At City Hall, it’s the little things that matter

Saturday, Dec. 9, 2006 | 7:07 a.m.

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A desire for a corner grocery store. Drivers clogging neighborhood streets to avoid crowded interstates. A rogue goose chasing people.

Those aren't the kinds of issues that normally spawn big headlines out of Las Vegas City Hall.

They do, however, get big attention from City Council members, who often spend as much time tending to smallish neighborhood issues as on major citywide concerns.

If, as then-U.S. House Speaker Thomas "Tip" O'Neill famously put it, all politics is local, then that maxim is truer for city council members than anyone else in public life.

Las Vegans, like residents in other cities, naturally expect their elected local officeholders to take care of the big citywide issues such as crime, growth and traffic.

But when people really want their government representatives to snap to attention is when graffiti starts showing up on the wall down the block or when their once-quiet streets begin to resemble the Strip on a Friday night.

In part, that reflects the fact that council members are elected by wards, creating a measure of accountability for the elected officials and an expectation of responsiveness among their constituents.

"First and foremost I represent the citizens of Ward 4," Councilman Larry Brown said. "But immediately behind that priority is the fact that I represent the city as a whole."

Echoing a sentiment shared by his council colleagues, Brown said that residents in his ward are concerned primarily with the things, large and small, that affect their daily routine.

"You could throw them into a bag and mix them up, but they mostly come down to addressing a few things that make them feel comfortable," Brown said. "Really that's what my job boils down to."

In Ward 1, Councilwoman Lois Tarkanian's job largely boils down to helping her ward, which covers the southern central portions of the city, navigate a transition not of its own making.

"We used to be really on the outskirts of town," she said. "Now, because of the growth, we have become an urban center."

With that change has come the challenges associated with inner-city living, Tarkanian said. Crime rates, especially for burglaries, have soared.

There also has been a change in ambience, one not to the liking of many residents. An area that not long ago was largely residential now is home to massage parlors and payday-loan centers, and billboards dot the landscape.

Tarkanian says it has been a tough adjustment for longtime residents, who either don't want to move or can't afford to do so.

Ward 2 Councilman Steve Wolfson makes no secret of the fact that he thinks his far western ward is the best in the city from a quality-of-life standpoint.

"It's a great neighborhood with parks and recreation areas, nice schools and nice restaurants," Wolfson says.

In stark contrast to Ward 1, Wolfson proudly points out that his ward, which includes the exclusive Summerlin community, has no billboards. The biggest issue among his constituents - one others would relish - is making sure the projects that go into the area's remaining open spaces help maintain their quality of life.

Mayor Pro Tem and Ward 3 Councilman Gary Reese says one day Wolfson's successors will have to confront some of the challenges that Reese faces now in eastern Las Vegas.

"This is one of the oldest areas in the city," Reese said. "There aren't too many 60-year-old homes in some of those other wards."

As Reese sees it, his job is to make sure his neighborhood is not left behind as the city expands. In many ways the issues that concern his constituents are not much different from those of their neighbors to the west. They want parks, recreation areas and affordable housing for seniors. Reese describes them as working-class families who, for the most part, want to maintain their homes and their neighborhood.

Brown's Ward 4 is home to an ill-tempered goose, which has gained legendary status at Desert Shores, where it has lived in the lagoon for a few years.

Residents often come by on foot or in cars to watch and feed the waterfowl, which they say is as likely to charge them or their cars as accept their offerings.

Brown acknowledges, though, that when people at a town meeting have time to talk about an unruly fowl, things could be much worse.

Even so, while it includes some of the city's newer neighborhoods in northwestern Las Vegas, Ward 4 is not without issues.

Graffiti, typically thought to be more of an inner-city problem, has crept into the area. In attacking the problem, Brown has been guided by the broken window theory, which holds that ignoring little problems - broken windows, abandoned cars, graffiti - can lead to the decline of a community.

Councilman Lawrence Weekly has different challenges in Ward 5, which covers much of central Las Vegas.

High on his constituents' wish list is a desire to be able to walk to a corner grocery, something they have been unable to do since a Vons supermarket on Owens Avenue closed in August 2004. In September city officials said they were close to an agreement with a supermarket chain for a store at Lake Mead and Martin Luther King boulevards, but the deal did not come together.

Weekly, whose ward includes some of the most economically disadvantaged areas of the inner city, sees a grocery store as the catalyst for improving the quality of life in his neighborhood.

Crime continues to be a problem in the ward, but Weekly said other issues, such as maintaining affordable housing, also are a concern.

And while he supports downtown revitalization, he worries that it could price some people out of the area, leaving them with few alternatives.

"We have had a great dialogue (on issues in the ward), but until some things start to happen, I feel like I am not meeting the expectations of my constituents," Weekly said.

Ward 6 Councilman Steven Ross sees public safety and affordable family housing as priorities of the people in his northern ward.

With Ward 6 being among the valley's fastest growing areas, the development of infrastructure is also important. The additions of Centennial Hills Hospital and a Metro Police substation should enhance that effort, Ross said.

One concern common to all wards is traffic congestion. But even on that issue, the perspective differs from ward to ward.

Tarkanian said residents in her part of town complain that people are using city streets to bypass the crowded interstates.

"We're turning into a cut-through for the people who live in the northwest," she said. "There are a lot of kids walking to school and (the roads) are not set up for that kind of traffic."

Brown, meanwhile, says his ward is surrounded by construction that forces people to look for alternatives.

Although grappling with different neighborhood issues, most council members are confident of achieving satisfactory resolutions to the various problems.

Weekly, for example, said he believes that Ward 5 will eventually land a grocery store and that the city will strike a balance between commercial development and residential living.

Tarkanian said residents in her ward are beginning to come to grips with their new role in the city and through a collaborative effort between residents and Metro Police, the crime rate there has started to decline.

And residents in outlying neighborhoods are starting to recognize that part of the price of living in a newer community is that it will take time to develop infrastructure.

Now, if we could just do something about that darn goose.

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