We want to know what’s on your mind. What’s bugging you? What are you happy about? How’s life? How’s life in Las Vegas? How was your weekend? Did you do anything fun or exciting?
When State of Nevada host Joe Schoenmann moved here, his landlord told him Las Vegas was the most exciting city on the planet. Is it?
On Monday morning, the forum is yours to bring up anything you want. How will you vote in the presidential election 19 months from now, or is it way way too early to ask?
What’s the most interesting thing you’ve done in your life? Was lifeguarding the most boring? Because it was for Joe when he did it one summer.
We were also with writer, author and really something of an extraordinary cook, Kim Foster, who has a new book, "The Meth Lunches," coming out later this year.
What listeners called and wrote in about
The lottery bill in the Nevada Legislature
“I really think that we need to pick up on the Assembly bill that's been introduced in Carson City to establish a lottery here in Nevada. It is senseless. No, it's stupid, to let all that money go out of state. It could be spent here for better purposes.” - Jim from Las Vegas
The proposed California-Nevada light rail
“I would like clarification if anybody knows what's really going on regarding the light rail, whatever is coming in Jean, there's a precast concrete factory place where they make this concrete somewhere between Jean and Las Vegas. Now I'm asking this question or saying this because I'd like to be corrected in my wrong thinking. … And this supposedly already, it's really happening, because this person told me … they have already dispatched the carpenter union people to this location to start work.” - Mary from Las Vegas
Californians moving to Las Vegas
“I think people have been through hell with a pandemic, and they're looking for ways to make their lives easier and more enjoyable. … I think there's a lot of movement right now with people moving from where they are trying to find the job that they want to have, the circumstances that they want to live in. … I think people are still reeling from the impact of the pandemic. And I think we're gonna see that for a while now. And I think that you're gonna see people moving and trying to change their lives and do better and have a different circumstance for themselves.” - Kim Foster
Convention access post-pandemic
“Today I am on my way to the convention center. And something I noticed during the pandemic, which I really enjoyed, was that we had really fantastic ways to verify identification, code out passes, register for different programs, things like that without leaving your house. Now I have to drive all the way across town to the convention center, where you don't know if there's parking or not until you get there, to just pick up a press pass to go through. … How come Nevada and Las Vegas, especially being such a huge town for conventions, can't keep up with that kind of technology? It's annoying.” - Gemini from Las Vegas
The cost of living and visiting Las Vegas
“I'm a mortgage broker. I've been doing mortgages for 27 years … What happened in Las Vegas, there's no rent control. Rents are going up $500 because there is no rent control. Landlords are racking up. I had a family in my office, three children, a single mother, she was homeless. I had to get her assisted housing. What they don't know, I'm giving you facts today, is there's all kinds of down payment assistance programs, you know, to stop paying someone's mortgage with inflation.” - Diana from Las Vegas
“I'm actually a renter, and I can definitely attest to the $500 rent increase. So my rent increased after my rent increased about 20%. I had been renting this property for two and a half years, I paid my rent … And here's the worst part of it. They change the property manager. So when I talked to the new property manager, I actually managed to talk them down to about $200. So I was billed for almost 30%. So I went from $1,875 to $2,240 a month. [The] property manager … she told me, ‘Well, I dare you to go out and find you're lucky that you're getting.’” - Shannon from Las Vegas
“My issue is, we have three casinos here in Detroit, and I really don't gamble. I used to go to Vegas a lot. And I would just love it. I mean, you're coming off the tarmac, you have slot machines everywhere. It was the best. … Now it just seems like Las Vegas, everywhere, you're just getting squeezed in the resort fees, taxes, table limits, everything. And it's like, it used to be fun; for a couple hundred, I can come and have a really great time, and you guys can make money off of me. And now it's like, you're pricing me out. I haven't been to Vegas in 11 years and I listen to you guys because I vicariously live through you.” - Mike from Royal Oak, Michigan
“I've only been here five years. And I came from Western New York. And, you know, everybody said, ‘oh, you know, taxes are so low there. It's going to be good.’ Well, my taxes were high, but I didn't have an HOA. That's a tax. Car Insurance is ridiculous here. My car registration was the biggest shock of my life. So I paid like $75 for three years in Western New York. I had a one year old car so I paid like $400 for one year. It was like a shock. That was a shock. Absolutely. Water. Of course, the water is higher.” - Joanne in Sun City
Taxes
“Most of us came from someplace else. I've been out here 45, 46 years from Chicago originally. … In most localities, in most states, you're allowed to have your local villages to pay for local programming. You can augment education, you can do street and road repair in Nevada by constitution. Unfortunately, pretty much everything is state-funded, and then it trickles down. The only thing that local governments really get their funding from is for police, schools and fire. And for schools, it can only be for building, not for actual operations unlike most other states. So that is very different here. We haven't unfortunately increased the gaming taxes since I think was ‘97 when I last served in the legislature, and yet they can pay double digits in every other state. That is a key area that needs to be pushed by the constituents, to ask the legislature to make that change.” - Chris Giunchigliani from Las Vegas
Arts District parking plans
“During the little, short, high rise boom, the city of Las Vegas required the developers to create retail space on the ground level in an effort to eliminate dead zones within the downtown area, which I thought was a pretty, pretty good idea. And it seems to me that with the new parking garage that the city has, is getting ready to build, it was a bummer that they are tearing down housing in order to build this, when there are so many vacant lots very close by some of them, which are for sale at the moment, but that's a done deal. So that's a moot point. But it seems to me that it would be a good idea to create a parking garage that has either some retail space on the ground level, or some affordable housing, whether it's in the form of affordable apartments, or affordable condominium living, or even with retail space, giving some younger or some newer entrepreneurs a chance to explore their craft on a retail level.” - Steve from Las Vegas
Republic Services' monopoly on trash
“For decades now, Republic [Services] has controlled almost 100% of the garbage service. Yep. And you more or less don't have a choice. I don't know any private business anywhere that gets away with doing that where you're forced to use their services. Even if you don't produce garbage, they will still send you a bill. To me, that's more or less extortion. And their history goes back to Mob connections as well.” - Craig from North Las Vegas
Have ideas? Thoughts? Questions? Comments? Email us: son@knpr.org.
Guest: Kim Foster, author
