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| View from desert approaching Las Vegas |
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| Half-naked men billboard |
It's hard to believe that Las Vegas is in the middle of the desert as it's a place where you see giant Coca Cola bottles and motorcycle wheels, half-naked men on billboards, and a disneying array of "landmarks" like the Eiffel Tower, the Statue of Liberty and an Egyptian pyramid, among other pseudo-sites. A recent visit reminded me of how fantastical this city is; we'd spent two weeks visiting canyons and national parks in the surrounding area and realizing what richness there is a desert land. Then to drive in from this desert into Las Vegas jarred our sense of place and time. One minute we're looking at petrified dunes and trees, hoodoos, chasms and mountains of rocks and sand and then, hey presto change-o, there's a Subway and 711 store and a bus blinking its route number at us and grocery stores and banners advertising "move in now, one month free rent." It all seemed such a contrivance, so flimsy and false and yet it's clear thousands of people live and work here. As we drove through various residential neighborhoods on our way to the center "strip" we saw schools and offices and all the buildings of any modern city. This experience made me think how cities and towns can be such contrivances on the landscape and then, what a big energy suck this metropolis is. Just imagining the amount of electricity the casinos use and the gallons of water the hotels flush each day was mind-boggling. This is no green city!
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| Magic Kingdon, Statue of Liberty, Caesars Palace all jumble together in Las Vegas |
It's hard to believe that Las Vegas is in the middle of the desert as it's a place where you see giant Coca Cola bottles and motorcycle wheels, half-naked men on billboards, and a disneying array of "landmarks" like the Eiffel Tower, the Statue of Liberty and an Egyptian pyramid, among other pseudo-sites. A recent visit reminded me of how fantastical this city is; we'd spent two weeks visiting canyons and national parks in the surrounding area and realizing what richness there is a desert land. Then to drive in from this desert into Las Vegas jarred our sense of place and time. One minute we're looking at petrified dunes and trees, hoodoos, chasms and mountains of rocks and sand and then, hey presto change-o, there's a Subway and 711 store and a bus blinking its route number at us and grocery stores and banners advertising "move in now, one month free rent." It all seemed such a contrivance, so flimsy and false and yet it's clear thousands of people live and work here. As we drove through various residential neighborhoods on our way to the center "strip" we saw schools and offices and all the buildings of any modern city. This experience made me think how cities and towns can be such contrivances on the landscape and then, what a big energy suck this metropolis is. Just imagining the amount of electricity the casinos use and the gallons of water the hotels flush each day was mind-boggling. This is no green city!
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