Why are you constantly supporting the gentrification of downtown?

To add insult to injury, why do you keep treating people like Paco Alvarez(a former UNLV D student and wannabe raver) or Cornthwaite, who is pathetic to the point that he has some loser write positive reviews of his and his wife's businesses on yelp while they give bad ones to the competition.... as LV cultural icons. This is all ridiculous.

Las Vegas is a sort of post modern wild West... decay and rejuvenation, opulent displays of wealth and abject poverty, gaudy materialism alongside the struggle to survive from paycheck to paycheck. A land where a high school drop out "VIP host" with a leased BMW is more respected than an English PhD struggling to get part time teaching work at an institution that treats professors like glorified fast food workers(Would you like to super size that degree? Would you like a minor with that major?). An arts scene that's constantly hyped up by the "independent" media which consists of nothing but bourgie mofos selling whatever appeals to Summerlin soccer moms at the moment. While music venues and corporate run/or modeled on, coffee houses host concerts and poetry nights as a way to reach a niche market rather than having any real zeal or passion.

Downtown is now in the throws of gentrification and its being hailed as a positive thing by the socalled "counter culture". What is so great about businesses out of the price range of most residents which cater to white hipster wannabes from the burbs and wannabe yuppy poseurs?

At least in the 1990s there was some hope, some real aspiration. It was seedy and dirty... the scene in general, not just down town. But I prefer that taste of reality to today's corporate modeled "scene" and the glorification of greedy leaches and talentless hacks trying to make a buck.

So let me get this right, its a Chinese restaurant, except for the Vietnamese selections it offers. Its authentic except for the Americanized options. Everything is wonderful at this authentic Chinese restaurants except for the basic Americanized dishes like sweet and sour whatever which it messes up. The LV Weekly really has some great writers!

Your dining reviews are great, I generally just go with the exact opposite of what your food "critics" have to say. I've yet to be steered wrong!

Great, and how many Las Vegas can afford those restaurants?

This is what its come down to? Social scientists who can't distinguish between their research topic and their personal lives? Social "scientists" who can't even follow basic research ethics? First of all, the answers these 2 gave are simply post-modernist fluff. Secondly, they should be professionally reprimanded for manipulating their research subjects by trying to portray themselves as sympathetic to their cause in order to gain access to their subculture. It is also a lack of ethics to form personal relationships with research subjects. Yes, UNLV's sociology department leaves a lot to be desired, but this takes the cake!