Editorial: Don’t shed tears over pullout

Monday, Dec. 17, 2001 | 9:01 a.m.

On Wednesday the Stratosphere will submit a petition to the Las Vegas City Council that seeks to end the hotel-casino's financial support for a proposed monorail that would link the downtown area with a private monorail already under construction along the Strip. Last month the Stratosphere threatened to pull its financial support for the monorail if the City Council refused to let the hotel-casino build a 700-foot-high roller coaster ride. The Stratosphere withdrew its application for the thrill ride before a vote could be taken, sensing that the City Council was poised to reject what would have been the world's tallest and fastest roller coaster.

The Stratosphere was one of four entities -- the city of Las Vegas, the Fremont Street Experience and Boyd Gaming Corp. were the other three -- that agreed to chip in $250,000 apiece to help finance preliminary studies on the monorail. While $250,000 is no small piece of change, the Regional Transportation Commission still is confident the loss of the funds won't delay a monorail project in the downtown area. Even if the loss of funding would be a problem, that would be a preferable alternative to caving in to pressure from Stratosphere executives.

The neighborhood residents who live near the Stratosphere vigorously opposed the roller coaster, worrying that it would hurt their quality of life and possibly harm efforts to continue redevelopment of the residential area. The councilman who represents them, Gary Reese, has stood by the residents as has the rest of the City Council. Government shouldn't back down on principle just because a powerful interest group throws its weight around.

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