New ending, new beginnings for book, city
When last longtime Las Vegas journalist and author Geoff Schumacher checked in on Southern Nevada, things were going great, and it looked like that would never change.
Then came the recession, clouding the skies over the valley and throwing its future into doubt. It also cried out for a new ending to Schumacher’s 2004 book, “Sun, Sin and Suburbia.”
(Full disclosure: That book is published by Stephens Press, a company under Stephens Media, which owns the Review-Journal. And I’ve known Schumacher since 1993, when he gave me the first of three jobs here in Las Vegas.)
In the revised edition – published this year – Schumacher spares little when it comes to one important criticism of Southern Nevada’s business and political leaders: Hardly any of them saw the recession coming or prepared for its effects.
“Full of confidence and ignoring historical perspective, Las Vegas neglected one of the most enduring truths of human existence: What goes up must come down,” he writes in a new chapter, titled “Rags to Riches.”
“Some of this blindness was forgivable, the result of a laser focus on competing in the here and now,” he adds. “But many of those pocketing profits in Las Vegas simply did not care about the city’s long-term prospects. Like the miners of yesteryear drawn to Nevada’s rich veins of gold and silver, the plan was to extract the resources as quickly as possible and pick up stakes as soon as they ran dry. This rape-and-scrape mentality did not cause Las Vegas’s economic collapse, but it accelerated and deepened the fall.”
Since 2004, some things have changed in Las Vegas. One important difference: Schumacher no longer lives here. In 2011, he was appointed publisher of Stephens Media newspapers in Ames, Iowa, including the Ames Tribune. Perhaps the 1,220-mile distance allows him to say things that might be heresy if muttered inside Clark County lines.
For example: Learn from Phoenix! That desert city invested (read: spent money) on its educational system and reaped the rewards in the form of an increase in manufacturing, technology, bioscience and renewable energy.
“Las Vegas, meanwhile, remained a one-trick pony,” Schumacher writes. “It does adult tourism better than anybody, but the very nature of this industry dissuades many other industries from taking the city seriously.”
And while Las Vegas has made strides – a new performing arts center, an emerging medical research sector, high-tech data storage businesses and maybe even a new sports arena capable of hosting major-league events – it still needs a boost in one key area.
“Education is the one area where Las Vegas appears likely to continue lagging the competition,” Schumacher writes. “For reasons difficult to understand, Las Vegas has not recognized the link between a respected, research-oriented university and economic development. Las Vegas as a whole remains all but contemptuous of education, or at least the idea of the taxpayers properly funding it. Until Las Vegas is able to make this intellectual leap, it will remain in the economic and cultural shadow of its boring sister city to the south.”
As for the future, Schumacher predicts a pro sports team, a finished (but smaller scale) Echelon Place, death to Coyote Springs at least in our lifetimes and the eventual dismantling of the Las Vegas Monorail. They may not all come true, but they’re not completely impossible.
If you’re curious to hear more, you can listen live and in person: Schumacher is holding a lecture and book signing from 1 to 3 p.m. Saturday at the Nevada State Museum, on the grounds of the Las Vegas Springs Preserve, 333 S. Valley View Blvd.
Steve Sebelius is a Review-Journal political columnist and author of the blog SlashPolitics.com. Follow him on Twitter (@SteveSebelius) or reach him at (702) 387-5276 or ssebelius@reviewjournal.com.
