New York Times | February 9, 2009
LAS VEGAS JOURNAL
Roll of the Dice on Las Vegas’s Shabby Downtown
By RANDAL C. ARCHIBOLD
LAS VEGAS — Travel north on the Strip, past the glittering islands of the Bellagio, Excalibur, Venetian and other resorts, and — keep going — it finally appears like a worn-out showgirl at the end of a parade: downtown.
Here, Binion’s, Main Street Station, Four Queens and other casinos — “vintage Las Vegas,” as downtown’s promoters like to call it — beckon the budget-conscious amid wedding chapels, older bars, check-cashing stores and a few newer attractions like an outlet mall.
But Mayor Oscar B. Goodman of Las Vegas is determined to give the area a face-lift, and not even a recession will stand in his way. Let the rest of municipal America tighten belts and hunker down. Mr. Goodman, a former mob lawyer whose outsize personality leads him to offer poker chips as business cards, says it is time for the city to join forces with private developers for a project he promotes as a linchpin to downtown’s revival.
The project would include a new city hall (never mind that the existing one, built in 1973, has an addition only six years old), a casino resort (the first in downtown in some three decades) and office, residential and commercial space (because, the developers of this project assert, the eventual economic recovery will create demand for it).
MORE- http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/09/us/09vegas.html?_r=2
LAS VEGAS JOURNAL
Roll of the Dice on Las Vegas’s Shabby Downtown
By RANDAL C. ARCHIBOLD
LAS VEGAS — Travel north on the Strip, past the glittering islands of the Bellagio, Excalibur, Venetian and other resorts, and — keep going — it finally appears like a worn-out showgirl at the end of a parade: downtown.
Here, Binion’s, Main Street Station, Four Queens and other casinos — “vintage Las Vegas,” as downtown’s promoters like to call it — beckon the budget-conscious amid wedding chapels, older bars, check-cashing stores and a few newer attractions like an outlet mall.
But Mayor Oscar B. Goodman of Las Vegas is determined to give the area a face-lift, and not even a recession will stand in his way. Let the rest of municipal America tighten belts and hunker down. Mr. Goodman, a former mob lawyer whose outsize personality leads him to offer poker chips as business cards, says it is time for the city to join forces with private developers for a project he promotes as a linchpin to downtown’s revival.
The project would include a new city hall (never mind that the existing one, built in 1973, has an addition only six years old), a casino resort (the first in downtown in some three decades) and office, residential and commercial space (because, the developers of this project assert, the eventual economic recovery will create demand for it).
MORE- http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/09/us/09vegas.html?_r=2
