Thursday, January 02, 2003
Copyright © Las Vegas Mercury

Quick and Dirty: A notebook of news and politics

Cultural wasteland re-revisited

It's a uniquely Las Vegas reaction. The Guggenheim Foundation, one of the world's foremost art organizations, opens not one but two large museums here and the public shrugs. The Guggenheim, in an expansion mode in recent years, hoped the museums in Las Vegas would generate big dollars. It had projected 5,000 people per day would visit its pair of facilities at the Venetian. The reality, however, is about 2,000 people per day visit the museums, according to spokeswoman Kimiko Haight.

The Guggenheim Hermitage, the smaller museum featuring classic art, appears to be doing considerably better than the larger Guggenheim Las Vegas, which, since its opening, has featured The Art of the Motorcycle, an exhibit tracing the evolution of the motorbike.

The larger museum is officially slated to close for three to six months when the motorcycle exhibit closes Sunday. But there is rampant speculation that the Guggenheim Foundation, which faces financial problems, will close the larger Las Vegas museum for good, and that Venetian owner Sheldon Adelson is looking for some kind of entertainment offering to take its place. But Haight insists that's not so. She says the temporary closure is needed to dismantle the motorcycle exhibit and redo the interior to accommodate a new show. "They have to gut the inside and redo the construction so we can put in large sculptures and paintings," she says, declining to reveal what kind of exhibit might come next.

Assuming the skeptics are wrong, whatever the new exhibit entails, Guggenheim officials should not count on Las Vegans to turn out in droves to see it. Unless it's the National Finals Rodeo or a "Price Is Right" taping, they probably aren't interested.--GS

Literary props

UNLV English professor Doug Unger's been a short story-writing maniac over the past couple of years, and it's scoring him some serious literary plaudits. His story "Leslie and Sam," published in Vol. 86, nos. 2 and 3 of the Southwest Review, is shortlisted in two recent heavyweight compilations: Best American Short Stories 2002 and The O. Henry Awards: Prize Stories 2002. The story is about a woman working in a university research lab who develops a friendship with one of the rhesus monkeys, Sam--a friendship she has to consider in a new light when she's ordered to euthanize him.--AK

More cause for an Ent revolt

If Ents were real, they'd be holding council right now about whether to march their tree-limbed hordes against developer John Laing Homes. That's because John Laing Homes has a knack for finding projects that offend those who care for old trees, viewshed-protecting hills and other irreplaceable gifts of nature. The developer that wanted to plant up to 8,400 homes on top of Blue Diamond Hill, which overlooks Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area, is now threatening to uproot and transplant a 400-year-old oak tree in Santa Clarita, Calif., in order to widen a road. Conservationists say transplanting the tree could cost a quarter-million dollars and could kill it.

And while, at least for now, citizens have fended off the Blue Diamond Hill development (John Laing Homes withdrew its application), the future of the old oak tree is uncertain. But there's hope: An Ent-like man, John Quigley of Pacific Palisades, has been sitting in the tree since Nov. 1 to prevent the tree's removal. His tree-sitting has drawn national attention, and a long queue has formed of supporters willing to sit in the tree after Quigley descends to return to his job. Maybe once that tree's saved, we can enlist them to come sit on our still-vulnerable hill.--HW

Same old shit

If you followed the controversy here about Wal-Mart superstores and the company's anti-union policies, you'll love the Dec. 16 issue of The Nation. Liza Featherstone, author of the article, is writing a book on Wal-Mart's treatment of women, and this article includes a few unkind references to Las Vegas. Besides the news that women are 72 percent of the company's work force but only 33 percent of its managers, Featherstone quotes longtime supercenter manager Gretchen Adams, who opened 27 such stores and found men with less experience making starting salaries $3,500 a year more than hers. Adams, who was sent to Las Vegas to open a store, said, "I was not allowed to hire any experienced help, because they might be union." The article also discusses unionizing efforts and calls for a boycott of Las Vegas stores--where, Featherstone writes, "Wal-Mart has committed numerous violations of the right to organize." The book should make for some interesting reading for Las Vegans.

High price of justice

Citing a 10 percent caseload increase in 2001 and an additional 8.5 percent in 2002, the 12 urban justices of the peace in North Las Vegas, Henderson and Las Vegas townships are asking the County Commission Jan. 6 for a 30 percent pay increase in 2003 while the eight rural JPs are seeking raises from 51 percent to 198 percent retroactive to July 1, 2002.

Currently, the "urban 12" earn $99,000 annually in salary and want that increased to $128,700. Add $7,000 in benefits per judge and the total package will amount to $165,087. In the rural areas, Goodsprings JP Dawn Havilland, who makes $46,411 in salary and benefits, would have her package rise to $69,875, while Mesquite JP Ron Dodd would see his $27,854 annual package increase to $82,205.

Seven years ago, in 1995, the "urban 12" earned $71,100 in salary alone, but their salaries were increased to $90,000 in 1997 and $99,000 in 2001 because their earnings--90 percent of what a District Court judge makes--are tied to increases in the Eighth Judicial District of Clark County. By comparison in 2001, the base salary of other JPs in Nevada are a high of $90,108 in Lake Tahoe's Incline Village Justice Court to a low of $33,600 in Goldfield's Esmeralda Justice Court.--FC

Tribal marketing

To the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority board, "How" is not a Native American greeting, but a marketing question that was answered recently by Billy Vassiliadis and his crew at R&R Advertising.

The ad execs unveiled a 20-month marketing campaign--"The New Normalcy"--that's partially based on an old concept, but about to be tried by the LVCVA for the first time. A program called Sextant takes 40,000 people nationally, examines their psyches and behavior, and neatly classifies them into 12 "tribes," such as Embittered Conservatives, Disaffected Escapists and Gilded Gamesmen. It attributes 13 "glyphs"--symbols that convey attitude or appearance such as "trendy," "shocking," flirtatious" and "cool and hip"--to the tribes.

"What we learned is this represents an opportunity for one message to resonate through these audiences," said Todd Jones, R&R's director of research. "It's a new way to understand the consensus at a much deeper level."

For Vassiliadis and his company, which each year receives the lion's share of the visitors authority's nearly $50 million marketing and advertising budget, it's a way to justify their claim that "we've completely reinvented research."--FC

Mayor's big day

With great pomp and circumstance, Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman will deliver his State of the City speech on Jan. 14 at the East Las Vegas Community Senior Center. Goodman surely will promote the city's efforts to redevelop downtown Las Vegas, and he'll likely address the challenges looming at the state Legislature. What he won't do, we're fairly certain, is defend his recent troop movements against the homeless. That's because Goodman doesn't feel he has anything to defend. The only outrage generated by the rousting of homeless folks out of the downtown tourist corridors came from the ACLU and a couple of powerless journalism hacks. Which makes it a little surprising that some people actually got upset about those Bumfights videos.--GS

Gov't

51-card redevelopment deck

Two weeks ago, the County Commission took further steps toward creating a redevelopment agency by adopting a private consultant's report that initially identified nine potentially "blighted" zones. However, two of the areas are so highly questionable that only seven could be considered real possibilities.

One is called "Four-Mile," or "Formyle," of which nearly three-fourths of the area lies between Eastern Avenue on the west, Charleston Boulevard on the south and U.S. 95 on the east and north. The only problem is that 75 percent lies within the city of Las Vegas and is not in the county. So scratch that part of town since it's out of the county's jurisdiction.

The other area the consultant said "merits further study" is the largely vacant Cooperative Management Area to the west of McCarran International Airport. The report says "it is strongly recommended" that portions of the CMA be considered. However, under state law, at least 75 percent of a blighted potential redevelopment area must be "improved," which includes structures, roads, water and sewer lines. Since most developed land in the CMA is "rural" or in new subdivisions, it's hard to see how that area can be called "blighted."--FC

Clay ovens okayed

Two months ago, the Clark County Health District delayed approving the use of a tandoori oven in the new Gaylord India Restaurant because of toxicity concerns with the type of clay used, but now the staff has approved the oven's use.

Sal Balzano, a district environmental health specialist, told the board last month that concerns about heavy metals had arisen because of the high lead content of Mexican pottery and highly acidic tomato-based recipes, which leach out lead. He also said there is lead in the tandoori oven clay, but its content and leaching ability are unknown. The oven reaches temperatures of 900 degrees Fahrenheit while lead boils at 1,700 degrees.

"Staff determined that [because] the product is cooked on skewers that do not touch the clay and the bread cooked in the oven is nonacidic, the lead should not leach out," a staff report said.--FC