I'm glad I waited before selling off all my worldly goods to go live in the Holocratic Tech Utopia. The newest post about the collapse of factorli is also giving me whiplash. It is a good article, but overall I am left wondering: is this Downtown project and tech boom in las vegas a thing? Or is it just a flash in the pan? Because it seemed kind of neat on monday.
Because the guy who wrote the check wants it for his hometown.
Why do I want Chicago to be successful? On one hand, it get's super cold so it isn't the most practical location and it's kind of a racial powder keg. On the other hand, it is my home.
Las Vegas is not his hometown. He moved Zappos to Las Vegas from SF for a more favorable tax environment, cheaper cost of living, etc.
And, about the comment about water shortage-- doesnt a significant portion of California's water flow through Nevada from the Colorado river? If so, Nevada is not lacking in water as much as in political power.
California gets ~10% of their water from the Colorado River System. They'll be getting less as more states use their full allocation and the surplus that California has been getting dries up. There is ongoing battling about distributing the water more fairly but that only delays the issues that Las Vegas faces with current population growth. The city has done quite a bit to provide incentive to residents to conserve water with things like tax credits for xeriscaping their properties instead of having lawns. They'll have to do quite a bit more to either curb the growth or find other sources of water.
As far as the distribution of the Colorado River Systems water goes, that's a mess that dates back to 1922.
Las Vegas is not his hometown, but it is mine (and my father's, and his father moved to Boulder City at 19 to work on Boulder/Hoover Dam).
Family business growing up (started by grandfather/father above): drilling water wells. So, ya know, I've got a layman's understanding.
In the West, water rights are property rights. There are nearly 100 year old agreements on the split of water taken from the Colorado river.
Look up Arizona v. California.
In summary, as long as at least 7,500,000 acre feet of water is available from the Colorado River, California is allocated 4,400,000 acre·ft; Nevada, 300,000 acre·ft; and Arizona, the remainder. If more water is available, California is entitled to 50% of the water from the Colorado River, Arizona to 46%, and Nevada to 4%. If less water is available, the Secretary of the Interior must allocate the water according to various formulas (which were the subjects of the court cases) to ensure that each state receives a specified amount, with California receiving an absolute fixed maximum of 4,400,000 acre feet per year (547 U.S. 157).
Bad climate and lack of water are two common misconceptions applied to both Las Vegas and Phoenix.
Both are hot and dry, which many people love. Hot and dry > hot and humid, which is Texas, Florida, and most of the area in between. Nevada, Arizona, Texas, and Florida are the top retirement destinations for folks from the Midwest and Northeast, sick of cold and snow. Personally I prefer Las Vegas to the others because it's dry and doesn't have bugs (unlike Texas and Florida) but it's not quite as hot as Phoenix (which runs about 10'F hotter).
Water wise, Lake Mead is the largest reservoir in the United States, less than an hour's drive away from downtown Las Vegas. Lake Mead's water is used by several states under a complicated water sharing agreement, but push come to shove, you can't physically move it out of Nevada. No significant water use restrictions have been placed on Las Vegas. By contrast, look at the situation in California, where some towns have had to resort to trucking in water because even their groundwater resources are entirely depleted.
> Water wise, Lake Mead is the largest reservoir in the United States, less than an hour's drive away from downtown Las Vegas. Lake Mead's water is used by several states under a complicated water sharing agreement, but push come to shove, you can't physically move it out of Nevada.
Actually, it really wants to move out of Nevada on its own, which is why it takes the Hoover Dam to keep it there -- and, even so, its not all in Nevada to start with.
And, push come to shove, the Colorado River is dammed further upriver than Lake Mead, so, in a sense, the reservoir could be moved out of Nevada. (As the reduction in releases from Lake Powell to Lake Mead recently demonstrates.)
Or, more importantly, it could cease to exist as useful reservoir with only a few more of the poor water years without a significant break that have been the norm since 2000.
> Or, more importantly, it could cease to exist as useful reservoir with only a few more of the poor water years without a significant break that have been the norm since 2000.
I've seen Hoover Dam from the inside. I'd pay to see it again at the bottom from the former lake bed.
I have lived in Las Vegas for 6 1/2 years, including 7 summers. I'd rather live here than in Florida, where it gets nearly as hot, but which is way more humid and uncomfortable in my opinion. I'm not sure where this idea that Vegas is unlivable in the summer comes from -- it's no worse here in terms of extremes than the winters of some cities. No one would realistically think they could stay outside all the time during the 5-6 month winters of, say, Wisconsin or Vermont. It's already in the high 30's for lows in Wisconsin, for example. But for some reason people accept that without question but think it's crazy living in a place where's it hot (but no shoveling snow!) for 3 months and amazing for 9 months.
As far as Las Vegas getting 90% of its water from the Colorado river, that is true. Which is a whopping 4% of the amount available each year. As bad as things are getting in California, we're not too far from needing desalination there which frees up more than enough water for Las Vegas.
I was born-n-raised, moved to Texas when I was 24 or 25. I've been back a couple times. Dad and sister both live there. Mom and brother are both buried there.
It's pretty damned hot if you're working outside. I don't remember it being that hot when I was younger (we would run across the street in bare feet).
Having lived in both Florida and Las Vegas, Las Vegas is so much nicer. This might be cliche, but the humidity really does make all the difference. High temps are 20 degrees lower in Florida, but I'd rather stand outside in 110F heat in the desert than 90F in a Florida summer.
Not just cheap property but quality property. Want to live in a new high rise condo? Plenty of options remain from the building bust.
Very fast flight from LA, fast flight from SF. Massive amount of business travelers for conferences. Largely because of the proximity to California Vegas has a fairly good pool of employees. There are a lot of promising alternatives that just fall flat on their face in this regards (whether you have a tech startup or a factory, good luck in Miami.)
There is plenty to not like about Las Vegas but it is one of those places things make more sense when closely examined.
Water is a long term concern but depending on climate change, 200 years out a lot of major world cities will be gone, Las Vegas may very well still be around.
It's also fairly natural-disaster resistant. We get floods now and again, but that is managed fairly well. Otherwise, we aren't very susceptible to tornadoes, hurricanes, tsunamis, earthquakes, etc.
I've always been interested in the Downtown Project but haven't had a chance to visit. Can someone more familiar with it comment on the state of download Las Vegas now?
I know a couple of people who live in Vegas who are familiar with the project. Based on what they have been saying, it is a prime example of why it is not possible to create a "startup hub" just by pouring money into some random city. You also need great educational institutions nearby as well as a healthy mix of angel investors and VCs. Attract enough smart, curious and self-driven people to create a "critical mass" and then have lots of money available to fund the ideas that emerge. That's what made SV what it is.
I was actually asked if I'd be interested in moving to Vegas to join an accelerator to seriously pursue one of my ideas, but I declined. In my mind, Vegas is for weekend getaways. I could never live there.
Besides that, the project seems to suffer from typical nepotism. When you're giving jobs to family and friends without paying any attention to whether they are qualified, you are shooting yourself in the foot and significantly decreasing your chances of success in a project that's already very ambitious. I hope things work out but it isn't looking good right now.
I've visited the Downtown Project this summer part of the 2014 UP Summit. It's really a great place to be, the vibe is really good and there's ton of awesome projects. I think the project is well balanced. You have small business incubator, startups incubator, a lot of community space and education project.
But it was hard to see who really had the leadership. I thought it was Hsieh but he dismissed it. Maybe they also had too much project. Lack of focus, lack of leadership and maybe going to fast. I hope the project turn around and that someone step-up to take the leadership, because it's really a great place although I hate Vegas. Hmm maybe in this sense this project represent well Vegas... an orgy of fake.
I just visited Container Park this past weekend. It certainly is a cool area with a lot of public space and I could tell locals were really enjoying themselves. It's kind of like Hayes Valley in SF (where Smitten is) if you know where that is.
It's true what they say about Vegas though in that there's a slight cult vibe and the quality of the establishments are poor despite their looks.
If you read reviews from Zappos employees on GlassDoor starting a couple years back, you got the impression that Tony's heart wasn't in zappos anymore, it was in the Downtown Project.
I wonder where his heart is now? It's sad to see, Tony's Vegas ambitions were so wild and unique. It was impossible not to root for him.
I can't help but conclude that someone who is so obsessed with creating "Happiness" is actually not that happy. Otherwise why would he be chasing it with such desperation? One profile of Tony Hsieh said that he has literally read hundreds of books about how to create happiness, and of course he wrote one too.
A person who is happy is not reading hundreds of books about happiness. And that person will also not become happy through doing that. Happiness is not something you can create externally. (Yes, if you're starving and homeless then having some money and material possessions would definitely make you happy. But we are talking about multimillionaires and billionaires here who are not in that situation.)
I think the entire downtown project has much less to do with creating some sort of startup utopia than it has to do with something personal that Tony is seeking for himself. But he won't find it outside of himself.
Editor, is there an editor around!? Or do we just have people.
"Hsieh’s move comes as the project has laid off about 30 percent of its staff, or 30 people, which does not include the community of entrepreneurs funded by the project. or about 30 people, these people said."
Yes, yes it was. http://recode.net/2014/09/29/downtown-las-vegas-is-the-great...
How did they miss this until today?