Letter: ‘Rejuvenation’ talk involving stadium appears misguided

Sunday, July 11, 1999 | 9:22 a.m.

At present, the city has the Cashman Center on Washington Avenue across from the Sawyer State Office Building. That center includes a sports complex, where the Las Vegas Stars play baseball.

Though having lived here only 17 years, I have yet to see any upscale restaurants, boutiques or fine shops show up near the Cashman Center.

The area around the Cashman Center is one that most thinking mortals on foot avoid after dark. Do those in city government think things will be different for an area near the railroad tracks that lies adjacent to the most accident-ridden stretch of Interstate 15 inside Clark County?

Rather than build another "white elephant," the folks who run the city should use the money for simpler tasks to "rejuvenate" downtown.

Start with steam-cleaning the north-south streets that connect into the Fremont Street Experience. Extend the cleanup eastward down Fremont Street to the city line at Sahara Avenue.

Going down Boulder Highway toward downtown is an eye-opener. Once you cross Sahara Avenue onto Fremont Street, it's like going from West Berlin to East Berlin before the wall came down.

This latest "rejuvenation plan" further validates my decision, when I moved here, to establish residence in Paradise Township. I feel sorry for the residents of the city of Las Vegas.

In Oscar Goodman they had the chance of seeing a reincarnation of New York's Mayor Fiorello La Guardia. Instead, it looks like all they received for their votes was a pale imitation of Zenith's George Babbitt.

JOHN E. KRAFT