Government and Local Issues in Las Vegas, Nevada

I listened to the State of Nevada program titled State of the City: Las Vegas, Nev. For a little background knowledge, KNPR’s State of Nevada program is a public affairs broadcast that is essential to understand what is happening here. Newsmakers and experts report local issues, and interviews and discussions provide a way to explore the unique characters of our region. This broadcast provides daily conversation on the place we call home (KNPR, 2016).

This particular segment involved a conversation with Mayor Carolyn Goodman, hosted by Joe Schoenmann.

Carolyn Goodman has been the mayor of Las Vegas since 2011. She explained what is going on in the city as well as her viewpoints on controversies including: funding, homeland security, veterans, homelessness, downtown Las Vegas, the Review Journal, education, major league sports, and transportation. She speaks on a variety of topics that really capture and highlight the local news surrounding the city of Las Vegas.

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First, she mentions a few things that have been on her mind.

She explains how happy it makes her that people are getting involved on social media, positive or negative, since it shows that people care. She explains that she feels the increase of use of electric cars decreases the amount of gasoline purchased which helps pay to fix the roads.

This was especially interesting to me, since | did not even realize the negative effects of electric cars on the economy of Las Vegas. Tax from buying gas is used for funding the Nevada Department of Transportation.

One of the lengthiest segments of this program covered funding and the economy of Las Vegas. Carolyn says that she has been asking for 1 – 3 million dollars and when Senator Harry Reid finally was able to get 1 million, it was spent exclusively on 2 visits to the city by the President. The amount of law enforcement and security needed for
those situations is substantial and costly. She also explains some controversy on this topic, Homeland security’s formula to funding the States has an error when calculating for Las Vegas. For example, it does not take into account the 350,000 tourists that come to Las Vegas weekly. One of the most important aspects of homeland security however is keeping the tourists safe, since the most terrorist attacks occur in major, popular dense areas. She says that Nevada has lots of low-income families and since people are moving out to the suburbs, the core of the city is suffering. This is why Downtown Las Vegas is going through so many changes in trying to increase tourism and residents. She believes that bringing sports, enjoyable activities and restaurants will bring culture. people. apartments. condominiums, shops as a lower crime level. All these things are important for the economy of Las Vegas.

Next, Carolyn talks about homelessness. She says that the program they created for veterans has helped with all. Obama has said that veterans need to have a stable home first and foremost. After that the veterans are being helped through counseling and job training. The rest of the homeless population also needs to be taken care of, and Carolyn explains that the majority of them are mentally ill or addicted to substance. She says that we have such a high population of homeless since the climate in Las Vegas, as well as San Diego and Arizona, is perfect and a haven for the homeless that they actually come here specifically for that reason. That was very interesting tome as well

A few last things that Carolyn and Joe talk about is Downtown. This is a popular topic on this KNPR show, as it is always changing and developing. Downtown has been growing and getting better each year. A luxury theater is going to open up as well as new restaurants. More apartments and condos are going up as well. At the Premium Outlets, one of the best shopping malls in the world, 28 new shops just opened up, and a lot of start up technology companies is coming in too. This is, going to be great for the Las Vegas economy if these companies grow, So there will be more than tourism, Zappos, and Allegiant.

Some controversies discussed are the selling of the Review Journal to a new owner. This program told that the new owner is one of the most powerful men in the State and has the capability of maybe threatening Carolyn Goodman since she believes that in the past the R has not done research to print the facts, truth, and reality. She realizes
that controversy and ads sell, but have high hopes this new owner will stick to the truth. She says that the people have to be able to trust the leadership and the people we are electing to tell the truth.

A little fun topic to end with was the one of Major League sports. Carolyn will continue to be a strong advocate for bringing major league sports to the city since she believes we are ready, and will being better to the economy. There is no reason that a city of over 2 million people does not have any major sports teams. She would love to have a
soccer team, but Joe, the show host, would rather have a NFL team instead. Carolyn says she is speaking to people and maybe the ll occupy a stadium in Las Vegas. | thought that was pretty cool.

Overall, Carolyn discussed a lot of things concerning the government and local issues that are relevant at this time. This program is having a sequence of many different mayors all over the State in order to inform the public about the leaders as welll as the issueas going on all over Nevada. It was great program to listen and learn from, and I am very glad I did.