Editorial: Gateway needs an upgrade

Friday, Oct. 5, 2007 | 7:28 a.m.

Driving south from the Las Vegas area on the storied Boulder Highway, motorists are a little less than a mile into Henderson when they reach the Sunset Road intersection.

Ideally this section of the highway, including a fair stretch beyond Sunset, would offer pleasant views. Nice landscaping, certainly. Some nice neighborhoods, too, featuring a mix of homes and apartments, and some offices. And of course some retail shops and restaurants, inviting enough to entice many motorists to stop and linger.

After all, this area is a gateway to Henderson, a city whose planners have put a lot of thought over the years into making it welcoming for residents and visitors.

The ideal is far from the current reality, however. As described Wednesday by Las Vegas Sun reporter Mike Trask, the area is hardly a welcoming sight. He noted the area's vacant lots and two abandoned casinos, boarded shut and vandalized. Remaining businesses include a used-car lot, a motor-home mechanic shop and a casino, but their presence cannot overcome the area's depressed appearance.

Although there are no immediate plans to revolutionize the area's character, Henderson officials are at least aware that this gateway is not living up to the term's usual definition. More i mportant, Trask learned they are looking forward to the day when appearances there will change for the better.

"We want the look and feel of it to be like the other entrances to the city," Henderson's principal planner, Deborah Reardon, told Trask.

It is not easy for local governments to guide such a transformation, as most of the land in question is privately owned. It can take years for a turnaround to occur.

We hope city officials are ultimately successful for two reasons. Boulder Highway, before U.S. 95 was built in the 1980s, was the main thoroughfare between Las Vegas and Boulder City. It would be nice to recapture some of its former prominence. And it would be nice for Henderson to have this gateway reflect what motorists will discover a few miles past Sunset - a modern, well-planned city.