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Metro Police officers patrol Fremont Street near the Las Vegas Boulevard in downtown Las Vegas Wednesday, August 1, 2012.
Thursday, Oct. 4, 2012 | 1:15 p.m.
Many Las Vegans believe there’s no better place to hang out in Las Vegas than the downtown area.
Unlike the Strip, it isn’t flooded with tourists (though the canopied Fremont Street Experience can get packed on weekends). The taverns on East Fremont can get busy but they have a true local atmosphere. It feels natural to extend a hand to get to know other customers and employees.
And there may be no place in Southern Nevada that has the energetic vibe that currently exists downtown. On any given day or night, you may meet musicians, developers, lawyers, casino workers, poets, writers, bloggers – all the people you know live here but who aren’t always easy to find.
Downtown is becoming a locals central hub.
So enjoy it but don’t get carried away. Downtown Vegas isn’t Sheboygan.
An influx of new workers, sparked by Zappos’ and the Downtown Project’s downtown moves, have to remember: Downtown isn’t Henderson or Summerlin.
“Be aware,” one barista advised.
Here’s some other tips for living, working and hanging out downtown:
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Don't dangle cash or valuables
At Starbucks in the Bank of America building four years ago around Thanksgiving, a woman holding a $20 bill had it snatched from her hand by a thief who dashed out the door. “I’d have given him some money if he had asked,” the woman said. Or maybe not. In any case, lesson learned: Don’t stand around with money dangling from your fingers. Or smart phones. Or iPads. Or even cigarettes. These currency/survival items might be too tempting to a tweaker not to steal.
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Don't be caught alone
Don’t walk around alone at night, especially if you’ve been drinking. I was mugged three years ago on my birthday late at night. They got $8; I got a sore jaw. And if mugged, don’t run after said muggers. As one city slicker scolded me for doing just that: “Where are you from, Mayberry?” Pretty close, actually.
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Stick to East Fremont Street
For local flavor, stick to East Fremont Street and stay out of the surrounding neighborhoods. They aren’t as well-lit and people actually live there and are trying to sleep. Also, I live downtown and anyone seen walking the streets at night is immediately considered suspect.
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Keys as a defensive weapon
One barista demonstrated a defensive tip passed on by her mom back in Buffalo, N.Y. Holding keys between her fingers like metal claws, she stabbed at the air, gouging the flesh of an imaginary attacker.
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Hang out in downtown businesses
Don’t just parachute into Downtown, go to work, run to your car and head back to the ‘burbs. Visit The Beat or other businesses more than once and get to know some of the people. You never know when one of them might come to your aid, or let you into a bar when you forget your ID. Bring dollar bills for tips; faster service may follow when it’s packed.
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Parking tip No. 1
The best parking are the 26 spaces operated by the El Cortez between The Ogden and East Fremont. The meters take credit cards for up to three hours ($1 per hour). They fill up fast on weekend nights. It also has another metered lot of 43 spaces at the southwest corner of 7th and Fremont. Use these to avoid potential parking tickets from city coin-operated meters on the street. (Update: The city last week put out a request for proposals for credit-card parking meters; a city spokesman said the hope is to have get proposals soon and have new meters installed early next year.)
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If valuables are in car, hide 'em
This is standard police fare but it’s true in any part of the city: Don’t leave anything remotely valuable visible in your parked car, not even a pack of smokes. “People are crazy,” says one downtown worker. “They’ll break into your car for anything.”
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Parking tip No. 2
Stay out of lots with “no parking” signs. Avoid like the plague the clean, empty lot at Carson and 6th. They will readily tow your car and charge you hundreds of dollars to get it back. (Happened to me.)
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No jaywalking
East Fremont feels pedestrian-friendly and, compared to the Strip, which is jammed with people, it is. That said, don’t jaywalk. In the words of a downtown barista: “People just dash across the street. This isn’t a pedestrian city even if it feels more like it downtown.”
Sun reporter Joe Schoenmann lives and works in downtown Las Vegas.
Before taking a "girl" home, check "her" package.
What the hell is so bad about living in the Burbs-Sounds like the writer of this article thinks we are naive-Not!
Every knows most of these so called tips by the time they are 18 years old -maybe sooner
What happens Downtown-Stays Downtown.
Joe,
As someone who has lived in both a home a block away from the old LVHS, as well as one of the high rises, I have to add that one should never walk at all downtown. If I decided to walk to Walgreens or Fremont street I found myself confronted with some belligerent cop who felt I had an obligation to tell him where I was coming from and where I was headed. Not only was their stops a clear violation of my rights, the time they wasted investigating my perfectly legal activities could have been used for something more important, like stopping real criminals.
And another tip you missed is to avoid Joes Pizza on Fremont. He has publicly announced his product is not even good enough to compete with one can buy off the back of a truck.
@teamSG1 profound comment coming from someone who swallows! Thanks for playing.
Don't go to a place where you may need to use your keys as a defensive weapon and people will break in to your car for anything.
Downtown is improving, but it still has a long, long, long way to go.
Not much difference between Downtown and Hollywood (at least at night), except there's rarely any famous people Downtown.
Mayberry has great biscuit mixes and no insect frags to speak of if you don't mind eating a cricket leg or two with your lemon curd.
Don't go east of the El Cortez past 9PM or you Might never Come back, also don't go North past Main st Station. Also don't walk south Of the Plaza at night.
Also try to stay somewhere around people that wear a shoulder patch that says "METRO" on it.
Bobthebuilder: Find somewhere else besides the side streets to meet your crack dealer, and you won't smell any urine...
@ Arealconserv.."Also try to stay somewhere around people that wear a shoulder patch that says "METRO" on it."
Just make sure you don't turn your back on them. The back is their target of choice.
keep twenty dollors on you so you can meet a nice lady.
The same tips apply when living, working or hanging out in Baghdad, Iraq or Kinshasa, Democratic Rep. of the Congo or Karachi, Pakistan.
The way I see it, why take the risk? If you're going to be annoyed, it may as well be by nicely dressed people in a luxurious environment versus filthy bums on a urine soaked sidewalk outside a dinky casino with an obvious sewer leak near by.
I like downtown but my wife doesn't because of the safety factor. But the effort downtown is making (with casino operators like the Golden Gate /D's as well as the art district) a cautious "lets watch and see" attitude is starting to take hold. The mayor has been a strong advocate and this has also earned the respect of many long term Las Vegans. My guess is that it needs some very cool but affordable loft housing with a great supermarket and safe well lit convenient parking to be developed. With that I'd bet that a portion of those who work downtown would consider living downtown. This would be the first ingredient necessary to getting others to consider a lifestyle change. Downtown casinos used to have a customer base that lived downtown. The residential portion of the equation has to be figured out.