Kunstler Vs. Las Vegas

A columnist for the Las Vegas Review-Journal scoffs at Kunstler's scathing review of Las Vegas.

1 minute read

December 13, 2001, 10:00 AM PST

By Chris Steins @planetizen


"Las Vegas is built in the middle of a desert, 'lending the town a permanent air of desperation.' Its disorienting layout of streets is borrowed from the design of casinos that prevent gamblers from leaving. Its torrid summers and wide-open sprawl make cars (an invention Kunstler openly loathes) a necessity. He sums: 'The pretensions of kitsch-lovers aside, there was never anything innocent about Las Vegas. It has always been the product of the purest cynicism, real gangster cynicism, headless-corpse-in-the-desert cynicism.'"

Thanks to The Practice of New Urbanism

Friday, October 7, 2005 in Las Vegas Review Journal

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