Kunstler Vs. Las Vegas

"Las Vegas is built in the middle of a desert, 'lending the town a permanent air of desperation.' Its disorienting layout of streets is borrowed from the design of casinos that prevent gamblers from leaving. Its torrid summers and wide-open sprawl make cars (an invention Kunstler openly loathes) a necessity. He sums: 'The pretensions of kitsch-lovers aside, there was never anything innocent about Las Vegas. It has always been the product of the purest cynicism, real gangster cynicism, headless-corpse-in-the-desert cynicism.'"