Okay, so the mayor of Las Vegas has virtually no power–and he generally comes off as ridiculous, rather than freedom threatening. An example of his skill at national embarrassment came when he complained about not being notified by the Department of Homeland Security concerning a terrorism threat to his city .
Mayor Goodman, did not let reality stand in the way; he ignored the primary relevant fact: all three of the resorts potentially targeted were not in the city of Las Vegas at all And the inference not fully investigated as a result of the mayor’s lack of candor were if the proper people were notified? As a side note, can we all agree, when any mayor starts using the possessive pronoun to refer to the city, the person has been in office too long. Mayor Goodman and I grew up very familiar with that verbal tick in a mayor: Frank Rizzo.
Anyway, Mayor Goodman offered the media sound bite complaints that he was not told of terrorism suspects who “had eerily similar footage of the MGM Grand, Excalibur and New York, New York casinos — three hotels within a short distance of each other on the Las Vegas strip with a combined total of 11,000 rooms.”
That sounds really bad to outsiders like Fox News who got Goodman’s mischievous quote: ” ‘If I were told, I would certainly tell the public.’ ” The argument was offered to prevent the greater embarrassment to Goodman: that documents revealed that Goodman behaved like the mayor in “Jaws” worrying about the impact the disclosure of a terrorism warning would have on tourism. But, no matter the details, if you live here you realize that Oscar Goodman is not mayor of the Strip resorts allegedly targeted and he kept his mouth as silent as one of his mob clients on that point. As Goodman knows from his past life, the Strip resorts were built by mobsters originally to specifically be outside the legal power and regulation of the city of Las Vegas.
The generous interpretation– compared to Goodman being a media whore who did not let the integrity of national security prevent him from dominating the moment in media coverage trading in misinformation–would have been for Mayor Goodman to clear-up the complex though not insurmountable jurisdictional issues up for the press. Let’s find out who was notified. There were legitimate questions. The mayor of Las Vegas should have been notified around the time as the mayor of Henderson (when you get to the neighbors on the list). That is only a single tiny example of a daily shameless brazen quality that Vegas voters love about Mayor Oscar Goodman. His image control outside the city is miraculous.
When I was in Washington recently covering a trial for the libertarian magazine Reason, I was surprised that from a distance, there was a great deal of admiration for the tenure of Mayor Oscar Goodman in Las Vegas. Obviously, his war against free speech at Fremont Street Experience and his plans to bring back public stockades had not made news back there.
But maybe his latest campaign to spend tax dollars to support his vanity monument to his old job as a mob lawyer will get noticed. In fact, he is now not only competing against a private business, he is holding up renovations that would supply much needed jobs for another. This is why I pick the word SHAMELESS.
You see, according to the Review-Journal, Oscar Goodman has mustered his puny mayoral powers and managed to successfully to delay a vote on allowing much needed renovations to commence at The Lady Luck casino downtown. These renovation would not only employ construction workers but ultimately lead to an open casino (which has not been the case since 2006). The Review-Journal quotes his majesty (can’t you hear the royal “we” that he means to offer had he taken more Shakespeare at Haverford):
“‘I’m still concerned about the bridge,’ Goodman said. ‘This is a matter of great importance to me’”
Why is he concerned about the bridge? I’ll get to that job killing detail.
It is important to remember what actually gave the mayor such power was that the City Council acted like sheep and treated him as shepherd during Goodman’s tenure with too many votes like this one in support of the mayor’s concern about the view. The Review-Journal reports the vote:
“On a 6-1 vote, the City Council delayed action on the plans for two weeks so that Goodman can rest assured that changes to the walkway over Third Street will allow the Mob Museum building to be visible from the Fremont Street Experience.”
Why should the mayor’s concern for the views obstructed or created by the bridge, deemed by the owners as essential to their renovation plans for a taxpaying casino, matter? The mayor wants to make sure the bridge does not impact sight lines. The view may offer a slight advantage, possibly, to the publicly financed mob museum that the mayor has championed at a time of enormous budget challenges for the city of Las Vegas.
This is not a mayor who is going to be remembered locally for anything to do with freedom or preventing tax dollars from being wasted. He will be remembered perhaps for treating the homeless hideously. Or, history might recall that as Las Vegas had a budget crisis on the horizon about to end in furloughs and layoffs, Mayor Goodman fiddled by focusing on borrowing money to build a new city hall, a monument celebrating himself. He pushed for this allocation of resources as a job creation package after no one could successfully argue Las Vegas had any need for a new city hall. Shameless. The unions got on board with the job creation argument and once again the mayor got the sheep to line-up for the vote. Las Vegas proved to be willing to take on debt to build this not at all necessary new city hall being pushed by Oscar Goodman.
Meanwhile, the city had been given an old post office (and rather than make that a new city hall) a cynic might argue the mayor decided to use this opportunity to push two monuments to himself: a new city hall to bear witness to his political legacy and a mob museum where his celebrated status as a defender of vicious killers will be enshrined.
Meanwhile to add a final dagger: the mayor is competing against the for profit, Las Vegas Mob Experience that just opened at the Tropicana. I would say he is competing against his own constituents but, you see, he isn’t mayor of the Strip. (photo: Sarah Gerke)
I think from afar, the one thing that Mayor Goodman does well is cheer-lead for the city and area. His cartoonish nature only enhances the city’s perception nationally. I realize that he’s a bit of a clown, but his antics have brought national exposure to the city regularly. I couldn’t tell you the current mayor of Chicago, Philadelphia, or LA and I realize my fondness for Las Vegas clouds the issue a bit, but I’m guessing his notoriety is fairly high for average people as well.
That doesn’t necessarily mean he’s a good mayor, locally, but the question I suppose that matters for this, is ultimately what is the priority for a mayor of a city like Las Vegas, surely it’s the local civic responsibility, but if he’s able to utilize other talents such as bringing visibility and coverage to a tourist city, does it balance out at all.
In my opinion the boom for Las Vegas doesn’t happen if Mayor Goodman isn’t in charge during that period. Although in thinking about it maybe that’s a bad thing, as without the boom would the bust have been so bad, or without the boom would the bust have been worse.
Nice article, Richard.
I think it’s interesting to note that Mayor Goodman still pursues getting his face out on camera as much and as often and as loud as he can. Saturate that media, Mayor Goodman, because you know we can’t get enough of your bulbous nosed mug.
And, judging from jinx’ comment above, it seems to resonate amongst many people. Unfortunately, they’re not from Las Vegas. It’s meant for them. The locals can choke on their own vomit for all he cares.
I guess he’s going for a popularity rating from everyone outside of Las Vegas, but all the locals here know he is basically full of shit. Mainly because of the transparent publicity to make his own brand famous at the expense of saying it is in the best interests of the city. And all of this done as he glamorizes alcohol consumption accompanied by the same two showgirls on his arm and the obligatory Elvis impersonator in public appearances.
I thought it was interesting how you mentioned what a lot of people didn’t catch, Richard. The fact that he seems to be interjecting himself into things that are not even in his own jurisdiction. He basically needs to shut his face and do his job and not pay attention to everyone else’s business.
Anyways, I will personally enjoy seeing the door slamming his ass when his term ends.
Perhaps they will get a mayor that is concerned more with doing work than grandstanding all the time.
We can only hope. Because a mayor that rolls up his sleeves and concentrates on his job will be one major step to helping economic recovery happen for ravaged Las Vegas.
Just my take on it….