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One of the things I often get criticized for is being too Strip-centric.

People always say “There is more to Las Vegas than The Strip, show us more of that.”

The problem is … these people are wrong.  Outisde of The Strip, Downtown and some nearby areas such as the Rio, Palms, and Hard Rock  … Las Vegas is dirt, walls, and strip malls.

Mostly walls.

You can’t see most of the town because it is behind walls.

For a few months, readers have been asking me to show them other areas of Las Vegas.

I have taken some video of my own neighborhood (which doesn’t have walls), but I have been reticent to oblige them with video of the outlying suburbs.

Why?

First, you can’t see over the walls.  Second, I just don’t leave The Strip area all that often.  I used to live out in “The Lakes” area, but after moving down here in the shadow of the big hotels, I just don’t go back there.

To be fair, we do have some decent casinos in the burbs such as Red Rock, Sun Coast, and Green Valley Ranch, but unless you are a local, I don’t know if they are worth making a special trip.  Red Rock is one of the better suburban casinos, but it’s about 10 miles off-strip.

These days, my boundaries are generally the airport to the south, Decatur to the West, Maryland to the East, and Downtown Las Vegas to the north.

It is rare that I venture outside of these boundaries.

However, today is one of the days that I did.

On Sunday, there was an event going on at a park about 7 miles west of The Strip known as “Desert Breeze Park”.

At about 9am, I hopped on a city bus and headed west.

It was only about a 20 minute trip, but I recorded some of the suburbs along the way … and of course, the walls.

When you get three or four miles from the central area, this is pretty much what the entire city looks like.

There may be some slight variations here and there … some places may be dirtier or cleaner than others, but for the most part, unless you have a particular destination in mind … there is nothing to see.  Except for walls.

The majority of homes in this city are in “planned” developments which are encircled in walls like fortresses to keep out the riff-raff … such as myself.

Except that they don’t work.  I lived in a walled and planned community for over a year (told you they don’t keep out the riff-raff), and there were burglaries constantly and I witnessed a gang fight in front of my home … inside the gates.  And this was the frigging Lakes.  The supposed “good” area of Las Vegas.

The walls are mostly for a false sense of security and also exist so the HOA’s can levy fees to maintain said walls.  They really don’t seem to make the places any more safe.

The only thing I do like about the suburbs, is that some of them actually have cool views of The Strip.

Generally, the further west you go in the valley, the more elevation you gain.  The Las Vegas Valley is actually a bowl (surrounded on all sides by mountains), and it kind of slants from west to east … toward Lake Mead.

The Strip is about 2,100 feet in elevation, and Desert Breeze Park is at 2,600 feet in elevation, so some of the views from the west side are actually pretty good.

Interesting views of the Las Vegas Strip are actually one of the virtues of the Vegas suburbs.

If you ask me, it’s their only virtue.

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