Vegas - The good, the bad, and the ugly
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6/14/2021
I’ve lived in las vegas all my life, I was born here, and here’s some things I feel like I’d want to share that you might only know from living here for a while.
DO NOT underestimate the summer heat here! Those highest recorded temperatures on weather sites? Those are literally the average every year. 115 degree ambient air temperature in a barren desert is HOT. The ambient air being 115 means that the sidewalk, pavement, door handles, cars, etc. are 25-50+ degrees hotter then that. Especially inside your vehicle! The inside of the vehicle regularly gets 127 - the seats burn you and you have to avoid the seatbelt for dear life, as funny as that sounds. So summers SUCK, as most people could probably infer!
Also due to the excessive heat (talking literally “excessive heat warnings daily for around 2 months straight out of the year” excessive), the power bill in summer is enormous unless you’ve got solar to displace it some- even with that, which I’ve got, you’re still looking at a 80-100 power bill in all likely hood- without solar the ballpark is around 300.
And also your car AC works so hard that it blows out pretty often- you got an older car, you will probably face a summer with no AC in the car. (Has happened to me 4 summers in my life here and it is major suckville)
If you’re moving here, do yourself a favor and invest in a property that has a pool - either a community pool or a private one. Pools make summer have a plus side to all the negativities of the dog days of summer.
A bright side to that summer heat though is if you can tolerate it (especially if you use it to your advantage by swimming), you are looking at 8 months of nice weather the rest of the year. September through May all rarely go above 90 or below 20 so those months are actually nice.
But again just keep in mind you WILL experience those two months of relentless triple-digit back to back heat where you can literally feel your eyeballs cooking and your feet are baking in your shoes. That’s coming from someone who was born and raised here my whole life so I am accustomed to it.
Another con is the polarization- Nevada is truly a swing state- even in the metro area, then you have die hard conservatives, juxtaposed with the die hard liberals, and there is little grey area. It’s not a swing state because everyone is moderate if that’s what you’re looking for. For instance, you could be a liberal minded person, and move to the Vegas area which appears highly liberal on paper- only to happen to move in between two houses with staunch conservatives as neighbors. Now you will have neighbors who will hate you and it’ll be hard not to do so back, because they’ll be passive aggressive the entire duration you’re living next to them. Unfortunately that’s the climate here.
Also please be aware that Las Vegas crime is kind of strange. It doesn’t have a big ‘safe’ side and ‘unsafe’ side. It has pockets of ghetto and pockets of nice. So make sure you use the crime map and look at the crime rate of the exact zip code you’re looking into. Coming from a local, those zip code crime rates are spot on. That will actually make you find a safe area.
A pro to las vegas is the LGBT acceptance here, we’ve got pride festivals and Trans heathcare plus employment and housing protection too.
There’s also lots of stuff open 24 hours, which is pretty unique and convenient.
Another pro is the diversity- theres a lot of African Americans, Hispanics, and Asian Americans who make Vegas their home.
Ariel | Paradise, NV