it has its bad side. Look at the water we've wasted trying to create the front lawns that we had in the communities we moved here from."

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