Not Your Grandmother's Las Vegas

Once upon a time Las Vegas was known for its mob connections, its glamorous "strip" of hotels and casinos and its celebrities. Frank Sinatra was a god among men there. It was a town in which you had to get dressed up in your most glamorous get up to go out on the town or risk not being admitted to even the lowliest of divey casinos.

This is no longer the case. In an effort to become more family friendly, Las Vegas has become less formal, less glitzy and has been doing its best to downplay its mob mentality—even though it probably won't ever be able the stigma completely. It is, after all, the place where—if you make the bad guys mad—you can end up digging your own grave way out in the desert. But it would probably take quite a bit to make that happen. Television shows like to make it look a lot easier than it really would be to get that mixed up in nefarious dealings.

The truth is that anybody who can remember the old Vegas despises the new Vegas. Consider the monologue Alec Baldwin gives in The Closer in which he laments the way Vegas used to be before the new Strip took hold. This is not a rare opinion of the way Las Vegas has been marketing itself in the last few decades. Your grandparents will remember how glamorous and exciting it was to visit Las Vegas. Today they will be appalled at all of the young children running through the casino floors.

One thing is for sure—unless they are employed there—you will not find local residents of Las Vegas on the Strip. There are too many clubs, bars and things for them to do in their own neighborhoods to try to commingle with the tourists parading up and down past the MGM Grand and Bally's.

Las Vegas was never meant to be a family town but recent decades have tossed it in that direction. To be sure, it is now a family vacation destination—one for the whole family to enjoy. You can take your kids to Circus Circus or the Shark Tank or to see one of the many shows that are playing up and down the strip. Today you can go to your five dollar buffet and feed your whole family while looking for celebrities trying to covertly get from the "guests only" resort pools to their penthouse suites.

Today the Las Vegas strip stretches from the Welcome to Las Vegas sign on Las Vegas Boulevard past Mandalay Bay, Caesar's Palace and Circus Circus. The Original Strip—where the Rat Pack used to play is Fremont Street. Fremont Street now offers a laser light show and Krispy Kreme. Somewhere in the universe Frank Sinatra and the rest of the Rat Pack are suffering from a collective migraine from the gentrification of it all.

For more information on Las Vegas, visit http://www.lasvegasmicroblog.com and http://www.renomicroblog.com.