Las Vegas, Nevada, United States

History | Geography | Economy | Tourist Industry | Downtown casinos | Las Vegas Strip | Development | Other industries | Impact of growth on water supply | Education : Universities

🇺🇸 Las Vegas, officially the City of Las Vegas and often known simply as Vegas, is the 28th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas Valley metropolitan area and is the largest city within the greater Mojave Desert. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city, known primarily for its gambling, shopping, fine dining, entertainment, and nightlife. The Las Vegas Valley as a whole serves as the leading financial, commercial, and cultural centre for Nevada.

The city bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, and is famous for its luxurious and extremely large casino-hotels together with their associated activities. It is a top three destination in the United States for business conventions and a global leader in the hospitality industry, claiming more AAA Five Diamond hotels than any other city in the world. Today, Las Vegas annually ranks as one of the world's most visited tourist destinations. The city's tolerance for numerous forms of adult entertainment earned it the title of "Sin City", and has made Las Vegas a popular setting for literature, films, television programs, and music videos.

Las Vegas was settled in 1905 and officially incorporated in 1911. At the close of the 20th century, it was the most populated North American city founded within that century (a similar distinction was earned by Chicago in the 19th century). Population growth has accelerated since the 1960s, and between 1990 and 2000 the population nearly doubled, increasing by 85.2%. Rapid growth has continued into the 21st century.

As with most major metropolitan areas, the name of the primary city ("Las Vegas" in this case) is often used to describe areas beyond official city limits. In the case of Las Vegas, this especially applies to the areas on and near the Las Vegas Strip, which are actually located within the unincorporated communities of Paradise and Winchester. Nevada is the driest state, and Las Vegas is the driest major U.S. city. Over time and influenced by climate change, droughts in Southern Nevada have been increasing in frequency and severity, putting a further strain on Las Vegas' water security.

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History Nomadic Paleo-Indians traveled to the Las Vegas area 10,000 years ago, leaving behind petroglyphs. Ancient Puebloan and Paiute tribes followed at least 2,000 years ago.

A young Mexican scout named Rafael Rivera is credited as the first non-Native American to encounter the valley, in 1829. Trader Antonio Armijo led a 60-man party along the Spanish Trail to Los Angeles, California in 1829. In 1844, John C. Frémont arrived, and his writings helped lure pioneers to the area. Downtown Las Vegas's Fremont Street is named after him.

Eleven years later, members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints chose Las Vegas as the site to build a fort halfway between Salt Lake City and Los Angeles, where they would travel to gather supplies. The fort was abandoned several years afterward. The remainder of this Old Mormon Fort can still be seen at the intersection of Las Vegas Boulevard and Washington Avenue.

Las Vegas was founded as a city in 1905, when 110 acres (45 ha) of land adjacent to the Union Pacific Railroad tracks were auctioned in what would become the downtown area. In 1911, Las Vegas was incorporated as a city.

1931 was a pivotal year for Las Vegas. At that time, Nevada legalized casino gambling and reduced residency requirements for divorce to six weeks. This year also witnessed the beginning of construction on nearby Hoover Dam. The influx of construction workers and their families helped Las Vegas avoid economic calamity during the Great Depression. The construction work was completed in 1935.

In late 1941, Las Vegas Army Airfield was established. Renamed Nellis Air Force Base in 1950, it is now home to the United States Air Force Thunderbirds aerobatic team.

Following World War II, lavishly decorated hotels, gambling casinos, and big-name entertainment became synonymous with Las Vegas.

In 1951, nuclear weapons testing began at the Nevada Test Site, 65 miles (105 km) north-west of Las Vegas. During this time, the city was nicknamed the "Atomic City". Residents and visitors were able to witness the mushroom clouds (and were exposed to the fallout) until 1963 when the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty required that nuclear tests be moved underground.

In 1955, the Moulin Rouge Hotel opened and became the first racially integrated casino-hotel in Las Vegas.

The iconic "Welcome to Las Vegas" sign, which has never been located within municipal limits, was created in 1959 by Betty Willis.

During the 1960s, corporations and business tycoons such as Howard Hughes were building and buying hotel-casino properties. Gambling was referred to as "gaming", which transitioned it into a legitimate business. Learning from Las Vegas, published during this era, asked architects to take inspiration from the city's highly decorated buildings, helping to start the postmodern architecture movement.

In 1995, the Fremont Street Experience opened in Las Vegas's downtown area. This canopied five-block area features 12.5 million LED lights and 550,000 watts of sound from dusk until midnight during shows held at the top of each hour.

Due to the realization of many revitalization efforts, 2012 was dubbed "The Year of Downtown". Projects worth hundreds of millions of dollars made their debut at this time, including the Smith Center for the Performing Arts, the DISCOVERY Children's Museum, the Mob Museum, the Neon Museum, a new City Hall complex, and renovations for a new Zappos.com corporate headquarters in the old City Hall building.

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Geography Las Vegas is situated within Clark County, in a basin on the floor of the Mojave Desert, and is surrounded by mountain ranges on all sides. Much of the landscape is rocky and arid, with desert vegetation and wildlife. It can be subjected to torrential flash floods, although much has been done to mitigate the effects of flash floods through improved drainage systems.

The peaks surrounding Las Vegas reach elevations of over 10,000 feet (3,000 m), and act as barriers to the strong flow of moisture from the surrounding area. The elevation is approximately 2,030 ft (620 m) above sea level. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 135.86 sq mi (351.9 km²), of which 135.81 sq mi (351.7 km²) is land and 0.05 sq mi (0.13 km²) (0.03%) is water.

After Alaska and California, Nevada is the third most seismically active state in the U.S. It has been estimated by the United States Geological Survey (USGS) that over the next 50 years, there is a 10–20% chance of an M6.0 or greater earthquake occurring within 50 km (31 mi) of Las Vegas.

Within the city, there are many lawns, trees and other greenery. Due to water resource issues, there has been a movement to encourage xeriscapes. Another part of conservation efforts is scheduled watering days for residential landscaping. A U.S. Environmental Protection Agency grant in 2008 funded a program that analyzed and forecast growth and environmental impacts through 2019.

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Economy The primary drivers of the Las Vegas economy are tourism, gaming, and conventions, which in turn feed the retail and restaurant industries.

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Tourist Industry The major attractions in Las Vegas are the casinos and the hotels, although in recent years other new attractions have begun to emerge.

Most casinos in the downtown area are located on Fremont Street, with The STRAT Hotel, Casino & Skypod as one of the few exceptions. Fremont East, adjacent to the Fremont Street Experience, was granted variances to allow bars to be closer together, similar to the Gaslamp Quarter of San Diego, the goal being to attract a different demographic than the Strip attracts.

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Downtown casinos The Golden Gate Hotel and Casino, located downtown along the Fremont Street Experience, is the oldest continuously operating hotel and casino in Las Vegas; it opened in 1906 as the Hotel Nevada.

In 1931, the Northern Club (now the La Bayou) opened. The most notable of the early casinos may have been Binion's Horseshoe (now Binion's Gambling Hall and Hotel) while it was run by Benny Binion.

Boyd Gaming has a major presence downtown operating the California Hotel & Casino, the Fremont Hotel & Casino, and the Main Street Casino. The Four Queens also operates downtown along the Fremont Street Experience.

Downtown casinos that have undergone major renovations and revitalization in recent years include the Golden Nugget Las Vegas, The D Las Vegas (formerly Fitzgerald's), the Downtown Grand Las Vegas (formerly Lady Luck), the El Cortez Hotel & Casino, and the Plaza Hotel & Casino.

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Las Vegas Strip The centre of the gambling and entertainment industry is located on the Las Vegas Strip, outside the city limits in the surrounding unincorporated communities of Paradise and Winchester in Clark County. Some of the largest casinos and buildings are located there.

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Development When The Mirage opened in 1989, it started a trend of major resort development on the Las Vegas Strip outside of the city. This resulted in a drop in tourism in the downtown area, but many recent projects have increased the number of visitors to downtown.

An effort has been made by city officials to diversify the economy by attracting health-related, high-tech and other commercial interests. No state tax for individuals or corporations, as well as a lack of other forms of business-related taxes, have aided the success of these efforts.

The Fremont Street Experience was built in an effort to draw tourists back to the area and has been popular since its startup in 1995.

The city purchased 61 acres (25 ha) of property from the Union Pacific Railroad in 1995 with the goal of creating a better draw for more people to the downtown area. In 2004, Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman announced plans for Symphony Park, which could include a mixture of offerings, such as residential space and office buildings.

Already operating in Symphony Park is the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health (opened in 2010), The Smith Center for the Performing Arts (opened in 2012) and the DISCOVERY Children's Museum (opened in 2013).

On land across from Symphony Park, the World Market Center Las Vegas opened in 2005. It currently encompasses three large buildings with a total of 5.1 million square feet. Trade shows for the furniture and furnishing industries are held there semiannually.

Also located nearby is the Las Vegas North Premium Outlets. With a second expansion, completed in May 2015, the mall currently offers 175 stores.

City offices moved to a new Las Vegas City Hall in February 2013 on downtown's Main Street. The former City Hall building is now occupied by the corporate headquarters for the major online retailer, Zappos.com, which opened downtown in 2013. Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh took an interest in the urban area and contributed $350 million toward a revitalization effort called the Downtown Project. Projects funded include Las Vegas's first independent bookstore, The Writer's Block.

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Other industries A number of new industries have moved to Las Vegas in recent decades. Online shoe retailer Zappos.com (now an Amazon subsidiary) was founded in San Francisco but by 2013 had moved its headquarters to downtown Las Vegas. Allegiant Air, a low-cost air carrier, launched in 1997 with its first hub at Harry Reid International Airport and headquarters in nearby Summerlin.

Planet 13 Holdings, a cannabis company, have opened the world's largest cannabis dispensary in Las Vegas at 112,000 sq ft (10,400 m²).

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Impact of growth on water supply A growing population means the Las Vegas Valley used 1.2 billion US gallons (4.5×109 L) more water in 2014 than in 2011. Although water conservation efforts implemented in the wake of a 2002 drought have had some success, local water consumption remains 30 percent more than in Los Angeles, and over three times that of San Francisco metropolitan area residents. The Southern Nevada Water Authority is building a $1.4 billion tunnel and pumping station to bring water from Lake Mead, has purchased water rights throughout Nevada, and has planned a controversial $3.2 billion pipeline across half the state. By law, the Las Vegas Water Service District "may deny any request for a water commitment or request for a water connection if the District has an inadequate supply of water". However, limiting growth on the basis of an inadequate water supply has been unpopular with the casino and building industries.

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Education: Universities The College of Southern Nevada (the third largest community college in the United States by enrollment) is the main higher education facility in the city. Other institutions include the Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine at UNLV and the for-profit private school Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts. Educational opportunities exist around the city; among them are the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and Nevada State College run by the Nevada System of Higher Education, Desert Research Institute, The International Academy of Design & Technology Las Vegas and Touro University Nevada.

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Las Vegas, Nevada, United States 
<b>Las Vegas, Nevada, United States</b>
Image: Adobe Stock vichie81 #276166173

Las Vegas is rated Sufficiency by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network (GaWC) which evaluates and ranks the relationships between world cities in the context of globalisation. Sufficiency level cities are cities that have a sufficient degree of services so as not to be overly dependent on world cities.

Las Vegas is ranked #56 by the Global Urban Competitiveness Report (GUCR) which evaluates and ranks world cities in the context of economic competitiveness. Las Vegas has a population of over 623,747 people. Las Vegas also forms part of the wider Las Vegas Valley metropolitan area which has a population of over 2,700,000 people. Las Vegas is the #19 hipster city in the world, with a hipster score of 6.1864 according to the Hipster Index which evaluates and ranks the major cities of the world according to the number of vegan eateries, coffee shops, tattoo studios, vintage boutiques, and record stores. Las Vegas is ranked #62 for startups with a score of 7.023.

To set up a UBI Lab for Las Vegas see: https://www.ubilabnetwork.org Twitter: https://twitter.com/UBILabNetwork

Twin Towns - Sister Cities Las Vegas has links with:

🇵🇭 Angeles City, Philippines 🇰🇷 Ansan, South Korea 🇨🇳 Huludao, China 🇲🇽 León, Mexico 🇹🇭 Phuket City, Thailand 🇵🇭 Tagaytay, Philippines
Text Atribution: Wikipedia Text under CC-BY-SA license | GaWC | GUCR | Hipster Index | StartupBlink

North of: 36.167

🇬🇷 Rhodes 36.167

🇺🇸 Nashville 36.167

🇯🇵 Hanyū 36.174

🇮🇶 Erbil 36.183

🇨🇳 Changzhi 36.183

🇩🇿 Sétif 36.183

🇺🇸 Springdale 36.183

🇨🇳 Feicheng 36.186

🇰🇷 Nonsan 36.187

🇯🇵 Fukaya 36.194

South of: 36.167

🇺🇸 Greeneville 36.167

🇺🇸 Cookeville 36.166

🇺🇸 Tulsa 36.155

🇨🇳 Laiwu 36.15

🇩🇿 El Eulma 36.15

🇯🇵 Takayama 36.148

🇯🇵 Kumagaya 36.145

🇯🇵 Gyōda 36.133

🇬🇮 Gibraltar 36.133

🇯🇵 Kazo 36.129

West of: -115.133

🇺🇸 Enterprise -115.24

🇺🇸 Spring Valley -115.242

🇲🇽 Mexicali -115.475

🇺🇸 Calexico -115.498

🇺🇸 El Centro -115.556

🇨🇦 Cranbrook -115.76

🇲🇽 San Quintín -115.933

🇺🇸 Boise -116.202

🇺🇸 Indio -116.214

🇺🇸 Palm Desert -116.337

Antipodal to Las Vegas is: 64.867,-36.167

Locations Near: Las Vegas -115.133,36.1667

🇺🇸 North Las Vegas -115.107,36.203 d: 4.6  

🇺🇸 Sunrise Manor -115.08,36.216 d: 7.3  

🇺🇸 Paradise -115.117,36.067 d: 11.2  

🇺🇸 Spring Valley -115.242,36.099 d: 12.3  

🇺🇸 Enterprise -115.24,36.024 d: 18.5  

🇺🇸 Henderson -114.984,36.034 d: 19.9  

🇺🇸 Kingman -114.017,35.2 d: 147.4  

🇺🇸 St. George -113.584,37.104 d: 173.1  

🇺🇸 Lake Havasu City -114.343,34.475 d: 201.3  

🇺🇸 Apple Valley -117.217,34.524 d: 262.8  

Antipodal to: Las Vegas 64.867,-36.167

🇲🇺 Mahébourg 57.7,-20.407 d: 18129  

🇲🇺 Curepipe 57.517,-20.317 d: 18112.9  

🇲🇺 Centre de Flacq 57.718,-20.2 d: 18108  

🇲🇺 Vacoas-Phoenix 57.493,-20.3 d: 18110.3  

🇲🇺 Quatre Bornes 57.479,-20.266 d: 18106.2  

🇫🇷 Saint-Pierre 55.478,-21.342 d: 18132.1  

🇲🇺 St Pierre 57.517,-20.217 d: 18102.5  

🇲🇺 Beau Bassin-Rose Hill 57.471,-20.235 d: 18102.7  

🇲🇺 Beau-Bassin Rose-Hill 57.467,-20.233 d: 18102.4  

🇲🇺 Moka 57.496,-20.219 d: 18102  

Bing Map

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