Screen capture via youtube.com
Anderson Cooper, right, rubs his eyes while listening to Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman during an interview Wednesday on CNN.
Wednesday, April 22, 2020 | 4:48 p.m.
For more than a month, Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman has decried Gov. Steve Sisolak’s mandated shutdown of all nonessential businesses due to coronavirus, calling for the reopening of Las Vegas’ casinos, restaurants, bars and “boutiques.”
The coronavirus pandemic has infected more than 4,000 Nevadans, most of whom live in the Las Vegas area, and killed an estimated 172 statewide. Many health experts have warned that reopening economies too soon could lead to more COVID-19 deaths.
In an interview Wednesday on CNN with Anderson Cooper, Goodman suggested that Las Vegas open businesses and be the “control group” to gauge the severity of coronavirus without business closures in place. She also said she would permit businesses to reopen without ensuring they were taking safety precautions, saying that should be “up to them to figure out.”
“That’s not the mayor’s job,” Goodman said.
Despite Goodman’s opposition to business closures, City Manager Scott Adams emphasized Wednesday that the city has been “very compliant” with Sisolak’s mandates, including that nonessential businesses remain closed until at least April 30.
“We’re running the city very safely,” Adams said. “We’re meeting the guidelines and we’re going to reopen in the same way.”
Las Vegas has a council-managerial form of government, in which the elected mayor and council members serve on the city council together. The city manager is appointed by the council and carries out the city’s daily operations.
For now, Las Vegas is trying to support businesses as much as possible and is devising a plan for reopening, while complying with the governor’s orders and following guidelines set by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Adams said.
“As a city, we’ve never thrown caution to the wind and said we’re just going to let people run willy-nilly,” he said.
The city continues to look for ways to keep some businesses open without contradicting the governor’s directives or CDC recommendations, he said. For example, Las Vegas is allowing liquor stores to deliver alcohol while keeping storefronts closed.
“We’ve simply said, ‘We’ll let you continue to operate safely if you do so under city guidelines,’ ” Adams said.
Sisolak said Tuesday that there was no firm date for reopening businesses. The first phase of the gradual reopening would only happen after a 14-day downward trajectory of cases and in consultation with health experts, he said.
Adams suggested that the city hoped some businesses could reopen sooner provided that they continued to follow social distancing guidelines. He listed furniture stores as one example.
“They’re never crowded, unless they’re handing out free hot dogs,” Adams said. “You can easily meet social distancing inside a furniture store. You wonder, ‘Can we be more thoughtful?’ And this is something we’re going to look at as a city in the reopening process.”
Small mom-and-pop stores could also “easily” maintain social distancing while open, Adams said.
Although the city will continue to comply with state mandates, coming up with a city plan for reopening is a priority, he said. Until visitors can return, Las Vegas will not be able to fully recover from the economic impact of coronavirus, Adams said.
“As soon as we get that green light, we hope to be right at the front of the pack in reopening the city,” he said.
Many elected officials in Southern Nevada have condemned Goodman’s repeated calls for reopening Las Vegas and her downplaying of the virus. They’ve also been quick to point out that she does not have jurisdiction over the Strip, which is part of the county.
Goodman has compared the coronavirus pandemic to other disease outbreaks such as Ebola and swine flu, despite coronavirus being much more contagious and having spread to every continent except Antarctica.
She has also falsely claimed that coronavirus is no deadlier than the flu. The CDC estimates that over 61,000 Americans die annually from the flu, while coronavirus has killed over 41,600 people in the United States in just three and a half months.
Addressing Goodman’s comments Wednesday on Twitter, Clark County Commissioner Michael Naft called them “reckless and dangerous.”
“Lifting the quarantine too soon would be a slap in the face of all Nevadans, especially our front-line workers who have sacrificed for the greater good,” Naft posted.
U.S. Rep. Dina Titus, D-Nev., released a statement after the CNN interview saying “we have to listen to the scientists.”
“Businesses in Las Vegas will only be able to recover if we take this pandemic seriously. The Mayor does not represent the Las Vegas Strip, literally or figuratively,” Titus said.
Goodman’s comments also stray from the opinions of some of her fellow council members, who are her equals in terms of voting power. At last week’s council meeting, after Goodman said Las Vegas’ coronavirus deaths had not warranted a shutdown, Ward 5 Councilman Cedric Crear countered that one death is “too many.”
“I think as we get more testing into the market, we’re going to realize there are more people who are infected,” he said.
Ward 1 Councilman Brian Knudsen said in a statement Wednesday that the mayor “does not speak for all of us.”
“Reopening the city or Clark County now is reckless and completely contrary to the overwhelming consensus of medical experts. I stand with our governor ... and our partners in the Clark County Commission in taking a science-based and incremental approach to reopening our economy,” Knudsen said.
