Secretary Shaun Donovan says Las Vegas' redevelopment efforts can teach the federal government a lot about how to become a catalyst for growth in urban cores in the U.S.
References to Prohibition Era drinking has practically gone viral downtown. At least three businesses are celebrating the repeal of Prohibition, which was a Constitutional ban on alcoholic beverages from 1920 to 1933.
Welthy Silva, a ballet teacher with about 30 students in a small studio downtown, is 95 percent sure she will be moving out in a few months. But not because she wants to.
In the brain center of one of the largest online retailers in the country, it is not immediately apparent that today is one of the busiest days of the year for Zappos.com and its discount site, 6pm.com. That is, there’s nothing weird going on — beyond the fact that many employees are walking around with aluminum foil affixed to their noggins as antennae, headpieces, crowns or pointy hats.
I remember my first millennial. It was the day after Zappos announced it was going to move its headquarters from Henderson into downtown’s City Hall. I was to meet Tony Hsieh at the Zappos HQ in Henderson. Waiting in a nondescript room that employees used as a shortcut, with big windows that everyone could see through, I found it a little strange. But I figured I’d be escorted to the CEO’s mahogany-walled corner office shortly. Instead, this “kid” walks in with a blue T-shirt, jeans and sneakers. “Where’s Mr. Hsieh?” I asked. "That’s me," he said.
A piece of the Life is Beautiful festival disappeared Tuesday. One of several murals created on downtown buildings for the October festival that celebrated art, music, food and learning was painted over.
Kamran Fouladbakhsh started buying properties downtown more than 10 years before Hsieh and his Downtown Project started snagging most of the available parcels around East Fremont Street two years ago. But over the past year, Fouladbakhsh has increased his purchases to a couple dozen or more.
The biggest multi-unit, residential project to arise since Tony Hsieh arrived downtown — and one that has none of Hsieh’s fingerprints on it — is planned by two developers who believe the Arts District and south of it is going to be another boom area downtown.
Scott Cohen thinks if people write down their goals and aspirations, there is a better chance of achieving them. Then, burning those wishes in a giant wooden cube further improves those chances. That public ceremony is set to happen in downtown Las Vegas in March.
With the holidays on the way, the lights are going up. But the Christmas lights hanging in The Beat coffee shop weren’t on this morning. The boss told the manager to turn them on. “I can’t; they aren’t working,” she replied. “I’m not magic.”
Millennials are the generation now carrying the banner as we head into the next few decades. They are also a big part of the reason downtown Las Vegas is witnessing a rebirth.
In time for Black Friday shoppers, the Downtown Container Park will open Monday. Downtown Project, which operates the outdoor mall, today confirmed Monday’s soft opening.
With time and age restrictions in place, a liquor license for the Downtown Container Park will be up for discussion and a possible vote at Wednesday’s Las Vegas City Council meeting. The issue of alcohol at the outdoor mall — which is expected to open later this month or in December — caused some consternation months back because the mall also features a large playground.
If you really want to know what’s going on downtown, look no further than its people. A photo exhibit called “Who Is Downtown?” launching Thursday night at Blackbird Studios, 1551 S. Commerce St., is a good starting point.
Downtown Las Vegas, where young, idealistic business operators are moving into the Arts District and along East Fremont Street, seemed the perfect place to hold an informational powwow about benefit corporations.
It isn't an arena, casino/hotel or walk-up, brownstone living units — all ideas once proposed and still dreamed of — but plans for a skilled nursing and assisted living center in Symphony Park are on the table.
On The Joe Downtown Show I talked to two people from vastly different sections of Las Vegas. One is Ward 3 Councilman Bob Coffin, who has lived downtown for decades. The other is Ward 2 Councilman Bob Beers, who represents a huge swath of land in the western valley.
Streets lights that could be equipped with listening devices, a possibility that is drawing the concern of the ACLU of Nevada, are being tested around City Hall downtown.
Actor Gary Sinise, who played Lt. Dan Taylor in "Forrest Gump," started the Lt. Dan Band in 2004, has played for and supported wounded veterans ever since and will appear Saturday at the Fremont Street Experience.
Next month, country music/crossover superstar Shania Twain, a fixture on the Strip, will venture downtown as grand marshal of the Great Santa Run, which returns downtown after several years at Town Square.
With the number of downtown drinking establishments growing along with the area’s popularity, it’s more than appropriate for a drunken-driving awareness event to be scheduled here next weekend. The second annual Pull The Flag on Drunk Driving Downtown 360 Bowl will be staged starting Friday and ending Sunday on the athletic fields of Las Vegas Academy, 315 S. Seventh St. starting Friday and ending Sunday.
How did a little gambling town in the middle of a desert become so well known? Marketing, largely, which includes the dozens of movies and TV shows produced or based here over the past 60 years. Today's guest on the Joe Downtown Show discusses the existing film and TV biz downtown and how he expects it to change with a new law going into effect.
Barricades were up and police presence was down, but so was business in several east Fremont Street bars last Friday night. Some say that’s the price of success on the first Friday of the month.
It’s still pretty hush-hush and on the down low, but Garth Brooks is coming downtown later this week. Brooks is the country-western, cross-over musician who has sold some 70 million albums in a little more than two decades.
The Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health will be ground zero for a unique event tonight, bringing people together to drink margaritas, watch “Naked Vegas” and raise money and awareness for the center.
Another sign that downtown is changing: the 4th Annual Halloween Parade will be held on Fremont Street. It will start in an area that even a year ago few would walk in at night, marching west to the Fremont Street Entertainment District.
More than 62,000 people attended the Life is Beautiful festival over two days last weekend — short of organizers' first estimates by far surpassing their revised estimate.
A new urban lounge will bring more competition to downtown’s loaded bar scene, but it won’t be located on East Fremont Street, where much of the property is already owned by Downtown Project.
The energy level in downtown Las Vegas the night before the Life is Beautiful festival Friday was palpable. Then the voltage got cranked up by the sighting of mega-musician Kanye West, Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh and an entourage wandering through the various festival installations.
Despite a few minor arrests and injuries, city and police officials said Life is Beautiful was successful and that they'd like to see some parts of it become permanent. Over the two-day event, five people were arrested for misdemeanors and three people suffered minor injuries when a roughly 30-foot tower holding streamers tumbled in the wind at the entrance Sunday. Beyond that, however, the festival appeared to be a roaring success.
The opening comes six-and-a-half years after the closure of the Lady Luck, which was gutted by investor CIM Group and converted into the Downtown Grand.
The inaugural Life is Beautiful festival downtown continued to run smoothly on its second and final day, with an expected 24,000 attendees flocking to the festival grounds to take in dozens of bands, gourmet eateries, art installations and lectures at the weekendlong celebration. However, the day was not completely without incident. One of the towers at the entrance to the festival on 6th Street at Carson Avenue toppled in the wind around 4:45 p.m. No injuries were reported.
The pace of life downtown was unusually mellow Saturday afternoon, the first of the two-day Life is Beautiful festival expected draw some 20,000 per day. Police reported no arrests or citations by 5 p.m. Traffic was a snap. Music filled the streets, the aroma of cooked meat and savory dishes filled the air, and people walked breezily down the streets taking in sights and sounds all too rare for the city’s urban core.
Tony Hsieh came off as a modest voice of calm amid former Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman’s outspoken ex-mob-lawyer-turned-mayor persona, as both addressed questions about downtown’s rebirth at a luncheon today.
With rooms at Fremont Street hotel-casinos going at rates several times higher than normal this weekend, it’s easy to see why operators might be pondering the beauty of life.
In less than a week, hundreds of musicians, artists, chefs and speakers will start flying into Las Vegas for the downtown Life Is Beautiful festival. See what it takes to put it all together.
If you need any more proof that Downtown Las Vegas is still the gritty urban center it’s always been, get a load of this guy — overbearing, no shoes, feet propped up on the table.
A judge denied Kelly Murphy access to his closed nightclubs inside Neonopolis today after his lawyer argued that despite being evicted a month ago, Murphy had the right to gain access to his personal property inside. “They should not be able to hold this property hostage,” Murphy's lawyer, Dale Hayes, argued, saying the property “belongs to somebody else that we’re on the hook for.”
The Regional Transportation Commission will have its last round of open houses in two weeks — one of the last chances to provide input on mass-transit proposals for Maryland Parkway, including buses, light rail or street cars.
Angie Morelli, an organizer of the March Against Monsanto, which drew some 600 people Saturday morning to downtown Las Vegas, is being interviewed live on the Huffington Post today.
A company seeking to lift the arduous job of moving into the 21st century is now part of the downtown landscape, hiring “Move Captains” and using a Priceline-like selection model so those moving can find the best deal.