The tunnel people of Las Vegas: How 1,000 live in flooded labyrinth under Sin City's shimmering str

reply to post by HunkaHunka


Star for your post. And yes Chicago has "tunnel people too".

But I'm not going to tell you where.

reply to post by DaMod


It's a shame because there are about 4 empty / forclosed homes for every 1 homeless person in Las Vegas. And they city wont crack down on them 'cause they would then be in view of the precious tourists. Don't get me wrong, my job is dependant on tourism.

I actually remember this article from a couple of years back!

Now that the homeless rate has increased by 30-100% in the United States (depending on your region), I think it is all the more poignant.

I live in the current #1 for Homeless Per Capita, where the homeless population doubled in the first 6 months of this year. 1 out of 4 children under the age of 18 are homeless in my town. Many of them couch-surf, and some of them squat in foreclosed houses, but others live in the parks and makeshift camps down by the river until the Police come through and clear them out. My town however is far more depressed economically than Vegas ever will be.

Although the vagrants and vagabonds of the past could be stereotyped with mental illness, drug and alcohol abuse, today's homeless are runaways from abusive families, or entire nuclear families that lived in Suburbia before the bank foreclosed on them last month. They are your neighbors, your classmates, and your friends. It's a problem that is only going to get worse as economic times get tougher.

However, I guess the homeless are still the invisible to most who live their lives with their heads buried in the sand. No one thinks about the homeless really until they are homeless themselves.

Originally posted by fraterormus
No one thinks about the homeless really until they are homeless themselves.

When people pass by homeless they usually chose not to even look at them. Everyone thinks such things could never happen to them, it is impossible - "of all people it surely won't happen to me, that's just absurd".

Homeless are considered simply lower class people, an annoyance or just worthless scum. But they're really victims of our "progress and prosperity" who just couldn't cope with the demands any more.

Great illustration of the "Haves" and the "Have Nots"....totally sad,

Does anyone remember the TV show that was on several years ago called Beauty and the Beast???

Vincent (the beast) lived in underground New York City. Who'd a thunk it could come "true"....(in a matter of speaking)....nothing is surprising any more, nothing.

~holly

reply to post by LoneGunMan

Originally posted by LoneGunMan
Why do we put up with the way our people are forced to live? When about 1% have 99% of the wealth and could easily end poverty in the most powerful country in the world? Whats wrong with us all that we do not demand a more humane way of life?

It is because we have become...most of us....selfish. Me it has become all about me and mine and you cant have any of it. If we demand that the super elite do not spread the share they have STOLEN through crooked deals and ruining lives.

No reason for this. None. If we can send warships around the world and smash countries into ruin we can easily keep a safety net for our people.

We are all just a few tragic steps that could lead any of us to substance abuse and insanity.

The day of reckoning is close.

We are all the product of a lifetime of indoctrination. From our earliest years, most of us have been taught good ole' conservative views such as the importance of working hard for the good things in life but also (and probably in indirect terms) about the shame of relying on handouts and charity.

From exchanges with many of the contributors on this forum, it is clear that they would rate an 8-year old working 16 hour days in China for a pittance higher than a grown man with family relying on the welfare to keep his family alive in a western country. They would always see both as having a choice in their situation but in both cases, they do what they do to keep their family alive.

Many of the tunnels are not for flood waters but utilities i have been in some of the tunnels back in my construction days.

There are also large phone switching units underground in Las Vegas my brother works for the phone company there and over The years has found a lot of underground utility vaults and the strip is warren of tunnels for just about every thing.
If you go to Vegas you will note that its very hard to find any power poles above that is because everything is run under ground in Tunnels so no one has to dig up the streets to make improvement.
Some of the casinos have 3 to 4 underground levels.
Not only the poor live underground in Vegas but some of the rich do to.
www.lasvegasmercury.com...

reply to post by HunkaHunka


Bump. S&F

...Missed this one, but wrote a story about the situation.

The readout glows red, 5:47.

"Get everyone out of the tunnels! NOW! Subways too! They're fumigating. Some kind of genetically engineered nano-bacteria-virus hybrid. Turns people into zombies. It's global. Every city in the world. Coordinated. We have 13 minutes," Bill gasps, collapsing breathless, white, onto a crate between Simon's station and the freight elevator.

...I suspect there have been people living in city tunnels for a long time - maybe as long as there have been cities with tunnels. Like cave dwellers.

Someone should forward this article to the folks at Bethesda Software. We could see a future DLC for Fallout: New Vegas based on this.

I know it isn't the case with all of them, but I'm sure that some of the folks living down there are doing so by choice,