Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Dividing line: Why Las Vegas city leaders aren’t invited to ceremonies on the Strip

Carlos Santana Receives Key to the Las Vegas Strip

Steve Marcus

Carlos Santana, Clark County Commissioner Steve Sisolak and Roxana Drexel, director of the Hermes Music Foundation, during a ceremony at House of Blues on Wednesday, Jan. 21, 2015, in Mandalay Bay. Santana and Hermes Music U.S. were honored for their donation of 80 guitars to Monaco Middle School’s music programs.

Maybe the confusion stems from the name: the Strip, which is not the formal title of Las Vegas’ famous stretch of hotel-casinos. That’s Las Vegas Boulevard South. The initiated understand it doesn’t actually run through the city.

The Strip’s location is unincorporated Clark County. Calling it the Clark County Strip would be accurate but not nearly as sexy. The Strip of Clark County ends at Sahara Avenue, where the city of Las Vegas begins. So the Stratosphere is in the city; SLS is in Clark County.

This is common knowledge for locals, an issue that’s not particularly pertinent until ceremonial events are held on the Strip and elected officials show up with proclamations and props to mark important events in our city’s — and county’s — history.

As protocol requires, county commissioners appear at county events on the Strip, Mayor Carolyn Goodman appears at city events (usually in downtown Las Vegas), and never the twain shall meet.

Recently, Clark County Commission Chairman Steve Sisolak has represented the seven-member board at such events as the ribbon-cutting at The Park and the opening of T-Mobile Arena. He also was on hand for the 90th birthday celebration for Tony Bennett at New York-New York’s Brooklyn Bridge, where he announced the Strip would be renamed Tony Bennett Boulevard for a 24-hour period on May 19.

On June 24, Sisolak handed the relatively new Key to the Las Vegas Strip to Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood during a ceremony at T-Mobile Arena, praising their charity work as he announced it was Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood Day in Las Vegas (or at least in Clark County). He first presented the key to the Strip in October 2013, to Britney Spears, and Mayor Goodman’s absence was noted and reported. Per protocol, she wasn’t invited.

That marked a change in how the mayor of Las Vegas contributes to happenings on the Strip. During Oscar Goodman’s three terms, when he turned up at ceremonial events on the Strip he often joked, “I’m the mayor of everywhere.”

That dexterity is not exhibited by the office today. Clark County spokesman Erik Pappa explains:

“On the Strip and other places in unincorporated Clark County, the county approves zoning, building and fire plans and does the inspections and licensing and provides other municipal services (like a city would). It is only natural that the county would be invited to events associated with those approved projects since we’re providing the public services in support of those projects. It’s simply an issue of protocol. We avoid attending events in the city of Las Vegas, even when invited, because the county does not provide municipal services there. In any case, we have a good working relationship with our counterparts at the city and don’t see this as an issue.”

Mayor Goodman presents proclamations and keys to the city inside city limits, and if media outlets want her take on Strip developments, they are welcome to visit or call her office. But as city spokesman Jace Radke reminds, the mayor is not going to attend any event for which she has not received an invitation.

Of course, when something is held at the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health, the Smith Center for the Performing Arts or anywhere along Fremont East or the Fremont Street Experience, that’s the mayor’s turf.

Elected officials might observe these jurisdictional boundaries, but Las Vegas the entity does not. Our NHL team would be the Las Vegas Black Knights, not the Clark Country Black Knights. The Las Vegas Raiders might play home games on the Strip in Clark County; the university in unincorporated Clark County is UNLV, not UNCC.

And I liked the days of high ceremony when Mayor Oscar Goodman showed up with his ever-present showgirls at, say, Pure nightclub at Caesars and hammed it up with officials from the Miss America pageant appearing on Chris Matthews’ “Hardball.” No one was harmed, and it was a very Vegas thing, featuring the mayor of Las Vegas and playing out on the Las Vegas Strip.

But the message today is simply for the mayor to respect the boundaries, please, as these keys don’t unlock every door.

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