The feverish excitement around The Downtown Project begins to give way to frustration, confusion, and disappointment. Tony's utopian vision is concealing something toxic. And it isn’t just businesses and investors at stake. All of a sudden, so are people’s lives. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
A quick note before we begin.
This episode includes discussions about suicide.
Please take care while listening.
If you're struggling with your mental health, help is available in the US.
You can contact Mental Health America on 800 273 8255.
In the UK, the charity mind is available on o 301 23393.
In the last episode, we heard how the feverish excitement around the downtown project was beginning to give way to frustration, confusion and disappointment.
There was a political dimension to who was willing to engage with downtown project and who wanted to resist it.
Unfinished projects and chaotic management were causing locals and Tony devotees to question the very fundamentals of the endeavor.
That's what the pr is saying.
What's happening in Las Vegas?
But there's a totally different thing happening on the ground.
People begin to ask, what kind of community is this?
The community Tony intended to create was the community of Zappos.
Loyal Zappos employed Zappos executive people.
The community that already existed down here was a grab bag of weirdos working in all sorts of industries.
Those people weren't invited in to the community of the downtown project.
Two years in, the downtown project is in turmoil.
I felt like, wow, what a waste of incredible potential.
Fuck.