Yes, yes it was. http://recode.net/2014/09/29/downtown-las-vegas-is-the-great...
How did they miss this until today?
http://recode.net/2014/09/30/factorli-an-early-casualty-of-t...
Something probably changed in the meantime.
There must be plenty of cities across the Midwest without such problems that would be a better choice for such an initiative.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Have you lived in either during the Summer?
The Las Vegas Valley gets about 90 percent of its water from the Colorado River.
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.
(I only listened to the podcast, didn't watch the video)
It sounded like everything was coming up roses and money back then. Hoping to hear an update.
I was actually asked if I'd be interested in moving to Vegas to join an accelerator to seriously pursue one of my ideas, but I declined. In my mind, Vegas is for weekend getaways. I could never live there.
Besides that, the project seems to suffer from typical nepotism. When you're giving jobs to family and friends without paying any attention to whether they are qualified, you are shooting yourself in the foot and significantly decreasing your chances of success in a project that's already very ambitious. I hope things work out but it isn't looking good right now.
It's true what they say about Vegas though in that there's a slight cult vibe and the quality of the establishments are poor despite their looks.
I wonder where his heart is now? It's sad to see, Tony's Vegas ambitions were so wild and unique. It was impossible not to root for him.
A person who is happy is not reading hundreds of books about happiness. And that person will also not become happy through doing that. Happiness is not something you can create externally. (Yes, if you're starving and homeless then having some money and material possessions would definitely make you happy. But we are talking about multimillionaires and billionaires here who are not in that situation.)
I think the entire downtown project has much less to do with creating some sort of startup utopia than it has to do with something personal that Tony is seeking for himself. But he won't find it outside of himself.
"Hsieh’s move comes as the project has laid off about 30 percent of its staff, or 30 people, which does not include the community of entrepreneurs funded by the project. or about 30 people, these people said."
I've seen Hoover Dam from the inside. I'd pay to see it again at the bottom from the former lake bed.
As far as Las Vegas getting 90% of its water from the Colorado river, that is true. Which is a whopping 4% of the amount available each year. As bad as things are getting in California, we're not too far from needing desalination there which frees up more than enough water for Las Vegas.
More water evaporates from Lake Mead each year (800,000 acre feet) than is used by Las Vegas (300,000 acre feet) -- http://www.usbr.gov/lc/hooverdam/faqs/lakefaqs.html.
It's pretty damned hot if you're working outside. I don't remember it being that hot when I was younger (we would run across the street in bare feet).
As far as the distribution of the Colorado River Systems water goes, that's a mess that dates back to 1922.
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).