text:
Las Vegas: An American Paradox
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist J.R. Moehringer rolls the dice on life in Sin City
- By J.R. Moehringer
- Photographs by Jared McMillen
- Smithsonian magazine, October 2010, Subscribe
(Page 4 of 6)
As she counted out the money, I looked down at sweet, smiling Ben Franklin. I recalled that he had a weakness for fallen women. I recalled that he said, "A fool and his money are soon parted." I recalled that he discovered electricity—so Vegas could one day look like a phosphorescent candy cane. Clearly, I thought, the C-note is the proper currency for Vegas.
Hours later I lost every one of those C-notes at a roulette table. I lost them faster than you can say Ben Franklin.
Vegas is America. No matter what you read about Vegas, no matter where you read it, this assertion invariably pops up, as sure as a face card in the hole when the dealer's showing an ace. Vegas is unlike any other American city, and yet Vegas is America? Paradoxical, yes, but true. And it's never been more true than during these past few years. Vegas typified the American boom—best suite at the Palms: $40,000 a night—and Vegas now epitomizes the bust. If the boom was largely caused by the housing bubble, Vegas was bubble-icious. It should be no surprise, therefore, that the Vegas area leads the United States in foreclosures—five times the national rate—and ranks among the worst cities for unemployment. More than 14 percent of Las Vegans are without work, compared with the national rate of 9.5 percent.
The proof that Vegas and America are two sides of the same chip is the simple fact that America's economy functions like a casino. Who could dispute that a Vegas mind-set drives Wall Streeters? That AIG, Lehman and others put the nation's rent money on red and let the wheel spin? Credit default swaps? Derivatives? The backroom boys in Vegas must be kicking themselves that they didn't think of those things first.
The house always wins. Especially if you never leave the house. Vegas has been home to some of the most notorious hermits in American history. Howard Hughes, Michael Jackson—something about Vegas attracts the agoraphobic personality. Or creates it.
As my time in Vegas wound down, I often found myself bolting the door and pulling down the window shades. My self-imposed seclusion was motivated partly by Caligula, partly by my book. Facing a tight deadline, I had no time for Vegas. Consequently I went weeks in which my only window on Vegas was the TV. Years from now my clearest memories of Sin City might be the ceaseless stream of commercials for payday loans, personal injury lawyers, bail bondsmen, chat lines and strip clubs. (My favorite was for a club called the Badda Bing, with a female announcer intoning: "I'll take care of that thing. At the Badda Bing.") From TV, I concluded that a third of Vegas is in debt, a third in jail and a third in the market for anonymous hookups.
Many of those personal injury lawyers were jumping for joy in 2008, when a local gastroenterology clinic stood accused of gross malpractice. To save money, the clinic allegedly used unsafe injection practices and inadequately cleaned equipment. Thousands of patients who went there for colonoscopies and other invasive procedures were urged to get tested immediately for hepatitis and HIV. A wave of lawsuits is pending.
With growing horror, I watched this medical scandal unfold. To my mind it symbolized the Kafkaesque quality of 21st-century Vegas, the negligence and corruption, the widespread bad luck.
Some nights on the local news a segment about the clinic would be followed by a piece about O.J. Simpson's brazen armed robbery at a local casino hotel, then one on Gov. Jim Gibbons' denial of a sexual assault allegation, or a story about Nevada's junior senator, John Ensign, cheating on his wife, though he had once declared on the floor of the United States Senate that marriage is "the cornerstone on which our society was founded." Shutting off the TV, I'd walk to the window, listen to a nude game of Marco Polo raging around Caligula's pool, and think: I have a front-row seat at the apocalypse.
I shave, get dressed, drive down to the Strip. My friends, a man and a woman, a longtime couple, love Las Vegas. They can't imagine living anywhere else. Over tuna sashimi, Caprese salad, ravioli stuffed with crabmeat, they ask what I'll miss most about the town.
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Related topics: American Writers Games and Competition Las Vegas
Comments (67) |
For Vegas, if you seek the seedy, taudry, and nasty you will certainly find it. I believe you can find that in just about any city. For Vegas you can find anything you want and what is hardly ever talked about is the great hiking and biking trails. How about the great museums and fishing and boating. Heck, the Smithsonian is affiliated with the "Atomic Testing Museum". Come on, not every article about Vegas has to show it's darker side. Vegas is a great city.
Posted by Will on January 9,2013 | 08:22 AM
"Goodbye, Las Vegas" http://tim-shey.blogspot.com/2010/12/unreal-city-or-goodbye-las-vegas.html
Posted by Tim Shey on March 18,2012 | 03:16 PM
After reading my October issue of the Smithsonian and Mr Moehringer article, I rushed to my computer to send a scathing email to the Smithsonian.
I am so angry at the narrow minded, nothing new article about my hometown. I was born and raised in Las Vegas (a rarity for someone my age) and feel the need to defend my city against article. Although I live in Washington DC now, I love Las Vegas very much. I miss the people, the desert, the land, the lights, mountains, the family, the friends, the hot pink sky, parks, neighborhoods, bbq's and sagebrush. there isn't a Safeway in Las Vegas, hasn't been for decades. At least pretend to be interested in what your writing about. People came to Las Vegas because of natural springs, Hoover Dam and Nellis AFB. Do your homework and stop asking the strippers the history of Las Vegas. There are books out there.
The author is nothing but an elistist looking to spew his tourist experience with the world. Well guess what, I think there are better stories out there than yours. If this is all you have from living in Las Vegas for two year, I feel sorry for you. You missed out.
Mr. Moehringer took the easy route describing his life in Las Vegas. Low hanging fruit from a guy who should have the experience and intelligence to dig deeper. Las Vegas has been hit hard enough, the article adds salt in the wound. Have you no heart for the millions of people making a living in Las Vegas. Do you know what this article says to them and to me? You value only the superficial.
Do us all a favor Mr. Moehringer, never go back to Las Vegas. We'd appreciate it if you'd never write about your time in Las Vegas again. Maybe you should go to Vermont and stare leaves for two years and right about the obvious.
Posted by Native Las Vegan on November 4,2010 | 09:01 PM
http://www.lasvegasweekly.com/news/2010/nov/03/vegas-literate/ This link pretty much sums up the intersection of perception and reality on at least one of your points.
Posted by Dayvid Figler on November 3,2010 | 01:15 AM
Your article by J.R. Moehringer called Las Vegas: An American Paradox" was several notches below the high quality reporting usually seen in your magazine.
Mr. Moehringer's schizophrenic ramblings makes me think he needs a shrink. The contemptuous tone is despicable. It is a tragedy that Andre Agassi, who is considered a class act and obviously loves Las Vegas, is associated with this man's perverted view of his home town.
Margot Guenther
Posted by Margot Guenther on October 16,2010 | 01:03 PM
It takes a colossal amount of conceit for a person to spend two years in a city and feel that he has become an expert on it. I have lived in Las Vegas my entire life (31 years) and still don't feel that I understand this city well enough to write such a self-assured commentary. In 31 years, I have never seen nor heard of the majority of the places, TV ads, and neighborhood activities which Mr. Moehringer has dramatized in his desperate attempt to portray himself as some sort of modern-day philosopher. What I have learned, however, is that the "sinfulness" of Las Vegas only exists to draw in and cater to people who do not live in Las Vegas. If Las Vegas was the "City of Sin", in the way that this "author" and countless others have portrayed it, and so different from the rest of this country, then Las Vegas would not survive. I guess it's lucky for us that the rest of the world provides the sinners.
If I were you, Mr. Moehringer, I would think twice before sharing with the world that all you saw in your two Las Vegas years were casinos and strip clubs. I think that fact reveals a lot more about you than it does about Las Vegas. Shame on the Smithsonian magazine for supporting yet another installment of elitist Vegas-bashing from yet another individual who checks out a few tourist joints and feels he is now qualified to bore us with his pompous views on a city he knows nothing about.
Posted by SE on October 15,2010 | 02:57 AM
Well said J.R.! We lived in Henderson for one year - and your comments captured our experience perfectly. Bravo, and I look forward to your next article.
Posted by Heidi on October 14,2010 | 10:40 PM
While attending a convention in Las Vegas some years back I was overlooking a vast expanse of gambling tables and machines, wondering who those folks were that found this experience so enticing. Up strolled a Swiss gentleman attending the same event, who stood by me a moment then asked rhetorically "These are not America's decision makers, are they?" Penetrating insight, I thought.
A couple years later I had the chance to spend some time with a VP in the Trump organization and he described the mechanics and marketing behind generating the inflow of dollars that sustain his massive operations. From "grinder excursions" that bus in folks of modest means, to support of nearly any vice, these casino folks are at your service to help you lose your money.
I happened to be in Las Vegas again a couple of years ago and told myself I'd have an open mind, and would focus on food. From Bobby Flay to Thomas Keller to Mario Batali, I tried their various restaurants. The food was great, of course, but removed from their real world locations they seemed somehow plastic. As if their compelling native characteristics had been replaced by ersatz versions.
I'm sure there is a real town behind the scenes, with over half a million folks they can't all be Caligulas. In fact, it is no doubt quite a large one, with people offering all the usual services - plumbers, doctors, bankers and more. Any city needs those people, and they don't have to feed the casino monster to support it. But without the Caligulas, this town would not exist, and that's what the author gets so right.
Can anyone imagine any other city that would advertise itself to potential tourists with "What happens in XXX stays in XXX? It's got Caligula written all over it.
Posted by Don H on October 13,2010 | 01:36 PM
Suck it up, Vegas.
Yes, the article is kitchy. And quirky. And it plays on stereotypes. It is also brilliantly written: dense with wry descriptions of choice observations . . . and it paints a picture of your neon desert that anyone who's been to Vegas can smile at.
So get over your bad selves. Lighten up. Go to a show. Breathe in the neon. Chill.
I've got a secret to tell you: No one goes there for the libraries. ;)
Posted by earthgirl on October 13,2010 | 11:27 AM
Viva Las Vegas.....I love Las Vegas....(native over 40+ years)
Posted by ted leatherwallet on October 11,2010 | 03:35 PM
Great article. Laughed all the way through it. I would have already left Vegas, but the gravity eminating from the black hole that is my mortgage debt has trapped me.
Posted by Angry Buddhist on October 8,2010 | 03:00 PM
I always thought to be a great writer you had to be a keen observer of the human condition and able to reveal from those observations new observations that change perspectives.
After reading this tired, cliched piece filled with anecdotes that can only be described as Jayson Blairesque, I need to revisit that assumption.
Posted by rob on October 8,2010 | 01:21 PM
There sure are a lot of super-sensitive people here. Did you actually read the article, all the way to the end, or did you skim the first half sentence and then make up your mind what the whole thing was about? It's not an attack on Las Vegas, it's his account of what he saw and felt and thought -- and how that changed over time. Did you see the part where he says he grew to love vegas?
Anyway, since when is having a different opinion about something automatically an attack? If you're that insecure, how did you get past the title without bursting into tears?
Posted by Jeff on October 7,2010 | 08:23 PM
Here is an accurate and beautiful portrayal of what Living in Vegas is really all about.
Posted by Dave H on October 7,2010 | 01:20 PM
You know, we have a pretty bad homeless problem in Las Vegas. There's also lots of people who're trying to do something about it. Food Not Bombs has a potluck for the homeless every Sunday in Baker Park, and Neighborhood Family Services is doing what it can over at the Sahara Commercial Center.
My point is that both of these groups do their thing in the shadow of the Stratosphere - less than a mile from it, in fact. If Mr. Moehringer had actually gotten off the Strip once in a while and did a little walking around - you know, did some actual journalism - he might have had something more substantive to write about than this fluff piece. It might not have been a sure-fire crowd pleaser like yet another Las Vegas-bashing piece, but it would have had a hell of a lot more meat on its bones.
There are real people here, Mr. Moehringer - real people who are hurting, real people who are in trouble, and real people who are trying to do something about it. I'd have thought a Pulitzer Prize winner would want to seek out people like that and stories like that.
But I guess not.
I realize that he came here for the sole purpose of writing a book, and that these are his few impressions of the city when he un-cloistered himself from that job. His views will therefore be naturally skewed.
But come on. This piece is so lazily written and so full of cliches and superficial impressions that maybe it shouldn't have been written at all. It's been written before, countless times, and adds nothing to the discussion.
This article is nothing more, and nothing less, than a paycheck.
My favorite line in the whole article has to be this: "What I don't say is this: I'll miss the whole seamy, seedy, icky, apocalyptic tawdriness of it all. While I was busy hating Vegas, and hiding from Vegas, a funny thing happened. I grew to love Vegas."
Coulda fooled me.
Posted by Sean D. Daily on October 7,2010 | 06:56 AM
In December of 2006, I had a dream about a Las Vegas Earthquake: http://tim-shey.blogspot.com/2010/02/prophets-eyes.html
I thought J.R. Moehringer's article was well-written. I have hitchhiked through Las Vegas several times. The last time I hitchhiked through Las Vegas was December of 2005.
Posted by Tim Shey on October 6,2010 | 05:24 PM
I certainly echo the great majority of comments already made above. We have lived in Las Vegas for almost 50 years and have not experienced any of the author's woes. It is obvious that the author writes for money as reflected in this article and his participation with Aggasi's confession, and may we never see him again. However, my major disappointment is with the Smithsonian,who certainly lowered their standards when they,for some strange reason, agreed to publish this trash. Wonder if the Editor ever reads these comments and perhaps sees the error in judgement he/she made. I won't hold my breath waitng for that.
Posted by Nick Aquilina on October 6,2010 | 01:47 PM
I'm a Las Vegan who happens to read a lot. Real grown-up books too, ones covering serious nonfiction subject matter such as current events, biographies and history. I even picked up and left some of these books at the free book exchange which is located in the Emergency Arts center, WHICH IS RIGHT BEHIND WHERE THE AUTHOR IS STANDING IN HIS PICTURE! Notice the author is looking in the wrong direction, which represents how he wrote this article in general.
Posted by June Johns on October 6,2010 | 01:36 PM
How can anyone function as a tourist anywhere for two years?
I've lived here for seven years. I've never been to a strip club, only rarely have a reason to go to the Strip or Downtown. IMO the folks who come and leave are the ones who try to live on vacation 24/7 and that isn't reasonable.
Those who come here and live their lives seeing the tourist trappings for what they are, and as minor (in a few cases not so minor) additions to their lives, manage just fine.
Posted by Marsha Lucash on October 6,2010 | 12:32 PM
Can I echo the post above? Can't get over the fact that he is standing in the Arts District...
Posted by Clayton Scrivner on October 6,2010 | 03:46 AM
I guess you really have to be a Vegan to appreciate Vegas, this guy needs to go back to his cubby hole in Boston and hide, sounds like he cannot handle the heat. Vegas is real, with real people and excitement. My bio is being written by the fabulous writer Joe Schoenmann, he loves all the information given to him for this book. The people to talk to, the research is at his finger tips. the book is going to be exciting... Yes I say exciting... Not boring, maybe Mr. J.R. Moehringer needs to take lesson or get some tips from my wonderful Las Vegas writer. We are proud to be Las Vegans.. Yiiiipeeeeeee
Posted by Wendy Mazaros on October 5,2010 | 11:15 PM
I live in Las Vegas and I happen to read a lot. Real grownup books too - ones covering serious nonfiction subject matter such as current events, biographies and history. I even picked up and left some of these books at the free book exchange which is located in the Emergency Arts center, WHICH IS RIGHT BEHIND WHERE THE AUTHOR IS STANDING IN HIS PICTURE! Notice the author is looking in the wrong direction, which represents how he wrote this article in general.
Posted by June Johns on October 5,2010 | 06:01 PM
I agree with most points raised by the comment writers. For a lover of reading, writing and all things "refined" the main irony he should have included in his list about our great city is that one of its most important visionaries and executives of our primary business,Glenn Schaeffer is founder of The International Institute of Modern Letters, graduate of the Iowa Writer's Workshop and established Las Vegas as the country's first "City of Asylum" and establish a $2MM endowment Chair at UNLV in Creative Writing. Another, Jim Murren rec'd a degree in Art History and co- founded, with his wife, The Nevada Cancer Institute.
Perhaps the author of this article would have been better off spending his "non working" time getting to know these two and refining and advancing the love of his profession and hobbies instead of being a driver of an economy he claims he does not like.
Posted by John Z on October 5,2010 | 05:05 PM
I am glad you moved.Don't come back.
Posted by BenMerliss on October 5,2010 | 04:57 PM
This is an unbelievably ignorant and small-minded portrayal of "Las Vegas," (Spanish for "the meadows") by an obviously lazy reporter. He may have previously rolled the point and won a Pulitzer, but if I were running the joint, he would have lost all his money with this story. Wouldn't you think a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist would have chosen a more interesting subject than a re-hash of the goings-on at strip joints and strip casinos. How boring. I only wish he could have ventured out to my house at the base of the Sheep Mountains, where it is so unbelievably quiet and dark at night, that even an Alaskan (or wanna-be Vermont boy) would be at peace. I search the sky every night for new stars, and the only sounds I hear are the sweet nickerings of the 100 or so horses that live nearby. I also wish he would have spent some time hiking in the Spring Mountains, only an hour drive from the strip, where he could have seen the oldest living things on the planet - 10,000 year old Bristlecone Pines and other plant species that exist no where else on Earth, or spent an hour walking through the wash in our northern valley where camels and sloths and giant cats once roamed and left the largest assemblage of large mammal fossils in the United States. What a shame that this journalist did not use a two-year residence in Las Vegas to educate readers. Instead, showing his generation, the author chose to write a story that sounds like the next trashy reality tv show, which does nothing to help persons appreciate life outside their social networks, cell phones and televisions screens. Shame on the Smithsonian for allowing such trash in their magazine.
Posted by Natalie on October 5,2010 | 04:17 PM
How could an award winning journalist think that " The STRIP" is Las Vegas? Maybe so in the 60's or 70's but he failed to mention the growth in population & life beyond the STRIP!
How narrow is that! having a next store neighbor named CALIQUA tells u he didn't bother or cared where he lived, or maybe he liked the free freak show like a real transient
Posted by Audrey Roberts on October 5,2010 | 04:09 PM
Seriously all of the above + it does not seem you got out much while here. It sounds like you had low expectations and went out of your way to fulfill them. Congratulations on your dubious success.
29 year resident
Posted by Cindy Funkhouser on October 5,2010 | 03:51 PM
This isn't bashing? "Vegas isn't a real city. It's a Sodom and Gomorrah theme park surrounded by hideous exurban sprawl and wasteland so barren it makes the moon look like an English rose garden."
It's definitely bashing. Mr. Moehringer never got past the stereotypes.
Posted by Michael Dickman on October 5,2010 | 03:34 PM
The problem with the article is it seems cliched and not a serious look at Las Vegas. Yes, the kitsch and trashy kicks of Las Vegas are celebrated in some movies-but generally they are kitsch comedies. Here the writer is writing a supposedly serious review of his time in Las Vegas.
He bemoans the Las Vegas lifestyle, yet was happy to spend so much time on the 'Strip' going to stripclubs, casinos, pools etc. So the writer is part of the problem. He never in all that time thought to hire a car and head to the suburbs. I mean this is a writer/journalist but he stopped short of actually doing something called research.
He never attended one First Friday, Neon Reverb, local museum, library or art gallery but bemoans the lack of culture. He never sought out any culture, he wanted the culture to come to him!
Las Vegas is a relatively new big city, it hasn't had time to grow as a city outside the Strip, unlike New York, Chicago etc. Even 15 years ago, most of the city was still desert. So the growth and identity of the suburbs isn't there yet.
My problem is the writing is a two-dimensional trash piece with no real depth. Rather than living in Las Vegas, it would appear the writer spent a week watching the TV series 'Las Vegas', then 'The Hangover' and a few other Vegas movies and decided that is the Las Vegas I know and what I will write back. Really the piece is that cartoonish!
Maybe the writer can write a similar plastic piece for New York and Los Angeles on common TV/movie stereotypes because this is poor.
Posted by mike on October 5,2010 | 03:02 PM
I have lived in Las Vegas for 13 years and have never once met anyone named a Rainbow, Fabulous, Paradise or any other similarly descriptive name. Nor have i ever been invited to a party even remotely close to the ones Caligula is throwing. I would love to know where JR was hanging out in Las Vegas b/c it's a part of the city I certainly have somehow missed.
Posted by Beth on October 5,2010 | 02:32 PM
I lived in Boston, and I loved the Cape. I lived in Los Angeles, and I loved the Sierras. But guess what, I got tired of sharing them with crowds, and putting up with hours of freeways just to get out of the city. Now I live in Las Vegas and in just a few minutes I'm out in the lonely beautiful desert or up in rugged snow-capped peaks. Who cares about clichés & casinos, to me the last American luxury is getting away out into Nature ALONE, and Nevada isn't "a vast wasteland" but a paradise of secret spots to have my toe dipped into a mountain creek and my nose in a book. If some jerk was here for 2 years and never made his own personal discoveries, well that's HIS problem.
Posted by firstname.lastname@example.com on October 5,2010 | 02:31 PM
Mr. Moehringer, you will be suprised, as a "book person" to note that the Las Vegas Clark County Library District serves more people (7.1 MILLION) than the NY public libraries, and utterly dwarfs the visitation of the SF and Phoenix public libraries according to wikipedia and library webpages. To add insult to injury, the Las Vegas libraries circulate nearly as many items (13.7 MILLION) as the Boston public libraries and NY-Brooklyn libraries, and more than SF and Phoenix.
These are all places with MUCH larger populations.
Mr. Moehringer, if you actually went inside a LV library instead of enjoying the seedier side of Vegas (woohoo also!), you would see why. Modern facilities, high ceilings, comfortable seating, pleasant staff, and great places to be in.
Posted by Pin on October 5,2010 | 02:27 PM
Vegas is both kitchy yet also more typical outside the "tourist" areas then you would think. One cannot exist without the other. But that doesn't change the fact the city obviously tried to build an economy on one product and now is suffering for it. There was plenty of time to plan ahead but mindless greed reigned instead.
Posted by John Eskar on October 5,2010 | 02:01 PM
Reading this story makes me wonder how often the author strayed from his Spanish Trail digs. He obviously didn't see much of the city, because all he talks about are slot machines and strip clubs. It reminds me of a tourist who, upon finding out that I live in Las Vegas, asked me which of the hotels I live in. It never occurred to her that there is a city out there with neighborhoods, grocery stores, gas stations, schools and hospitals just like any other city. To her - and to the author of this claptrap piece - Las Vegas begins and ends with the Strip.
Posted by Orca17 on October 5,2010 | 12:50 PM
We visit Las Vegas every year, have done it for twenty years. Never did see the sights that Mr. Moehringer writes about. We, instead, take advantage of the fine shopping, the excellent food and entertainment.
As for culture, I particularly enjoy the galleries in comfort, minus the traffic of LA, the crush of NY or Boston - being able to admire works of great artists up close for free or at low cost. In Las Vegas I've enjoyed Rembrandt, El Greco, the Impressionists, Faberge and most of all, Steve Wynn's wondrous Vermeer.
He could have gone outside in the sun and walked through the impressive collection of desert plants at Las Vegas Springs. Or he could have taken a day trip down to the Colorado River and Grapevine Canyon, climbed the rocks and finished the day off with an excellent dinner at Harrah's in Laughlin. There is much of value to do in Las Vegas and southern Nevada. Too bad the author spent all his time in dark and seamy joints, he missed a lot.
A thumbs down to Mr. Moehringer's short sighted evaluation.
Posted by Carol on October 4,2010 | 11:32 PM
I don't think we have a single "Safeway" here in Las Vegas. He lost me at that point.
Posted by Keith on October 4,2010 | 09:17 PM
J.R., don't listen to these asinine comments. As someone who moved to Las Vegas just a year ago, I can associate with just about every one of your impressions.
Notice that your detractors use the crutch of Red Rock Canyon and Mt. Charleston as proof that Las Vegas is somehow less depraved than it is. Vegas is defined by gambling and excess, plain and simple.
Would I define Seattle by Mt. Rainier? No.
I have nothing to add to your article. It is excellently written and captures the spirit and culture of Las Vegas perfectly. If anyone ever asks what Vegas is like, I will be forwarding this along.
Posted by James on October 4,2010 | 01:53 PM
"except Vegas, because Vegas isn't a real city"
Wow. What a hack.
Posted by James Reza on October 4,2010 | 12:41 PM
Would you judge California based on Disneyland alone? Of course not. Then how can you really see Las Vegas blinded by your images of the Strip or what you see on the television news? Many of us live here, raise children here and go about our business without ever lurking in the world J.R. inhabited. But I suppose tales from the "barren" suburbs don't sell papers.
Posted by G. Meurer on October 4,2010 | 10:18 AM
There seems to be an error in the article.
The author, obviously of fine literary pedigree, indicates his stay was two years, but clearly based on his severely limited exposure to the cities of the Las Vegas valley, he must have meant weeks. An honest mistake, surely, that the Smithsonian.com editors should have caught.
Las Vegas, NV
P.S. Please let me know when this memoir is available, so I can make the drive to Los Angeles, CA to borrow it from a library. Thanks!
Posted by William L on October 4,2010 | 04:35 AM
Initially the defensive reaction from Las Vegas residents surprised me. Anyone who has spent time in the city (as I have) has to recognize the reality of which Mr. Moehringer wrote. Are there other realities? Of course. But the immensely entertaining description of the Vegas most visitors encounter was spot-on. And I guess that explains residents' outraged defensiveness: Moehringer described their home a little too accurately.
Posted by Jeff on October 2,2010 | 01:02 PM
I wonder if the memoirs of Andre Agassi will be equally tainted? Perhaps Mr. Agassi should consider another author before his book flops.
Posted by Doug Tiffany on October 1,2010 | 10:26 AM
To all of the whiners whose feelings are hurt: QUIT CRYING!
Your comments of "Yes, we do have libraries, see, we're smart!" and "The beauty of the desert" are sad. Quit grasping at straws. Vegas is a bunch of boxed-in ranch houses sprawled around a series of a couple dozen buildings in a dusty, rocky, barren desert. The economy is almost entirely subsistent on the gaming industry, the weather is downright awful from May-September, and the workforce is predominantly uneducated. This city is NOT world class, nor does it hold a candle to dozens of other US cities in terms of Quality of Life.
You embarrass yourselves by defending Las Vegas. Its like defending someone giving a negative review of an old, battered Hyundai just because you have one. You're free to like it, but that doesn't mean it sucks any less.
Posted by Carter on October 1,2010 | 06:42 AM
If you're thing is trite, trashy, empty entertainment, than Las Vegas is your place. I don't understand why Las Vegas celebrates this kitsch in movies and commercials, and yet gets defensive when it's pointed out.
Let's face it-Las Vegas is last in many quality of life indicators, has a high suicide rate, high incidence of cop-related shootings, inadequate medical and health services, high foreclosures, an unsustainable and runaway environmental and housing development (non)plan, and an uneducated work force. Need I continue?
If that's your thing, cool. But, don't get angry at the writer for pointing these things out.
This isn't bashing Las Vegas, just sit down for a second and look at the stats and facts and stop being so defensive.
Posted by Edgar on September 29,2010 | 11:50 AM
I'm surprised Mr. Moehringer, a person who must utilize books and references for his articles, didn't visit one of the many excellent libraries in the Las Vegas Valley.
He might have been pleasantly surprised at learning each is integrated with a lovely art gallery in which area artists are invited to exhibit their work.
I lived many decades in the Mid-Atlantic states and don't recall seeing anything like that there. Maybe Las Vegas could be a role model for parochial people like Mr. Moehringer.
Posted by R. Cranley on September 28,2010 | 05:51 PM
The very day I received my Oct.issue of the Smithsonian I called the editor. How can they feel it's all right to publish trash like this about my home. Las Vegas has been home to me for 50 years. Did he bother to go to any of our churches? Did he work with the senior citizens or Hospice? Perhaps if he watched the elderly fighting every day to live just one more day in our great City that they call home he would see the pain and sorrow he brought to them because they had their pride of home ownership slandered by a young self centereb ego. I am 73 and I love America. My home in Las Vegas which the last time I looked at a map is a part of this great country we all call home. Did this so called writer do or go to anything of real value? All I know from bieng born in Kentucky is he who sleeps with pigs is a pig.
Posted by Ruth Maestas on September 28,2010 | 10:35 AM
Sounds like this guy could have spent more time writing than hanging out on the Strip, nudie bars and big Agassi celeb parties.
Posted by Mauricio on September 27,2010 | 07:41 PM
Narrow minded?! ...actually I think the author has a problem with decision making skills. In every city I've lived in (10 - 'cause of my father's job - minister), I have seen good and bad.
You have choices wherever you live; what part of town you reside, where you bank, what activities you participate in, and so on.
The author could probably have moved (unless he, himself was caught up in that "housing bubble" he vented about), he could have had dinner in many terrific restaurants NOT on the strip, and if he ended up closing his blinds and simply listening to television commercials - - well, that was his choice.
You create your own reality, Mr. Moehringer. It sounds like a pretty negative one that you've chosen. I wish you luck. ...oh that's right, luck is probably a bad thing since you believe that only Las Vegas suckers "are on that trip" in life.
Posted by Patti on September 27,2010 | 09:53 AM
A lot of people who like to bash Las Vegas either came here to make their fortune, and lost, or never really got out to explore the city/cities. Las Vegas ,as most people see it, is actually several cities that have combined to make one large metro area. The last time I drove it, it was 34 miles from top to bottom before I ran out of homes. TV,and other media outlets portray a different "Vegas" than I have seen since I moved to Southern NV from the Northern Half of CA. For me, I couldn't wait to get out of CA. There are only 2 things I miss from CA-trees, and fresh produce. CA is a beautiful state that the politicians have messed up.
Las Vegas also has a growing arts community in the 18b Arts District, and I am one of several hundred members of the Vegas Artists Guild.
The big difference with Las Vegas and other big cities is that Las Vegas is relatively young when compared to others like New York, San Francisco, Sacramento, etc.. The little frontier town of Las Vegas is still in the process of growing to meet the demands of the huge influx of people it has taken in over the last 2 decades. There are going to be some growing pains for this frontier town, and I am glad that I can be here as it develops into a world class city.
Posted by Walt on September 27,2010 | 08:06 AM
This young man did not look around at the wonderful community called Las Vegas. I am a 65 year old woman who has lived here for 25 years. I have lived in Europe, SF, NY
Las Vegas is wonderful...get your facts straight....E
Posted by Elaine's Art on September 26,2010 | 07:15 PM
From what I read in this article it appears that Mr. Moehringer visited The Strip Casinos, strip clubs, high end restuarants and hung out with the rich crowd. There is another side to Vegas. A side of Vegas where the average person lives in a one bedroom apartment; or the average family lives in a two or three bedroom house.
We have regular neighborhoods where people mow their grass or tend their gardens and talk to their neighbors. Applebees or Chilis is the most expensive places these people go except for maybe a birthday or anniversary. We have parks, churches, American Legions, children, adults, veterans and more. It appears Mr. Moehringer did not take the time to see this part of our city before trashing it.
Posted by Sharron Westeren on September 26,2010 | 03:26 PM
I have been a fan of Moehringer's writing for many years. The Tender Bar is more than an amazing book, it's the bar that all memoirs are now held to. Too bad the literary community in Las Vegas didn't reach out to this world class author while they had him.
Posted by Nathan on September 26,2010 | 03:24 PM
Dear Mr. J.R. Moehringer and Smithsonian.com,
As a resident of Las Vegas for twenty years, an employee of a casino for ten, and a student at UNLV, I was astounded by, not only Mr. Moehringer's article, but Smithsonian.com's approval of publication.
Las Vegas has suffered enough. Whether comments were made by political figures, media or noted writers, Las Vegas is still the entertainment capital of the world. Despite high unemployment and taking the number spot for foreclosures, customers still enjoy the great weather and the ability to do what one wishes.
I greatly respect Mr. Moehringer's credentials and experience as an author. He is no doubt well educated and well written. But someone who grew up by the bar really lowered it by writing this article.
Thank you and hope to hear from someone soon.
Lawrence Totaro
Las Vegas, NV
Posted by Lawrence on September 26,2010 | 03:14 PM
I can't believe a top caliber magazine like The Smithsonian would publish something so trite, so cursory, and clearly written by someone with a bizarre view of Las Vegas.
Did you live on The Strip?
And if everyone left here feeling remorseful, etc, then I don't know why they would keep coming back.
This article needs a reality check.
Posted by Kayla Block on September 26,2010 | 01:59 PM
So sad your "Reporter" didn't get out of his "Uncomfort Zone" to see the rest of Las Vegas sometime in his two years of living here. We have schools, Agassi even has one! Libraries that have books not broads and churches and dry cleaners and. It seems to me that people find what they are looking for where the go and what they come away with tells you a lot more about the seeker than about the place. I am disappointed in the Smithsonian.
Posted by Grace LeSeney on September 26,2010 | 12:19 PM
JR should have pocketed the 50's. Although U.S. Grant went bankrupt, he redeemed himself writing his biography. Surely the writer of a best selling memoir owes a debt of gratitude to Grant. It is also one of the great autobiographies with a keen eye on history, war, politics and personal growth. Its commercial success sustained his family after his death. But then again, Franklin wrote a pretty good autobiography as well.
Posted by A Manhasset-in-law on September 26,2010 | 10:24 AM
In two words, this article is a cheap shot.
Instead of participating in the city's life, the writer, too lazy to get out and see it for real, sat and stared at his TV, then decided that qualified him to write the "inside story" on Las Vegas. It makes as much sense as going to the movies, then writing the real story of Hollywood. It's as authentic as eating a bowl of chowder, then posing as an authority on Boston.
The story reads as though Moehringer excavated a cache of show-biz clichés. He found some tired forty-year-old jokes about Las Vegas, strung them together, and fobbed them off on the editors of Smithsonian.
I notice that the fine print under the comments box includes the following: "Smithsonian reserves the right not to post any comments that are unlawful, threatening, offensive, defamatory…" Well, Smithsonian, I am offended and you have defamed an entire city.
I've lived here for thirty years. Sure, there is definitely some sleaze here. But we usually laugh at it - it's for the tourists, just like dice clocks.
Well, Mr. Writer, the real Las Vegas exists. It is millions of honest, hard-working, fully-clothed individuals who work, pay their taxes, and raise their kids here. They also study, teach, create, volunteer, meditate, and go to church. They even pay their mortgages. They generally avoid the tourist casinos, except for attending the occasional concert or Cirque du Soleil show.
Somebody just gave me Agassi's book for a birthday present and I haven't read it yet. However, unlike Moehringer, I know what an open mind is, and I will read and evaluate it on its own merits.
Shame on you, J. R. Moehringer, for following the easy, much-traveled path just to earn a few bucks. Shame on you, Smithsonian, for publishing the results.
Posted by Cheryl B on September 25,2010 | 07:21 PM
Another gambling addict who never ventured too far from a casino. He chased some tail and blew all his money in the casino only to say its not his fault.
He bet everything and lost, now he must write about how awful the city is. It's a shame he never ventured out to see the real Las Vegas or meet the people who live here.
President Obama got a Nobel Prize and so did this writer... Goes to show you it doesn't take much real talent any more to get one of those...
Posted by mark anthony on September 25,2010 | 06:25 PM
I found the article in Oct 2010 - Winner Take All very interesting. Even more interesting to me was a photo of a young man in the Rio All Suite Hotel passing a dancer. I know that my son who is now deceased was in Las Vegas a few years ago and I believe he stayed at the Rio. I realize that there is a very slim chance that this is him but I am wondering when this picture was taken I would appreciate any information you might get from the author about this picture. My thanks to Mr Moehringer for any help he could offer. As I said- my son died early from an illness and I would like to know if could have been him in the picture.
Thank You Kenneth Kasinski
Posted by KENNETH Kasinski on September 25,2010 | 04:19 PM
Las Vegas offers a multitude of choices. This author apparently chose to enjoy the Library that offers strippers rather than the incredibly fine Clark County Library system with it user friendly website etc, or the UNLV and College of Southern Nevada libraries.
He chose to spend his spare time enjoying the sights at the topless pool rather than hiking in the magnificent scenery of Red Rock National Park or driving to Mount Charleston, Cathedral Canyon or a little further, Valley of Fire.
He chose to gamble in the casinos rather than exploring ghost towns of Nevada or horseback riding or playing miniature golf or doing the all the crazy carnival rides available in the casinos, or boating on Lake Mead,etc etc.
This author evidently was so distracted by the glitter, he never found the gold, the real value in Las Vegas and Nevada, a city and state of hard working service providers, musicians, artists, professionals and writers.
Perhaps the Smithsonian could provide "Air Guitar" by Dave Hickey (a Las Vegas resident) as a travel guide to its Vegas bound writers. Hickey points out Las Vegas is not a Vermont culture but is a culture unlike anything the rest of the nation can provide. With a little research and an open mind, maybe future Smithsonian articles would be more than a whining rehash of "The house always wins".
A few years ago, a young newspaper writer set out to experience the United States by driving coast to coast. He took only four lane highways and ate at Burger King and McDonalds. He reported that the scenery and food was boringly monotonous all the way. Is this the same author all grown up?
Posted by Susan Gorrow on September 25,2010 | 02:14 PM
It is disheartening, to say the least (and as you will find out, least is not my style) that a periodical with the tradition for scholarship, high quality educational as well as entertainment standards, let this one through the net.
This writer has the imagination & journalistic integrity of a slug. Empirical studies know, the answers you get are skewed by the questions you ask. So if sleaze comes to Las Vegas, sleaze is all he will find. I've lived in New York and Miami- I know the spectrum of urban existence in "resort destinations". I have lived in Las Vegas for over 20 years, I don't drink, smoke, or gamble- and religion has nothing to do with it.
Start here:
The Red Light District isn't Amsterdam, 34th St isn't Manhattan, the pedophile market isn't Bangkok. Do Gentleman's Clubs, lap dance establishmenst, and "happy ending" massage parlors play a larger part in of this town than other Urban hubs? Perhaps. I don't have the statistical analysis. Is there a predator for every prey? Yes. If you have a weakness, will it be exploited? Every time, anywhere. Are we still the ADULT fantasy capitol of the world? I hope so. Enough of my friends, both directly & indirectly involved in the hotel/casino industry, are out of work or threatened (as much as the rest of the country.
Is that all there is to Vegas? Hell, no! We are many communities. A large retirement population, family neighborhoods indistinguishable from those across America, commercial centers with little or no direct connection to Strip Glitz, just what you see in any other big town/small city. We have art and craft fairs, indoor swap meets, garage sales. There are endless Ethnic celebrations, concerts, fairs like the Renaissance Festival or the Highland Games, sporting events.
Bottom line (that does NOT involve any part of the anatomy), we are fed up being the easy target for two-dimensional thinking. It's going to cost. Your marker is due.
Posted by Gae C. Hirsch on September 25,2010 | 10:53 AM
The above fits our experience of living in Las Vegas fro 6/97-7/99. Now admittedly we were there for a construction mgmt job, the Venetian, but the area where we lived Spring Valley with visits to Summerlin was like many big cities.
They wee building a new library in our community, and coming from a college town we sought out the library participated in community meetings with staff exploring what we wanted in a library.
Red Rock is great for hiking,Mt Charles is good for skiing in the winter & sliding for those of us from the northern part of the US who were NOT there as refugees from winter.
For those of us outdoor enthusiasts, I was glad to attend Sierra Club meeting & find people who watched birds & linked the brazen artificial feather dancers to more traditional birds and trips to places like Wheeler Peak & the rest of Nevada. The valley water mgmt system was a great place with classes on plants, bushes grasses to plant (from around the world) that were part of or compatible with zeroscape. (low water usage characteristic of the LV valley. They also had interns from universities & a great library to help homeowners plan their landscape. This was a great planning idea. With all the people flocking to Las Vegas planning for water usage in a desert environment takes lots of public education. It's a good proactive move instead of trying to grow what you did back home where the rain fall was 15-40 " per year.
One of my favorite public education, community building pieces was the garden segment about 9:00a.m. on public radio. The host responded to a question about trouble with tomato plants that wouldn't set fruit in August. The comment, when the temperature does go below 80-85 degrees Fahrenheit, it's hard to get tomatoes to set fruit almost no matter what you do. :-)
Posted by E. Wilcox on September 24,2010 | 06:09 PM
I have been to Las Vegas only once and loved it. Found it a very interesting city and compared to New York and San Francisco it certainly fits in with its own personality.
There is so much more than the strip as the Hoover Dam and Lake Tahoe are very beautiful spots along with the Red Rocks area and the Sierra Nevadas are beautiful as well.
Yes there is all that is offered on the strip but there are also some of the best restaurants and shows. We saw shows at various casinos and ate very well while in Vegas - so it is what you want it to be.
VIVA LAS VEGAS - it does have it all!!
Posted by Gerry Koppe on September 24,2010 | 02:43 PM
And bringing up political scandals and a medical malpractice issue? Does the author really think that scandals like that only happen here in Las Vegas? Sadly, that goes on in every city in this country. He makes it sound like we're this awful city because that happened here.
Posted by Kate on September 24,2010 | 01:15 PM
As someone who has lived in Vegas for 16 years, I have to say that it sure sounds like the author didn't take much time to explore and get to know the real Vegas outside of the Strip. Instead of hanging out in strip clubs like the Spearmint Rhino, maybe he should have been hiking out at Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area, skiing up at Mt. Charleston or touring one of the city's museums. And yes, we do have libraries here - almost 15 in the city to be exact. People do read here. Almost everyone I know is in a book club.
The author also seems to question why anyone ever settled here. If he had done his research, he would have found out that people settled here because of the natural springs that once ran through the city. Hey, if he had taken the time to visit one of our cool cultural attractions called the Springs Preserve, he might have learned that.
He might also be surprised to learn that the community has schools, parks and churches just like every other big city in the country. We're not just the Strip and gambling and strip clubs. This article was kind of a narrow-minded view of the city by someone who doesn't know it.
Posted by Kate on September 23,2010 | 06:04 PM
Wow, it used to be you had to go much lower-brow than the Smithsonian magazine to get such a trite, hackneyed, cliche-ridden attack on Las Vegas (note the full name of the town, by the way -- tourists call it "Vegas"). I managed to live there 20 years (and my parents have for more than 50 years) without living next to a bordello, or going to a strip club. These things were always there for the tourists, and the locals knew that just beyond the strip, it was a fairly normal town. I hope the editors of this magazine can one day visit the real town, and realize just how embarrassed they should be to have published a piece like this.
Posted by Gregg on September 23,2010 | 04:55 PM
Again, another person bashing Vegas. I am a native Las Vegan and yes the city has problems. But Vegas is also less than 4 hours from the North and South Rim Grand Canyon. Less than 2 hours from Zion N Park. I do not know of any neighborhoods that allow parties from Thursday-Mon that require earplugs to sleep. After 10pm it's light's out in most neighborhoods. Las Vegas has the best retail stores, best restaurants, and some of the best hotels in the world. Every morning when I wake up, I view Red Rock Canyon (14 miles from Downtown and world class rock climbing)) and can see the peaks of Mt. Charleston over 11,000 ft. I do not frequent strip joints and I do not hang out on the Strip like most locals. Yes, we can use a museum or two and yes I wish the summers were cooler. Las Vegas also has over 20 state of the art libraries that are visited by thousands of residents. So get over the bashing already, it's unattractive.
Posted by inwholise on September 23,2010 | 10:43 AM


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Elderly Woman Collects $1.1 Million For Brain Injury
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SOURCE Tegile Systems
Rohit Kshetrapal updates investors, VC firms on flash-driven storage's impact on industry
NEWARK, Calif., Oct. 29, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Rohit Kshetrapal, CEO of Tegile Systems, the leading provider of flash-driven storage arrays for virtualized server and virtual desktop environments, has been selected as a speaker at the 7th annual Needham HDD/Flash Memory & Systems Conference November 6 at 9:30-10:00a.m. EST at the Langham Hotel in Boston sharing his perspective on changes occurring within the storage industry.
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The conference brings together leading vendors in the HDD and flash memory marketplace to update investors on their progress in 2013 and beyond. Kshetrapal will discuss how the company's new generation of flash-driven enterprise storage arrays balance performance, capacity, features and price for virtualization, file services and database applications. Tegile's success in the SSD/hybrid product space led to a recently funded "scaling round" that allows the company to accelerate the expansion of its proven technology and successful go-to-market strategy.
"I look forward to informing attendees of the Needham HDD/Flash Memory Conference about the strength of the storage market in general and our success within it specifically," said Kshetrapal. "The storage needs of the enterprise are rapidly evolving. What was good enough 10, 5 and even 1 year ago may not be suitable today to satisfy the demands of the modern data center. Our flash-driven storage arrays are an ideal solution for a wide range of industries and applications both now and into the future, making them the best fit for business, government and educational organizations alike."
About Needham & Company, LLC
Needham & Company, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of The Needham Group, Inc., is a privately held, full-service investment bank that has focused exclusively on growth companies since it was founded 28 years ago. It concentrates on private companies and on public companies that have market capitalizations of up to $5 billion, and provides its clients with the resources to achieve their financing and strategic objectives. The Firm has capital raising expertise in IPOs, follow-on public equity offerings, confidentially marketed equity offerings, and private placements and in mergers & acquisitions and corporate & venture services (including share repurchases). In addition to investment banking, Needham's activities include institutional sales and trading, and asset management. To serve its institutional clients, Needham & Company, LLC produces comprehensive equity research on more than 325 companies in clean technology and industrial growth, communications and enterprise infrastructure, consumer, healthcare, semiconductors and semiconductor equipment, and software. The Firm is headquartered in New York City with offices in Boston, MA; Chicago, IL; Menlo Park, CA; and San Francisco, CA. Needham & Company, LLC is a member of FINRA & SIPC. For more information, please visit www.needhamco.com.
About Tegile Systems
Tegile Systems is pioneering a new generation of flash driven enterprise storage arrays that balance performance, capacity, features and price for virtualization, file services and database applications. With Tegile's Zebi line of hybrid storage arrays, the company is redefining the traditional approach to storage by providing a family of arrays that is significantly faster than all hard disk-based arrays and significantly less expensive than all solid-state disk-based arrays.
Tegile's patented MASS technology accelerates the Zebi's performance and enables on-the-fly de-duplication and compression of data so each Zebi has a usable capacity far greater than its raw capacity. Tegile's award-winning technology solutions enable customers to better address the requirements of server virtualization, virtual desktop integration and database integration than other offerings. Featuring both NAS and SAN connectivity, Tegile arrays are easy-to-use, fully redundant, and highly scalable. They come complete with built-in auto-snapshot, auto-replication, near-instant recovery, onsite or offsite failover, and virtualization management features. Additional information is available at www.tegile.com. Follow Tegile on Twitter @tegile.
Dan Miller, JPR Communications
818-884-8282, ext. 13
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text:
Brasserie Beck
Online Reservations
Met two friends at BB for an early Sunday dinner. All of the staff were welcoming and professional. Excellent wine list. Beautiful presentation. Two of us had the sea bass which was perfectly prepared and presented. Yummy dessert -- banana creme brulee! Valet parking was great, too. I'd recommend this restaurant to anyone who appreciates the better things in life! Just don't be fooled by the umbrellas in the front outdoor eating area -- they carry the name of a beer. Brasserie Beck hasn't changed it's name! We had a great time there!
Dogs are allowed on the patio! The food is delicious!!
Had the steak and frites and my friend got the duck special, bothwere so good. Manager kept coming over offering us wine samples from a recent trip he took to French wineries.
I always bring clients here when in DC for conferences - the place and everything in it are awesome, service is efficient and friendly. Best of all is half price wine on Tuesdays !!
The food and service is always unbeatable at Brasserie Beck. We arrived at a very busy time, but they accommodated us with a table on the patio anyway. Would definitely recommend coming for dinner.
We definitely needed to make reservations since the place was packed (Thursday evening). We had the Mediterranean mussels as an appetizer and they were excellent. Every one in our party enjoyed their main course, including the specials of the day. The service was exceptional which helped make it a perfect evening.
I have been here several times and it is great every time. I have my menu favorite (the "LEO" for brunch) but have tried many things and they are all delicious! Highly recommended.
Brasserie Beck is a gem! It is unassuming from the street but when you walk by you want to be on the sitting under one of those Delerium ad umbrella-ed tables. Its a perfect brunch setting with changing specials and really great food. Well worth the price. Some great draft Belgian beers--not uncommon for DC but here they have a rotating selection that is always good. It is a great place to be with friends, loved ones, or to sit away in a nook to spend a little extra time with someone special. Their food is plentiful and will not leave you wondering--"what was that I ate exactly--I think I blinked"
Brasserie Beck does it all and does it well. Creative menu and excellent service make this a great dinner evening occasion. I'd go back in a heartbeat.
We had a nice time after a conference - service was attentive but patient, food was tasty. Wine list was surprisingly good - we had some wonderful wine with our mussels and fries.
We love good brasserie food, and Brasserie Beck does the job!
From beginning to end the Brasserie Beck experience was wonderful. I will go back over and over again. Great service, great food!
You just can't beat the muscles here. They're big and plump and delicious. Nothing in the city compares. I just love the scene here. And you never know who you may run into...
Overall great selections and the service was the best. Food was presented in an outstanding way. Excellent preparation. I thought I ease in Brussels again. The mussels were excellent as well as the frites and sauces. A very special dinner made even more special by our waiter who was outstanding and attentive. It could not have been a nicer evening. Thanks to all.
We were first time diners...I brought my boyfriend here for his birthday. I felt terrible that we had been running late. The original time I wanted wasn't available on Open Table but there were a ton of tables open this Sunday night. I was really impressed with the food, and especially that they had a gluten free menu. Service was a little spotty the whole night. Picked a good bottle of wine at a good price point. Order the charcuterie!!!! Impressed by the raw milk cheese offering.
Always a joy to dine here. I havr never had a bad experience. Food is always outstanding.
September and October are my favorite times at Brasserie Beck. Best outdoor dining in the city. Perfect for a working lunch
Nice wine and beer list. The food was excellent and the service was impeccable!!!!!!
We always eat here 2 or 3 times the week we spend in D.C. in the fall. We also like chefs other restaurants: ie. Brabos and Marcels.
Loved the lobster bisque; rest of party had the onion soup and reaaly enjoyed it
I have eaten at this restaurant numerous times and I have never been disappointed in the quality of the food. I normally eat here for brunch but decided to take some out of town guests here one evening for dinner. The food was phenomenal. We all ordered different plates and we all had a fantastic meal. I highly recommend this restaurant.
We just hae a fantastic dining experience, and special tuesta were thrilled.
Brasserie Beck has never disappointed me for dining or for happy hour. Had a group of five and the service was impeccable and the food delicious.
I have dined here many times and never had a bad experience.
This place never disappoint, good food, impressive wine list, and very warming and knowledgeable staff from the hostess to the Sommelier to the managers. I will go back on the heart beat.
We very much enjoyed the moules frites. They were fresh, tasty, cooked well. The pork chop also was excellent. I don't recommend the Croque Monsieur. It wasn't authentic at all.
Great food and great service. I find myself going back again and again. This is my go-to place when company is in town or for special occasions. Yesterday was a birthday lunch for a longtime and very dear friend. The meal was just perfect. Thanks to all of the staff for making this another wonderful visit.
I had lobster bisque, beet salad, and a Scaldis beer. Delicious. Pretty decor. Service was terrific - attentive but not hovering. Great time!
Caramelized Brussels sprouts are fantastic! Frites are great too! We didn't like the pumpkin tortelloni that accompanied the duck, and I wish the wines by the glass list was more interesting, but service was great, and overall, food was delish .
We've been to Brasserie Beck before and loved it so much we brought back our girls to enjoy it. Great menu!
The food and service at Brasserie Beck are terrific. Unfortunately, the noise level is high and conversations are difficult.
Known for its mussels dishes, Brasserie Beck did not disappoint. I chose the mussels with mushrooms & bacon in a cream sauce - OMG, delicious. Frites with 3 dipping sauces were piping hot, crisp and yummy. My dining companion chose Mediterranean style mussels with chorizo in a tomato creme sauce. Equally delicious. Wide-ranging menu offered something for everyone but if you like mussels, you gotta try Brasserie Beck. Prices are upper end.
A group of four of us went to Brasserie Beck to celebrate the birthday of one of us. The food was delicious. The 3 of us got mussels with different sauces and we all loved them. One of us got Belgian beer, which she enjoyed. The service was excellent. The only problem was that it was noisy, even though we asked for a quiet table. It was my second time there and we would all definitely go back there.
We enjoyed ourselves on our first visit to Brasserie Beck. The only downside was that we went on a Sunday evening and the restaurant was practically empty.
We took our family to Brasserie Beck for our son's 25th birthday. He LOVES to pair good beer with a meal--it's part of the experience if done properly. Brasserie's staff knew EXACTLY how to serve the table. We were able to taste beers we would have never considered, but the selection was always perfect--right down to a dark stout with dessert. It was the kind of place that when you ordered an entree and the waiter would give a nod to indicate you made a good selection; you felt proud--like your dinner choice was an exceptional one and clearly you know what you're doing. I would recommend this restaurant to anyone who decides they're not going to order the same ole thing they always do. Go here if you want an experience.
I have been to Brasserie Beck several times and have thoroughly enjoyed each meal. This food was very good (I had the lobster bisque and Croque Monsieur, my companion had mussels and oysters), the beer selection very interesting, and the service was outstanding.
Fantastic service made the quality food even more enjoyable. Relaxed business casual atmosphere with friendly competent folks. Will definitely be back!
BB is always a sure bet for a quality experience by a seasoned crew...kitchen to table. Certainly their mussels are spectacular and soups very pleasing. This time we had the steak and the SAT evening lamb special. the Skate this time was good, but not great. The lamb dish was interesting--it is prepared 3 ways--one of which is cooked a long time--and that part was excellent--However my lamb chops--ordered rare--were closer to well done and did not have a commanding taste. I didn't send things back because it took a long time to get our main courses, and it was getting late for our party. I am sure they would have re-done it if requested. The wines we ordered were excellent.
I have come to count on Brasserie Beck as a go to dinning place when I want to impress company or when I want just great food perfectly prepared and presented. The mussels are legend. The baked goods are fantastic. Just try the bread served with your meal. If you want light, crepes are great. I avoid the beef carbonnade even though most seem to rave about it. There are better things than that at this place. Of course that may also be because I like the veal meatballs for a starter, and after that you have already consumed a fair amount of protein.
My family and friends came to Brasserie Beck for our Thanksgiving meal. The service was impeccable to the point where I felt that our waiter could teach a master class... he was that good! The mussels and fries were delicious as were the entrees. The desserts (gateau of chocolate and profiteroles were amazing as well! All in all, a really wonderful holiday meal.
Outstanding but rich food, carefully prepared and served in a friendly but totally professional manner. Decor is French brasserie, with dark wood and subtle lighting, with kitchen in full view. You do not look through bar patrons to see the chef at work. The place feels really big when you walk in; it is two stories of openness and you are expecting a cattle call environment. But it remains intimate due to artfully done separated seating areas.Lobster bisque was excellent, as was everything else--mussels, surf and turf [braised lamb and scallops share a plate along with delicious brussel sprouts and whipped potatoes]. Service was very attentive without being obsequious or overbearing.
My friend & I went to Brasserie Beck the night after Thanksgiving for a 5:45 reservation & the restaurant was practically empty. It didn't stay that way long, but that allowed our waiter to give us his undivided attention. My friend ordered the salmon (rare) while I had the venison special. We both thought they were exceptionally prepared. The waiter was quite knowledgable & made two very good wine recommendations for our dinners. My friend topped off her meal with the Belgian waffle & ice cream desert & she loved it. Overall, an outstanding meal.
Enjoyed my dining experience at Brasserie Beck. I will be back!
We had a great dining experience. Wonderful food and attentive service staff. Will definitely return. Beck's has the best mussels in town!
When we use open table we get tables that are less than desirable--by the kitchen door, by the wait staff area, etc. Most times we do ask for a different table and are given one. I do have to say that we ask for a quiet table because my husband and I have hearing problems. BUT this does not mean we want to be seated in no man's land where we are the only 2 diners in the area. This happened at Brasserie Beck and the hostess had a condescending attitude when we complained. Our waiter did find us another table but we were almost sitting on top of 2 other diners. I don't think they were happy to see us. There were plenty of other tables available.
A business trip happily brings me to Washington DC annually, and the highlight of the stay is always Brasserie Beck. The environment is vibrant and classic, the atmosphere excited. There's an extensive bottled beer menu, and the food is consistently delicious. It's busy, so I recommend a reservation -- even with ours we waiting nearly 45 minutes on a weekday (that's not having to do with the service -- diners seemed to be having such a great time, they wouldn't leave). I come every year, and leave excited for the following visit.
Belgium beers, mussels, and good times. The HH specials weren't as good as I remember. The mussels (wild mushrooms, bacon, truffle cream) were delicious. The veal bolognase (Peter's) were also great but a little salty. Neil got a 12 lbs pork sandwich that he devoured... must have been good. Will go back!
Delicious food, friendly boisterous atmosphere, good service. Belgian frites were outstanding. Tagliatelle with wild boar ragu was out of this world.
Terrific mussels, oysters, grilled octopus. Surf and turf with lamb was delicious. Great atmosphere with attentive wait staff. Pasta dishes only items we might skip next time. Beer lovers will appreciate excellent european selections.
We took out-of-town guests here for a special meal, and it was truly special. The beers were fantastic (save for one, which the bartender recommended in place of one that was out of stock), and the food was stellar. We had mussels, frites, and a range of entrees (from seafood to surf-and-turf to vegetarian) -- all exceptionally good. Great service too.


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National Assessment Synthesis Team October 15, 1998
This paper discusses the handling of socio-economic and ecological (SEE) assumptions in assessing the impacts of climate change and variability in the National Assessment. It is revised from the paper circulated before the Monterey meeting, and incorporates discussion and feedback from Monterey, Woods Hole, and other conversations.
The paper outlines a Framework to approach the problem of describing socio-economic and ecological (SEE) characteristics of the future world for which climate impacts are assessed. The framework is intended to provide some level of consistency in products of regional and sectoral teams, so their results can be used in preparing the National Synthesis Report. The framework is not intended to be a final product, but to be further developed through continuing discussions. Moreover, the framework cannot possibly seek to be a complete set of instructions, specifying how to make every required socio-economic or ecological (SEE) assumption for every analysis: each team will have to make many such decisions. The final section of this paper identifies some resources and contact people to help you find data and think through your input decisions.
The first section discusses a few general principles for making SEE assumptions. The second provides more specific, illustrative suggestions and examples for putting these principles into practice. The third discusses the specific SEE data that will be provided, and identifies sources of further information and support.
In addition to the common approach outlined here, your team may wish to perform various other types of analyses, perhaps using approaches very different from what is outlined here. If you have time, we encourage you to experiment with a variety of methods and approaches, and to report both what worked and what did not work, so that one of the products of this assessment is insight into how to do a better job next time.
In discussions in Woods Hole and elsewhere, it has been useful to make explicit a few principles that have helped to organize our thinking about SEE assumptions. This section summarizes these principles. The next section provides some suggestions for putting them into practice.
Simply describing how climate varies or changes is not sufficient to understand impacts or vulnerability. Climate impacts happen to societies, economies, and ecosystems, so describing impacts requires information about the current (and in some cases the cumulative past) state of the economic, social or ecological domain that bears the impacts. Consequently, assessing impacts and vulnerability requires assumptions (explicit or implicit) about the future state of society and ecosystems in which climate impacts occur. These will not be the same as today's society and ecosystems. In the future climate-changed world, patterns of population, economic activity, technology, resource use, and ecosystems will all likely differ from those of today, in ways that are relevant to thinking about impacts. Consequently, while precise and reliable prediction is impossible, assumptions about the future cannot be avoided. In most cases, it is more reasonable to take on the hard job of making the required SEE assumptions and making them explicit, than to assume implicitly that the future will be like the present. If on reflection you judge that the most reasonable assumption about some particular future characteristic is that it will be unchanged from the present, you should also make this assumption explicit.
The national assessment includes many separate studies of impacts at finer-scale domains - impacts on particular activities, resources, or values (e.g., coastal buildings, winter wheat yields, or heat stress on human health) at particular spatial scales (e.g., a county, a metropolitan area, a watershed, a particular coastal zone, a state, a region). Each study will need different SEE data inputs, and each study team will know best what data they need, and often what values are plausible. The assessment process must take advantage of this specialized expertise as much as possible.
But these fine-scale studies must ultimately be synthesized into an assessment of climate impacts and vulnerability for the nation as a whole. A few key variables are likely to be required inputs to many studies, and to this national synthesis. Population and GDP are obvious examples, although there could be others. For these, all studies should use consistent assumptions. Moreover, the aggregation across separate studies will be much easier if teams use a broadly parallel approach to their studies, even when their specific data needs are unconnected.
The complexity of impact assessment can be overwhelming. Multiple dimensions of climate potentially influence a vast number of coupled economic, societal, and ecological values, and these influences are mediated by a host of individual, organizational, and governmental choices. Developing scenarios for such studies is a much harder problem than developing emissions scenarios, because of the intensely fine-grained, detailed, and coupled information required to describe and understand impacts. Even within a single region or sector, no team can hope to grasp the entire, massively complex problem.
Rather, the most we can hope for in the limited time available is that each team undertake a few narrowly targeted studies, providing thoughtful analysis of possible impacts, vulnerabilities, and key decisions in a few key domains (e.g., particular impacts, activities, resources, or locations) within their area. Both the regional and sectoral teams have begun this process with their scoping exercises and identification of key issues. But even studies of a few key domains or issues will require major simplifications to deal with the multiple factors that potentially bear on each domain. Attempting to describe fully the SEE factors that influence the climate vulnerability of, say, wheat cultivation in Kansas or heat-stress deaths in Chicago, will quickly become an impossibly complex - and arbitrary - exercise.
It is futile to attempt to describe the future in all detail, even as it shapes climate impacts in one narrow domain. Instead, each study should seek to identify a small number of key SEE variables that are likely to have the strongest and most direct influence on climate impacts and vulnerabilities in their domain. The analysis can then proceed by assuming values for these few key variables, without specifying how (of the multitude of possible ways) they came to have those values. If a forest study decides that demand for commercial forest products is a key variable determining impacts, they can assume values for demand without having to specify what combination of demographic, market, ecosystem, and technological factors caused demand to take that value.
Because the future is uncertain, it is important not just to assume a single value for the key variables that influence impacts, but to consider alternate values. The simplest approach is to consider a high and a low value, so as to span a range. However confident you may be that the future is going in a particular direction (e.g., demand for forest products will increase), you should work hard to think through other possibilities that could broaden the range of plausible values for your impact variables. Considering a range of values for key inputs is necessary to investigate how impacts and vulnerability in your domain depend on these inputs. Moreover, when you estimate ranges, you must work hard to draw them wide enough to accurately reflect the applicable uncertainty. A host of research on decision-making has shown that you are likely to be too confident in your predictions. You should try to guard vigilantly against this bias.
It is clear that climate impacts within a particular domain will depend on the SEE characteristics of that domain. But for many domains, impacts may also depend strongly on the broader context in which the domain is situated. Impacts and vulnerability in one county or state may, for example, depend on the condition of other counties or states nearby, or the nation as a whole; impacts in one economic sector may depend on the condition of other sectors. These contexts may affect impacts and vulnerability for several reasons. The context - other places or activities - may compete with the domain for some constrained resource (e.g., regional water supply may be shared among nearby regions, alternative forms of agriculture, or between agriculture and urban or industrial development.)
Alternatively, the context may provide resources that shape or mitigate vulnerabilities: e.g., capital to support new investment or adaptation; knowledge and capacity for technological and social innovation; people to fill new jobs or places for people to move to; support for transition to different livelihoods; or a governmental capacity to make policies to manage vulnerabilities, adapt to impacts, or compensate those who suffer from them. Where such linkages are important, contextual conditions may either intensify or diminish the vulnerability of the domain to climate impacts, or the significance of these impacts.
Implementing these principles - getting SEE assumptions straight for a particular analysis - will pose serious practical problems, many of which will differ from study to study. Here, we provide suggestions and illustrations on how to proceed. Perhaps your study will fit the approach well; if not, you should feel free to adjust parts of the approach, or in extreme cases discard them.
In particular, the following discussion assumes that analyses and key SEE variables are quantified. Where possible this is a desirable approach, but where not possible it should not be forced. Where quantitative analysis or modeling is not feasible, a good qualitative treatment of possible impacts will be more useful, both to your team and to the national synthesis, than a seriously incomplete or biased attempt to perform a quantitative assessment.
Most teams have already gone through a scoping exercise to identify a few key impact domains on which they will concentrate. We would only urge that all teams also establish a clear priority ranking of these domains, reflecting your collective best guess of their overall importance. With such a ranking, you can begin your analyses with the highest ranked domains, so when you run out of time (as we all will) you will at least be able to say something about the few most important impact domains in your region or sector.
For each domain, the team should then list the most important SEE variables that are likely to influence impacts and vulnerability in that domain. You should choose a small number of such variables, that appear have the strongest and most direct influence. These variables should represent key SEE uncertainties, not objects of direct policy choice, since key policy decisions that influence vulnerabilities will be considered explicitly in your analysis.
Several teams went through this exercise at Monterey. Choosing a few key SEE input variables is difficult, but is necessary to keep the analysis to manageable complexity. The key uncertainties are likely to be different for each domain of analysis; they may even be different for the same domain at different times. For example, key inputs to a health study may include the size of particular vulnerablepopulations; for a water study, they may include the level of various categories of water demands; or for a coastal study they may include the intensity, character, and location of coastal development. Choosing the most important input variables for your study may require that you first do some scoping exercises or preliminary, exploratory analyses. For some domains, you may find that national economic growth, or some other characteristic of the national context, is a key input; for others, all important inputs might be characteristics of the domain itself.
For each SEE variable you have chosen, estimate a high and a low value that span a plausible range. Existing data or projections may provide some guidance in estimating such a range; for certain demographic and economic data up to the year 2030, high and low values (as well as a middle, "baseline" value) will be provided. But in many cases, projecting values for SEE variables will depend on the collective judgement of team members.
How wide a range should you choose? In qualitative terms, we suggest the range should include a substantial majority of uncertainty, but should not seek to include low-probability extreme events. In quantitative terms, the range should correspond - in the judgment of the team - to an 80 per cent confidence interval. In your judgment, there should be no more than 1 chance in 10 that the true value will be higher than your "high" value, and no more than 1 in 10 that the true value will be lower than your "low" value.
The purpose of the range you construct is to provide a set of alternative SEE assumptions to construct baselines on which climate-related perturbations are imposed. Your assumptions will support a series of "what if" analyses, examining the impacts of various scenarios of climate change under various alternative sets of SEE assumptions, and decisions that might manage associated vulnerabilities. Consequently, these ranges should include all sources of uncertainty except climate itself and policy responses to it. Climate and climate responses should be examined explicitly in the analysis, not concealed in the range of alternative values assumed for SEE inputs.
There is one important exception to this exclusion of climate-related uncertainties from SEE assumptions. For analyses where climate impacts or policies outside the US are important, the range of SEE assumptions should include these uncertainties. For example, climate and climate responses abroad might have strong influence on US immigration, or export demand for US agricultural products. If immigration or agricultural export demand are key assumptions for a particular analysis, their range should include this uncertainty.
However you choose values for the key SEE inputs to your analysis, be careful to explain how you got them. When you scale national numbers to a region, please explain how you did it. It may be useful to discuss historical patterns of change, to illustrate what "high" and "low" have meant in the past.
You should be keenly aware that you are likely to be too confident in your predictions, and to underestimate the uncertainty that applies to your estimates. Abundant research has shown that people are systematically over-confident in estimation and prediction, and fail to account adequately for uncertainty. In drawing uncertainty ranges for your key inputs, this means that you must be careful to draw the ranges wide enough, wider than you are initially likely to think is necessary.
At this point you should have the following: an ordered list of a few key impact domains that are your priorities to study; for each of these domains, a list of a few key SEE factors that in your judgment most strongly influence impacts and vulnerabilities from a specified climate change; and for each of these factors, a range of values reflecting your collective judgment of its uncertainty.
Your analysis will of course require many other data inputs and assumptions, in addition to these few key factors. To keep your analyses manageable, only the few key factors you have identified should be varied. Other inputs should be left at "best guess" or baseline values.
From here, you should combine high and low values for various SEE inputs to generate a small, usefully diverse set of SEE scenarios. From this point, differences among particular analyses are likely to be of overwhelming importance in determining sensible ways to construct these scenarios. While we continue to offer suggestions on how to do this under certain ideal circumstances, you may find that minor or major departures from our suggested approach are necessary for your analysis to make sense.
Your problem may fail to fit this approach in various ways. All important SEE inputs may be local to your domain; the important inputs may span various spatial scales from the local to the national; all important variables may be strongly correlated; or several important SEE inputs may all appear to be independently variable.
If these or other obstacles arise, you must rely on your judgment.
Ideally, the goal should be four SEE scenarios based on combining important, independently variable SEE inputs when possible; where this is not possible or appropriate, two SEE scenarios should be constructed based on jointly varying one, or a few, key SEE inputs between their high-impact and low-impact values. If at all possible, you should strive to construct at least two distinct and plausible SEE cases.
With decisions made about alternate values to assume for key SEE impact variables, you are ready to proceed with the analysis. As with constructing scenarios, the detailed form of analyses will vary greatly across individual study domains.
A "canonical" analysis will examine the effect of a few distinct climate scenarios, under a few distinct assumptions regarding SEE conditions, to generate "what if" analyses that illustrate possible impacts of particular climates under particular SEE conditions. Differences between the baseline-climate world and the climate-scenario world will reveal illustrative impacts and vulnerabilities. Differences between impacts of the same climate scenario under alternative SEE conditions will illustrate how vulnerabilities depend on SEE factors, and may help to identify key decisions that strongly shape impacts and vulnerabilities.
The national assessment is an ambitious and novel exercise, and we must all feel our way. We offer these detailed proposals for crafting SEE scenarios, even though they are certain to appear inapplicable or misguided for some - perhaps for many - analyses, in the spirit of pushing the discussion quickly to the level of practical decisions. If these suggestions are helpful, or if they are not, please let us know; in particular, please let us know if you can suggest specific improvements that would make this approach work better for your analysis.
Since this is the first national assessment, it is crucial that we try to learn from the methods we employ, particularly including our failures. Each analysis should yield new substantive and methodological questions. Reporting both what worked and what did not work, and how and why, will help to build the capacity to do a better job in subsequent national assessments.
Above all we stress the importance of being parsimonious, in the choice of both domains to study and SEE inputs to vary. If your team studies three high-priority domains under three or four climate scenarios, using three or four SEE scenarios, for two years (2030 and 2100), this already yields 54 to 96 separate analyses. Further enrichments will rapidly increase the number of combinations beyond all feasibility.
The assessment focuses on two target years, 2030 and 2100. While these dates are both far in the future to be making projections, 2030 is within the scope of some projection models and strategic-planning tools, while 2100 is beyond almost all such projections. Consequently, the richness of estimates available from which to construct SEE scenarios differs greatly between the two target years.
For 2030, population and economic projections for three different scenarios from a model developed by NPA Data Services, Inc, will be distributed to all teams on CD-ROM. County-level information for each year to 2050 will be available for population by sex and 5-year age cohorts; as well as income and employment by industry sector at the 1-digit SIC code level, plus farm and non-farm proprietors, federal and state/local government, and military. The information will also be presented aggregated to states and metropolitan areas; alternatively, your team can re-aggregate the county data to any other multi-county region that is useful for your analysis. The three scenarios will be: a baseline projection developed by NPA Data Services, Inc; and a low-growth and high-growth scenario developed by NPA in consultation with the NAST. The scenarios were developed to bound the most likely range of values for U.S. population growth and economic growth. If population, employment, and economic growth are among the most important variables likely to influence impacts and vulnerability in the domains that you are studying, we request that you use these projections.
This model and data series are widely used as planning tools in various federal, state and local governments, and by the private sector. Staff at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) supporting the national assessment are familiar with the model and data series, and are available to provide technical support to national assessment teams in their use.
These data may provide many of the inputs you need for your impact analysis in 2030, but probably not all. If you need economic data at finer sectoral resolution, you will have to extend the NPA data with additional assumptions; if you need information about specific activities or technologies, land use or land cover, or ecosystems, the NPA data will not provide it. In this case, you must find other data sources or generate your own assumptions. Staff at ORNL are also available to help you identify existing data sources or projections relevant to your needs. Some team leaders have also offered to help other groups with certain specific kinds of data problems.
Contact information for these resources is provided below. 2100 is much more difficult: uncertainties are wider, fewer projections are available, and the problems of developing believable and useful sets of assumptions are much harder. The only projections available for this time horizon come from integrated-assessment models used to study alternative time-paths of greenhouse gas emissions. Some of these models provide values for US population, GDP, and emissions, but little or no data at finer scale relevant to assessing impacts and vulnerabilities.
To get a sense of how challenging the problem of developing useful SEE scenarios for 2100 is, you might imagine trying to predict today's world from the perspective of 1898. At that time, American's fertility rates were higher; the social mix was sharply different from today's; many more people lived on farms; aircraft, electronics and nuclear technologies had not been invented; aluminum was a semi-precious metal; and automobiles existed only as primitive novelties.
With such a daunting challenge and such sparse and suspect data, teams might choose two broad directions to proceed. You might choose to do the analysis for 2100 using essentially the same method as for 2030, generating your own estimates for much more of the input data: identify key domains and key SEE variables for a hypothetical USA in 2100; choose a range of plausible values for each key SEE variable; and subject a few alternate SEE futures to a few alternative climate scenarios.
Uncertainties will be much wider and the entire approach more speculative and qualitative, but the results may still be useful and interesting. You might, for example, judge that the key SEE variables determining impacts and vulnerability in a particular domain change over time: e.g., economic activity levels might be most important in the near term, but some specific aspect of technological change most important in the long term.
Alternatively, you might examine impacts in 2100 by using an inverse approach. This approach would be parallel to the use of inverse climate scenarios for 2030, where you assumed some specific SEE picture for 2030 and asked how much climate would have to change, in what ways, to yield large impacts.
To use an inverse approach for SEE assumptions, you would not fix specific SEE assumptions in the year 2100. Rather, you would impose a specific climate scenario - either a GCM output or a historical analog climate - and ask what SEE characteristics would strongly alter vulnerabilities to this particular climate. Under what plausible SEE conditions would this climate bring large impacts, discontinuities, or qualitative changes? (e.g., rendering important activities non-viable; exhausting a key natural resource such as freshwater or a key economic resource such as insurance reserves; pushing major enterprises into bankruptcy or specialized communities below thresholds of viability.) And conversely, under what plausible SEE conditions would this climate impose essentially insignificant impacts?