Las Vegas Revitalization Taking Nod From Detroit
Las Vegas has been making strides to grow and evolve with the times, but it may need to take some advice from a city that you may not expect – Detroit, Michigan. Detroit filed for bankruptcy protection in July 2013. Urban decay was one issue and a few months before filing, officials declared a “blight emergency.” One-third of the city was empty and there were thousands of unoccupied homes, which is never a good thing for any city.
Hope for the Future
Detroit is slowly making a comeback. The city is trying to overcome its reliance on single industries, such as automobiles, while transforming the downtown area. This is the same issue as we have in Las Vegas, but instead of cars, we have a lot of gaming and casinos. Businessmen have come together to jumpstart the downtown makeovers in Detroit, and we have had that same attention in Las Vegas as well with Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh, who made a $350 million investment in a downtown project. That is just the beginning, however.
The Las Vegas City Council is working on and is expected to approve the new downtown master plan on June 15th. “We don’t need to reinvent the wheel to make this happen,” Las Vegas Mayor pro tem Steve Ross. Las Vegas city leaders, business leaders and residents listened to their Detroit counterparts talk about revitalization is going in their city and this is some of the items that they took away from the talk.
- To spur more downtown activity, we need a clean and safe environment;
- Instill a sense of pride in the community among residents;
- Target crime hot spots to improve quality of life;
- Remove trash and graffiti;
- Find ways to connect people to the city via tours, etc.;
- Don’t be afraid to try something different;
- Projects should reflect the community.
The key to revitalization is to be open to ideas from businesses and residents. While you may think that thing have to be a certain way, thinking outside of the box can be the key to revitalization in many ways. While Las Vegas has always been the gaming capital, venturing out into other areas can be done (and it should be done) to ensure that we evolve and change with the world and can withstand any changes in the economy. The downtown area is just the beginning.