NLV festival to spotlight food, community spirit

Friday, June 1, 2001 | 8:45 a.m.

Southern Nevadans are being invited to North Las Vegas this weekend to sample a taste of what the community has become in recent years.

The first International Taste of North Las Vegas will feature food booths with an international flavor, carnival rides, art exhibits, vendor booths, a beer garden and concert.

"This is not just an international taste as far as food goes," Laura Coleman, one of the coordinators of the event, said. "It is also a taste of the community. You will see what the different cultures of North Las Vegas have to offer."

Coleman, 49, and her husband, Mickey, have owned Poker Palace in North Las Vegas for 27 years. She said during those years the community has grown and diversified, becoming home to many ethnic groups.

"In December we decided we would have one of the biggest street festivals that has ever been held here," she said.

The event is a joint effort of the North Las Vegas Community Steering Committee, the city of North Las Vegas, the Community College of Southern Nevada and Station Casinos.

The festival is one of the results of a newspaper story that two years ago offended Coleman.

"It was an article about dogs," Coleman recalled. "It was a fluffy article that didn't bother me until the last paragraph. It said, 'In keeping with the tough image of North Las Vegas ...' "

North Las Vegas might not be the most genteel place in the world, but neither does it fit the hardscrabble stereotype presented by some media, she said.

Coleman joined forces with another North Las Vegas businesswoman, Christine Johnston, to create a local weekly television show called "North Las Vegas Now" that ran for about 18 months on WB (Channel 12).

The show aired stories covering the many facets of their community.

"We wanted to bring North Las Vegas out from behind the bad image," Johnston, owner of Eclipse Productions, said. "Our goal is to unite this community, everyone, from top to bottom.

"Our population is very diverse, and we want to bring all the cultures together."

Nevertheless, the show ceased production in August because of a lack of sponsorship.

Before moving to North Las Vegas seven years ago and forming her video-and-graphics company, Johnston worked in Hollywood on the production of such motion pictures as "Basic Instinct" and the 1994 remake of "Miracle on 34th Street."

In January 2000 Coleman and Johnston created the North Las Vegas Community Steering Committee, a nonprofit, volunteer organization that works with the Chamber of Commerce, various levels of government and businesses in promoting North Las Vegas.

She said she loves her adopted city but doesn't like the unwarranted bad image.

"A lot of people felt as we did when we started the committee," Coleman said. "North Las Vegas has long gotten a bad rap and a lot of people wanted to change things."

Coleman said the committee holds monthly round-table meetings to plan ways to improve the image of the city, such as this weekend's festival.

"We plan on being involved with anything that comes into the community," she said. "One of the things the Steering Committee does is invite people into community to tell them what a great place it is."

But the committee isn't all talk.

A business committee within the Steering Committee is matching training sources, such as CCSN, with businesses that need employees to be trained.

"The training resources will implement classes to meet the needs of the businesses," Coleman said.

The committee is not only cleaning up the city's image, it's also cleaning up its city with community cleanup events held every third Saturday. The next one is scheduled for June 16.

Coleman said, "We identify five or more homes that need attention and volunteers do what needs to be done, whether it is hauling trash or clearing away falling trees.

"We're cleaning up North Las Vegas, neighborhood by neighborhood."

She said the committee is not an off-shoot of the Chamber of Commerce. "The chamber is just about business. We are about people."