Doing some research for my epochal article on the Strip’s recovery from the travails of the early 1980s, I found this quote in a Boston Globe Magazine article written by Connie Paige:
This year’s visit…was different. Life seemed to have switched into neutral. Snatches of conversation with some of the army of casino workers…soon made the difference clear: unemployment was way up, business was off, the prospects for recovery uncertain. The people of Las Vegas, ordinarily carefree, were worried about the future. In short, Las Vegas was in the throes of the Great Recession of 1982.
The article appeared in July of 1989, and it is bleak. It’s sobering to think how giddy everyone was eight years later.
As I hope to demonstrate in the article, the key to recovery is adapting to the new conditions, whatever they may be.