Online retailer Zappos is known for its zany, zealous corporate culture. But one stunt seems to bridge the gap from "culture" to "cult": For CEO Tony Hsieh’s 40th birthday party, his inner circle of friends—apparently calling themselves "Zapponians"—all got the same tattoo.
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In the meeting room of a La Quinta hotel on the northernmost outskirts of Las Vegas, near the entrance to Nellis Air Force Base, the company OnPoint Tactical hosted the most recent iteration of their "Urban Escape & Evasion" course.
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Moby wants you to join his perpetual pool party in Los Angeles, and a group of scientists wants China to use "spatial economics" to design more walkable cities. Plus: informal transit in Nairobi, a failed utopia in California, radical ideas for the Vegas of 2034, and a significant prehistoric site that’s currently being uncovered in downtown Miami. Check out this week’s Urban Reads.
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How the Super Bowl failed its transit-riding attendees, an L.A. museum that collects houses, and why Monarch butterflies are dying (spoiler: because of us). Plus a McDonald’s in Queens, Millennials in St. Louis, and biking in Las Vegas. It’s time for your weekly Urban Reads.
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As the story goes, Las Vegas was built by Mormons and mobsters. This unlikely team worked together to bring gambling to a place almost exclusively populated by men constructing the Hoover Dam. Their work turned a tiny sun-baked town into a global phenomenon.
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Between the Downtown Project’s area
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About 1.5 miles southwest of the Downtown Project’s cluster of development in Las Vegas is another creative neighborhood going through changes. It’s named 18b.
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The oldest freestanding bar in Vegas is Atomic Liquors, built in 1952, back when you could climb onto the roof and watch atomic bombs explode at desert test sites 60 miles away. If you sit long enough at its expansive bar, chances are Kent Johns will pull up a stool next to you and tell you about it.
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When I meet Josh Westerholt at the offices of Project 100, the Las Vegas urban mobility startup that’s funded by the Downtown Project, we decide it would probably make sense to head out into downtown Vegas to tour their project area in person. From the other room, his co-worker has an even better idea: "Take the Tesla."
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