It’s time to tear down that wall

To the editor:

In the past few weeks there have been two letters — one from Ted Newkirk, the other from Alan Stock — in the newspaper criticizing the city’s decision to allocate $8.5 million to reopen F Street in historic West Las Vegas.

For the past three years, I have been documenting the road closure protests as part of my doctoral dissertation at UNLV. Both writers reference City Councilman Bob Coffin’s assertion that he has “proof” the residents were lawfully notified. Mr. Stock calls the residents’ claims of never being notified of the street closure “lies.”

I have spoken to the residents living closest to the intersection of McWilliams and F Street who insist they never received the notices. I have repeatedly contacted Mr. Coffin’s office asking to verify his claims, to which I have never received a response, causing me to question the validity of his so-called “proof.” I suggest that Mr. Stock visit Ora Bland, whose home — where she has lived for more than 50 years — is less than 100 feet from the huge wall now blocking the street, and tell her she is a liar.

But let us put aside the notice issue and go back to the fall of 2008, when the residents first became aware of the planned closure and began to loudly voice their dissent to then-Mayor Oscar Goodman and the City Council. At this point, there were only piles of dirt blocking the intersection. Clearly the residents had expressed their opposition to the project, and the decision should have been made at that time to keep the intersection open. I question why the mayor and the City Council persisted in defying the wishes and needs of the community they were supposed to serve. Had they listened to their constituents back then, they could have avoided the financial consequences the taxpayers now face. Keep in mind: The original Nevada Department of Transportation plans for the Interstate 15 widening did not call for the permanent closure of F Street. That decision was made a few years later by city officials.

If the money to reopen the street is really the issue for Mr. Stock and Mr. Newkirk, consider the $185 million the city borrowed to build a sparkling new City Hall, when the existing building was already paid for, and the $42 million taxpayer-funded Mob Museum. Both buildings are within a few miles from historic West Las Vegas, and their construction coincided with the closure of F Street. Coincidentally, the new Smith Center for the Performing Arts is directly in line with F Street, but was also suspiciously closed off to direct access with West Las Vegas by the F Street wall. The city even changed the name to Symphony Park Avenue during the construction of the F Street wall.

Both writers suggest spending money on rebuilding much-needed infrastructure in West Las Vegas, with which I concur. But instead of building more social and physical barriers between downtown and West Las Vegas with these kinds of inflammatory and ill-informed comments, all of us should be encouraging a greater dialogue with the residents of this historic community. Maybe, if we did so, the skeptics and critics might come away with a better understanding of why the F Street wall needs to come down.

Robert J. McKee

North Las Vegas