The worst thing that's happened to Las Vegas in a while is this stupid F1 Formula 1 race, and I don't know a single person who is happy about it.
Las Vegas Boulevard has been ripped up for months.
Driving to anywhere on the Strip has been a nightmare for most of 2023.
The last time I was at the Paris hotel to dine with a lover, it took us an hour to drive there, and the Strip smelled like tar, and all I could hear at times were these giant road-ripping-up machines.
If you don't live in Las Vegas, and if you see any positive media coverage of F1’s effect on Vegas, I strongly suggest not believing that media outlet about anything ever again, because F1 sucks hardcore.
I say all this as Las Vegas’ biggest (honest) cheerleader. I've lived all around America, and Vegas is my favorite city. That's why I'm still here.
Vegas is a 24/7 town, so we have bars and clubs and restaurants that are open all the time.
But 24/7 also means Vegas is one of the only places in the entire world where you can drive to a store and rent a carpet cleaner at 4 in the morning.
Plus, we have the friendliest people in the country, and the hardest workers around.
That's why our population has exploded up to 3 million people.
I mean, we had that terrible Mandalay Massacre six years ago, and people are still flocking here nonetheless.
Why?
Because Vegas is freedom, and Vegas is like a Disneyland for Adults (no affiliation with Disney, it's just a metaphor that fits).
We have America's biggest swinger place in the Red Rooster, and we have other swinger places like the Green Door, and strip clubs like Crazy Horse 3 and the Spearmint Rhino, and you can get handjobs on Spring Mountain, and you can smoke weed, and go to world-class restaurants and shopping malls and dayclubs and nightclubs that earn $100 million a year, and Cirque shows, and concerts.
But that's all just the above-ground stuff.
Underground Vegas has even crazier things, from illicit drugs to off-the-tax-rolls sex workers, and even secret illegal restaurants.
But my beautiful city has its downsides, just like any city.
We had that Mandalay Massacre. Gun culture is dumb here, with machine gun ranges, and a recent case where a bachelorette had a guy in her room who allegedly shot her pillow, and a guy this week allegedly shot at middle schoolers, and sometimes you'll see a guy in a grocery store with a gun on his belt, and the hotels haven't installed metal detectors.
What's more, a lot of people work three jobs to make ends meet.
Traffic's getting worse.
And now we have this stupid fucking F1 race thing messing up our roads and our aura and the visitor experience and the locals experience.
So if you're thinking of heading to Vegas for vacation or to live here, do yourself a favor and keep your eye on Vegas social media, and maybe don't come until the whole F1 apparatus is gone. Not just the race, but the ripped-up streets, and the tar machines, and all this awfulness.
