Local transportation system a mess

The Las Vegas transportation system is a joke, for many reasons, I’ll explain a few here:

The CAT bus network should have all of its routes labeled “MT” for “EMPTY” because except for a few isolated spurts of traffic in the morning and evening, most every bus I see is carrying two, three or four passengers at most, going to destinations that are virtual no-man’s-lands. Why have a bus system at all if no one is using it?

And why then are most buses constantly running late if they make no stops to board or discharge passengers — and particularly in the off-hours when they’re not hampered by traffic? Don’t they have schedule checkpoints to measure their on-time running?

Why spend taxpayer money on a system that has no real reason to exist, again, if no one is using it?

The only really advantageous addition I’ve seen so far has been the Silver Star “shopper special” that goes through the retail districts in the Henderson area, made for use by those who have no car and no other way to get to those outlying malls. But it runs only for a few hours on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Again, what’s the point?

Then there’s the ridiculous monorail. It is not a transit system at all, it’s a Disneyland attraction that comes from and goes nowhere, except for its use as an inter-casino shuttle — and that at $5 a ride. Why it wasn’t designed from the start to connect to the airport is another imponderable.

With few exceptions, trying to build a transit system within an already completed urban structure has been an economic disaster since World War II. The prototype examples of how it should work are New York and Chicago, where the lines were built and the cities literally grew up around them. In this day and age, there’s no plausible reason to build such a system, because the population has learned how to get by without it.

Las Vegas has no long-term planning agenda. No one ever asks, “Where do we want this city to be in 25 or 50 years from now?” It’s a day-by-day, here-for-the-moment existence.

Gary Olszewski

HENDERSON

Judicial conduct

To the editor:

In your story, “Judge’s prospects evaluated” (July 27), “several lawyers” are said to feel that the Nevada Commission on Judicial Discipline “was overstepping its authority [in order] to get rid of an unpopular elected official.”

Specifically they say the commission was “gunning” for Judge Elizabeth Halverson, not because of “legal procedural mis-steps but because of the way she treated her staff.” This implies that how a judge treats staff does not fall under the Nevada Code of Judicial Conduct.

Without speaking to this particular case, it needs to be said that the Nevada Code guiding the commission includes Canon 1, “A judge shall uphold the integrity and independence of the judiciary,” meaning that “an independent and honorable judiciary is indispensable to justice in our society. A judge should participate in establishing, maintaining and enforcing high standards of conduct, and shall personally observe those standards so that the integrity and independence of the judiciary will be preserved.”

It also includes Canon 2, “A judge shall avoid impropriety and the appearance of impropriety in all of the judge’s activities.” The commentary given for clarification states, “Public confidence in the judiciary is eroded by irresponsible or improper conduct by judges. A judge must avoid all impropriety and appearance of impropriety. A judge must expect to be the subject of constant public scrutiny. A judge must therefore accept restrictions on the judge’s conduct that might be viewed as burdensome by the ordinary citizen and should do so freely and willingly.”

We can discuss whether Judge Halverson’s actions come under these canons or not, but it seems clear that how a judge treats staff would come under both of them.

Craig Walton

LAS VEGAS

THE WRITER IS PRESIDENT OF THE NEVADA CENTER FOR PUBLIC ETHICS

Animal abuse

To the editor:

Our national media have had a field day reporting on allegations that Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick ran a brutal dog fighting operation and personally slaughtered eight dogs.

Yet, no one ever reports on the brutal slaughter every hour of every day of every year of a million cows, pigs and other innocent, sentient animals who are just as deserving of our respect and compassion as Mr. Vick’s dogs.

Every dollar we spend for meat or dairy products at the checkout counter is our direct subsidy for animal cruelty. Let’s remember our own responsibility whenever we get upset over the latest report on Michael Vick’s cruel treatment of his dogs.

Martin Gordon

LAS VEGAS