Editorial: Downtown is looking up

Friday, July 16, 2004 | 4:32 a.m.

WEEKEND EDITION

July 17 - 18, 2004

We see more than a restaurant when we look at Pepe's Tacos No. 2, a new business with nine employees that opened last week with no small amount of fanfare. Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman was on hand to become a charter customer of the restaurant on East Fremont Street near Eastern Avenue and Charleston Boulevard. With its predominant exterior paint the color of mustard, Pepe's stands out for what it is -- a fun and friendly eatery. It also stands out for what it represents -- real hope that a new era will take hold in the neighborhood as other businesses begin popping up nearby.

For years this part of Las Vegas had been a mini-Times Square, circa 1970s, with adult businesses assaulting the senses from every direction. That scene ended in the early 1990s, in part owing to the arrest on federal charges of a notorious porn czar who ran one of the bigger operations in the area. Afterward, the area settled into near dormancy. The notion now, however, is that with a little help from city redevelopment funds businesses could move in and the neighborhood would be restored to its pre-porn charm.

For decades before it fell into disrepute, the area was home to the Green Shack restaurant, which opened on Christmas Eve 1929 primarily to serve workers constructing Hoover Dam. It went on to become as popular with movie stars as it was with the locals. Boarded up now, it doesn't look like much. But it's on the National Register of Historic Places and could be restored with the right incentives in place.

Jose "Pepe" Ceja, whose original Pepe's Tacos opened five years ago at Decatur Boulevard and Vegas Drive, spent more than $800,000 of his own money converting a former International House of Pancakes into his new restaurant on Fremont Street. With this kind of personal commitment, the city's grant of $21,000 in redevelopment funds is a good investment.

With the success of Pepe's serving as a kickoff, the city this week will announce its Commercial Visual Improvement Program for downtown's redevelopment area. The program will encourage exterior renovations of businesses by rebating 50 percent of the improvement costs. In the past redevelopment has mostly meant investing large amounts of money into a few projects, such as Neonopolis and the Fremont Street Experience. This opposite strategy, investing smaller amounts of money throughout downtown's many smaller businesses, has the potential for making a far greater impact.