Intersection

What would Fremont East feel like as a pedestrian thoroughfare?

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Could Fremont East benefit from being closed off to vehicular traffic?
Photo: Spencer Burton

Like a lot of locals, Maria Horta takes her Vegas-visiting friends and family to Fremont East to have fun and show off all the cool bars and restaurants. Horta is the general manager at one of those hot spots, Therapy.

“I’ve noticed there’s a large concentration of our guests that enjoy walking Fremont Street but get disappointed when they reach ‘the end,’” Horta says of the corner of Fremont and Sixth. “And I experience that myself when I bring friends down. Everybody says they love it, but they always say, ‘Is that it?’”

Of course, there’s so much more to see and do beyond that first block of Fremont East. Converting that space to a pedestrian thoroughfare could enable the rest of the Downtown drag to continue to grow.

Although portions of Fremont have been closed off for special events and street festivals, there hasn’t been an effort to make a permanent move, Ward 5 City Councilman Ricki Barlow says. It would have to be beneficial for the businesses in the immediate area, he explains, adding, “We want to make sure our Downtown is one of the most attractive in the nation and having walkable streetscapes is part of that aesthetic.”

This weekend, when First Friday revelers stampede Downtown, how walkable will Fremont East be, especially when more bars and restaurants have installed patio spaces that reduce sidewalk space to just eight feet? Without cars, people would ostensibly roam freely between the newest patio, attached to Flippin’ Good Burgers and Shakes, and one of the older, super-popular outdoor spaces, at Vanguard Lounge.

When asked about such a change, Vanguard owner Jennifer Metzger says it would be bad for business, her opinion based on troubled experiments with closing Fremont for First Fridays and other events that failed to draw significant traffic. “I’d be all for it if it was done right and we could prevent those same problems,” she says. “We don’t want to turn into the Fremont Street Experience. That’s a nightmare.”

The tourist-oriented FSE on the other side of Las Vegas Boulevard certainly has issues of its own, but it also has a ton of people every night ... and generally enjoying the fact that they’re walking around outside, on the street. What Fremont East—and all of Downtown—needs most is more people. Locals need cars to get Downtown. Tourists don’t.

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Brock Radke

Brock Radke is an award-winning writer and columnist who currently occupies the role of managing editor at Las Vegas Weekly ...

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