Let the good times roll. Please.

By Michael Mishak

Thursday, April 23, 2009 | 2 a.m.

Oscar Goodman has always been a master image-maker.

After all, the onetime mob lawyer who represented brutal enforcers such as Tony “the Ant” Spilotro parlayed his notoriety into a decade-long political career as the popular mayor of Las Vegas. His was always the World According to Oscar. And when the world wasn’t big enough, he proclaimed himself “the happiest mayor in the universe.”

So true to form, and facts be damned, Goodman used his audience with the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday to proclaim that the region is on the economic rebound.

Facing about 300 business owners in an opulent Four Seasons ballroom, Goodman boldly declared: “We’re back.”

He said the currents of the recession had shifted and that Las Vegas’ redevelopment efforts have laid the groundwork for a big comeback. “I come here today brimming with optimism,” Goodman said. “I believe we have turned around.”

The crowd, hungry for good news, ate it up, taking several breaks from Santa Fe chicken Caesar salad and milk chocolate praline cake (with raspberry coulis) to applaud Goodman’s 30-minute economic assessment. Largely absent from his speech were the traditional economic indicators, most of which tell a different story.

Nevada’s unemployment rate is 10.4 percent, a 26-year high. Visitor volume, passenger traffic and gaming revenue are down. And the state’s foreclosure rate continues to lead the nation. Experts have all but given up trying to predict when the market will hit bottom here.

But Goodman is going with his gut and relying on a different set of indicators.

He said he’s detected a marked change in attitude from just six months ago among the city’s rank-and-file workers, such as valets and bellhops. Mind-set, he said, can be just as important as facts and figures.

“In this economic atmosphere, much of it is psychological,” Goodman said. “If we think positively, and we have confidence in what we’re going to do, then we are going to come out of this a lot stronger than we were before we went into it.”

Indeed, Goodman said it was psychology that was behind his eruption this year over President Barack Obama’s remarks that companies receiving bailout money “can’t go take a trip to Las Vegas or go down to the Super Bowl on the taxpayers’ dime.”

The president’s comments resulted in a freezing effect, causing a number of companies to cancel corporate meetings and incentive trips, Goodman complained. The mayor demanded an apology, which he later scaled back to a clarification. He got neither — and Wednesday he said he’s still “seething” about it. No matter though. The mayor told the chamber crowd that Southwest Airlines is rewarding 8,000 of its employees by sending them to Las Vegas next month for a fun getaway.

His speech was titled “These are the Best of Times: a primer on all of the good things that are happening.”

Goodman cited the successes of the city’s Redevelopment Agency — the World Market Center, the Premium Outlets, the Molasky Corporate Center — and said the developments had created confidence in other developers to invest in Las Vegas. Downtown casinos have invested hundreds of millions of dollars in capital improvements, he said. And the entertainment strip of Fremont Street East is thriving, he added.

(More applause.)

Goodman then argued that redevelopment plans, including controversial ones to build a new city hall, would spur more investment. And while borrowing costs remain high and credit remains tight, he said, “it’s just a matter of time before the banks open up and start lending money,” prompting a wave of residential activity in a series of largely vacant loft complexes downtown.

“They’ve got the money now,” Goodman said of the banks. “The only difference between now and before is that they’ve set the bar a lot higher as to whom they are going to lend money. That’s going to loosen up because (banks) are in the business of making money and you don’t make money if you don’t lend money.”

Speaking of downtown, Goodman remarked, “We’re getting life down there. It is succeeding. Every once in a while, there is an impediment, and I don’t like impediments.”

Goodman, after first complimenting the luncheon’s food servers, devoted a considerable stretch of his speech to castigating the leadership of their Culinary Union, which has opposed the City Council’s plans to build a new city hall and sponsored ballot measures to sink the development. The council, which views the city hall project as a linchpin of downtown redevelopment, refused to place the initiatives on the ballot and the union lost a court battle last week over the issue.

Although the Culinary has filed an appeal with the Nevada Supreme Court, Goodman delighted in the union’s apparent defeat, saying Culinary leaders were “almost sociopathic” in their battle against the new city hall. The campaign, he said, followed a series of efforts by the union to “extort” council support for organizing agreements with developers.

“They were evil,” Goodman said. “They tried to hurt each and every one of us here. And you shouldn’t forget it.”

The union dismissed Goodman’s comments.

“Unfortunately, the mayor keeps trying to turn this into something personal,” said spokeswoman Pilar Weiss. “We’ve said over and over again we believe the voters of Las Vegas should have a voice and should be able to vote on how their taxpayer money is used.”

Chamber members said after the lunch that Goodman’s remarks about the Culinary were generally lost on them. But they certainly were all ears for the mayor’s economic forecast — if not bewildered.

“He’s an optimist,” Beth Molburg, a chamber executive, said. “I want to agree, I want to believe. I hope he’s right.”

David Dahan, owner of Orgill Singer Insurance, said the region’s economy still faces significant challenges, including high unemployment and the opening of CityCenter. “We’ve turned a corner,” he said, “we’re just not sure which corner it is.”

Sun reporter Alex Richards contributed to this story.