Can someone tell me about life in vegas. What kind of life can me and my family expect when getting there? Crime rates and such. Cost of living??? School for my kid. Work???
Im a close up Magician/Comedian (Street Performer) can i work the strip is that legal. Please any Imput? i am GreatFull.
I lived in Laughlin, NV which is about 90 miles south of Vegas and is full of casinos like a mini-vegas. I hated it there… it was like 120 degrees, enough to melt the skin off my white behind. I can’t tell you much about Vegas, -I didn’t like it much. I’d recommend checking into Laughlin if you want to break into the entertainment industry vegas style without all the politics. Personally I’d just say make sure you have a darn reliable vehicle with really good air-conditioning and you might survive!!! 
I’ve got family there, haven’t lived there myself (nor visited all that much). Hotter than blazes during the summer, you’ve heard that. Saying that it’s not as hot as Laughlin isn’t saying much. Desert and very dry, repeat very dry. The mountains are colorful, and the hot-air balloons are pretty cool.
The Strip is only one part of the city. Outside the Strip, it’s pretty ordinary, outside of the slot machines available everywhere, repeat everywhere.
The sidewalks on the Strip can be pretty crowded. Between the crowds and the other spectacle going on, I’m not sure the Strip is the best place for a street performer, but I’ve never tried it myself, and I can’t say what the local laws are. The one place I remember seeing street performers is on Fremont Street, downtown. Downtown is a little seedy, despite redevelopment efforts, but it’s got its own charm, and I’d say there’s a decent potential audience there.
Um, you’ll hear this expression a lot, but, um, good luck.
Reading the local newspaper and city magazine, not just one day but over time, is a pretty good way to get a feel for a place.
I can’t provide immediate cites, but I can recall reading that Las Vegas is one of the fastest growing cities in the U.S. That means housing prices are high, schools are crowded, and the numbers of people with limited skills looking for work helps push down wages.
Job-hunting guide:
http://www.dol.state.nm.us/wdc11.htm
Also, almost every city requires some kind of license for street performers, vendors etc. who collect money in public space, if that’s what you have in mind. Maybe you could find a restaurant or some other place that would pay you just to keep the customers amused while they’re waiting in lines.
I live in Vegas (Henderson actually, just moved)
Anyway, the housing has gotten fairly exspensive in the last year or two. A bunch of people have moved in from California which has driven up the prices a lot. My parents nieghbors just put their house up for sale for ~825,000. The house is about 4 years old and was bought for roughly ~490,000. Apartments have also gone up in price though I am not sure how much. Otherwise the prices are ok. The really cool thing is the buffets, which are pretty cheap and have decent food.
The crime rate seems to be about average for a town this size, I really don’t pay much attention to it. There are certain areas that you don’t want to be in after dark but most areas are fine.
I am not sure about the street performer stuff, I never see any on the Strip so I imagine working the Strip is frowned upon. They do have performers on Feemont street but I believe you have to get a permit, which is probably not easy. You might be able to get a gig at one of the properties on the strip…maybe. This town has A LOT of magicians looking for places to work compared to other places.
There are always open jobs in the service industry.
Life is pretty much like anywhere else. Most people who live here do not hit the strip all that often. I only go to the strip when I have visitors. Oh, you WILL have visitors. ALOT. Friends you haven’t talked to in years will suddenly have an urgent desire to visit you. On the bright side there is always something interesting to see and there are some inexspensive neat things to do.
The heat in the summer does get kinda bad. You just don’t do any outdoor stuff during the day. It is only really hot for a few months. The rest of the time it is really pleasant.
Slee
Since you’re looking for advice more than facts, I’ll move this thread to the IMHO forum.
bibliophage
moderator GQ
Also, keep in mind that any city that has grown so much since WWII tends to be an uber L.A. Extremely spread out and auto-dependent. You will need a car to go anywhere. Coming from New York, I can’t imagine the kind of cultural shock. In my honest opinion–it’s a great place to hang out by the hotel pool sipping a tropical drink. But as a place to deal with life’s mundane chores and responsibilities it doesn’t appeal to me very much.
I love it here!
I also love hot weather, hate snow and rain and mosquitos and humidity.
It actualy gets pretty nippy here in the winter, below freezing sometimes at night.
Fast growth has made it so schools are having a hard time keeping up with the growth, and to be honest, most teenage kids HATE it here, but then again, if I recall correctly, most teenage kids hate it anywhere. The only problem here is the fact that some many students have moved here recently, there is a lot of lonely kids who miss their friends back home - so it does make it a bit funky.
As mentioned, housing prices have gone crazy in the last few years, so expect rent and housing prices to be cheaper than NYC, but I wouldn’t call them “cheap” anymore.
My neighbors are professional magicians, have been to a few of their parties with other friends in the business. Seems to be more than a bit difficult to break into…but not impossible. Street performing on the Strip is not done - I think there are laws against it, but I am not sure. Fremont Street (old part of LV) might be more lenient, but they did just close a few booths with “performances”, so that might not be true anymore.
I think the only realistic way to try this is if you can afford to come out on your own, check it out (there are some great budget hotels with cheap weekly/monthly rates) and get a feel for the area. Not long ago, I read that 7,000 people move here every month, but they don’t like to advertise that 3,000 move AWAY every month. It is still a net gain, but obviously, Las Vegas isn’t for everyone.
But as I said, I love it here.