LV officials ask to be questioned

Denise Cardinal

Wednesday, Oct. 8, 1997 | 10:49 a.m.

Eastern Las Vegas citizens who want to gripe about the government don't have to let their complaints fall on deaf ears. They can visit the Rafael Rivera Community Center during the next two weeks and grouse all they want to the government itself.

The city's Neighborhood Services Division is hosting an open house, which started Monday, at the center at 2900 E. Stewart Ave. The purpose is to get citizens to tell the division just what they'd like to see accomplished in their neighborhoods. More than 10,000 invitations were mailed to residents in the area generally located between Charleston Boulevard, Eastern Avenue, Owens Avenue and Nellis Boulevard.

"It's a good way to get questions answered," said Kathy Jacobson, who's lived in the area four years and attended the event on Monday.

An entire room in the center is dedicated to the event. The walls are lined with aerial photographs, maps and statistics of eastern Las Vegas. Together, the collection reveals a neighborhood that is diverse and older. Forty-six percent of the area's elementary students are Hispanic, 21 percent are black, and 28 percent are white. The majority of the homes were built in the 1960s and 1970s.

City planners understand why some of the residents are reluctant to come forward.

"They might not have come from a democratic system, so they're wary of the government and the police," said planner David Olivo.

All mailed materials, and the majority of the printed information available at the center, are in Spanish and English.

The open house extends through Oct. 17. The hours are: Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Tuesday and Thursday, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.