Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

EDITORIAL:

Why stop at elevated expressways? Let’s really turn back time

In the “Mad Men” era, elevated expressways like the one being developed by Clark County were all the rage.

Then times changed, and it turned out that expressways were a bad idea. Really, really bad. They carved up cities by creating corridors where nobody would choose to live or do business, leaving poverty, high crime rates and urban decay in their wake.

Cities around the world have torn them down. But County Commissioner Steve Sisolak and others have turned a blind eye to all of that, instead plunging ahead toward building a $200 million elevated expressway that would parallel the Strip and connect to McCarran International Airport.

As long as we’re pouring money into studying a failed concept from the ’50s and ’60s, The Sunday thinks Sisolak and his crew also should throw their weight behind these proposals:

Remove warning labels from cigarette and alcohol packaging.

Camel ad using doctors, circa 1946.

Camel ad using doctors, circa 1946.

Those cautions about emphysema, birth defects and the like are such downers.

Re-institute above-ground nuclear tests in the Nevada desert.

A gigantic pillar of smoke with the familiar mushroom top climbs above Yucca flat during  nuclear detonation in Las Vegas, NV., on April 22, 1952. Surmounting the mushroom cloud is an ice cap just beginning to form. This picture was made from Mt. Charleston about 55 miles away.

A gigantic pillar of smoke with the familiar mushroom top climbs above Yucca flat during nuclear detonation in Las Vegas, NV., on April 22, 1952. Surmounting the mushroom cloud is an ice cap just beginning to form. This picture was made from Mt. Charleston about 55 miles away.

Truly a blast from the past.

Do away with safety belt requirements.

A windshield is shattered by the impact of a crash test dummy.

A windshield is shattered by the impact of a crash test dummy.

As long as we’re driving on throwback roads, might as well do it in cars boasting the full range of tailfin-era safety features — which is to say essentially none.

Bring back leaded gasoline and relax fuel mileage requirements.

In this file photo, smog covers the Las Vegas Valley, Thursday, Dec. 20. 2001.

In this file photo, smog covers the Las Vegas Valley, Thursday, Dec. 20. 2001.

It will be catastrophic for the environment, but an outmoded road deserves outmoded cars.

Dial back litter laws.

Empty cans, bottles and more litter the grounds during the second night of the Electric Daisy Carnival on Saturday, June 18, 2016, at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Empty cans, bottles and more litter the grounds during the second night of the Electric Daisy Carnival on Saturday, June 18, 2016, at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Back when people were driving lead-fueled gas hogs on elevated expressways, it was generally acceptable to throw trash out of the windows.

Bring back green lawns by paying property owners to convert their desert landscaping to grass.

In this file photo, sprinklers irrigate a lawn in Henderson.

In this file photo, sprinklers irrigate a lawn in Henderson.

We’ll drain Lake Mead, but we’ll look pretty doing it.

Replace modern playground equipment with metal slides, jungle gyms made out of steel pipe and teeter-totters.

Children climb on a jungle gym in New York in 1986.

Children climb on a jungle gym in New York in 1986.

The expressway will surely make it faster to get to the hospital, right?

OK, enough sarcasm. Obviously, no one would seriously consider these ideas.

But the same should go for spending as much as a dime on an elevated expressway.

Editor’s note: This commentary has been revised to clarify that the county has not approved construction of the expressway.

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