Editorial: Puttin’ on the Ritz

Friday, April 8, 2005 | 5:07 a.m.

WEEKEND EDITION

April 9 - 10, 2005

We wonder if any of the 16 federal officials in town Thursday and Friday for a conference on the plight of homeless people pinched themselves and asked: Let's see now, why are we here again?

We wouldn't blame them for wondering about that. Their rooms at the Ritz-Carlton, Lake Las Vegas gave them entree to the "other Las Vegas," as the hotel's Web site boasts. This is the world of oversized marble bathrooms, elegant linens, romantic balconies, championship golf courses, a luxurious spa and fitness center, upscale shopping opportunities and the best in fine dining, yachting, hiking and mountain biking.

Not a homeless man, woman or child in sight, guaranteed.

And just in case they were to spot a homeless person on their way from the lake to the conference in downtown Las Vegas, they made sure it would be from the inside of a limousine coach.

The conference, which was called "The Western Regional Colloquy on Ending Chronic Homelessness," featured the Bush administration's Interagency Council on Homelessness. The agency's executive director, Philip Mangano, was last here in June. The occasion was a conference in which he was pushing the notion that cities must develop "10-year-plans" to end homelessness.

It's all coming clear now. Why help the homeless now? Why not talk about it over the next 10 years, and travel in style?