Agreed. I grew up there and for all I hated February and humid summers (and bugs like we don’t have here — I counted a dozen-odd mosquitoes last year), I miss the place. But for as long as I’ve been gone, not much more than the buildings I remember remain. My hometown once voted 99% AuH2O — but wouldn’t come close today.
Lucky for me, I was born in Reno, and reared in Central Utah, and for both areas/states, conservatism is still The Way.
Clark County (where I now live) is full of retired hippes and leftists, smokers, gamblers and alcoholics, as well as bleeding heart tree-huggers, and is probably not a good place for me to be. But I’ve lived here longer than I have lived anywhere else, ever. So it’s “home.”