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Can someone explain why it makes sense to build a new community/ecosystem in Las Vegas? Not only is the climate terrible, there are problems with even having en

Can someone explain why it makes sense to build a new community/ecosystem in Las Vegas? Not only is the climate terrible, there are problems with even having enough water: http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2014/06/05/lake_mead_which_supplies_most_of_las_vegas_water_is_at_record_low_levels.html http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2014/06/05/lake_mead... There must be plenty of cities across the Midwest without such problems that would be a better choice for such an initiative.

spilk 12y ago
Low taxes, cheap property. The climate is not bad depending on what you are looking for.
- AJ007 12y ago
  Low taxes. Not just cheap property but quality property. Want to live in a new high rise condo? Plenty of options remain from the building bust. Very fast flight from LA, fast flight from SF. Massive amount of business travelers for conferences. Largely because of the proximity to California Vegas has a fairly good pool of employees. There are a lot of promising alternatives that just fall flat on their face in this regards (whether you have a tech startup or a factory, good luck in Miami.) There is plenty to not like about Las Vegas but it is one of those places things make more sense when closely examined. Water is a long term concern but depending on climate change, 200 years out a lot of major world cities will be gone, Las Vegas may very well still be around.
  - spilk 12y ago
    It's also fairly natural-disaster resistant. We get floods now and again, but that is managed fairly well. Otherwise, we aren't very susceptible to tornadoes, hurricanes, tsunamis, earthquakes, etc.
falsestprophet 12y ago
Because the guy who wrote the check wants it for his hometown. Why do I want Chicago to be successful? On one hand, it get's super cold so it isn't the most practical location and it's kind of a racial powder keg. On the other hand, it is my home.
- latj 12y ago
  Las Vegas is not his hometown. He moved Zappos to Las Vegas from SF for a more favorable tax environment, cheaper cost of living, etc. And, about the comment about water shortage-- doesnt a significant portion of California's water flow through Nevada from the Colorado river? If so, Nevada is not lacking in water as much as in political power.
  - deleted 12y ago
    [deleted]
  - ktsmith 12y ago
    California gets ~10% of their water from the Colorado River System. They'll be getting less as more states use their full allocation and the surplus that California has been getting dries up. There is ongoing battling about distributing the water more fairly but that only delays the issues that Las Vegas faces with current population growth. The city has done quite a bit to provide incentive to residents to conserve water with things like tax credits for xeriscaping their properties instead of having lawns. They'll have to do quite a bit more to either curb the growth or find other sources of water. As far as the distribution of the Colorado River Systems water goes, that's a mess that dates back to 1922.
  - gonzo 12y ago
    Las Vegas is not his hometown, but it is mine (and my father's, and his father moved to Boulder City at 19 to work on Boulder/Hoover Dam). Family business growing up (started by grandfather/father above): drilling water wells. So, ya know, I've got a layman's understanding. In the West, water rights are property rights. There are nearly 100 year old agreements on the split of water taken from the Colorado river. Look up Arizona v. California. In summary, as long as at least 7,500,000 acre feet of water is available from the Colorado River, California is allocated 4,400,000 acre·ft; Nevada, 300,000 acre·ft; and Arizona, the remainder. If more water is available, California is entitled to 50% of the water from the Colorado River, Arizona to 46%, and Nevada to 4%. If less water is available, the Secretary of the Interior must allocate the water according to various formulas (which were the subjects of the court cases) to ensure that each state receives a specified amount, with California receiving an absolute fixed maximum of 4,400,000 acre feet per year (547 U.S. 157).
prawn 12y ago
I'd say it makes sense to Hsieh because Zappos is based there. Natural to want to improve your surroundings over a random area.
nugget 12y ago
Bad climate and lack of water are two common misconceptions applied to both Las Vegas and Phoenix. Both are hot and dry, which many people love. Hot and dry > hot and humid, which is Texas, Florida, and most of the area in between. Nevada, Arizona, Texas, and Florida are the top retirement destinations for folks from the Midwest and Northeast, sick of cold and snow. Personally I prefer Las Vegas to the others because it's dry and doesn't have bugs (unlike Texas and Florida) but it's not quite as hot as Phoenix (which runs about 10'F hotter). Water wise, Lake Mead is the largest reservoir in the United States, less than an hour's drive away from downtown Las Vegas. Lake Mead's water is used by several states under a complicated water sharing agreement, but push come to shove, you can't physically move it out of Nevada. No significant water use restrictions have been placed on Las Vegas. By contrast, look at the situation in California, where some towns have had to resort to trucking in water because even their groundwater resources are entirely depleted.
- dragonwriter 12y ago
  > Water wise, Lake Mead is the largest reservoir in the United States, less than an hour's drive away from downtown Las Vegas. Lake Mead's water is used by several states under a complicated water sharing agreement, but push come to shove, you can't physically move it out of Nevada. Actually, it really wants to move out of Nevada on its own, which is why it takes the Hoover Dam to keep it there -- and, even so, its not all in Nevada to start with. And, push come to shove, the Colorado River is dammed further upriver than Lake Mead, so, in a sense, the reservoir could be moved out of Nevada. (As the reduction in releases from Lake Powell to Lake Mead recently demonstrates.) Or, more importantly, it could cease to exist as useful reservoir with only a few more of the poor water years without a significant break that have been the norm since 2000.
  - toomuchtodo 12y ago
    > Or, more importantly, it could cease to exist as useful reservoir with only a few more of the poor water years without a significant break that have been the norm since 2000. I've seen Hoover Dam from the inside. I'd pay to see it again at the bottom from the former lake bed.

spilk 12y ago

Low taxes, cheap property. The climate is not bad depending on what you are looking for.

AJ007 12y ago
Low taxes. Not just cheap property but quality property. Want to live in a new high rise condo? Plenty of options remain from the building bust. Very fast flight from LA, fast flight from SF. Massive amount of business travelers for conferences. Largely because of the proximity to California Vegas has a fairly good pool of employees. There are a lot of promising alternatives that just fall flat on their face in this regards (whether you have a tech startup or a factory, good luck in Miami.) There is plenty to not like about Las Vegas but it is one of those places things make more sense when closely examined. Water is a long term concern but depending on climate change, 200 years out a lot of major world cities will be gone, Las Vegas may very well still be around.
- spilk 12y ago
  It's also fairly natural-disaster resistant. We get floods now and again, but that is managed fairly well. Otherwise, we aren't very susceptible to tornadoes, hurricanes, tsunamis, earthquakes, etc.

falsestprophet 12y ago

Because the guy who wrote the check wants it for his hometown. Why do I want Chicago to be successful? On one hand, it get's super cold so it isn't the most practical location and it's kind of a racial powder keg. On the other hand, it is my home.

latj 12y ago
Las Vegas is not his hometown. He moved Zappos to Las Vegas from SF for a more favorable tax environment, cheaper cost of living, etc. And, about the comment about water shortage-- doesnt a significant portion of California's water flow through Nevada from the Colorado river? If so, Nevada is not lacking in water as much as in political power.
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
- ktsmith 12y ago
  California gets ~10% of their water from the Colorado River System. They'll be getting less as more states use their full allocation and the surplus that California has been getting dries up. There is ongoing battling about distributing the water more fairly but that only delays the issues that Las Vegas faces with current population growth. The city has done quite a bit to provide incentive to residents to conserve water with things like tax credits for xeriscaping their properties instead of having lawns. They'll have to do quite a bit more to either curb the growth or find other sources of water. As far as the distribution of the Colorado River Systems water goes, that's a mess that dates back to 1922.
- gonzo 12y ago
  Las Vegas is not his hometown, but it is mine (and my father's, and his father moved to Boulder City at 19 to work on Boulder/Hoover Dam). Family business growing up (started by grandfather/father above): drilling water wells. So, ya know, I've got a layman's understanding. In the West, water rights are property rights. There are nearly 100 year old agreements on the split of water taken from the Colorado river. Look up Arizona v. California. In summary, as long as at least 7,500,000 acre feet of water is available from the Colorado River, California is allocated 4,400,000 acre·ft; Nevada, 300,000 acre·ft; and Arizona, the remainder. If more water is available, California is entitled to 50% of the water from the Colorado River, Arizona to 46%, and Nevada to 4%. If less water is available, the Secretary of the Interior must allocate the water according to various formulas (which were the subjects of the court cases) to ensure that each state receives a specified amount, with California receiving an absolute fixed maximum of 4,400,000 acre feet per year (547 U.S. 157).

prawn 12y ago

I'd say it makes sense to Hsieh because Zappos is based there. Natural to want to improve your surroundings over a random area.

nugget 12y ago

Bad climate and lack of water are two common misconceptions applied to both Las Vegas and Phoenix. Both are hot and dry, which many people love. Hot and dry > hot and humid, which is Texas, Florida, and most of the area in between. Nevada, Arizona, Texas, and Florida are the top retirement destinations for folks from the Midwest and Northeast, sick of cold and snow. Personally I prefer Las Vegas to the others because it's dry and doesn't have bugs (unlike Texas and Florida) but it's not quite as hot as Phoenix (which runs about 10'F hotter). Water wise, Lake Mead is the largest reservoir in the United States, less than an hour's drive away from downtown Las Vegas. Lake Mead's water is used by several states under a complicated water sharing agreement, but push come to shove, you can't physically move it out of Nevada. No significant water use restrictions have been placed on Las Vegas. By contrast, look at the situation in California, where some towns have had to resort to trucking in water because even their groundwater resources are entirely depleted.

dragonwriter 12y ago
> Water wise, Lake Mead is the largest reservoir in the United States, less than an hour's drive away from downtown Las Vegas. Lake Mead's water is used by several states under a complicated water sharing agreement, but push come to shove, you can't physically move it out of Nevada. Actually, it really wants to move out of Nevada on its own, which is why it takes the Hoover Dam to keep it there -- and, even so, its not all in Nevada to start with. And, push come to shove, the Colorado River is dammed further upriver than Lake Mead, so, in a sense, the reservoir could be moved out of Nevada. (As the reduction in releases from Lake Powell to Lake Mead recently demonstrates.) Or, more importantly, it could cease to exist as useful reservoir with only a few more of the poor water years without a significant break that have been the norm since 2000.
- toomuchtodo 12y ago
  > Or, more importantly, it could cease to exist as useful reservoir with only a few more of the poor water years without a significant break that have been the norm since 2000. I've seen Hoover Dam from the inside. I'd pay to see it again at the bottom from the former lake bed.