Mayor Carolyn Goodman’s annual State of the City address on Thursday night included the announcement of a new marketing initiative to promote downtown Las Vegas and small businesses as well as an update on the California-related I-15 widening project.
The city’s new “Down for Anything” program, according to a news release, aims to “illuminate the area’s variety, inclusiveness, and attitude of opportunity.”
Goodman remarked, “ As you are aware, small businesses battled to keep us alive throughout the pandemic and the worst shutdown. Therefore, in order to increase support from the 20 million tourists that the city depends on to prosper, this marketing campaign celebrates the spirit of our city.”
The campaign will produce media starring more than 40 local influencers, business leaders, community members, and landmarks in downtown Las Vegas using cash from the American Rescue Plan Act, according to Goodman.
The Strat Hotel, Life is Beautiful, the El Cortez Hotel, Downtown Container Park, and the two new showgirl statues on Main Street and Las Vegas Boulevard are all well-known tourist attractions in the city’s tourism district that locals and Las Vegas fans will be familiar with.
Goodman then talked about the well-known CES electronics show, which she said “confirmed” how “welcoming” downtown is. According to Goodman, visitors in town for the three-day convention took tours of the neighbourhood and “engaged in significant future involvement” with small businesses.
These visitors arrived at a time when new developments such as Fremont Street and the Arts District are being rapidly invested in. Goodman said that the Arts District was the “fastest-growing and most popular commercial and tourist destination day and night.” The growing Brewery Row on Main Street was something the Arts District was especially proud of.
Goodman said that several apartment complexes in the areas of Symphony Park and the Arts District would give locals more than 1,000 new places to live, while hotels planned to grow to accommodate more tourists.
The city is well-known for its speedy and effective building and permitting services, and all of these projects involve expansion, according to Goodman. “We are all living in an exciting period,”
Making A Call To California
Goodman also had some harsh words for the I-15 Widening Project’s ongoing delays.
Gavin Newsom, the governor of California, and Steve Sisolak, the former governor of Nevada, first announced the $12 million California-funded initiative in December 2021.
According to William Arnold, who is in charge of media relations for Caltrans, the first phase won’t be done until fall 2022 instead of summer 2022. This is because of problems with the building process.
Goodman has been a vocal opponent of this protracted project and has threatened to “continue to shout and yell at California and CalTrans” if it is not finished. She used the day after Christmas’ 18-mile-long Interstate 15 traffic bottleneck between Primm, Nevada, and Barstow, California, as an example.
Goodman’s anger over the last few months has mostly been shown on Twitter, but she said she has also talked to U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg and Senior Advisor and Infrastructure Coordinator Mitch Landrieu about the problem.
“It’s becoming unacceptable, and we must ask all of our Californian friends and guests to exert pressure on their politicians and Caltrans,” said Goodman. Two lanes in each direction from Barstow to the Nevada state line are embarrassing in this day and age.
After nearly 12 years as mayor of Las Vegas, Goodman is currently nearing the end of her final term. The term-limited position will be up for election in November 2024, and candidates including Councilman Cedric Crear and former Nevada Congresswoman Shelley Berkely have declared their intentions to run.
Goodman stated that she is anticipating 2023 and will “continue to work not only in the city, but in the wider Las Vegas area” until then.