(We are saying goodbye to 2023 by re-visiting our favorite posts from the last year. To see why we loved these stories, check out what we said about them here.)
Listen to the powers that be in Formula 1, and you’ll likely believe that the inaugural Las Vegas Grand Prix will be a smashing success. It’s an unprecedented event, the series says, one that will transform the Las Vegas Strip into a high-speed race track for just four days in November. It’s going to be a riotous success, they’ve said, and it’s going to set the tone for all racing events going forward.
Speak to people who have visited, lived in, or worked at the Nevada oasis any time over the last year, however, and you’ll hear a much different story.
Jalopnik spoke in depth to 15 different people connected to Las Vegas in some way. Several were longtime residents who have made a career out of resort work. Others were more recent transplants shocked by the sudden upheaval of the city. Still others popped into town for a work trip, or had arrived in hopes of a relaxing vacation that turned into anything but.
“Life as I knew it ended when that construction started,” local author Lisa Lindell told Jalopnik.
“The frustration, inconvenience and blatant disdain for residents living in Las Vegas is evident by the lack of information and coordination with everyone except the promoters of this exhibition,” a resident named Celeste, a Vegas local, said. Other conversations with resort workers confirmed that many properties still hadn’t initiated a plan of action for employees to arrive at work during race weekend, only asking them to factor in a three-hour commute time; those conversations took place 10 days before the first on-track practice session for F1 cars.
Drake Donovan of Car Show Life has been attending the annual SEMA show in Las Vegas for years now, but when he stepped off his plane for the 2023 show, “Las Vegas felt different than it did even a year ago,” he told Jalopnik. When he arrived, it was to a city full of blocked sightlines, closed roads, and sidewalk construction. However, he found that once he got down to work, it was easier to turn his attention away from track preparation and find himself only mildly bothered.
“The Las Vegas Strip is one of those places in America that doesn’t just belong to the locals,” Donovan said. “It’s so well known to so many outsiders that we all feel a sense of ownership of it, but I hope there’s a benefit the locals can gain from all the inconvenience they’ve endured.”
However, the problems have felt more accute for the visitors whose trip to Las Vegas hinges on enjoying the properties laid out along the Strip. When David Foxx reached out to Jalopnik, he was on his 10th day of a 19-day vacation, and he blamed F1 construction for “ruin[ing] what has always been a fantastic experience.
“Everything you read about traffic being a nightmare couldn’t be more true. Numerous lane restrictions on the Strip make it untravelable. The best pedestrian bridge in town is covered. My last night in Vegas, I always take a picture in front of the Bellagio Fountains, but now they are blocked by bleachers for the upcoming race.”
My own family took a brief weekend trip to Las Vegas to see REO Speedwagon in concert; they’ve been regular visitors to the city for conferences and vacations over the years and have watched the city transform into race mode. When I asked how this trip compared to others, they reported long waits for cabs, disgruntled workers, and long walks.
“Traffic is a nightmare,” my stepfather told me. “They’re diverting so many streets for Formula 1, and it’s so irritating. We’ve been putting in over 17,000 steps a day trying to walk from place to place.”
My mom told me about her walk from the Vdara to the Venetian for the concert: “It was such a mess. Parts of the sidewalk were closed, and everyone was crammed onto the sidewalk on one side of the Strip. It took forever to get there.”
“Our cab driver yesterday was complaining that they paid a bunch of money to fix the road on the Strip so that it’s super smooth, but the surrounding roads are complete garbage,” she continued. “He said the city can afford to fix the streets for people to use it for one weekend, but not for the people who pay taxes.”
The following day, they tried to head to the newly built Sphere to watch a show and found that the cab companies won’t head out that way due to road closures.
“We took a cab from the Bellagio to the Venetian, then walked the rest of the way,” my mom said. “There was no signage, and it was impossible to find the entrance. It took us over an hour to get there.”
But one of their most telling observations came from their Lyft driver. As he drove them from the airport, he told them that “everyone hates the F1 race. He picked up a woman leaving work at the Sphere last night. She paid two-hours’ wages to get home because the bus would have taken almost five hours with all the rerouting and traffic.” That Lyft driver won’t do pick up or drop off on the Strip during race week.
If inconvenience has been the name of the game for tourists, things have only been worse for the actual residents and workers that keep Las Vegas running — but not everyone from Las Vegas is convinced that the Grand Prix is worthy of such frustration. A resident (who asked to remain anonymous due to what he felt could be a controversial opinion) warned me, “Before you blame a single event for all the problems in Las Vegas, buy a plane ticket, rent a car and see for yourself.
“A handful of vocal people want to blame F1 for the terrible condition of our local streets. F1 is spending $90 million to repave a huge part of Las Vegas Boulevard that hasn’t been repaved for more than 20 years. [The series] will use this pavement for three days. The rest of the year, the county benefits.”
The resident went on to note that the bulk of traffic concerns actually comes from something called “Dropicana.”
“NDOT dropped one half of the bridge that sends Tropicana Avenue over the I-15 near Las Vegas Boulevard,” this resident told me. “Eight lanes of traffic reduced to two and pumped through the worst execution of a ‘double diamond’ you’ll ever find. It’s being done to benefit the Stadium and the NFL, because we’re hosting the Super Bowl. It greatly compromises traffic, but it has nothing to do with F1.
“If F1 has done anything wrong here in Las Vegas, it was trusting the crooked politicos that handle things.”
The bulk of people I spoke to, though, felt the situation has been mishandled from the beginning. Celeste told Jalopnik that in her line of work, “when a new program or product got rammed down our throats, the line was ‘looks like somebody’s brother-in-law just got a new contract.’ That feels like it applies here.”
In late June, she told Jalopnik, it took her 80 minutes to drive four miles to transport her niece to a convention at Mandalay Bay — and the traffic has only gotten worse since then.
To illustrate the “narrow scope of planning,” she mentioned that, 10 days out from the event, there was no plan regarding “getting workers into and out of the Strip during race week and towards purveyors bringing goods into the businesses.”
“I hear nothing but complaints from other resort corridor employees. They don’t even want to work [F1] weekend,” said local author Lisa Lindell, who deals poker on the Strip. “One employer is offering prizes [for workers], with the top prize being a BMW. Workers only get one entry for every hour they work that weekend. Why not just pay more for those shifts?”
Many workers have been wondering the same thing — and that’s why tens of thousands of Culinary Workers Union members were preparing to strike in the buildup to the Grand Prix. Workers negotiated for a significant pay increase ahead of the race — a weekend that is expected to be deeply hectic in terms of both travel to work as well as the number of people being served.
A front-of-the-house hotel worker at a prestigious Las Vegas resort who asked to remain anonymous told Jalopnik that they are deeply familiar with both the automotive and motorsport worlds and therefore has no issue with F1 as a concept. However, in bringing up the potential strike, he noted, “When opening negotiations were happening, the hotel wanted to screw us. I’m sure it wasn’t just mine, either. [The hotel] weaponized the premise that our tip workers can ‘make a lot,’ but the tip workers who have been in the industry for a long time will tell you that guests spend more than ever during their stays now but tip a lot less than they ever have.”
Similar to Lisa, this worker noted that their hotel was also offering employees “the casino equivalent of a pizza party for record sales. Every hotel is trying to hype up its workers as if we’re all winning with F1 coming here. We are not. They are winning. They make all the money. They have no qualms about steamrolling their own workers and citizens of Las Vegas to make an extra buck.”
Another unionized worker in Las Vegas, Evan, told Jalopnik that the “prep” workers have received from their employers regarding the event “runs along the lines of, ‘good luck, leave home earlier, park somewhere else, and take a bus or monorail. Don’t be late. It’s not our problem.’”
According to Evan, Formula 1 has “failed to understand everything about Las Vegas and the Strip. It just sees streets on a map, hotel rooms to be rented, and dollars to be made. Las Vegas may be different from every other city, but in many ways it is still like any other city. People live here, work here, raise kids here, and live their lives. F1 simply doesn’t care.
“For every one fat cat Formula 1 fan, there are hundreds of ordinary tourists that are avoiding visiting Las Vegas owing to elevated costs and the general mayhem the sport is bringing to the city. Convention organizers are seeing the struggles their attendees have had, and if F1 is back next year, they will move their shows to another city.”
“The casinos run this town,” another anonymous resident told me. “Liberty Media is used to bilking sponsors, municipalities, and remote race tracks. They are not accustomed to dealing with very high-powered corporations who are in the business of doing the bilking, not being bilked.
“If the casinos don’t see a massive recurring profit that offsets the pain from construction and teardown, then this race will be dead. No one gives a crap about the sport. No one.”
As the race approaches and local voices continue to go unheard, the frustration of inconvenience for many residents has turned to rage. As resident Celeste noted, “Someone here is making a lot of money off of this event, and it is not the residents of Clark County. We will have our pockets picked, paying taxes for the bill.”
“I’ll leave you with this,” the front-of-the-house hotel worker told me. “I often hear the sentiment, joking or not, that folks wish the mob still ran Las Vegas instead of these vultures and leeches.”
“I moved here from Houston, and the traffic reminded me of Hurricane Rita evacuation traffic,” Lisa Lindell said. “I’ve seen cars in traffic recently that had ‘FUCK F1' emblazoned on the rear window.”
Another resident who wished to remain anonymous added, “The arrogance and audacity of Formula 1 ‘needing’ to run its races in densely-populated cities strikes me as borderline sociopathic.
“Not only do I hope the Las Vegas event loses money for the organization, I hope it bankrupts them.”