User profile: SolarFloral

As a two-time visitor to this town, I have never felt any suicidal tenancies whatsoever, and never wanted to simply end my life while I was here; I mostly felt sad about leaving this place, but NEVER...wanting to "off" myself. I feel that Las Vegas is a great town and has the potential to still become even greater.

However, I feel that the reason why people have become (or became) suicidal while in Vegas is merely due to the fact that some the mindset of this town's visitors (and/or locals) is set on the following: (a,) not dealing with sheer reality, (b,) not using due dilligence or common sense, (c,) heavy emphasis on building up unrealistic matierialistic goals, (e,) not taking the time to solve problems for thier community (schools, homeless, etc.,) (f) a lack of a human social factor that people can relate to, (g,) risky behavior, (h,) greed of all kinds.

This,comibined with a grown population, corporate culture, and other issues causes the town to feel if it has no sense of a human factor, resulting in everything from altruistic mantra sayings (i.e.: "What Happens Here, Stays Here," "this place is recession-proof," "prositution is leagal here," "thre are no clocks in the casinos," etc.,) to regengade-like delusions of grandeur (tax evasion, unlawful prositituon, drug traffiking, conspiracy theroists, lack of compasson, safety, "the Mob was better than the coprorations," "the US Governemnt are out to get us," etc.)

In the end, some people feel "burned," others felt as if it was thier last chance in life. And then they take a wrong turn.

And with the recent recession that hit Las Vegas, combined with the Mortgage, Real Estate and Financial Crisis, high energy and food prices and the loss of jobs, dampens the mood further.

I feel that Las Vegas, in order to survive must be honest with itself: fix its problems, get involved with community concerns, raise awarness in such issues such as suicide. Relying heavily on the casinos to help out a community may not always be the right answer; they already have issues of thier own....and need to fix thier problems in order to survive.

Las Vegas, and Clark County, as a whole, will be facing a terrible fate, if it continues to turn a blind eye to the issues, including the issue of suicide.

A Vegas in denial is fatal to Vegas itslef.

I feel that the situation which happened on Friday at the Monte Carlo on the way it was handled was just not a good job; it was a GREAT JOB and an outstanding one indeed. The employees and patrons at the Monte Carlo, as well as LV Metro, EMT services and CCFD acted accoringly, following thier emergency plans, putting pubic safety first and the fire was put out in no time. While many vistors were not planning this event, niether were the employees at the Monte Carlo. But one thing for sure, those employees who heard the news about the hotel's roof being on fire did the right thing and went into emergency/disater mode and began evacuating people, whoever they were, out of the building. I just wasn't just thier job, it WAS part of thier job......safety came first before themselves.

I feel that people who complain about the maids assisting in the evacution because "it wasn't thier job," talk about how the people were moved from place to place during the incident or throw in recent events concering the violation of the fire codes certain Harrah's properites should take in consideration that this unwanted incident was put under control in textbook fashion. While the spinklers may have not gone off in the rooms, the fire never reached into the interior,nor the rooms inside; if it did,then they would have gone off. But since the incident was self contained on the roof, it didn't happen. And if the was any damage to the rooms, it was water, not fire. Plus when the news broke, UMC had activated its burn unit, showing they were prepared in situations like this.

In short, they pounced on the problem, and got it done. If they had sat around complaining about the fire codes being violated, talking about how corrupt the City/County government is, how unsafe a Vegas Strip casino is, not liking thier jobs,don't care at all or just simply bicker.....then who knows what would have happened; the casulties would have been much higher.

But after 87 lives taken the old MGM (now Bally's) in 1980 and a few months later in 1981 at the Hilton, taking 8 lives, there was no room for more serious death or injuries and the codes which were revised after those incidents changed that way the hotels in Vegas (Fremont Street, the Strip or elsewhere in Clark County)handled thier safety plans;it became one of the most strictest fire codes in the country. As a result from the lessons learned from those two fires, this incident in its exicution,though serious, was operational and in the end guests were offered rooms at sister MGM properties and not ending up at a burn unit at Sunrise or UMC, or even worse, a makeshift morgue.

Moral of the Story: Appreciate the outcome of this incident and save the politics and minor mistakes during the evacuation for later, but not sweep it under the rug for never.

Image is important and Las Vegas just got a few points more from yesterday's incident at the Monte Caro.