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Yes, we have one.

Sort of.

What does a city do when it wants to charge above-market rent in otherwise seedy parts of town?

They turn that part of town into an “Arts District”.

Every city in America has an Arts District.  Some have several, but they all serve the same purpose … gentrification.

A depressing warehouse area on the fringe of Skid Row in Los Angeles got turned into an “Arts District”.  Parts of Williamsburg, Brooklyn saw a similar “artist” influx.  The same has happened in  nearly every city throughout the country.

Cities and towns attempt to gentrify a gritty area by making it hip and “funky”.  In real estate parlance, “funky” means “this place is ghetto, but we are going to charge you a fortune anyway”.

Most self-described artists embrace Art Districts.  People like to categorize themselves and segregate themselves.  It’s human nature. “Artists” (whatever that term means) are no different.

I was in the Arts District this morning, and while there, it occurred to me that I rarely, if ever, mention the place by name.

Even though we are one of the largest tourist destinations in the world, few people even realize that Las Vegas has an Arts District. Let’s face it, nobody comes here for the “art”, unless the “artist” is in a thong and is willing to grind your lap for twenty bucks.

Nonetheless, we are now a valley of two million people, and we have a large enough residential base to support our own Arts District without the help of tourists.

How is it going?  Well, take a look at the pictures and judge for yourself.  The area definitely has potential.  It is one of the few areas of Las Vegas that remind me of my home back on the East Coast. The neighborhood is still dirty, but it’s walkable and human-scaled. There are no McMansions or gated communities.  This area has the look and feel of a true city.

What it still lacks, however, is people.

There are not many cafes or restaurants, but there are furniture stores, antique/thrift shops, and the odd gallery here and there.  It’s still very much an inner-city commercial area trying to find itself.

The Arts District’s immediate location between The Strip and Downtown Las Vegas also makes it one of the most compelling undeveloped locations in the nation.

Our Arts District is officially known by the city as “18b”.  It is an 18 block area just south of Downtown, and just north of Naked City.  The city is currently using grant money and live/work ordinances to try to encourage “artists” to both live and work in this section of Downtown.

What they fail to define, however, is the word “artist”.  In my opinion, everyone is an artist in one way or another.  Whether you paint, sing, play an instrument, write, or tell a joke … you’re an artist.  This is why I have never completely understood these neighborhoods as logical entities.  They rely on a large amount of self-assessment, and therein lies part of my personal confusion.  The word is patently undefinable, and thus, so are “legitimate” residents of these neighborhoods.

To illustrate this point, I give you the most common staple of an Arts District.  The loft.  We currently have two large “loft” buildings near the Arts District, but they do not look like any lofts I have ever seen before in my life.  They are large hi-rises that don’t look completely unlike upscale Condos like Turnberry.

The two projects I am referring to are the Newport Lofts and the Soho Lofts.

What is a loft?

“Loft” is just a hipster doofus term for “We don’t bother to finish the inside, thus making it cool.”  The very fact that they would call them “SoHo” lofts is just over the top.  Anyone who has ever been to SoHo is well aware that exactly zero loft buildings in that part of Manhattan look like this.

“I live in a loft” sounds so much more urban chic than “I live in a condo” or “I live in an apartment” or “I live in a townhouse”.

“Loft” is supposed to imply some level of artistic ability, but every loft I ever lived in was inhabited by at least 10 other heroin-shooting musicians, and were generally not very aesthetically pleasing places. They were good for parking bicycles, storing amplifiers, rehearsing, and passing out on the floor after polishing off a gallon of Vodka by 8am. Everyone I knew eventually endeavored to get out of a loft.

They were generally commercial, industrial, or warehouse spaces … with a toilet and sink thrown in. If you were really lucky, you could get a manufactured kitchen bolted into a corner.

“Lofts” were cheap necessities, not sought-after habitats. Someway, somehow, over the years, they managed to bastardize the term “loft” into something completely unrecognizable … yet inflate the prices by double digits by using the term.

“Lofts” aren’t typically built. “Lofts” are converted from existing (usually industrial) buildings.

If you build something from the ground up for residential purposes, then by definition, it probably isn’t a “loft”. At least not by any definition that an actual urban resident would recognize. Let’s face it, these things are marketed to people from the suburbs.

Thus ends that rant.  For now.

Anyway, The Arts District also has an event called “First Friday”.  This event takes place, logically enough, on the first Friday of every month.  It even has its own trolley to shuttle participants around the District from one art/music show to the next.  Venerable local institutions, Holsom Lofts, and Dino’s Bar also participate in First Friday.

It is very easy to access this area from both The Strip and downtown. Take the Deuce Bus, get off at Charleston Blvd, and walk three short blocks West until you hit Casino Center Blvd.  At this point, you are just about in the geographic center of the Arts District.   The official boundaries extends about three blocks in either direction.  Hoover on the North, Colorado on the South, Commerce Street to the West, and Las Vegas Boulevard to the East.

While the city narrowly defines the area, most everything on the East Side of Las Vegas Boulevard between the Stratosphere and Fremont Street is more or less considered the Arts District at this point.

Right now, it is a little depressing.  More than half of the storefronts in the area are vacant, and day-to-day activity is very minimal.

That being said, personally, I would like to see the area succeed.  I live near the Arts District, and would really like to see it become something much more inviting than it is now.  Las Vegas has needed a true urban center since … well … forever, and the location of this place is hard to beat.

While there isn’t a whole lot there at this particular moment, if you want to see what our funky or “phunky” (as one store spells it) neighborhood looks like … it will only take half an hour for you to go over and check it out.

The same caveats apply to this area as they apply to off-Strip areas in general.  While it is reasonably safe during the daytime, I would not tackle the area on foot at nighttime.

It’s not that gentrified yet.

Here’s hoping that it becomes a viable neighborhood someday.

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