LOOKING IN ON: CITY HALL

Sunday, Aug. 26, 2007 | 1:02 a.m.

Hoping Las Vegans opt for the road less traveled, Las Vegas and industry leaders weren't pushing residents to read more, become more interested in politics or even to sit down and write a poem for the first time.

They want people to take paths they may have never before considered.

You know, like take the bus.

But why now?

One reason is because the new ACE rapid transit system, the first leg of which was unveiled Thursday before more than 100 people at the World Market Center, will get through lights quicker.

Jacob Snow, Regional Transportation Commission general manager, said ACE buses, designed to feel similar to light rail, are equipped with technology that extends green lights if the buses are near traffic signals.

In the route's first phase, which runs from World Market Center to downtown Las Vegas and then to the monorail connector at the Sahara, the bus will ride in dedicated lanes to eliminate space competition with other vehicles.

About $57 million in federal money, secured with the help of Sen. Harry Reid and Rep. Shelley Berkley, is being used to fund the system.

By 2011 various routes will stretch north to Interstate 215 on Pecos Road, southwest to Henderson and on Sahara Avenue from Boulder Highway to the east to Town Center Drive to the west. Express multiple-occupancy lanes also will be readied for Summerlin Parkway and the Spaghetti Bowl in 2008.

Reid also spoke briefly about roads less traveled at the World Market Center gathering.

What if, for instance, the United States had decided not to take the road to Iraq?

He noted that just 2 1/2 days of occupation in Iraq cost this country $1 billion.

Under a plan he devised, then had to scrap after 9/11, Reid had hoped to begin refurbishing this country's infrastructure.

And $1 billion of federal investment, he noted, would create 47,000 high-paying jobs, "just for backing off Iraq for 2 1/2 days."

Then he offered an idea most thought had died after an RTC report last year recommended rapid-transit buses over light rail in the valley.

Reid said he still thinks light rail from Henderson to Las Vegas is a viable idea that could help alleviate traffic . And his word carries weight.

"The tracks are there . It can be done," Reid said. "The only thing we're missing is money."

Snow said the Union Pacific rail corridor for a light rail system would "need funding and political support."

It sounds like it already has the latter - in high places.

This is a road few have traveled on but many have stumbled over in the past 30 years or so.

Addicts, prostitutes and all manner of bedraggled folks who frighten tourists and locals alike had long ago taken hold and made East Fremont Street their own.

A grand opening of two blocks of the new Fremont East District changed that in a massive way Friday night. The street was lined with tourists and locals, some of whom were making first-ever ventures to new taverns on the street, such as the Beauty Bar, Griffin and Downtown Cocktail Room.

Other plans call for a club on Sixth Street, in the former Metro fingerprinting station. El Cortez has spiffed up its interior and added a new main entryway. And ideas for a unique theater showing independent films, and other clubs, taverns and venues are making their way from thoughts to reality.

The street features four new neon signs, the first being a huge martini glass, an unofficial tipping of the hat to Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman, whose cheerleading has led to much of the downtown redevelopment.