Carolyn Goodman has been mayor of Las Vegas for 12 years and due to term limits, she’ll give up the job to a new mayor next year. But until then, what’s her agenda for the city? What are the city’s priorities, challenges, and current projects?
Homelessness and affordable housing are a couple of the most important issues the valley faces.
HOMELESSNESS
The Nevada Legislature recently passed a bill where the state will match $100 million for a one-stop shop for the homeless. It's expected that gaming companies will donate the first $100 million, but that still remains to be seen. Goodman, though, expressed that whatever does end up happening, solving homelessness is much more complicated than just setting up in one place.
The city does have the Homeless Resource Courtyard that provides showers, a place to sleep and travel resources for the homeless, but the mayor thinks more should be done.
"The reality is no, not just one stop, there have to be several satellites in each community, where there is rehab and compassionate caring," said Goodman. "And it is not for those who ultimately or soon can get into housing. These are people who don't want to come in, do not want to get back in the workforce, they want to be homeless. And this is a very type a different type of individual. When you look at the spectrum of homeless, you have so many parts. Our first concentration has always been the veteran, how do we help the veteran who's given so much for all of us? We have a lot of runaway young kids, that's another component. And then we have of course, what I would say the almost incurably mentally ill, they are out there and they are different from the alcoholic and drug addict. Then we have the recently homeless because of COVID, because of the recession, we need to get them back in homes. So absolutely, it cannot be one place and the hotels want this to happen. [The gaming companies] are all going to give, it's going to be much more than $100 million, because we need the satellite courtyards in places where we can be very humane as to how we treat [the homeless] and have services available. And then we do need a central locale and more housing for those who are ready."
AFFORDABLE HOUSING
Affordable housing has become a crisis as of late due to skyrocketing home prices, rent increases, and record inflation. So what is the city doing?
One project under development is a master-planned community with 1,800 units on the Desert Pines Golf Club on Bonanza and Pecos roads. This development would include both affordable and market housing.
"As long as we have the water and can provide what we need and all of the energy costs, it's a perfect site and has to be well planned. So there's a blend," said Goodman. "I think that's what the federal government, for their dollars, wants to make sure of, that you are taking care of a cross section of your population. And plus, we need schools in there and that's a whole other area that we're talking about. But certainly we are pretty much landlocked in the city of Las Vegas, so what we're having to do is go up."
DOWNTOWN PARKING
What about downtown Las Vegas? Revitalization of the area has been going on for more than two decades at this point, under the Goodman mayoral reign. But no matter what's done, the area's parking infrastructure always seems to be lacking and many business owners and locals complain about it. Goodman said things might finally change.
"The city council has bought two parcels which is a little bit over an acre to put a new parking garage at East Utah Avenue and South Casino Boulevard, which should have about 500 spaces," said Goodman. "Everywhere we go we're working on how we can make it more amenable to the pedestrian who wants to drive and walk because that's what's exciting about downtown, everything is next to the other."
MAJOR LEAGUE SPORTS
We've all heard the moans and groans from locals about the new Oakland Athletics stadium bill that recently passed in the legislature. The bill approved $380 million in public assistance to aid in the construction of the stadium.
The city of Las Vegas has fought in the past to obtain their own respective major league sports team.
"The first thing [former Mayor Oscar Goodman] did was go to New York and talk to Major League Hockey commission chairman Gary Bettman, and he's still our commissioner for the NHL and our Vegas Golden Knights," said Goodman. "He was not absolutely opposed to pursuing a hockey team a franchise here, but for everybody else with whom he chatted during his tenure, they saw Las Vegas gambling and all the crime and said absolutely not, never. And of course, as we all know, every state being strapped for funding now has gaming. [Nevada] is the best of them all because of the regulations and the expertise we have, and so we're called all the time. But certainly with [previous NBA Commissioner] David Stern, he was opposed to bringing a franchise. And poor Adam Silver, [current NBA commissioner], I must have sent him so many texts he'd like to throw his phone away. But we almost had a major league soccer franchise here, and we did pass the vote to do that."
The Major League Soccer franchise would have found a home at Cashman Stadium, which is now largely used for the Las Vegas Lights FC.
Formula 1, which has now found a home for their Grand Prix racing event later this year on the Las Vegas Strip, could have set up shop in downtown Las Vegas. This would have meant intense road repaving, though, not unlike what's happening on the Las Vegas Strip right now for F1.
"We want to be very careful when you bring in these major league sports. I'm gonna say four or five years ago, Formula 1 came to my office to talk about downtown. And that wasn't my decision to make. I called up some of our hotel owners and they said we can't afford it, small businesses can't afford to close the streets. I did suggest to go out to the county and take a look there. But yes, we are continuing to pursue [major league sports]. But stadiums are costly, and look at the competition from all the arenas and places that we have. Once the MGS Sphere opens, we'll have these enormous places that will be competing with each other."
Hear more in the interview above.
Guest: Carolyn Goodman, mayor, Las Vegas
