The Good, the Bad, the Ugly: Living in Las Vegas

Updated August 2, 2023

I’ve lived in Vegas for more than a year now, and there are aspects of this city that I love… and some that I hate. You take the bad with the good, I suppose, and overall I’ve loved my Vegas adventure. It started out as a career break, and has become semi-permanent. Below, I’ve compiled a list of 5 awesome things about Vegas, and 5 not so awesome.

Despite the 5 complaints on this list, I am happy to live here and I really do love Las Vegas. It feels like people here share a secret: this is a real city, with real people, living real lives. We are so much more than glitz and glamour, and this is something the tourists just don’t understand. Many people scoff at the idea of ‘actually living’ here, but let them. They can come here, drop their money, and fly home hungover on an early Southwest flight.

Here are five reasons why living in Vegas isn’t a 24-hour party:

Living in the Pacific Time Zone kind of sucks. I never know when anything is on TV, and both of my sisters get to eat lunch long before I do. As someone who prizes eating as one of the most wonderful aspects of living, this makes me sad.
98% of Las Vegas drivers believe stop signs, stop lights, lane lines, and driving on the right side of the road are all optional**.** I-15 is a death trap. I don’t know if this is a side effect of being a taxi town, but I basically am looking forward to the day I can afford my own private helicopter to take me to Target.
Everyone has a dog, no one has a yard, and the sidewalk is a toilet that no one cleans.
Vegas has the highest unemployment rate in the country. People here are really struggling, and for many it’s through no fault of their own.
Lawyer commercials. I will know Glen Lerner’s phone number for the rest of my life. It was one of the first things we noticed when Alex and I first moved here–every TV commercial is an ad for a personal injury lawyer. I believe this is further evidence that my complaint in #2 of this list is correct.

Here are 5 reasons why living it up in Las Vegas is completely awesome:

Little rain, no snow, and sunshine nearly every day of the year have spoiled me.
You can never want for activity in Vegas. There are thousands of things to do, both on and off the Strip. This is a 24-hour town, and you can get what you want when you want it. There are so many things to see, people to watch, and meals to eat in this town.
My crazy Vegas neighbors. Yes, I complain about them, and yes, they have inconvenienced me greatly, but damn are they entertaining.
The people. When you generalize Las Vegas, it can seem like a hard city obsessed with superficiality. But when you get to know the people on an individual level, your whole idea of the city changes.
The landscape. For some reason, I never really realized until I moved here that this place is surrounded by absolutely stunning outdoor scenery. The mountains and the desert are amazing adventures just minutes away. The Bureau of Land Management does an excellent job of maintaining the land, and now I associate Red Rock Canyon with Vegas more than I do the Strip.