IS THE FREMONT STREET EXPERIENCE SAFE?

I've already said a lot about the Fremont Street Experience, but walking up and down that covered street scene was about the only thing we did yesterday.

• Here is where you can get a sense and whiff of the culture of Las Vegas.

• 
  A pedestrian mall in the olde downtown known for years as Glitter Gulch, for it had the first neon signs.
• The ceiling is 90 feet high and runs for 1375 feet.
• There are three stages, and the acts are usually free.
• There is the SlotZilla zip line if that is your interest.
• Some history.
• Fremont Street had Las Vegas' first hotel (Hotel Nevada in 1906 that is today called the Golden Gate).
• 
  First telephone in 1907, paved street (1925), gaming license to the Northern Club, traffic light, elevator (Apache Hotel) in 1932 and high rise.  Can you believe this was the Fremont Hotel in 1956?  
• 
  The Horseshoe was the first casino to install carpeting, and the Golden Nugget was the first structure designed to be a casino.
• 
  However, by 1992 80% of the casino market was away on the Las Vegas Strip.
• So the downtown casinos came up with the Fremont Street Experience, operated by the downtown hotel casino companies.
• Architect Jon Jerde was paid $900,000 to create the concept.
• 
  The architect of record to design FSE was Mary Kozlowski, who grew up in Vegas and loved Fremont Street.  Interesting that I can't find a photo of her.  So that is Jerde to the right.
• She created the LED canopy light show, still the world's largest video screen.
• 
  Each bulb had four colored lights to show the full spectrum.
• The most expensive bulb cost $15 to replace.
• Expected cost was $63 million.
• 
  A five-block section of Fremont Street was closed to automobile traffic on 7 September 1994.
• 
  The light show was opened on 14 December 1995, followed by the now annual New Year's party. 
• There was a $17 million upgrade in 2004, and another $32 million renovation in 2019 made the attraction four times the resolution and seven times the brightness.
• What began as a 2.1 million bulb canopy now has 49 million energy-efficient LEDs.
• There are also now 220 speakers with 550,000 watts of amplification.
• The light and sound shows begin daily at 6 PM and continues on to 2AM on what is called the Viva Vision video screen.
• 
  In 1996 the horse-and-rider sign from the Hacienda Hotel located way north on Las Vegas Boulevard, was taken from and moved south to the east entrance of FCE when that hotel was imploded to build the Mandalay Bay Resort. The Neon Museum was added when the La Concha Motel was in 2012 converted into the Neon Museum to house the neon lights from casinos that closed.
• Also on the east end is a parking plaza for 1430 car spaces.
• 
  Neonopolis is a shopping complex located at Las Vegas Boulevard South and Fremont Street.
• Prominent casinos include Binion's, Circa, D, Four Queens, Fremont, Golden Gate and Golden Nugget.
• Casinos that closed include the Las Vegas Club, Mermaids, The Mint and half a dozen others.

Okay, but is it really safe in Downtown Las Vegas and the Fremont Street Experience.  Here is at least one side of the story, by the people that run FTE:

• They never quite say it is perfectly safe, and, in fact, want you to be careful and report anything to an official.
• However, they say they have a professional security force of 50 full-time officers who are there 24/7, 365 days/year.  Some are uniformed, and some are not obvious, as to the right above.
• They are on foot, in electric cars and on bicycles.
• They have 300 high-definition cameras scattered throughout.
• They work closely with the strong government police force.
• Casinos provide additional security in and around their property, plus parking areas.
• They also say most locals come to downtown rather than the strip, for shopping, bar hopping, etc.

Ladah Law says:

• There are crimes like pickpocketing and muggings, but maybe less than any large city.
• Be aware and use common sense.
• More than crime, be especially careful about slipping and falling.
• Don't walk from the Strip to Downtown, not particularly because of crime, but the usual pedestrian accident.

Anthony Curtis' LasVegasAdvisor:

• According to the FBI Crime Report, the crime rate in downtown Las Vegas is 93% HIGHER than the national average, and most of those crimes occur in the Fremont Street area.
• The first five weeks of this year in the Downtown area saw 6 homicides, 14 sex offenses, 43 aggravated assaults, 16 robberies and 125 motor-vehicle offenses, as part of a grand total of 1,012 crimes.
• Watch out for homeless people.
• Don't walk at night from Fremont down Charleston to the Arts District, 1.2 miles away.  There are seedy patches.

Travel Safe Abroad:

• Fremont is not one of the safest cities in America due to an almost 23% increase in crime.
• The chances of being a victim of crime in Fremont is 1 in 36, with robbery the most common offense.
• Whoops...that was the city Fremont, near San Francisco.  
• IGNORE THIS SECTION.

Here is my assessment.  

• Like at home, if you want to minimize danger, stay in bed and don't leave your room.  
• You can trip going to the bathroom, so be careful.  
• Similarly, in Las Vegas, stay in your room and avoid people if safety is your concern.  
• Of course you will get out to eat, drink and even gamble, but some just stay in the casino, as the proprietors would like.  
• But getting outside, like me, into the Fremont Street Experience or across the street the other way to the California Hotel is reasonably safe, if you don't mind nearly 100-degree weather in June...and into September.  FTE is cooly comfortable.  The city is cold during the winter months.
• By the way, I've never paid for travel insurance.  But that's me, not that advice to the right.
• Yet:
• I start with downtown Honolulu.  Say lunch at Marugame Udon, while watching the crowd walk by.  Safe, certainly, but every so often you see some crazies and weirdos and the homeless.  I guess that's life today.
• Walking around the Fremont Street Experience offers the same, perhaps more weirdos, crazies and the like.
• People in this attraction are more drunk, and marijuana is legal, so that smell permeates here and there.
• But the same can be said for Amsterdam, and they also have magic truffles.  But I feel safe in that city.
• New Orleans during Mardi Gras is a bit testy, but not that bad.
• FTE is like all the above.  However, I feel a bit safer on Fort Street in Honolulu than downtown Las Vegas.
• I'm at the stage of my life that I mostly stay within comfortable security and don't travel to Africa, South America, Italy, Paris and so on anymore.  Las Vegas seems safe enough for me, as the Strip is more secure than Downtown and most other sites like Summerlin and Henderson, very safe.
• Some photos of our walk yesterday, where I picked up a Subway sandwich to eat in our room:

For dinner, walked to the California Hotel to pick up some food to take back to my room.  The noodle shop was closed, and so were Aloha Cafe and the buffett.  Market Street Cafe said no takeouts.  Back to the Circa and went to Saginaw's, a delicatessen. 

The chicken would have been fine if they had not drizzled on to it a cup of brown sauce.  But okay with some Chardonnay.

Not sure about lunch today, but maybe while at the gigantic sports book room.  Tonight, Redwood Steakhouse in the California Hotel.  I need to lose the money there I still have available on a sheet of paper.  I only play video poker.   Then the next day, Friday, we return to Honolulu.

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