Las Vegas is written by outsiders. I distinctly remember this quote from the Moon Handbook for the city, "Las Vegas is all flesh - bejeweled, bedazzling surfaces and voluptuous, irresistible curves; the lascivious seduction and wet and wild consummation are those of a would-be queen in the presence of the King."

I don't know about that, I thought.  Las Vegas is a living, breathing place; the fastest growing place in America - and although its growth is tied to its well known gambling center, the city and its suburbs are far more complicated than the image it is successfully positioning to the world.

Unlike those handbook writers and those travel writers and the copy editors for fancy hotels - all agents of somebody else's sales agenda, I had come to know the Las Vegas nobody was trying to sell me.  I knew its restaurants, its parks, its hidden spots.  I knew people that knew a Las Vegas that had never been told.  I was fascinated by this city, and these people are about to give me the keys to the city you'll never otherwise know.

If I was going to be able to write about Las Vegas, I would have to view it from street level - on the outside, looking in.  One thing that always struck me about the city was that it seemed never entirely flat.  The city was a downhill slope. 

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