Columnist Susan Snyder: Crisis brings out city’s best

Friday, Oct. 1, 2004 | 4:42 a.m.

Susan Snyder's column appears Mondays, Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Reach her at snyder@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4082.

WEEKEND EDITION

October 2 - 3, 2004

Las Vegas' bright spots aren't necessarily for show or even in plain view.

Barbara Maynes stepped onto her porch at Courtyard Village Apartments early Tuesday and saw that all she'd worked for was about to go up in flames.

"The first thing I thought was, 'I'm getting my kids up, getting out,' " she said the day after a three-alarm blaze left her and more than 100 other residents homeless.

"It happened so fast we didn't have time to grab anything."

Maynes, her 8- and 5-year-old daughters and her boyfriend escaped with the family's dog and the pajamas they wore. Everything else was destroyed by smoke and water.

But Maynes said that even in the heat of the moment and later, during the long hours of waiting at a nearby elementary school, she wasn't worried about her family's future.

"I knew as I walked out of a burning building, I could turn to my job to help," said Maynes, a member of the Palms hotel housekeeping staff. "You're not a number here. You're like family."

Maynes and her two daughters looked to the assistance of a Palms crisis program that offers employees everything from extra paid time off to free airline tickets in times of family emergencies.

"She came up to our office with her two kids in their pajamas," said Reggie Turner, Palms community relations director. "We put her in a suite and gave them food vouchers for all the restaurants."

Palms management also gave Maynes the rest of the week off and will help cover the security deposits and utility transfer fees for the family's move into a new apartment. Management also has promised to purchase new beds and some furnishings to get them started.

"We're going to completely set them up," Turner said.

By Wednesday morning Palms employees had donated five large bags of clothing to help Maynes and her girls, Turner said. That afternoon, Maynes told Turner of a mother and children who had been sleeping in their car since the fire.

So the hotel's clothing drive is now one for all residents displaced by the fire that destroyed about 18 apartments in three buildings of the complex at 1100 Dumont Blvd. Clark County Fire officials said the fire caused $4 million to $6 million in damage.

It's easy to taunt and be critical of brassy, brash Las Vegas with its over-the-top casinos, hotels, restaurants and clientele.

We're rated, analyzed and mocked in ratings and rankings that probe everything from how well we educate our kids to how often we wash our hands.

We've built an economy on encouraging the abuse with irreverent billboards, titillating taxi-toppers and a tourism slogan that practically begs people to come here and act on their most hedonistic desires.

And behind it all, we hide the best part of the city.

Us. We aren't shy about helping each other in a pinch.

"It's hard when you lose everything. And they have nothing," Turner said of the fire's victims.

So obvious. And thanks to the generosity of the community, so easy to fix.

For information on how to donate clothing call Turner at 942-6831.