Las Vegas mayor not ready to cede New Year’s Eve festivities to rainy weather

By Grace Da Rocha (contact)

Friday, Dec. 30, 2022 | 2 a.m.

Weather forecasters are predicting a 90% chance of rain for New Year’s Eve, but Las Vegas is a gambling town, and Mayor Carolyn Goodman remains confident about beating the odds.

With hundreds of thousands of people poised to descend on the Las Vegas Strip and thousands more at the Fremont Street Experience, rain could put a damper on the festivities, including a planned eight-minute fireworks spectacular.

On Goodman’s side: The show has never been canceled for weather-related reasons in annual bash’s 22-year history.

“Las Vegas is the place of good luck,” Goodman said. “We’ve had those times where we have watched and hoped the fireworks would still go off, and somehow we’ve managed it.”

Organizers of “America’s Party 2023” say wind is actually a bigger threat to the show than rain.

Goodman and her husband, former Mayor Oscar Goodman, plan to be in downtown Las Vegas — another New Year’s Eve party hotspot — to usher in 2023.

They will dine at the Plaza before taking the stage on Fremont Street for the festivities. It’s become an annual tradition for the couple.

The Sun talked to Goodman about New Year’s Eve in Las Vegas and what she is looking forward to as the calendar flips to 2023.

You got to see this New Year’s Eve tradition in Las Vegas while your husband was mayor and are now participating as mayor yourself. How has this celebration changed over time?

When Oscar was mayor, he took office in 1999. This will be my 12th year, and I get one more year than he gets, so we will be a quarter of a century in this role.

So when you add it up, 24 years that will be, except for the ones that we missed for COVID.

We have been on stage all of these New Year’s to ring in the new year downtown — or somewhere out on the Strip during my husband’s several years in office.

We were out at the different hotels on the Strip and more recently, we’ve been downtown.

The downtown celebration has been such an intimate one because of the Fremont Street Experience and all the great hotels downtown that feed the Fremont Street Experience.

If you even just look at the Strip — the hotels and what they have been doing — and Allegiant Stadium with all the sports having come here, there’s just a general change with all the housing growth and business growth here.

We have so many more residents that are participating and they all have families and everybody wants to be here.

Who had the initial idea for the mayor to appear downtown? Do you know when that started?

No, I just remember them calling my husband — whoever was the head of the downtown-Fremont Street celebration — and asking him to come down and bring in the new year on stage. So that’s when we were there, in the year 2000, that was the first one that I recall attending.

But from there on, I remember him being out at the Bellagio, out at Caesars and then also coming downtown.

But we were in a booth with a TV camera the first couple of years. And so I correct myself, we were not on Fremont Street, probably until his third or fourth year, as that began to materialize.

Now you mainly celebrate on Fremont Street. Is there a specific reason for that?

Everybody knows the name Las Vegas around the world and that means to everybody that Southern Nevada is Las Vegas.

So they probably aren’t familiar with the names of some of our smaller municipalities or the name Clark County. They don’t know the Clark County Strip. It’s all Las Vegas.

As we look to the celebration, of course, the city is the core, the municipality. And so I guess it just became part of it.

We improved everything. The new hotel, Circa, was under construction and open and the other hotels started to show huge economic gain.

Downtown, which is the center of government — the federal buildings, state building, the county, the city building — and so many businesses down here, plus the cultural center with the Smith Center and all the museums.

The city became a focus. It was only natural, as mayor of Las Vegas, that the mayor of Las Vegas can ring in the new year in the heart of the city rather than out on the Strip.

And so that just became the natural thing for the mayor of Las Vegas to be in the heart and the historic center of Las Vegas.

Do you have any specific memories of the tradition, or have any years stood out to you?

Well, normally we go out for dinner ahead of time. The older we’ve gotten — and keep in mind this is nearing 25 years — life does not stand still. So 25 years ago, we probably were out there partying with the best of them and easily able to stay up till 2, 3, and 4 in the morning.

Now, 25 years later, I can’t say that’s our cup of tea because we still are both working and gotta function, and you can’t just sort of stay in bed all day.

So now we still go out for dinner, but you will find us on stage downtown in the heart of the city.

When we were out on the Strip early on, I think (Oscar and I) tried different restaurants out there, but if you’re on TV and any part of it is live, you’ve got to be in the right place at the right time, and there’s no wiggle room. We would eat at different restaurants but were always sort of nervous that we wouldn’t make the spot.

Once we decided to come into the heart of the city, which is easier for us, we would go to different restaurants to support them downtown. More recently, for access to the Fremont Street canopy, we’ve eaten at the Plaza.

That’s where we’ll be, but we’ll probably be in bed by 1 o’clock, 1:30.

With many people eager to return after social distancing and other COVID safety measures, how do you expect the turnout for this year’s celebrations to be?

Every year, because we have (had) Grucci fireworks in the past 15 or 16, maybe missing one here or there, the fireworks are spectacular. You look around the world at New York City and you look at Sydney, Australia, and you look where everybody is celebrating a new year. Certainly Las Vegas is always known to do it right.

And with all the entertainers that are here, and so much energy and, again, as you mentioned at the beginning, coming out of COVID and the restrictions, it’s just a continuum. Since we first celebrated here, way back when we came here in 1964, (it was) modest in comparison to what we do today.

We have nine of our high-rise hotels that will be participating, and it’s just a party.

We closed down the Strip and we have the Fremont Street Experience in the heart of downtown with bands playing on three stages all night long.

Every year we see how much better we can do it than the year before. It’s just the tradition. Come to the entertainment capital of the world. Have a great time, and Las Vegas welcomes you.

That’s a very Vegas thing, to always do it better than the year before, right?

Right. But if we do that, we’re always changing and trying to be new and better than or (do) something different.

And now that we have some money (and) major league sports here, we have all those families that are here — unless they are playing a sport somewhere around the world — and enjoying the outdoors. And we’ll just make this (celebration) the best ever. We have much to celebrate.

Could you give us a preview of what you are going to say during your speech? Is it something prepared, or do you let your emotions take over?

Oh, no, my husband and I have lived here now 68 years and we have a great deal of love for this community. Both of us every time, whether it was during his term or mine, it’s just genuinely telling the people how we welcome them here and how we really love this community.

We — the community — are as diverse as any municipality probably in the world, and we are successful because we are a family of people that are accepting of each other and all work together to make this the most wonderful community in which to live and work. That always comes from the heart and it’s always off the cuff. There’s nothing written down.

We have been ones who are just very truthful, transparent people. You get what you see, and you see what you get. So it will come with gratitude from both of us for being so lucky as to have chosen this place to live and to raise a family.

Are you going to join the festivities on Fremont Street, or do you prefer to spend your New Year’s more quietly?

The first thing both (Oscar) and I have done (is) thanked our first responders, our law enforcement, fire and rescue, and people in the hospital for their service and their help in keeping our community safe. So again, that’s the first thing I will do the moment I’m off stage (this year).

Security during the events downtown and on the Strip has been pretty tight in past years. Is it going to be the same situation this year?

Yes, but we really rely on our visitors and our residents. So (if) you see something, you say something.

Don’t drink or do other drugs or anything and get behind the wheel. Call for Lyft. We’ve got plenty of free rides that are available plus our Regional Transportation buses will be going, and vehicular traffic on the Strip will stop.

Is there anything you’re looking forward to in the new year?

There have been elections and more elections (this year), (so) I’m looking forward to the new people learning about why things are as they are, and then working to contribute something so this community only gets stronger and better going forward.

We’ve been working very diligently on our health care area.

We are working in the cultural area, and we’re trying to get a hold of education here. I think there’s much to do and much to make better, and we just hope that the coming year is one in which we make positive change.

And those who are of a different mind and don’t want to be part of that, they go somewhere else to live.