Carolyn Goodman isn’t the mayor of the Las Vegas Strip, or me

Posted on by April 22, 2020
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Carolyn Goodman

Carolyn Goodman and Anderson Cooper on CNN today

Several hours ago, three-term Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman made an absolute fool of herself on national TV by telling CNN’s Anderson Cooper the coronavirus shutdown of the economy should be ended, but she has no responsibility for any sickness or death that might result. She added she had offered her city as a”control group” to see how many residents would die, but was turned down by authorities.

I’ve been getting angry messages from people complaining about “your mayor.”

Listen up, folks. I live in unincorporated Clark County, part of the Las Vegas Valley, but not in the City of Las Vegas. So she’s not my mayor. In fact she’s not even the mayor of the Las Vegas Strip, which also sits in unincorporated Clark County.

But there’s some interesting history here–even involving the former bread-and-butter of Goodman’s now-retired mob lawyer husband, Oscar Goodman, who also served as Las Vegas mayor. I described the backstory in a 2017 post. I’m taking the liberty of re-purposing some of that material below. Continue reading →

Watching the pandemic play out in Las Vegas–a century ago

Posted on by March 14, 2021
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pandemic play out in Las Vegas

Las Vegas Age, October 5, 1918

A sudden increase in illness cases around Las Vegas–and worse. A significant death rate. Closed schools. Instructions to stay apart and wear masks. Inadequate medical staffing levels. Months of fear.

Oh, I’m not describing the ongoing coronovirus pandemic in Las Vegas (and the world). Rather, what I’m writing about are events hereabouts concerning the famous “Spanish flu” influenza pandemic from 1918 to 1920, as reported in the pages of the leading local newspaper of the day, the Las Vegas Age.

But maybe some things don’t change much.

The worldwide 1918 influenza epidemic (the word pandemic was known but not widely used at the time) was a serious problem in the Las Vegas area for about three months during the fall of 1918, then apparently came back in a lesser way a year later in early 1920. All told, it appears there officially were about 40 deaths in Clark County, where Las Vegas is, attributed to the influenza epidemic. However, that likely was a significant undercount.

Still, Las Vegas and Clark County back then were backwaters with a total official population in 1920 of only 4,859. So that worked out to one death for every 121 persons. This was 24% worse than the estimated national mortality rate–675,000 deaths in a population of 107 million--of one death for every 159 persons.

There are now 2 million people in Clark County. Thus, that 1918 rate would produce more than 16,000 deaths. But so far, there have only been 100 deaths attributed to coronavirus, or one death for every 20,000 persons. While the pandemic is far from over, the death rate is not even 1% of what was experienced in 1918. Right now the U.S. death rate is significantly higher than Clark County’s–one for every 14,700 residents. Continue reading →

From Las Vegas, thoughts on the pandemic recession and the election

Posted on by April 13, 2020
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pandemic recession

Larry Kudlow, Trump’s chief economic adviser (via Wikipedia)

Larry Kudlow, President Trump’s chief economic adviser, said yesterday the financial damage caused by the coronavirus pandemic would start receding within two months. (Last month, he said “weeks and months.”) Other Trump supporters have trotted out that old financial bromide, “This time is different.” They argue that the origins of this recession—and that appears to be what we’re in now—are so transitory that the financial distress will go away fast and with no lingering effect.

I beg to differ.

As a student of financial history long before becoming New To Las Vegas, what I’m seeing is the same old thing. The economic history of the United States consists of a simple repeating pattern: boom, bubble and bust. And the bust part is rarely over quickly. Continue reading →

Only in Nevada (even if not in Las Vegas)

Posted on by March 22, 2020
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From Nevada Governor Steve Sisolak’s coronavirus order that nonessential businesses in the state must close for 30 days (emphasis added at the New To Las Vegas world headquarters):Only in Nevada In case you wonder, prostitution is legal in much of Nevada, although not in Clark County, where Las Vegas is; Washoe County, home of Reno; or Carson City, the capital, which is an independent city.

In 2018, voters in Nye County, immediately to the west of Clark County where prostitution is legal, elected Republican Dennis Hof to the State Assembly in a landslide. This was noteworthy for two reasons: (1) Hof, a TV personality who wrote an autobiography entitled The Art of the Pimp, was the owner of seven brothels in Nevada, which he said would be good experience for working with other lawmakers, and (2) he had died three weeks before the election, found deceased in his bed the morning after his 72d birthday party.

Nothing says Nevada quite like a dead pimp elected to the Legislature.

Follow William P. Barrett’s work on Twitter by clicking here.

Social distancing Las Vegas-style

Posted on by March 20, 2020
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Social distancing Las Vegas-style

Las Vegas signage

A mandatory stop for many tourists to Las Vegas is the famous “Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas” sign. Since 1959, it has sat in the median at the southern tip of the Las Vegas Strip next to the airport. In a normal 24-hour period, thousands of tourists line up at all hours of the day and night to have their photos taken in front of the icon, a free background offering absolute proof of a Vegas visit. Since becoming New to Las Vegas, I often have taken visiting guests over for a keepsake shot.

Of course, thanks to the coronavirus crisis, these are not normal times. Vegas is essentially shut down and likely will remain that way well into April at a minimum. With all casinos and many hotels with their fancy shows closed, tourism is down to a trickle.

This afternoon, I drove the 2½ miles between Flamingo Road and the sign, a stretch through the heart of the Strip that passes the famous Bellagio Fountains where folks like to gawk. Normally, there would be maybe 10,000 people on foot along both sides of the famous road.

Today, I counted exactly 49.

But not every tourist has disappeared, just 99.99% of them. So Clark County, which maintains the area around the Vegas sign (which is more than four miles outside the city limits of Las Vegas proper), has posted a small sign. It asks tourists to observe social distancing guidelines and stay six feet apart.

When I passed by today, there were tourists at the sign. As you can see by my nearby photo, the social distancing guidance was ignored.

Follow William P. Barrett’s work on Twitter by clicking here.

Coronavirus crisis suggests Las Vegas economy remains a one-trick pony

Posted on by April 25, 2020
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Las Vegas economyEver since becoming New To Las Vegas in 2016, I’ve heard plenty of local claims the Las Vegas area is successfully diversifying its economy away from reliance on the sin stuff that long made the Strip famous (or infamous): gambling, entertainment and lodging. Building a knowledge-based, tech-driven economy for the 21st Century, local leaders proclaimed. It’s no longer like 2008, they said, when the Great Recession abruptly dried up tourism and all the sectors associated with it. The Las Vegas Valley was one of the country’s hardest-hit area, and recovery took a long time.

But to my mind, the coronavirus pandemic already is giving the lie to those economic diversification claims hereabouts.

The Las Vegas Valley is reeling and had been even before Gov. Steve Sisolak last night ordered a minimum 30-day statewide closure of all casinos, restaurants, bars and other non-essential businesses. World-famous Las Vegas Strip resorts–Encore, Wynn, Cosmopolitan, Venetian, Palazzo, all eight MGM properties–were already shutting down their operations. Famous entertainment acts–Cirque du Soleil, David Copperfield, Penn & Teller–went dark. Cascading layoffs are accelerating, although many of the casinos say they will keep workers on the payroll for varying lengths of time or at least cover health care premiums.

The Las Vegas Review-Journal announced it was suspending a number of sections, including its weekly entertainment guide. “With Vegas headliners going dark, resorts suspending operations, movie theaters closing, concerts canceling and social events being discouraged, there is not much left in this city to advertise or list,”  the paper wrote.

For days the Strip has looked like more of a ghost town than video I’ve seen of other famous tourist venues around the country like Times Square in New York, a city that has a lot of other industries. Leaders like Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman are blaming the distress on media publicity about coronavirus rather than the resulting illness itself. Her comments by themselves–she pushed strongly for casinos to stay open–might be evidence of non-diversification.

Continue reading →