WHAT'S WRONG WITH LAS VEGAS?

Fewer visitors and rising prices are forcing a rethink in Sin City

- CLAIRE FAHY

Elvis impersonator Mark Rumpler in Las Vegas, on Sept 21.

Just north of the Las Vegas Strip lies a graveyard of relics that recalls the boomtown’s lofty ambitions.

Dented metal signs, neon bulbs humming, lie in the desert dust, welcoming you to a city as varied as its defunct businesses — the bright pink feathers of the original Flamingo Las Vegas Hotel and Casino; the Red Barn’s crimson cherry in a martini glass, homage to one of the city’s first gay bars; the dancing “Happy Shirt” of Steiner Cleaners, Liberace’s onetime laundry.

They are reminders of long-closed places in a city that has reinvented itself time and time again.

According to its brochure, the Neon Museum preserved these mementos to celebrate Las Vegas’ “vibrant past, present and future”. But for many, the word that describes the city’s present is not quite “vibrant”.

Mark Rumpler, 66, an Elvis impersonator for almost two decades, had a different word: “Rough.”

“It was a turbulent summer,” said Sean McBurney, the chief commercial officer of Caesars Entertainment, which operates multiple Strip casinos and resorts, including Caesars Palace.

Aaron Berger, the Neon Museum's executive director, said that Vegas’ growing pains aren’t new. He noted that Las Vegas began as a railroad town in 1905, becoming the link between Los Angeles and Salt Lake City during the Gold Rush, before it turned to gambling and hospitality, opening its first themed resort on the Strip in 1941.

The city pivoted to entertainment, then fine dining in the 1990s, before becoming what it is now — a sports mecca, home to the NHL's Golden Knights beginning in 2017, followed by the WNBA’s Aces in 2018, the NFL's Raiders in 2020 and currently getting ready for the arrival of MLB's A’s in 2028.