Las Vegas

BARACK OBAMA CAME TO Rancho High School (no relation to Rancho Carne H.S.) to hold a town hall in an area outside the main gymnasium. It was a smaller venue, with chairs set up for 500 or so, not counting the caravan of media, who numbered perhaps 80. Still, people began lining up outside the school an hour before the doors were scheduled to open. This being the Obama campaign, of course, the doors opened late. But by the time the senator arrived on the makeshift stage, the area was packed with people standing behind the chairs and crowding an open hallway above the space that functioned as a balcony.

Like every other public structure in Vegas, Rancho High looks like it was built yesterday, with high ceilings, open architecture and the type of exposed, industrial design more normally associated with dot-com start-ups and trendy restaurants. Rancho High: a shining example of how the gaming industry helps communities!