Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

East meets West on Spring Mountain

Andrew Lai sees a future with people dancing in the street.

Make that dancing down Spring Mountain Road.

In his planned 3,000-unit, 30-acre project, the Dragon City hotel and resort, the 67-year-old developer also sees Japanese stone gardens, Indonesian bamboo and echoes from any number of other Asian cultures.

Coincidentally, Lai's vision appears to fit in perfectly with a proposed ordinance coming before the Clark County Commission on April 5 that would create an "Asian" district.

The ordinance would be the first in the Las Vegas Valley that attempts to guide future development based on cultural criteria, calling for Asian-themed signs, buildings and informational displays about countries represented in the district.

George Yu, executive director of the Los Angeles Chinatown Business Improvement District, said he hadn't heard of such an ordinance in other Chinatowns nationwide, making it a precedent.

A draft of the proposed ordinance says the idea behind the effort is to "unify the existing and proposed developments within the area, to maintain ... (its) Asian character and ... cultural heritage."

But not everyone along Spring Mountain Road has bought into the idea, and even Daniel Sinagra, the senior county planner shepherding the ordinance along, admits putting the ordinance in action won't be easy.

"This will be an evolutionary process that could take five to 10 years," Sinagra said as he sat in his office at the County Government Center, surrounded by plans with details such as Japanese cherry blossoms and Chinese geometric designs on fences.

Alan Chen, public relations director of the Chinatown Plaza on Spring Mountain, was less enthusiastic about the whole thing. He thinks the ordinance is based on "a Utopian thought."

"It seems to be saying we can all meld together ... but I don't think an ordinance can do this," said Chen, who is also the spokesman of the Chinese-American Chamber of Commerce of Las Vegas.

Chen, who has seen the Chinatown Plaza double in size in the last decade, said "We're different; we're not all the same."

The different Asian groups "really only get along when it comes to money," he added.

He said his own plaza includes Chinese, Korean and Filipino tenants - and they don't always understand each other, sometimes because of language barriers, sometimes because of such subtle cultural differences as how to ask for help in fixing a problem.

Beyond the plaza, the area on and around Spring Mountain has grown to include Japanese, Vietnamese, Malaysian, Thai and Indonesian restaurants and other businesses.

The proposed district would stretch along Spring Mountain from Valley View Boulevard to Decatur Boulevard.

According to 2004 Census Bureau estimates, Clark County's Asian population is 108,610, or about 6.7 percent of the total population.

Sinagra admitted that "you never get consensus on this kind of thing," but he stressed that the proposed ordinance - which came out of months of public meetings and surveys sent to residents and business owners - would deliberately be open-ended, and wouldn't force newcomers into a straitjacket, so long as some Asian motif is evoked in designs.

"People would have the latitude to express their own cultural heritage," he said.

Additionally, he pointed with enthusiasm to features being considered for the district under the ordinance, including making it easier to walk down the neighborhood's streets and posting the sort of signs seen in national parks, with information about different Asian cultures.

Robert Meese, an area resident and property owner who went to a planning meeting last year on the ordinance, said the idea could be a boost for businesses in the neighborhood.

"I don't know how much of this is being done for cultural unity and how much of it is to increase the bottom line," Meese said.

"(But) the cultural elements could give it a more well-rounded appeal" to tourists and locals alike, he said.

In any case, he sees the idea as a natural outgrowth of the area's development.

"The county is seeing the growth and trying to see that it's done in an organized fashion," he said.

Chen still isn't convinced of the idea, however, though he also said he is "not going to make a ruckus about it."

He said another concern he has with the idea is what happens if it "creates backlash - people (could) think that we're trying to stuff it (Asian culture) down their throats."

What happens if a new business doesn't want to incorporate Asian motifs in its design, he said.

"Is that business going to go to the county and complain ... or are they going to say, 'It's your fault?' "

But Sinagra said the ordinance will be tested during the next year and "could be adjusted to reflect the reality of people and the market."

"If it does anything, the ordinance should attract more Asian visitors and give locals the chance to have a cultural experience."

Lai, whose own project is at least two years away from breaking ground, said future growth will include many Asian visitors, citing as an example a steady increase in the number of tourist visas given to Chinese visitors in the last three years.

Sinagra said that about 2.6 million - or 7 percent - of the 38 million who landed at McCarran International Airport last year were from Asian countries.

Lai, who was born in Taiwan but has lived in the United States for 40 years, said the Asian District as laid out in the ordinance will be an appealing place for those tourists to visit.

Visitors from other cultures will also be drawn to an area where they not only can eat Asian food, but see dances during certain festivals, or walk among gardens.

"It makes sense to accommodate Asian tourists - and for other tourists, it's something different and enables them to learn something," he said.

Despite his own origin, he also noted with interest how the ordinance had become broader in focus during the last year of planning, since it was originally called the "Chinatown Design Overlay District."

"Chinatown is not just Chinese anymore," he said. "It's Asian."

Timothy Pratt can be reached at 259-8828 or at [email protected].

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