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Published Thursday, March 21, 2013 | 8 a.m.
Updated Thursday, March 21, 2013 | 9:20 a.m.
Matt Heller
Map of The Beat Coffeehouse
The Beat Coffeehouse
520 Fremont Street, Las Vegas
Another day downtown, another interesting character finds his way into The Beat coffeehouse.
But none may have found themselves in as familiar territory as Matt Heller.
See, Heller is considered an expert on millennials, who are also sometimes referred to as the Echo Boom generation or Generation Y. These are young people born sometime from 1980 to 2000. They are distinguished by a need to do something purposeful – or so say blogs, Internet definitions and the like.
Downtown Las Vegas is attractive to millennials. After Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh announced more than two years ago he was moving his headquarters here, an army of young people has taken root downtown via Hsieh’s Downtown Project and numerous relate endeavors. By the end of this year, another 1,300 Zappos employees will be working out of the old City Hall, two blocks from The Beat.
Heller earned his millennial bona fides identifying generational trends for companies and organizations such as Abercrombie & Fitch, Ketel One Vodka, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, Adidas and New Line Cinema. He also has created film and television shows for millennials for networks such as VH1, ABC and Lifetime.
Heller believes that beyond Las Vegas, most people have no inkling about what’s going on in downtown Las Vegas.
But he bets they will. And soon.
“This is going to be the 21st-century watering hole for the millennial migration,” Heller said, sitting at the bar of The Beat.
All the elements he believes millennials are drawn to “are happening right here, right now.”
“There’s a deliberate sense of community at the center of everything that’s happening,” Heller says. “These are digital natives and this is a digital environment. Not only that, but millennials seek a true sense of purpose. For a generation to trade in their cars and keep their computers, downtown Las Vegas promises the opportunity to walk more and still collide with other interesting people.”
Finally, Heller says, “if all goes as planned your neighbors will be the kind of people you would have taken a road trip with to get here – similar enough to carry on long conversations but different enough to keep it interesting when no one likes the song on the radio, not that they listen to radio anymore.”
Heller still lives in Los Angeles but is getting a place in The Ogden, which he describes as a sort of embassy “in an emerging green zone surrounded by a war zone that will become the fertile ground from which a millennial community will emerge and thrive.”
Having spent 15 years identifying millennial trends, Heller says he is in the process of writing a book about a generation he finds intrinsically interesting, especially those in Las Vegas.
“There’s something to be said for an East Coast college grad to cross two mountain ranges to figure out what they really want to do, who they are and grow a life that feels uniquely their own,” he says.
Joe Schoenmann doesn’t just cover downtown, he lives and works there. Schoenmann is Greenspun Media Group’s embedded downtown journalist, working from an office in the Emergency Arts building.
Sounds great. But all these new folks shouldn't just forget those of us who lived downtown before it was cool...we lived there because we had to. Sure a rising tide lifts all boats...as long as "the new millenials" or whatever catchphrase they are today, don't sink us
Interesting because the change in occupants downtown and because of the type of business they are moving here requires many to be from the outside and with that their affect on the culture of the area. I have seen nothing but improvements from this and the established business and entertainment businesses have entered into improving their establishments and still being able to preserve some of the old Vegas charm. I am sure their will be some challenges along the way and not everyone will agree with this generations plans for this area but standing still and not doing anything is a death sentence for the area. I look forward to the next round of changes and still enjoying downtown.
I'd be skeptical unless the underpinnings are better specified. Plenty of wishful thinking going on out there -- usually requiring some sort of public funding or subsidy to get going (think all that arena talk going on in Henderson). See article "Creative Class" May Help Themselves, But Not The Secret to Urban Success" by Brian Doherty for a slightly more realistic assessment.
I think there will be a nice mixture of new and old residents in the ever evolving downtown. And it's not to say that the people how have lived there have been forgotten as some might suggest. But rather a look at what the new crowd might have to bring to the mix. With Vegas' economy limping along so much in the last 5 years it's exciting to watch new commerce come in to town.
NOBODY CARES HOW LONG YOU HAVE BEEN HERE IF YOU AREN'T GETTING OFF YOUR A** AND MAKING THINGS HAPPEN.
There is no merit to living "downtown before it was cool" if you aren't doing anything to help today's downtown. It's sad that people who have lived here 1/20th as long as you have done 400% more for the community than you ever have and yet all you can say is "don't sink us". And if you were paying attention, you would notice that these people ARE working with people like you, but you have to show up.
Some comments:
Sure seems like there are more visionaries *wanting* to move here than have actually done so. Can we really say that Downtown (several years into its marketed rebirth) is more than a Disneyland for millennials? Come for a couple of days, hit The Beat and Insert Coins, then go back to where they actually live like Austin, TX or wherever?
Since Heller still lives in Los Angeles he may not know that there's not much in the way of essentials (groceries, drugstores, medical) one can walk to from the Ogden- millenials want those services just like the rest of us, no? But I'm sure his branding of the area as "millennial cool" will draw those businesses lickety-split where other efforts have failed.
Also: He "identified generational trends" for the LA Museum of Contemporary Art? If he correctly created strategies to harness millennials to save MOCA from merger or closure, helped MOCA's trustees to get along and then raise millennial attendance and support for art, that's worth mentioning. But Google (and LA art insiders) report MOCA is still foundering and millennials aren't really visiting the place.
Look, I really hope this works out- I love Downtown and want it to succeed- but can we please research even the medium-term success rate of the creative class visionary of the moment before we hype him?
So, ha, you think that this guy, who lives in LA is doing more than me? I utilize the businesses there daily. Does he? How, when he's in LA? Doubt he shops, or he'd mention that millenials need groceries, and that the only shop within walking distance was bought by the downtwon project. Oh, it's all well and good that Hsieh is trying to do all of these things, but he is treating it like Disneyland, and has made a number of missteps. Already businesses he's championed are leaving. He thought it'd be really cool to evict a bunch of people to make a dorm for his "volunteers". Other than a bunch of pronouncements, what has actually been done by him?
And how are they "working with us"? Do we have to figure out the "secret" entrance at DCR so we can have an "audience" with Pope Tony? Do we have to pay overpriced coffee prices at the Beat. At least he backed ONE open business, Eat. And it's damned good, too.
But this knucklehead Joe's interviewing doesn't sound like he brings anything to the table other than some big pronouncements. he's probably a big hit at SXSW. But there's only a certain amount a conglomeration of hipsters can do, only so many Che t-shirts and stocking caps we need. I see he's "taken" a place at the Ogden, which tells me he isn't an owner, so he's got no skin in the game, and when he's wrong he can go to Portland or Vancouver or Eagle Rock.
Look, Derek Stevens is doing as much, or more, by upgrading Fitzgeralds and the Golden Gate. And he's doing it as a business man, not someone who's playing sociologist/political scientist. (Siegal's done the same futher down Fremont).
I'm all for improving downtown, but it I like seeing people with skin in the game, like Siegal and Stevens, not people with 501(c)3s and tax abatements.
As far as what I'm doing, you don't have a freaking clue... you hide behind your made up name, and don't even say what you're doing, if you are even downtown, which I doubt.