Pigeon Roosts

While driving around Chihuahua City I noticed that it has so many statues and Las Vegas does not? Almost every major intersection in Chihuahua has a statue. Not only statues but monuments and sculptures. You can see dozens while traversing the city. In Vegas, I can't even think of one.

Now this isn't just exclusive to Chihuahua, most Mexican cities have plenty of displays of art. Why is it Vegas does not? Some possible reasons:

Age of city - Chihuahua had already been around for 200 years by the time Las Vegas was permanently settled. Give Vegas 200 more years and they'll be about the same.

The people - Could the Mexican people be bigger lovers of art than Las Vegas residents? More reverence for their heroes? Nothing better to do than honor dead people?

The government - One idea posed by my cousin is that the Mexican government does it to brainwash the people into thinking that they are doing something. "What do you mean we didn't do anything, look at all the statues we commissioned!"

Money - Vegas definitely has more money than Chihuahua, but less public art. Maybe people just don't want to supply pigeons with more places to splatter. Maybe statues are a waste of money.

I enjoyed the Mexican statues. They gave the city an aura of permanence that Las Vegas does not have. Our greatest statue, the lion at the MGM, could be taken down in a few years and replaced with something bigger and better. And what's it say when our best art piece is a gimmick for a casino?


Real Pigeon