Reader Poll
Should F Street stay permanently closed or be reopened to connect the area with downtown?
Response | Votes | ||
---|---|---|---|
Find the money and open F Street. It has to be reopened. | 54% | 204 | |
I'd prefer it be reopened, but it's just too expensive. | 5% | 21 | |
Don't try to reopen F Street. It's fine the way it is now. | 40% | 150 | |
Total Votes | 375 |
Note: This is not a scientific poll. The results reflect only the opinions of those who chose to participate.
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Seriously - Do the math of the Stupid unused MLK FLYOVER! It probably cost 20 million to put it there, that equates to about $200k in interest by business standards, (not government, they don't think like that) I bet that stupid thing does not get 750 cars a day on it! You could give every car that uses it $10 and save money.
F street, Same Thing! - There are a thousand ways to get to all the alphabet streets, they are all downtown. This is just a power play trying to hang on to a race card!
Please spare me all of your false outrage about where the money is going to come from or about how you feel about a neighborhood that I know you have never visited and people you have never met or spoke to.
This neighborhood has been oppressed by corrupt city officials for well over 40 years. The money that is proposed to open the street (which was never supposed to be closed in the first place) will come from redevelopment dollars slated for use in the community. Not your community our community. Since these dollars are meant for redevelopment on the westside it should make no difference to all of you people who think that my neighborhood should be destroyed.
If you have an issue with the neighborhood that is fine you need not visit, but for those of those who were raised over there, and have grandparents that live there we want the street open. All of the alphabet streets as you call them used to be open, however thanks to the ignorant attitudes that existed and obviously still exist via your comments, several were closed off (not surprisingly without the residents approval) and now here we are fighting the same battle.
PS- I am not a drug dealer or criminal, I am actually highly intelligent and very educated and I am a product of the community you want to destroy.
F Street Timeline
1943: Mayor Cragin refuses to renew business licenses of Black business owners unless th ey relocate to the Westside. Restrictive covenants and failure to rent to Blacks create defacto segregation
1944-1945 Informal urban renewal programs razes 375 homes, causing overcrowding on the Westside
1945: Reverend Henry Cook and West Side residents petition Mayor Cragin to pave "E" Street, the main thoroughfare on the Westside. All requests for public improvement are denied.
1950: Under Truman's Fair Deal, $1 million federal housing project approved (Kaufman, p. 360)
1951: Predominantly White middle-class residents of Bonanza Village protest use of the 20-acre Zaug Tract for low-cost housing development. Black residents charge racial discrimination. Bonanza Village hires attorney Harvey Dickerson (Kaufman, LV Sun, 4-24-51)
1951: As a compromise to Bonanza Village residents, a "100-foot wide buffer highway" is constructed (Highland Avenue, later renamed Martin Luther King Boulevard), separating the future housing project from Bonanza Village (Kaufman, p. 361; Moehring, p. 179)
1952: City of Las Vegas blacktops areas on the Westside. Federal housing project now known as Marble Manor completed (Kaufman, pp. 362-363).
1955: City of Las Vegas creates ordinance to drive out illegally parked trailer owners. 600 people sign petition to overturn ordinance, but it is retained (Kaufman, p. 375). Paving district established to fund curbing, guttering, and lighting on the West side.
1956: City of Las Vegas applies for federal urban renewal money, allowing it to condemn property for "better" use. City Planning Department extends slum clearance program by recommending that the federal highway (later known as I-15) be routed through the Westside (Kaufman, p. 375).
1957: Federal Highway plans cut highway through the Westside. Westside residents protest plan. Highway plan tied in with urban renewal plan to placate residents. 200 families displaced with promise that they would be moved to better housing (Kaufman, pp. 375-376)
1959: Las Vegas Review-Journal describes plan by State Engineer and city officials to extend Highland Avenue , which had ended at Charleston Blvd. Plan states that Highland Avenue may be extended all the way to San Francisco ( LV Review Journal, 10-15-59).
1960: 160 family dwellings completed. This does not meet demand for housing. Advisory Urban Renewal Committee suggests that further low-income projects should be built outside the Westside, but this suggestion was ignored by planners (Kaufman, p. 378).
1962: Plans for widening I-15 include a cul-de-sac at F Street
1964: Civil Rights Act. Title VI prohibits racial discrimination on any projects involving federal funding
1968: Seven streets closed on the Westside. Led by Ethel Pearson, hundreds of people of the Westside community protest street closures, but streets remain closed.
1971: In response to Westside protests, F and D Streets reconfigured to access Downtown.
2004: Nevada Department of Transportation and City of Las Vegas plan expansion of Interstate Highway (I-15) through the Westside which will include closure of F Street and reconfiguration of D Street . F Street renamed City Parkway on development side of I-15. Government agencies claim they notified residents within 400 feet of the closure.
2006: Las Vegas City Council votes to close F and D streets as part of I-15 expansion. Las Vegas Councilman Lawrence Weekly later claims he did not know the plan would include street closings.
July 2008: Concrete wall built across F Street which cuts off direct access between the Westside and Downtown. City Council members claim they know nothing about the closure.
October 2008: Stop the F Street Closure Coalition formed
January 7, 2009: Protest march on Las Vegas City Hall .
January 9, 2009: Ora Bland, Estella Jimerson, National Action Network and Stop the F Street Closure, LLC file a Federal civil rights lawsuit against the City of Las Vegas and Nevada Department of Transportation for the F Street closure.
Partners and I own multiple parcels on F, Jackson, and other steets in the immediate vicinity. We were partly sold on this by the City of Las Vegas, including promises not to close F Street. Developments included low-rise housing, retail and tourism related property. A major tour company who was heavily involved.
Last year I brought a Chinese investor to the Mayor's office to make sure his plans to strategically utilize F street to build and fill a multi-story industrial center just north of the freeways would be viable. The investor has like properties in Los Angeles, and wanted to be near World Market Center without being in Union Park. We were assured it would be ideal, and F Street was not considered for closure.
There is no other access to the alphabet streets of Uptown. F Street was closed without notice. We own several parcels. I recieve all notices every time they lift a finger in the area. Nothing on this.
I obtained a map of the closure, off the record, from an employee of the I515 widening project in 2005. I inquired about it with the two City Councilmen and the Mayor face-to-face, as well as the main NDOT office. All claimed no knowledge, no such plan.
The property values of decreased by at least two thirds in the affected area sice the City spent a fortune to close F. This is 1/3 greater impact than the decline of the immedeiate area market in general. A perfect example is a property now for sale on F St. for $29k with no takers. My cash offer for $110k was declined on the same property in 2006.
The result is collapsed property taxes, no financing, no building permits, no business licenses, no tax base. The lack of access means it takes more patrol cars, more fire trucks, more utilities service vehicles to service the same area. The math works against closing F, not for it.
I'm a white guy who never lived there. I don't know if the motivation is racial or not. But it sure isn't based on the numbers.
I served on the Regional Transportation Commission when F Street was part of a planned north - south frontage road from Henderson to North LV. In the meantime, several Class A office buildings opened on the south side of the I-95 bridge, and caucasion transients from rescue missions on the other side of the bridge began panhandling near those buildings. The tenants and owners of the buildings asked the city to shut down the transient's access. I believe the police should have handled the problem instead of shutting off a perfectly good street and killing a thoroughfare that has been on the planning table for years. The property owners along F Street have every right to complain.
This poll just goes to show that, Numbers don't always tell the whole story, as numbers and letters can only convey so much. From the numbers, it seems that everything is fine, but how could this be? Well, simple.
It is an unfortunate fact, that minorities seem to read the paper less, search news articles less, and stick with issues less that the average white American. This is MY opinion, based on 46 years of life, and countless years of community involvement, being born and raised on the "Westside") So, as a result, you will more than likely have more people reading, and voicing their opinion on this issue, that Don't live here, Don't know the impact, and quite frankly, probably don't give a care about what happens to "Those People" anyway. That's why they could easily say, "Leave it like it is, It's fine". But exactly "How" is it?
I would wager to bet, that, most of them Don't even know "How" it is over here.
It would be nice for the poll to be re-done, and include the question, "Do you live in the area?", but unfortunately, some would probably LIE and say that the live there, but we can't worry about little things like "personal integrity".
Oh well, such is the plight of the dwellers of the Alphabet Jungle.
Slightly different topic, but also illustrates the plight of us in the Alphabet Jungle.
The situation:
Stimulus dollars, and the Foreclosure Issue.
In the map of "Eligible Zip Codes", 89106 is not included. This means, many of the dollars that the City of Las Vegas has available from the NSP (Neighborhood Stabilization Program)can not be used in 89106.
I was in attendance with reps from HUD, CLV, NLV, Clark County, and Henderson, as well as Sen. Reids office.
Looking at the map, I directly asked the rep from the CLV about the exclusion of 89106.
The 'Official" reply was, "after analyzing the numbers of defaults, foreclosures and whatever other factors used to select the "areas of need", the 89106 area code, did not qualify for assistance".
Could this be yet, another unforeseen consequence of Red-Lining?
I mean, with all the mortgage defaults, foreclosures, job losses, and the like, could it be, that the residents of the Alphabet Jungle (89106) have handled their business so well, that they fared better than those in all the other areas, and most of the Nation for the matter?
Could it be that the residents of 89106 kept their mortgages up so well, that what they did should be promoted as a "Best Practice", or maybe we should serve as a model Zip Code, on how we mustered the storm, came out unscaved, and needed no additional help in these terrible economic times.
Or, could it be, that we got so few approvals in this area, that there was not enough loans to default on in the first place, to qualify for assistance if ALL of them defaulted. (Once again, My opinion)
So as another domino in this chain of unforeseen (or was it?) and unfortunate events, 89106 may not see more home purchases, scarce rehab activity, and minimal "Stabilization" from the Neighborhood Stabilization Program.
But unfortunately for the residents of the Alphabet Jungle, "What Else Is New"
As someone stated in an earlier post, even the money to re-open F st, will come from our little pool of funds, and that, more that likely, means other projects will have to be sacrificed, scaled back, prolonged or otherwise negatively impacted.
But, I encourage you to not give up hope for change. Change IS happening.
We have to stay engaged in the process, as you cant influence where the bus is going, when you're standing on the side of the road yelling, as the bus passes by.
Being on the bus, doesn't mean that the driver will listen to you, but at least they will have a better chance of hearing you.
So, you still on for the ride?