User profile: ausserordnung

"With its CityCenter resort set to open..."
Really? All of the "CityCenter resort" is "set to open?" Is this a joke? Are they handing out kool-aid to Sun reporters?
It still looks more like CityCrater to me.

Of course the more ambitious train to Anaheim would take longer than the hokey line to Victorville. Reid knew that when he supported the more ambitious maglev.

The London, New York, Boston, Moscow subways took decades to build. Cathedrals and other monuments in Europe sometimes took centuries.

But there will be no long-term projects for Las Vegas. No, sir. Not so long as there's quick money to be put into Rogich's pockets and campaign support for Harry Reid.

Applying 18 U.S.C. 1346 to Senator Reid is long overdue.

The key to getting what you want in Nevada is to cut Rogich in on the deal. Rogich makes the phone calls.

This time Rogich called Senator Reid and even formed a "Republicans for Reid" committee. Reid then held his press conference dropping his support for maglev in support of Rogich's benefactors.

Examples abound. This is how we became burdened with the bankrupt Las Vegas Monorail.

And how Rogich made money on the LVCVA billboard concession. Etc, etc. The only time the strategy is known to have failed concerned a Stations Casino zoning application in North Las Vegas, where Rogich's angry phone call to the chairman of the gaming policy review committee was a day late.

Las Vegas has grown, but it has yet to grow up. In fact, it has grown too fast. Partly because one half the residents here at any given time have been here less than 10 years and either don't know or don't care, Boss Tweed is still in charge.

Here's how it all happened:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3xGtjhZ_...

Adding to mar100 and goingbust above:
Broadbent and Friends (BF) took the concept of a Vegas monorail from the RTC, which had brought its monorail project to the point of public meetings for comment. BF saw what they thought was an opportunity to make money, so convinced the County Commission to dump the RTC project, which would have served locals for lower construction costs and formed the backbone for east-west public transportation, which is where the real need is in this valley. Killing the RTC project, the BF monorail just took what it thought would be the lucrative Strip portion.
Hence, the failed Las Vegas Monorail.

The idea, as I recall, was for the company to keep a cash reserve sufficient to tear it all down if it did not become profitable, so that there would be no chance of a public bail out.

It's time now to use that reserve for its intended purpose.

Public money is, of course, used to subsidize public transportation around the world, but the Las Vegas Monorail is not public transportation. Its purpose was never to serve the public. If any reader here has ever used it to get from point A to point B, please speak up. The purpose was to serve BF.

One reason the Strip can't handle the traffic is that the County Commission has granted variance after variance to allow casino developers to push their projects all the way out to the curb. Setback requirements are only for little people.
Even to the point of knowingly forcing tourists to push their baby carriages through the gutter alongside heavy traffic along then Steve Wynn's Treasure Island. After about a year, a narrow sidewalk was finally built alongside, but people still find it necessary there to walk in the street.

One reason why you don't see a pedestrian mall on the Strip is that casino owners don't want free, open space out there. Even downtown, the concept was to turn Fremont street into a private arena under private control and clutter it up with kiosks. Witness New Year's Eve on the Strip: Metro cordons off the center, fills it with squad cars and permits primarily only passageways on either side. The owners are deathly afraid of real public pedestrian activity on Las Vegas Boulevard. Just look at the flies they draw there already.

The monorail today is nothing more than an obstruction down the middle of Paradise Road. It's time to tear it down.