Las Vegas gets low marks as kids' town

A new study by a national environmental organization rates Las Vegas below average as a place to raise children, but valley parents disagree.

Las Vegas was given a C-minus and Henderson got a C from Zero Population Growth, a nonprofit organization that studies population issues.

"I don't really put much weight in these kinds of studies," Las Vegas resident Rick Essex said as he played with his kids at Desert Breeze Park Sunday evening. "I was born and raised here, and I think it's a great place to raise kids.

"There are bad influences and situations everywhere, but if you're a good parent, you steer you're kids clear of that. I know I'd worry about my kids no matter where we lived."

In grading cities the group's researchers took into account different factors including smog, teenage pregnancies, dropout rate, number of children in poverty, violent crime and unemployment rate.

Las Vegas came in 76th among 112 cities that have populations greater than 100,000 but are not major cities such as New York or Los Angeles.

Fargo, N.D., and Madison, Wis., topped the list of "kid-friendly" smaller cities, while Reno came in at No. 38 and Newark, N.J., was considered worst at 112th.

Henderson was ranked among suburbs and outer cities at 52 out of 92 cities. Livonia, Mich., was No. 1 on the list and San Bernardino, Calif., was last.

Of the 25 major cities surveyed Seattle was No. 1 with an A-plus rating, and Baltimore scored an F for last place.

The study examines each city's kid-friendliness using 14 different quality of life indicators broken down by seven categories: economics, education, environment, health, population growth, public safety and transportation.

"All the cities, regardless of whether they got an A+ or an F have one thing in common," former U.S. Rep. Peter H. Kostmayer, the group's spokesman, said. "They all have kid-friendly success stories, and they all could do better. The report card is designed to be a user-friendly tool to help cities do better."

Michael Jahn, who was playing soccer with his 10-year-old daughter Sunday at Desert Breeze, 8425 Spring Mountain Road, says he sees problems in Las Vegas, but they're the same problems that are all over the country.

"There is the potential for crime here, the bombardment of drugs and the fear that a stranger could take your child," Jahn said. "There are just more challenges facing kids today, no matter where they live, but for all the negatives we have positives too.

"We have beautiful parks, sports programs and youth programs."

Jahn's daughter, Cora Pixton, is a Girl Scout and has just started playing soccer.

Las Vegas got its worst grades in education, an F, and environment, C-. The study cited a 16.3 percent dropout rate and bad air days for the low grades. Las Vegas scored highest in the health category with good infant mortality and birth weight rates.

Henderson suffered a C- in education, again based on the high dropout rate, but scored a B+ in public safety compared with a grade of C+ in that category for Las Vegas.

Essex said he thought the bad perception around gambling probably played a role in the low scores.

"The way I look at it the casinos are no different from factories in other cities," Essex said. "They are down on the Strip, and we live out here, just like in other cities where the factories are in one part of town and the people live in another."

Jahn agreed, saying the hotel-casinos can offer good experiences for children despite a sometimes undeserved reputation that goes along with the "sin city" moniker.

"We were down at the MGM Saturday night to see the lions and have dinner," Jahn said. "As a parent, you have to be able to explain the good and the bad of the casinos to your kids.

"It all comes down to the parents. There's going to be bad seeds around no matter where you are, so you have to be a good parent and weed them out for your children."

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