This Week's LVW col: Grin & Luv-It

Hey! They posted this week's piece early! And it's a lot of fun! They even made up that funny graphic! Read on and join the Facebook group, "Las Vegas Needs To Grow A Pair." -sf

Grin and Luv-It

Does a Las Vegas neighborhood slam really merit all this fuss?

By STEVE FRIESS

The clerk has to pause and think about it.

“Let’s see,” she says, eyes rolling around as she calculates the answer. “One, two, three. Three. I think. At least three.”

That’s three—at least. Three times since she came to work at this Mighty Mart a few months ago, the place has been robbed while she was behind the counter. That doesn’t count the minor incidents of shoplifting, “of course,” she adds. Or the stabbing. Or when the drugged-up prostitute fell off her bicycle, hit her head and died.

Or the countless times the clerk’s car has been vandalized as it sat outside her apartment a couple of blocks away.

“It’s a bad area,” says the clerk, who asked that her name not be used because, uh, she fears for her safety. “So bad.”

God forbid she had said that on national TV. Regardless of how true it may be, the clerk would be strung up by USB cables and hung in effigy on Facebook and Twitter for such an outrageous sin. You see, this isn’t just any old Mighty Mart. This Mighty Mart stands a rock of cocaine’s throw from the venerable, much-beloved Luv-It Frozen Custard, a legendary dessert stand at the corner of Oakey and Las Vegas Boulevard.

Read the rest at LasVegasWeekly.Com.

News Flash: Luv-It *IS* In A Scary 'Hood!

Hoo-boy! The Vegas whine machine is in full throttle now!

First, there was the Time cover story that portrayed the city's economy as down in the dumps, which brought out Whiner-in-Chief Oscar Goodman to write a defensive letter. Then there was the recent Los Angeles Times series that got one total cry-baby realtor nutjob in Vegas to send out a hysterical email asserting idiotically that the L.A. Times had singlehandedly impacted real estate prices.

And now Mindy Kaling, an actress from "The Office," humorously notes that talk show host Craig Ferguson sent her to a pretty skanky neighborhood for some Luv-It Frozen Custard. Watch for yourself:

Hoo-boy does this get the hackles up! I mean, gee, she saw a guy with no pants and a drug bust. Isn't debating this being a bad area like debating whether Kanye West is a jackass? I've seen that and worse stopping by for custard and anyone who pretends they haven't is lying.

Now there's a legion of Facebookers and Vegas "historic neighborhood" aficionados (including my pal Jack LeVine, wrong in this case) who are offended. One, Brian Paco Alvarez, is threatening a boycott of a TV show he says he doesn't even watch which is, incidentally, not going to be very effective seeing how he's abstaining from something he doesn't do in the first place.

There's even a Facebook GROUP created by Jessica E. Brown over this! It's called "Las Vegas Downtown Neighbors & Luv-It Fans against Mindy Kaling" and here's it's mission: "The insanely and inexplicably popular actress Mindy Kaling has launched a coordinated attack against one of the oldest and best neighborhoods in Las Vegas.* By joining this ultra influential Facebook group,** you will be showing Mindy who's who!"

OK. So I'm confused. Beyond the fact that Kaling is hardly "insanely" popular -- there isn't even a MindyKaling.Com and I suspect she's mainly known by viewers of "The Office" -- take a look at the Google map and the satellite image of where Luv-It is. Click on them to enlarge.



This place isn't in any residential NEIGHBORHOOD anyway! It's slightly off a major thoroughfare that's adjacent to a highly industrial area. There are all sorts of seedy businesses in that stretch of Las Vegas Boulevard. The nearest home is what looks like a quarter-mile away, if not more. Olympic Gardens is right there! Ya never hear anyone defend the honor of the OG!

On Facebook, I'm being egged on to attack the actress and defend the neighborhood's honor. And yet I have always felt unsafe there, always wanted to make quick work of getting my goods and moving on. I love Luv-It and I recommend it in my travel journalism, but to send someone there without being prepared for that environment isn't great, either, so I always say so.

What's more irksome is what babies Vegas people are. Oh, boo hoo, someone said something mean about me. So I figured it was time to fight fire with fire. I started a Facebook Group called "Las Vegas Needs To Grow A Pair." Hopefully it'll be "insanely" popular.