Columnist Hal Rothman: Too big for our britches?

Hal Rothman

Sunday, Oct. 9, 2005 | 10:18 a.m.

As I sat in my car, once again stuck in traffic and inhaling exhaust fumes, I realized that the time has come to finally ask the question that is on everybody's mind: Have we finally reached the tipping point in the Las Vegas Valley?

We've seen remarkable changes in the past few years and they have had an impact on how we live here:

Any observer could be forgiven the thought that the quality of life here has gone to hell in a handbasket in a hurry.

For a community that has prided itself on an unbelievably high standard of living and a spectacular quality of life, these numbers are shocking. They demand that we ask hard questions of the direction we're headed and of the people who make the decisions that shape our future.

We've taken quality of life in the Las Vegas Valley for granted. The numbers show that we can no longer assume that things will get better on their own.

We face a choice between Bedford Falls and Pottersville, and we are fortunate that we still have a choice. The challenges are daunting, and the question of will, which always permeates the Las Vegas Valley, remains to be answered.

The culprit, as it has always been, is the incredible growth of the Las Vegas Valley. Since 1980 we've quadrupled in population, expanding from a footprint of about 7,000 acres to more than 30,000 acres.

It's no secret that the boundaries extend further every day and people drive farther and longer in each succeeding year. We are working on filling the valley. The increases in population are poised to continue for the foreseeable future.

No American city has ever matched this pace. When New York emerged as the center of the commercial universe after 1800, when Chicago became the "City of Big Shoulders" as industrialization transformed the American economy, neither grew as fast and as quickly as Las Vegas has.

Not even Los Angeles, with its great burst after 1945, can match us. The result is the stunning transformation we have all seen; finally, we have to deal with the consequences.

The Las Vegas Valley has been addicted to growth. It's our crack, the substance that we have to have, the basis of our lifestyle.

The situation here is a paradox: Growth doesn't pay for itself, but growth foots the bill for what does get paid for around here. We're locked in.

We lack the mechanisms to wean ourselves off the influx of 70,000 people a year, the housing starts and the sales taxes they generate.

At the same time, our schools get more crowded and our roads become harder to negotiate. The lines are longer and response time in emergencies grows. We remain in the bottom five nationally in almost every social service category.

Too many people have interest-only or 120 percent-of-value mortgages. If home prices keep rising, or even if they stabilize at these high levels, people certainly will be pushed out of the home-owning middle class. Not only do we sit in traffic, but a lot of us are downwardly mobile as we do.

The truth is hard and cold: The revenues we raise through taxation in Clark County are not enough to meet the demands of the public for infrastructure and amenities. We've improved lots of things, parks and roads in particular, but we haven't improved them fast enough to keep up. The gap grows every year.

For a long time, we were able to sweep our problems under the rug, to defer the costs and absorb them as part of living in the valley, but the constant pressure has strained all of our systems. None of our institutions was built to withstand this sort of weight.

Nevada's traditions lean libertarian, but, unlike other applications of this philosophy, in the Silver State this has meant freedom for business rather than the individual.

Our political history hamstrings us, and our traditions and the needs of the future now collide with full force.

How did we get here? What can we do? Over the next week we'll assess the issues that directly affect the quality of life in the valley.

We'll look at the causes of this downward spiral and explore solutions. The task is great, but the entrepreneurial energy of the Las Vegas Valley is more than sufficient to provide solutions.

We can't go back in time, but we can do a significantly better job of preserving and improving the things that make living here special.

In Monday's Las Vegas Sun: Hal Rothman looks at how the high cost of housing is one of the most serious threats to the Las Vegas Valley's long-term stability.