Las Vegas' sad state of affairs

We just returned from a short stay in Las Vegas, my first visit there since 2006 and one of many visits over the past 25 years. I can't help but think this place is losing much of its charm and class. What once had a sort of earnest entrepreneurial feel, now seems a lot more like greed run amuck. We stayed on the north end of The Strip, also known as Las Vegas Boulevard, right across the street from the bankrupt Fontainebleu Hotel/Casino complex. Work stopped on it about a year ago when the developer ran out of money.

Mothballed Fontainebleau

Just down the road, past the decaying Circus Circus, the massive Echelon complex sits abandoned, it's sprawling series of buildings behind a tall fence on acres of prime Vegas real estate. A story in the local paper today said Marriott may come to the rescue if the project can ever be completed.

Farther down the strip in the midst of a collection of glass towers, the Cosmopolitan is nearing completion and work is actually moving ahead. A wide swath of financial disaster fueled by a belief that there was no end to the money that would roll into the city if only the facilities were built. This is a city that is visibly hurting and badly in need of direction and vision.

Some of the new places are nice, but in general, the tacky is winning out over the classy. The classic hotel casinos still remain, like Caesars Palace, the Bellagio and Steve Wynn's twin towers. But a lot of the rest of it is decaying junk or worse, new junk. The Miracle Mile shopping center is a prime example of the latter. Hunkered up against Planet Hollywood (formerly the Aladin), the place offends most of my senses -- a load, tasteless temple to consumerism.

Vegas has grown so fast in recent years that it's lost its sense of perspective, not to mention esthetics, quality and certainly direction. The schlock is starting to win out. And it's too bad because this once was a classy city that attracted classy people. Where is the civic leadership? Where is their sense of shame?