I'm curious if you are serious or not about this comment? Sure, downtown LV and the strip might not be the place i'd want to hang out all the time and certainly not live. But all Cities have those touristy areas that are shady and bad -- have you been to Hollywood, Venice Beach, etc. the past few years? I have no idea why anyone would want to visit such areas. Even downtown LA is littered with homeless and high drug/crime area.
For greater LV though, you have a few really great, family-friendly, low-traffic, safe, good areas to seemingly live in like Summerlin, Henderson, etc. I'm not that familiar with these areas and Vegas as a whole, so maybe i'm off about these areas being really good areas to live in in LV. I've just heard lots of very good things about these areas outside of DT LV & Strip.