Getting Better All the Time

Progress is a motive force in every city—and, perhaps, the point of civilization itself. The evolution of Sin City has challenged conventional meanings and methods of forward movement since it began its modernization by embracing both nontraditional behaviors (legalized gambling, liberalized divorce laws) and sizable federal investments (Hoover Dam, Nellis Air Force Base). Through the up and down eras that followed—Rat Pack, Elvis, megaresorts, housing boom, housing bust, and now the Downtown Project—Las Vegas has always coined its own definition of progress. In these stories and essays by some of Las Vegas’ finest writers, you will see how locals weave spectacle, risk, and reward into the narratives of civic, political, financial, personal, and spiritual progress … or, sometimes, calamity.