Editorial: Making all of our communities safe

Then imagine that in those same areas prostitution and illegal drug sales were being carried out every day, in the open, near businesses and even homes. Obviously such a situation would be considered intolerable and people would be outraged.

Fortunately for people in these communities and elsewhere in the Las Vegas Valley this scenario is just a bad dream. But as the Sun's Jerry Fink reported last week, for downtown business owners such as Mike Ganti and Saraah Cobb, this nightmare is their reality.

Ganti and Cobb are partners in a residential center that provides care for the elderly. Cobb told a Las Vegas city panel looking at cracking down on crime that downtown businesses are being hurt by drug dealers and prostitutes. Ganti, Cobb and other business owners want to reverse this trend and revitalize downtown. "The only way to make it happen is to make it safe," Cobb said.

Currently there is a no-tolerance ordinance dealing with prostitution. The ordinance allows a prostitute to have her sentence suspendedif she stays out of the downtown corridor, encompassed by Stewart Avenue, Charleston Boulevard, Eastern Avenue and Main Street. A prostitute who returns to the corridor after agreeing to the deal can be arrested.

The ordinance has helped, but more is needed. A Las Vegas City Council subcommittee last week recommended that the corridor be expanded north to Washington Avenue. In addition, drug dealing would be added as a crime covered in the ordinance.

The recommendation makes sense. It's hard to think of anyone who feels comfortable going to a business with prostitutes and drug dealers nearby. No matter how much the discount is, customers aren't going to flock to stores in the middle of prostitution and drug rings.

Gary Peck, director of the Nevada chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, said the ordinance appears to consider the constitutional rights of individuals. Peck worries, however, that the crime will just move elsewhere.

Obviously any time a law is passed targeting a criminal activity, the problem might move elsewhere. But a stand has to be taken somewhere. If it's OK for people who live and work in more affluent areas of Las Vegas to be free of open prostitution and drug sales, then people in the downtown area should be afforded the same protection.

Small business owners have a tough enough time as it is making ends meet; having to worry about prostitution and drug dealing is unacceptable. The Las Vegas City Council, scheduled to meet Sept. 14, should pass the expansion of the no-tolerance ordinance.

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