As We See It

Mayor’s State of the City address notable for what wasn’t discussed

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Mayor Carolyn Goodman delivered a somewhat rousing State of the City address last week.
Photo: Leila Navidi

Downtown supporters were no doubt buoyed by Carolyn Goodman’s State of the City address last week, in which she extolled the various achievements there last year—Smith Center, Neon Museum, Mob Museum—and looked with anticipation to soon-to-be tenants Krave Massive, Banger Brewing and many more.

Unfortunately, Goodman’s jurisdiction includes more than Downtown, and many groups got short shrift in her speech:

The homeless It’s an issue Goodman’s famous husband addressed many times during his tenure, and not always in the most favorable terms. Goodman used the word “homelessness” only once in her address, in referring to some of the city’s issues that might be better addressed with a collaboration between “major nonprofit entities” in the city and county, offering no hard numbers on the severity of the current problem—or potential solutions.

Foreclosure victims Still one of the city’s most pressing issues, Goodman referred to it three times. She discussed a convening of bank representatives, lenders, public housing officials and financial services groups in the past year to create “the first centralized, one-place call center for credible foreclosure relief and counseling assistance,” but specifics didn’t follow.

Victims of violent crime While Goodman briefly discussed a quarter-cent sales tax increase that needs to be passed by the legislature for Metro “because first and foremost, we have to be safe,” no crime statistics were actually offered—or ideas of how Metro would continue to make neighborhoods safe should the tax not pass.

Tags: Politics, Opinion
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Ken Miller

Ken Miller is the editor of Las Vegas Magazine, having previously served as associate editor at Las Vegas Weekly, assistant ...

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