Living in Las Vegas

The results are in! Here’s a quick run down of the staff and reader picks for Best of Las Vegas 2009.  To get the complete list, head on over to the Las Vegas Review Journal and click on the Best of Las Vegas.

Best Nightclubs: Pure and Prive

Best Family Attractions: Adventuredome and Bonnie Springs Old Nevada

Best Local Rock Bands:  The Killers and The Black Jets

Best Steakhouses: Outback and Capital Grille

Best Performers: Danny Gans and Bette Midler

Best Comedians: Rita Rudner and Craig Ferguson

Best Magicians:  Lance Burton and Keith Barry

Best Singers: Bette Midler and Rick Faugno

Best Strip Hotels: Bellagio and Paris

Best Downtown Hotels: Golden Nugget and El Cortez

Best Locals Hotels: Red Rock Resort and Eastside Cannery

Best Buffets: Bellagio and Wynn

Best Malls: Fashion Show and Town Square

Best Places to take out-of-town guests: Red Rock Canyon and Mount Charleston

Best Celebrity Residents: Andre Agassi and Vince Neil

Best Local TV Anchors: Paula Francis (KLAS-8) and Jim Snyder (KVBC-3)

Best Local Radio Personalities: Mark & Mercedes (KMXB-94.1) and Dave Berns (KNPR-88.9)

Best Local Politicians: Mayor Oscar Goodman and Senator Steven Horsford

Attorney Glen Lerner won the most annoying local TV commercial, beating out John Barr from last year. I have to disagree with this because John Barr’s commercials are beyond annoying, but at least Glen Lerner’s are somewhat catchy, and effective. 

And a special congrats to Paris Hilton who uniquely managed to win top pick as both best and worst celebrity tourist!

Lot’s of stuff going on in Las Vegas today! Some good, some bad, but it’s nice to let the headlines do the work for me.

Nevada Ballet makes cuts due to poor economy. 

They are reducing everything, laying off dancers and staff and cancelling the last show of the season.

Divorce papers filed for casino chief Wynn, wife

Apparently the Wynns think second time around is a charm.  They were originally married in 1963, divorced in 1985 and then remarried in 1991.

Nevada’s earmarks listed.

A very looonnngg list of projects Senator Harry Reid is spending money on in Las Vegas and Nevada.

Convention authority official: Downturn costs Las Vegas about $131.6 million.

340 event cancellations in the past 90 days per the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority . . . hmmmm, what happened about 90 days ago?

Senate passes hotel room tax hike. 

Room tax rates in Clark and Washoe counties can be increased from 3% to 13%.

 Las Vegas family awaits new home on ABC’s ‘Extreme Makeover’

A famly in the northwest valley was chosen to be featured on the tv show “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.”

Well, I am headed out tonight.  Not exactly sure what we are going to do, but one of the best things about living in Las Vegas is, of course, we have no worries that we will find something to do. 

For those of you that are staying in tonight, you can check out Siegfried and Roy’s final performance on the show 20/20 at 9:00 p.m.  I can’t believe it’s been so long already, but it was on October 3, 2003 that Roy Horn was almost fatally injured by his white tiger Montecore on stage during a performance at The Mirage.  Since then he has been in recovery and was even told that he may never walk or talk again. 

But Roy defied the odds and performed in a final reunion show on March 1, 2009 at the 13th annual Lou Ruvo Brain Institute fundraiser called “Keep Memory Alive.” The Institute will open later this year in downtown Las Vegas and is going to a national resource for the most current research and scientific information for the treatment of Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and Huntington ’s diseases.

Siegfried and Roy will be watching tonight’s show privately with a few friends and the Lou Ruvo’s board of directors.

Some people take vacation time from work to actually go on vacation.  A 3-day weekend, a trip to see family or friends or just a much needed day off.  I take vacation time to chaperone my daughter’s field trips . . .  and I wouldn’t have it any other way.  There will always be time to take a vacation, but time is running short for my daughter to be excited that I am coming with her on her field trips.  So this year I have made it a point to try and attend more with her.

Next week we are headed to the Lied Discovery Children’s Museum.  I am curious to see the museum as I have heard mixed reviews.  But all that really matters is that the kids have fun, and from I can recall about children’s museums, kids can’t help but have a good time. 

The new Clifford the Big Red Dog exhibit looks good.  Then at the end of the month, the “It’s Your Choice” exhibit is going to open, featuring an “interactive exhibition designed to highlight the importance of developing healthy eating habits for a healthy life.”

The museum’s hours are:

REGULAR MUSEUM HOURS
Tuesday - Friday 9 a.m. - 4 p.m.
Saturday 10 a.m. - 5 p.m.
Sunday Noon - 5 p.m.

Closed Mondays except most school holidays

SUMMER HOURS BEGIN
JUNE 1st through Labor Day
Monday - Saturday 10 am – 5 pm
Sunday  Noon – 5 pm

It’s located on Las Vegas Blvd. across from Cashman Field.  Admission at is $8.00 for adults and $7.00 for kids.  I am surprised it’s so cheap, that’s a great price for an entire afternoon of fun. 

Buffets in Las Vegas are still a good deal.  They aren’t as cheap as they used to be, but hey, what is? You get your drink, appetizer, entree and dessert all in one price. Of course, the serve yourself aspect makes for it to be a somewhat disrupting and not really a super relaxing dining experience.  But sometimes a buffet is exactly what you need. Suprisingly, there is no buffet open 24/7 that I know of.  The only one used to be at the Boardwalk Casino on the Strip, but that placed closed a couple years ago.  I ate there once, and there is a reason it was only once.

 I’ve been to a couple buffets this month.  Tonight, we went to the Main Street Station buffet. I have actually heard good things about it for years, but just never went.  The ambiance was a little different than the average Strip buffet. It just has more of an older, downtown vibe.  It was seafood night, so that meant shrimp and lots of snow crab legs.  The food was good and there were all the standard buffet choices.  If you’re downtown and looking for a good old-fashioned Las Vegas buffet, this would be the one to pick.

Last week, I played hooky from work and we headed over the Boulder Station buffet and had breakfast.  They recently remodeled and it looked good.  Very modern.  The breakfast buffet it a great deal. $5 with your player card and they serve breakfast until 11am. First thing, I always head over to the omelet station where you can get a freshly made omelet with your choice of toppings. Yum!

Over the weekend I had the opportunity to see a performance by the Las Vegas Chamber Orchestra. It was beautiful in many ways and I started thinking about checking out the Las Vegas Philharmonic at the Performing Arts Center.

The Las Vegas Philharmonic just celebrated its 10th anniversary and has already become a nationally recognized orchestra.  It is the third largest arts organization in the state and a six-time recipient of the Best Performing Arts Group award.   The website describes the different types of concerts they give: “the Classical Series featuring some of the best touring artists in the world; a Connoisseur Series that presents top soloists performing in some of the city’s most luxurious homes; a variety of special events; a new Pops Concert Series for 2008-2009 and of course the ever-popular Fourth of July “Star Spangled Spectacular” concert.”

In addition, they also provide two very important music education programs: “Music In the Schools, which places LV Philharmonic musicians in schools for after-school programs; and the Sprint Youth Concert Series, which brings young people to the concert hall.”

The Las Vegas Philharmonic  and Nevada Ballet Theatre will have a new homes in 2011.  The Smith Center for the Performing Arts is currently under construction in downtown Las Vegas’ 61-acre Union Park across from the Clark County Government Center.   It will have a 2000 seat hall and will be able to accommodate first run Broadway shows as well as orchestra, opera and dance performances.  The center looks absolutely beautiful and will definitely enhance the quality for life for Las Vegas residents in many ways.

The 27th Annual Martin Luther King Day parade will begin at Freemont Street in downtown Las Vegas  at 10:00 a.m.  So you still have time to make it! This year’s theme is “Living the Dream: For One America”.

A little history about Martin Luther King Blvd. here in Las Vegas for you per Wikipedia:

“The section of Highland Drive north of Oakey Boulevard was renamed Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard in the 1990s. The roadway connects the western edge of Downtown Las Vegas to the newer and more affluent parts of North Las Vegas. Via ramps to the road at the “Spaghetti Bowl” (I-15/US 93/US 95) freeway interchange near downtown, Martin Luther King Jr Boulevard provides the most direct connection between the north-central Las Vegas Valley and the Las Vegas Strip. The road also passes through historic “West Las Vegas”, an older and predominantly Black neighborhood. The city identifies the road as “Martin L. King Blvd”, omitting the Jr. and using L in place of Luther. Most residents in the Las Vegas Valley uses the term MLK. “

Something I didn’t know about Martin Luther King Day was that in 1994 the holiday was deemed by Congress as a national day of community service.  Here is a link to all kinds of service events going on around Las Vegas.  If you can’t participate today, you can sign up with the website, USA Service , to get projects emailed to you all year long. Because of President Obama, this year is expected to be the biggest King Day of Service ever.

Happy Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day!

I am sorry it has been almost a week since I have posted. It seems like it’s been forever. I have been way under the weather!

Anyway, a bunch of stuff has happened. No. 1 being of course, OJ’s 9 to 33 years.  I originally thought it was 15, but it’s no parole for at least 9 years.  OJ is currently residing at High Desert State Prison in Indian Springs, Nevada.

The National Finals Rodeo has been in town since last Thursday.  That’s always a big deal out here.  The events wrap up on Saturday.

There is a new volcano that opened Monday at the Mirage.  Very bittersweet for me as I have fond memories of going to see the volcano as a kid.  The show runs on the hour from dusk until midnight.

In the sprirt of the holiday season, the Hard Rock is going to have free drinks at several of its bars on Dec. 17 from 7pm to 9pm. No catch as far I can tell. Just stop by one of the bars and relax.

Tomorrow at 6:00pm Mayor Oscar Goodman is going to light up Las Vegas’ Christmas tree down on Freemont Street. I haven’t been there in awhile, but Freemont Street it great for a Vegasy night out.

Over the weekend we stopped by the Parasol Up Parasol Down bar over the Wynn and had a really nice time.  The outdoor waterfall show caught our attention and we sat outside and had a few reasonably priced drinks.  We’ll definitely be stopping by again.

I think that about sums things up for last week.  Hopefully I’ll be back on point this week!

If you have some time this weekend and some money to spend, or even if you don’t have any money to spend, but always wondered what the inside of the huge buildings on Grand Central Parkway looked like, now is your chance.  I am referring to the Las Vegas Design Center at the World Market Center.

For those of you, like me, who are not too familiar with the World Market Center, I found out it is the possibly the largest wholesale furniture showroom in the world.  It is comprised of 3 buildings that are approximately 5 million square feet in total.  It is only open to people in the retail furniture and design trades.  The Las Vegas Design Center consists of 400,000 square feet of permanent showrooms for interior decorators.

This weekend, November 21 - 22, 2008, the Las Vegas Design Center will be open to public for a special charity event. The California/Central Nevada chapter of American Society of Interior Designers is holding a special Sample Sale.  Admission is $10 which will be donated to Habitat for Humanity, Nevada AIDS Project and Opportunity Village and you get a free ticket to the Opportunity Village Magical Forest.  Items that you can buy and/or browse include designer sofas, chairs, bedroom sets, dining sets, tables, area rugs, lighting, accessories, accent pieces, lamps, wall art, paintings, frames, prints, mirrors and more.

I am usually not much of an interior decorator, but this sounds like it would be really fun.  The address is 495 S. Grand Central Parkway, self parking is free and the sale starts at 9:00 a.m. each day.

Several buyers of the luxury Streamline Tower Condos in downtown Las Vegas are facing an interesting, or more like unfortunate, problem. The condos are no longer worth anything close to what they need to be sold for.  The question is, whose fault is it? 

On October 1, 2008, 48 buyers filed a breach of contract lawsuit in Nevada District Court against Streamline, LLC and Executive Locations, LLC.  One of their main allegations seems to be that Streamline misrepresented their ability to be able to lease the condos out for a rate of $3,500 per month.  They are trying to terminate their purchase agreements and get back their deposits ranging from $30,000 to $90,000 each.

The Streamline Tower Condos are part of many ongoing project to basically “remodel” downtown Las Vegas which, let’s face it, has pretty much been the pits for as long as I can remember. Fortunately Mayor Oscar Goodman has been very aggressive about cleaning up downtown and part of that redevlopment project has included some really nice condos.

Streamline opened May 1st of this year, but the buyers were told it would be open by December 2006.  To put it mildly, the housing market has changed considerably since then.   It seems like some of the buyers may be involved in the suit to get out their purchase agreements because they are having problems getting a loan now. 

The condos are listed on Streamline’s website at prices ranging from $400,000 to over $1 million. I think this excerpt  from an article in the October 27, 2008 issue of the Las Vegas Business Press sums up the main problem:

“However, the situation faced by two of the buyers, Violetta and Nathan Mordukhay of Encino, Calif., points to the hurdles posed by the price structure. They agreed to pay $469,900 for a one-bedroom, 832-square-foot unit, but received two appraisals of $355,000 and $386,000 when applying for a loan. The appraisals were conducted in April, but prices generally have continued to deteriorate since then.”

Do the Plaintiffs deserve their money back? Would they be suing if the real estate market was still booming? Did Streamline actually do anything wrong? Is this luxury condo project in downtown just a money pit and everyone needs to cut their losses?

From the same article - U.S. District Court Judge Lloyd George wrote, “The irreparable harm of which the (buyers) complain is conjectural at this point.“ 

Stay tuned, the next hearing on a temporary injunction is scheduled for November 24th.