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 Mayor Oscar Goodman says East Coast urbanism is the key to reviving Las Vegas's dead downtown. The Metropolis Observed August/September 2001
The native Philadelphian moved to Las Vegas in 1964 and made his name defending Meyer Lansky and other organized crime figures. He revels in his unconventional career history ("love my past, love my past," he exults) and jokes about the dark costs of disappointing a "mob lawyer." By dint of deal-making and force of personality he has attracted new investment to a grid-work of gritty bars, pawnshops, and vacant lots reverting to desert. The centerpiece of Goodman's revitilization efforts is a 61-acre former rail yard for which he engineered a land swap. Requests for proposals elicited responses ranging from the world's tallest building to an extreme-sports park. Working with the Urban Land Institute, the city has since asked developers to refine their proposals to include a performing-arts center, office and residential development, and a university medical center. Goodman welcomed Metropolis contributor Chuck Twardy to his tenth-fioor city hall office, a room with an imposing view of one of the nation's fasting-growing urban regions. Chuck Twardy: How and when did you develop your interest in downtown revitalization? Oscar Goodman: When I left my law office and walked down to city hall to file for mayor--the same walk I had taken maybe a thousand times over the last 35 years--the city looked different to me. I saw that downtown had to be revitalized. I didn't see it, recognize it, feel it until I knew I was going to be in charge of it. The downtown didn't have any life, and I wanted to put a buzz back into it. It was here when I got here, and I hadn't realized it had dissipated. What do you see as Las Vegas's image in the eyes of the world? Do you think it's taken seriously enough as a city? We could care less about what other people think of us as a city and a place to live. We know that we have the best quality of life for the money in America. No question about that. What we want people who don't live here to think is that it's the most exciting spot in the world--a town that is electric, that has wonderful boutiques, the best food, the best gambling, the best luxury for the money. They can come here, drop their money, and go home. That's what makes us tick. But we who live here are concerned that we think of ourselves as a cosmopolitan, urbane community--and that's what we're trying to accomplish. Other redevelopment efforts around the country have stolen a page from Las Vegas. They're either developing riverboat gambling or building entertainment districts and themed retail. Right. We're doing just the opposite. We already have what other places are trying to develop, and what we're trying to develop here is what other places already have. We have plenty of things for people to do here. We're trying to diversify our economy. We're trying to get venues down here which will have a beneficial effect for the community and for the future. Of course people from all over the world--once these facilities are built--will want to go there. I hope it'll be the best medical center in the country, or else we shouldn't be building it. We're the largest city in North America that doesn't have an academic medical center, so we need that. We need a cultural arts center in order to be the kind of city that I think we should be. We need an arena; we need a stadium. These kinds of things are very important to us. Other cities have found it difficult to get downtown redevelopment going. Oh, I don't find it difficult at all. I mean, I've been mayor less than two years, and I can't tell you how many different projects we have going. We're going to be building new apartment units--cluster housing in the downtown area. We acquired the 61 acres on the Union Pacific site, which we're going to develop. That's the easiest part about being the mayor. All you have to do is have some land, and the people will come. But why is that easier here than it has been elsewhere? I don't know about elsewhere. I'm not a politician, so I do things according to my own rules. I don't look at other models. I was told when I came on board, "Don't even think about it, because no one's going to be interested." Now we have people stepping on each other, fighting each other, clawing at each other to develop downtown--all fighting for the same piece. I don't know why. Maybe it's because I'm a great mayor. You're seen as something of a colorful character. Well, I can't help it. Is this crucial to how you get things done? Oh, I don't think people think I'm going to break their legs when I ask them to do something and they don't do it. I like to think they respect me, and I wouldn't be asking unless I wanted it and felt that we needed it badly. You know--something like an offer they can't refuse. Well, I didn't mean to suggest that you were going to do that. No, I understand. I mean, even if there's a fiicker in the back of their mind that it might happen, maybe that's helpful. I don't know. The 61-acre project seems to be the keystone of your plan. Definitely. It will represent the heart and soul of what we're talking about here. The key is going to be to blend that with the older part of downtown so that the new city isn't going to adversely affect the old city. It's supposed to have a synergistic effect--to raise the old city to the new city's level. There are still the same problems with downtown that you have almost anywhere--homeless people, for instance. The bricks-and-mortar problems are easy. The social problems, they're very difficult, and we work on them. I've testified in front of our legislature about the homeless programs we need: you're talking about the mentally ill, you're talking about the chronic inebriants--it's all one big problem, and you do the best you can to address it. We have to walk before we can run on that one. Downtown is always going to be the place that has to take care of the social needs. Not necessarily. No, no, no. I think it's a regional issue. I'm chairman of the Southern Nevada Regional Planning Coalition, and I put it on our agenda there to make this into a regional issue, not a Las Vegas issue. They have to share the burden, and I'm not talking about the monetary burden--I'm talking about the physical burden. They have to start taking care of some of these folks. What's happened is because we do have the social services here, other entities load up their homeless and bring them down here so we can take care of them--and that's intolerable. It seems as if you cast your interest in downtown redevelopment in broader terms of how it will affect the entire region. That's correct. If the downtown fails, it's going to affect everybody here. That's the reason I thought it was so important to concentrate my efforts on that. Do you see your efforts as helping to contain sprawl? I'm not concerned about sprawl. We don't have an urban area here. This project is our urban area. And I want it to have all the things that urban areas have. Sprawl doesn't bother me. I'm doing this to attach a certain intellectual fever to the community, and it should be downtown. Are you trying to recreate an Eastern downtown? Oh absolutely. I don't think there's any question about that. That's what I envision as being a sophisticated, cosmopolitan downtown. That's why we're talking about a mixed-use type neighborhood. We're talking about commercial, we're talking about business, we're talking about residential, we're talking about the social, cultural--all those types of things in the downtown area. And that's what they have in Eastern cities. You've staked a lot, it seems, on the 61-acre project. On every project. That's going to be my legacy. I mean, if we don't have the redevelopment, I've failed as a mayor. |
