Caesars Palace

When reading this book, the first idea that came to me was about how Las Vegas looks today. Having family and a few friends that live in Vegas has allowed me to travel their numerous times and see the city not as a visitor but through the lens of people who see the day to day problems. Once one leaves the tourist destinations and the glitzy areas, an entirely different city emerges. In no other city that I have visited has the lines between the wealthy and poor residences been so drastic. Once you enter the suburbs it is impossible not to notice the amounts of large steel gates separating communities from one another. Even in areas full of mini mansions, gates make it seem as if these are warring communities not neighbors attending the same schools. Another interesting part of Vegas life is the differences in treatment one receives when they look wealthy rather then even middle class. While in Vegas with some friends I called my Uncle for advice on a good attraction or restaurant. To my surprise he insisted that he make the reservations for us, we were to show up at his house and then we would receive are instructions. When we pulled into his driveway (after first having a security guard call my uncle to make sure we were guests and not just individuals driving through a neighborhood) I was greeted with the keys to his convertible. His instructions were simple, our reservations were under his name (Dr. Lipman) and I was handed one of his business cards incase anyone were to question us. As we arrived at a hotel on the strip a man who took our name and immediately escorted us to our table in the restaurant greeted us at the valet parking. Later when I asked my uncle for an explanation, he simply replied, “one could do anything in this town with the right title and car.”

Another idea I had deals with the acceptance of Sammy Davis Jr. and Harry Belafonte. While Orleck describes how these men were influential in the desegregation of the strip, I was left wondering how they were able to create change and become accepted while other including celebrities such as the Temptations were denied access. Even today when one thinks of early Vegas, Sammy Davis Jr. is among the most well known. This made me question whether it was their skin that defined these individuals or simply how they acted. Can we consider their acceptance as something akin to what we are hearing about Obama? Was Sammy Davis considered white due to his dress, style, music, and friends? While the Temptations belonged to the African American style of Motown music, Davis Jr. walked out onstage every night in a tuxedo and sang in the style of a white man.

Finally in response to Tim’s question about the ability of the poor to affect change, I believe that we can attribute many of the problems in the book and in today’s poor areas not to the failed programs of the poor but instead the lack of support or consideration from the government. From the government making welfare programs more exclusive and underfunded to practices, which punished welfare recipients for making any extra money despite being paid well below the poverty line, it seems as if no positive response by Washington came without negative side effects. Consider all the money and time wasted looking for welfare frauds costing the government mere hundreds of dollars in each case while we continued to turn a blind eye towards the white collar crime defrauding the public of millions each year. Even in Buffalo did we make the casino and its money sucking games more accessible to the upper class or the tourists of Buffalo or to the poor of the city looking for one big payout. Even when the government did try and support positive change in poor areas their plans lacked information about how the area worked. Consider the case of the library and Operation Liberty. While the government finally decided to build a new state of the art library for this poor area, their plans did not take into account the dynamics of the neighborhood. Instead of rehabilitating the old facility and making it the cornerstone of the area they pushed for a new building to be build away from the core of the Operations work. Too often we see grass roots projects begin to enact real change before some politicians jump on the cause as a way to gain votes and the project becoming a bastardized shell of its former self.