For those of you who have never been to Vegas, the Fremont Street Experience is on Fremont Street, the "original" strip, and in the heart of downtown Vegas (the Strip, actually, lies mostly outside of Vegas proper). This from an online review:
Review: With its $70 million light canopy, $17 million in upgrades and 550,000-watt sound system, the Fremont Street Experience is sure to mesmerize.
Positioned 90 feet above Fremont Street, the attraction stretches 1,400 feet and consists of 12.5 million synchronized LED modules, including 180 strobes and 8 robotic mirrors per block. It's capable of producing millions of color combinations, animation and video feeds, allowing the display to switch from a swirling ocean setting to a television broadcast in minutes.
But this is not the Fremont Street Experience that this article is about. The "real" Fremont Street experience begins a few blocks east of the famed canopy, and goes southward onto south Main Street. The Fremont Street Experience that all too many Vegans know is the experience of plasma clinics, of roach infested tenements and rent by the week hotels, of cutthroat gangsters and hookers looking for prey among the tourists of one of the most extravagant cities on the planet.
Again, from the review:
The Fremont Street Experience is the perfect place to take in the "real" Vegas. With the groundbreaking technology of the sound and light show alongside some of Vegas' oldest and best known neon signs (Glitter Gulch's Vegas Vickie and the equally recognizable Vegas Vic), the spirit of Las Vegas is truly represented.
The "real" Vegas can be seen from the Fremont Street Experience, which is minutes away from Mayor Oscar Goodman's office. It is in the "real" Vegas that murder is an all too grim reality, and in which anonymous illegal immigrants risk their lives in back alley doctors due to misinformation about medical care and very real fears of INS officers. It is in the "real" Vegas where many people live in substandard dwellings after they were lured here by the promise of good paying jobs in the casinos, without being informed that, to get one of those jobs, you must first purchase a $62.50 "sheriff's card", and often must pay the local union upfront to get your foot in the door. It is in the "real" Vegas where people's dreams and aspirations are dashed as surely as those of the gambler losing on the roulette wheel.
In closing, when you are considering your recreational activities, I encourage you to discover the "real" Fremont Street, and, if you enjoy gambling as a hobby, take it to one of the many fine Indian casinos across the nation.
respectfully submitted,
Gideon MacLeish