Editorial: Goodman’s views were a mixed bag

Friday, Jan. 11, 2002 | 9:45 a.m.

This week, during his State of the City speech, Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman advocated the construction of an academic medical center downtown, an idea worth pursuing. Details still are sketchy as to where the money would come from to pay for such a center, whose first phase could cost as much as $250 million, but this is one of those instances where the city must explore the issue by looking at ways to make it happen, not dwell on the obstacles in its path.

It is too bad that in the same State of the City speech where the mayor took such a progressive approach on medical care, the mayor's ugly attitude toward the homeless surfaced again. Goodman used the term "beasts" when referring to those homeless who he says refuse to accept social services and live on the streets, "robbing, killing and raping each other." It's tough to fathom why the mayor continues to stereotype and denigrate the people who are homeless, suggesting that most of the homeless enjoy sleeping outside during the winter when temperatures near the freezing mark.

archive