Interstate 11

[Scott5114]

I think single-family housing is great. When I buy my first house, I sure don't wanna buy one that's next to an apartment or a condo or a townhouse. I want to be near other single-family houses.

I prefer living in single-family houses too, but I do have to say the monoculture of single-family houses in northwest Las Vegas, where I live now, is probably a bit much. There aren't a lot of businesses near where I am, just other houses, so I have to drive past an inconvenient number of houses I don't live in to get to anywhere I might actually have something to do. (NW LV is notorious enough for this that Google satellite screengrabs of neighborhoods here are often used as poster children by new urbanists.)

Before I bought my house, I lived near the Charleston and Rainbow intersection. That area has a mix of businesses, multi-family, and single-family housing, which I find much closer to ideal than where I live now. But my house is a lot nicer and more affordable than those for sale in that area, so...

[pderocco]

I think single-family housing is great. When I buy my first house, I sure don't wanna buy one that's next to an apartment or a condo or a townhouse. I want to be near other single-family houses.

I prefer living in single-family houses too, but I do have to say the monoculture of single-family houses in northwest Las Vegas, where I live now, is probably a bit much. There aren't a lot of businesses near where I am, just other houses, so I have to drive past an inconvenient number of houses I don't live in to get to anywhere I might actually have something to do. (NW LV is notorious enough for this that Google satellite screengrabs of neighborhoods here are often used as poster children by new urbanists.)

Before I bought my house, I lived near the Charleston and Rainbow intersection. That area has a mix of businesses, multi-family, and single-family housing, which I find much closer to ideal than where I live now. But my house is a lot nicer and more affordable than those for sale in that area, so...

The benefits of mass production.

[Scott5114]

The benefits of mass production.

Also location, location, location. Rainbow and Charleston is close enough to the Strip that I could see the whole skyline from the parking lot. Where I am now, I can see the Strat if I'm lucky.

[Bobby5280]

New Urbanism had some good ideas. Unfortunately it seems like every attempt at executing those ideas in a city's urban core have failed miserably. That's because only the upper income segment of society can afford to live in any of those trendy, mixed use spaces. There's no room there for people who aren't well off. The condos, town houses, apartments, etc all get bought up by high income earners who already own other homes. That leaves the service industry people who wait tables, cook food and do all sorts of other vital yet shitty paying jobs in those trendy city centers having to commute considerable distances to work their shitty paying jobs.

This is also the same problem with all these damned sprawling areas covered with single family homes. Somebody has to stock the grocery store shelves at the neighborhood grocery store serving those gated "communities." But that worker sure as shit can't afford to live any close distance to the store where he works.

Some of the staffing shortages at restaurants, retailers, etc can be attributed to prospective employees having to commute way too far to work a low wage job like that. More of those jobs are going unfilled. And us assholes have the audacity to bitch that "no one wants to work" if we have to put up with slow service at a restaurant operating with a skeleton crew. Uh, no. We need to brush up on our math.

[Scott5114]

Well, presumably, the solution to that is to build more of the high-density mixed-use stuff so as to increase supply and bring down the price of it. That isn't happening for whatever reason, though.

[Plutonic Panda]

Well, presumably, the solution to that is to build more of the high-density mixed-use stuff so as to increase supply and bring down the price of it. That isn't happening for whatever reason, though.

I've always wondered if that weird sketchy section in between downtown Las Vegas and the strip will ever take takeoff. Even today it's sketchy as hell. I'll still walk through it at night, but there are some interesting folks that hang out in that area. It's almost like the twilight zone.

[Scott5114]

Well, presumably, the solution to that is to build more of the high-density mixed-use stuff so as to increase supply and bring down the price of it. That isn't happening for whatever reason, though.

I've always wondered if that weird sketchy section in between downtown Las Vegas and the strip will ever take takeoff. Even today it's sketchy as hell. I'll still walk through it at night, but there are some interesting folks that hang out in that area. It's almost like the twilight zone.

Some guy got murdered and his face eaten at the corner of Charleston and LVB right after we moved here. That was pretty wild, reading the news and being like "oh shit, we just drove through there the other night". I will drive through the area but I don't think I'd be confident enough to walk it after dark. That area has a bad reputation but not as bad as Naked City, the area to the west of the Strat, which is generally considered the worst part of town.

As to why it hasn't developed more, I don't know. All of that section being in LV city limits, unlike the Strip, probably has something to do with it. But you'd think the real estate would be valuable enough someone would try to make a go at extending the Strip further north to downtown. Maybe it's such a bad area nobody tries, and because nobody tries it's a bad area.

[Bobby5280]

Well, presumably, the solution to that is to build more of the high-density mixed-use stuff so as to increase supply and bring down the price of it. That isn't happening for whatever reason, though.

One reason is America's residential real estate market has been turned into a global investment playground. It's relatively easy for investors from any part of the world to buy up American homes and hold onto them like shares of stock.

Another reason is most city councils try their best not to approve any multi-unit housing that isn't for wealthy people. If a city council dares to do such a thing local residents will want their heads on pikes. This is going on everywhere, even in bastions of "liberal" territory, like California. People will talk a big game about how they're for "equality" and all that stuff. But not in my back yard! Limousine liberals do just as much punching-down at the lower classes as conservatives who do so openly. All that punching down is going to cost us badly in the long run.

As to why it hasn't developed more, I don't know. All of that section being in LV city limits, unlike the Strip, probably has something to do with it. But you'd think the real estate would be valuable enough someone would try to make a go at extending the Strip further north to downtown. Maybe it's such a bad area nobody tries, and because nobody tries it's a bad area.

I don't know. Maybe over enough time gentrification will spread through the area. Look at what happened to the worst parts of New York City as an example. When I lived there 30+ years ago I wouldn't dare go walking in Brooklyn neighborhoods like Bedford-Stuyvesant or Brownsville after dark. Hell, they were sketchy enough during the daylight hours. Those former combat zones are all yuppie-fied now. The same thing could happen to those rough areas of Las Vegas. Now, if the housing industry goes into a deep nose-dive again those bad areas of Las Vegas could end up growing.

[The Ghostbuster]

How prominent is new urbanism development in Las Vegas? Hopefully there won't be any advocation for tearing down freeways in Las Vegas, since I don't think there are any in the area that are unnecessary.

[Plutonic Panda]

Is the Downtown Access project canceled entirely or just shelved indefinitely?

[Scott5114]

How prominent is new urbanism development in Las Vegas?

It's not. RTC was considering light rail a few years back but it got watered down to a single BRT line along Maryland Parkway.

[Max Rockatansky]

How prominent is new urbanism development in Las Vegas?

It's not. RTC was considering light rail a few years back but it got watered down to a single BRT line along Maryland Parkway.

I always kind of viewed what has happened to Las Vegas Boulevard in Paradise and Fremont Street as has kind of an Urbanist slant.  Both corridors were heavily revamped since the 1990s to make them more pedestrian friendly.  Mind you both corridors were altered to facilitate tourism rather than having an actual Urbanist slant. 

[Molandfreak]

How prominent is new urbanism development in Las Vegas?

It's not. RTC was considering light rail a few years back but it got watered down to a single BRT line along Maryland Parkway.

Heck, the LVCC ended up with a boring company tunnel with teslas driving slowly between two stations a walking distance away, instead of extending the monorail to the airport. 

[kdk]

Well, presumably, the solution to that is to build more of the high-density mixed-use stuff so as to increase supply and bring down the price of it. That isn't happening for whatever reason, though.

I've always wondered if that weird sketchy section in between downtown Las Vegas and the strip will ever take takeoff. Even today it's sketchy as hell. I'll still walk through it at night, but there are some interesting folks that hang out in that area. It's almost like the twilight zone.

It's more to do with property size.  South of Sahara the land parcel size are large enough to build the mega resorts.  I think that was maybe related to being outside city limits to an extent.  The original casino resorts even though were smaller, still all sat on larger parcels.  North of Sahara the parcels are much smaller and have various owners.  If a developer wanted to build a larger project in this area they would have to negotiate with numerous owners to acquire enough land.  There's always the one or two owners who won't sell.

The area along Main St north of the Strat though has been redeveloping on its own.  It's just west of LV Blvd.  There you find some unique restaurants/bars that the local "hipster" crowd hangs out at.  That is kind of an island of decent stuff between the strip and downtown.