LANDED IN LAS VEGAS Peter & Janet Castellano Andre Taylor Photography
P
eter and Janet Castellano moved to Las Vegas all the way from New York back in the summer of 2001. While their reason to move wasn’t ideal, the move itself ended up being beneficial for their whole family. “Peter and I have been married for 30 years and we relocated because my mom had dementia and believe it or not, Las Vegas has the best dementia care facilities here. When my dad passed away and my mom had dementia, we said ‘we’ll try it and if we don’t like it we can always move back,” Janet said. “We relocated here from New York, but Peter’s family lived here and my girls were only six and seven so it was a little bit easier for us to transition here and the perfect time for us to move cross country.” Prior to moving cross country, Peter had visited the city of Las Vegas and loved it. He even recommended that his parents come here for their 40th wedding anniversary, which led to them moving here with Peter and Janet’s family not far behind. “I’ve been coming to Vegas since 1978. Totally loved the place back in the old days. I love everything about Vegas because of working in a nightclub and the nightlife, things like that. Plus, it was just a place that I always wanted to come to. But, I love everything about Las Vegas: the weather, the slow pace (with less than a million people at the time). Everybody in New York is rushing to go nowhere in a hurry; in Vegas everything was ‘why do it today when you can put it off until tomorrow.’ It was nice, people were different, everything was spread out. It was a nice change. And, what’s not to love about Vegas,” Peter said.
Living LArge LV
While there’s a common misconception that Las Vegas isn’t a great place to start a family and raise children, Janet and Peter feel the opposite. “We just love the lifestyle, love that kids can be kids here, they don’t grow up too fast,” Janet said. Janet and Peter’s two daughters, Liana and Stephanie, both went to school here in Las Vegas as they were growing up. Steph-
Peter Castellano on duty with former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani.
