Citizens mobilize against thrill ride at Stratosphere

Angela Soo

Wednesday, Oct. 3, 2001 | 8:54 a.m.

Residents who oppose the Stratosphere's latest attempt to build a thrill ride met Tuesday night to organize their efforts.

About 50 neighbors who live near the proposed project met at John C. Fremont Middle School. They were asked to hand out fliers and petitions, make phone calls to Las Vegas Councilman Gary Reese and Mayor Oscar Goodman, and most importantly, to attend the City Council meeting in two weeks.

"These are three mechanisms to defeat this," said John Delikanakis, a resident who lives in the Southridge neighborhood just east of Paradise Road. "We did it once with the Planning Commission, and we can do it again."

The City Council will hold a public hearing on the proposal Oct. 17, when it is scheduled to decide whether to approve or deny the thrill ride.

Residents were successful last month in getting the Planning Commission to vote against the proposed ride that would zip passengers 750 feet down the east side of the Stratosphere Tower, over Las Vegas Boulevard and up a 415-foot tower next to Paradise Road. The ride would reach speeds of 120 mph.

Jack Levine, president of the Southridge Neighborhood Association, said the ride would devalue the surrounding properties and eventually destroy the entire residential community.

"The houses will become low-rent houses, and then that will bring in more junk cars and gangs," Levine said. "Then one bad block will affect the next block and then the next block and so on. That's how neighborhoods deteriorate -- one block at a time."