The strip exists entirely as a resort destination. There is no other reason to go there other than to spend money in the casinos and hotels. Traditional cities that charge for parking are a huge mix of residential, industrial, and entertainment. This is why paying for parking downtown makes sense. There are many people there coming to work everyday for the government offices and businesses. If the hotels did not charge to park, these folks would fill up the garages and displace paying customers.

The garages are already in place. Adding a parking fee is just gouging a captive audience. It’s one more thing that erodes value. The corporate mafias running this town will keep doing it until the value is gone and then Vegas stops being unique.

I pretty much never have a car in Vegas so this will not directly affect me. To say it won’t affect me at all, however, would be short sighted as it ignores the larger issue at hand. I have been hollering for a decade now about the attitude shift in the town where everybody expects a hand out just for existing. Charging people to park for coming to spend money at your resort is just so… Disney.

As for W Las Vegas being part of SLS it will help in the long run
because of W’s customer base but it seems to me that any company will have problems there because of the challenging location. At least now SLS’s neighbor Carl Icahn has put Fontainebleau on the market (for $650 million dollars) so maybe something will happen there.

The MGM charging money for parking rumors are interesting. I originally posted on another blog that I thought they would do this but now I am not sure. What is likely possible is that when the Las Vegas Arena opens in April of 2016 customers going to concerts there will be charged $10 to park at the nearby hotels which include Excalibur, New York New York and Monte Carlo.

Eventually I think there will be an NHL Hockey Team in the Las Vegas Arena. With 40 home games (and possibly the playoffs) they would charge either $15 or $20 to park at Excalibur, New York New York and Monte Carlo.

In the United States most cities charge money for parking
when either going to a concert or a sporting event. Since most people who live in Las Vegas are from somewhere else I think most people will not have a problem with this at all.

That said, yes, the hosts MUST enjoy the discussion in order to do it. I totally get it. This isn’t your “job”, and you make nothing for it. Therefore, you owe us nothing. Of course I’ll listen, because a.) you’re my boys and b.) hearing the three of you bullshit about whatever you feel like is certainly going to be plenty interesting to me.

So thanks for not giving up on this completely. I look forward to what’s this evolves into.

So glad Dr. Dave talked about 442nd Regimental Combat Team. I had somehow missed it in Green Felt Journal. I had just watched a frightening CSPAN or PBS documentary on children sent to interment camps, and it was great that Dave recognized these Americans.

The Jimbo on Twitter segment is hilarious. Thanks, Chuck.