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Leila Navidi
Mayor Oscar Goodman dons a fur hat and coat while entering the Minus 5 Experience for the unveiling of his ice portrait at the bar in Mandalay Place Tuesday, June 23, 2009.
Published Saturday, June 27, 2009 | 4:11 p.m.
Updated Saturday, June 27, 2009 | 5:24 p.m.
Inside the Office of the Mayor
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diggA glimpse at the oddities inside Mayor Oscar Goodman's office.
Mayor Oscar Goodman knows books. He reads voraciously, a novel a week on average. But ask him about Facebook, and he’s adrift in the snow like Eric LeMarque on Mammoth Mountain.
Somewhere in my travels with Goodman, he’s offered that he doesn’t know his way around the Internet, or necessarily even computers. He doesn’t use e-mail, either, writing notes by hand to staffers, contacts and colleagues in a communications style reminiscent of Howard Hughes.
Nearly every time I run into the mayor, which is usually as he’s being roasted (as he was in March at the Nevada Partnership for Homeless Youth fundraiser at Green Valley Ranch) or frozen (as he was Tuesday during an ice-visage unveiling at Minus 5 at Mandalay Place), he barks the same complaint: Where's the work? We conduct all these interviews for print and video, yet he never reads or sees them -- he says he has not watched or read the multimedia account of New Year’s Eve, for instance. At Minus 5, Goodman called me a “fraud,” jokingly I think, because I do all this work following him around and interviewing, and he hardly ever sees the work anywhere because almost all of it is on the Internets, easily traceable by using the Google.
Honestly, it was a little difficult to accept being dressed down by the mayor on Tuesday, because he was wearing an Iceberg Slick-meets-Dr. Zhivago faux coat-and-hat ensemble atypical of a high-level public servant. But I always give those who pop off while clinging to Martini No. 3 a little rope because, hell, we’ve all been there, right?
I usually explain to the mayor that he needs to learn the finer points of Internet usage, such as powering on the laptop. Or maybe, first, purchasing a laptop. Visiting a public library and signing in to use a laptop, maybe. As it is, I’ve suggested maybe a mayoral subordinate who does understand the Internet simply print out everything written about him online and drop it on his desk (if this person can find space on Goodman’s desk amid his various commendations, self-styled bobble-heads and honors to set this material). I have also offered to simply call him and read to him everything I’ve written about him, which of course would lead to more comments from the mayor as he hears what’s been reported, which I’d post online, and welcome to the vicious circle.
The mayor should set a goal to be trained to use all of these online tools. Set up a Facebook page, for starters. Embrace e-mail. I see the time when Goodman will not only suggest reading Aravind Adiga’s “The White Tiger,” but he’ll tweet about it.
When is the next election? We should vote for a new mayor and a new governor. However Oscar Goodman did a lot of good things for Las Vegas. He has done a great service to this city. We thank him for that.
But with his limited vision Las Vegas' economy lacks versatility. We are in for a bumpy ride if we don't have new leaders who can embrace technology and change. Las Vegas needs a new image, new ideas and create new industries. Las Vegas has been the fastest growing city in the nation for the past years. It is a great city and a dynamic city with the versatility of it's growing population. We should be able to continue our growth if we improve our education system, diversify our economy.
The old days are past. Internet illiterate "dinosaur" government officials will not be able to lead our great city out of this economic slump. Our nation is on the right path with Obama as our president but Las Vegas is not. The aid from federal government is limited. It would be up to Las Vegans to pull ourselves out of this.
A big city Mayor that doesn't know the way around the internet or computers? Surely you jest. That's simply amazing.
Mayor Goodman, bring me into town for a bit and I'd be happy to tutor you, or I could even use s job. I know Las Vegas, I've been coming there since the age of seven in 1951.
The last election Mayor Goodman won by 86% of the vote. His enimies are the Culinary Union and other maids and restruant workers. From the comments here I think the new Vegas should be named "North Amboy". Your don't like the casinos, the mob, or the people who broght money here? Go back to living on your Farming (there is none) Your oil (No oil rigs either) your industry (nope none of that either). Oh well the 28 people in Amboy seem happy.
Let Goodman know that he can access gay porn on the net and he will be an expert surfer without peer in no time.