If we've mastered anything in Vegas it's the ability to create nonorganic atmospheres, so it seems odd that to date we haven't created a full-fledged university atmosphere around UNLV. Absent in the neighborhoods that abut the university are the kinds of thriving cafes and book shops, student and faculty housing, and place-to-be-seen hot spots that accompany the most sought-after university experiences.
Credit UNLV President Carol Harter with recognizing that to attract top students and create a more symbiotic relationship between university and community, the school must offer a whole lifestyle—a cultural enclave—in addition to solid academic opportunities. Last fall, Harter's state of the university address focused less on her much-touted desire to create a research university in the classrooms and labs, and more on "Midtown UNLV"—a plan to develop such a cultural climate on the other side of Maryland Parkway.
Today, there are strip malls with no curb appeal, little in the way of student hangouts, and pockets of slum-ish housing in the blocks east of UNLV. In coming years, Harter, developer Michael Saltman, Clark County Manger Thom Reilly and other civic officials and businesspeople plan to change all of that. We hope the plans work out. Already Michael Saltman is soliciting business redevelopment, Harter is setting up plans for a new and more welcoming east-side entrance to campus, and a proposal is on the table to reconfigure traffic in the area to make it more pedestrian-friendly.
Harter said she was inspired by reading Richard Florida's The Rise of the Creative Class, a book that argued that the most economically successful cities in the next few decades will be those that appeal to creative people—a book that, by the way, had little positive to say about Vegas. Rather than be discouraged by Florida's dislike of our city, Harter accepted the notion as a challenge, and went to work.
If Harter's hopes are to be realized, she'll need to bring nearby residents and businesses, as well as UNLV's existing campus community, into the process.
Hopefully, we'll put the very-Vegas skills of environment-building to work and develop a thriving university neighborhood that brings students and non-students together, counters the culturally prohibiting consequences of a "commuter college" and spawns more interest and investment in arts, education, and community.