People watch a fountain show at the reopening of the Bellagio, Thursday, June 4, 2020. Casinos in Nevada were allowed to reopen on Thursday for the first time after temporary closures as a precaution against the coronavirus.
Friday, June 5, 2020 | 2 a.m.
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After bringing the Bellagio fountains back to life Thursday with a playing of “Simple Gifts” to honor the Las Vegas frontliners who have protected the city during the pandemic, MGM Resorts International made another spot-on choice for the follow-up song.
“Viva Las Vegas,” indeed. Long live our fabulous city.
As we near the end of a punishing week, it was a godsend to see waters dancing, lights twinkling and guests coming through the doors in the resort corridor and downtown. After 78 days of eerie quiet, Las Vegas took its first steps to recovery.
It’s a moment of hope, and a reminder that our community has rebounded from crisis and tragedy before.
Granted, we still face unprecedented challenges — historic unemployment, the ongoing threat of an outbreak of COVID-19, the struggles of the airline industry and more. Meanwhile, we’re still contending with the aftermath of the shots that were fired overnight Monday amid that day’s Black Lives Matter demonstrations, critically injuring Metro Police officer Shay Mikalonis and, in a separate incident, killing protest participant Jorge Gomez.
But for a moment, we can find relief and strength in the reopenings.
Meanwhile, we can take encouragement in signs that our allure to the world remains dazzlingly bright even though our lights have been dim in recent months.
It showed when downtown resort operator Derek Stevens offered 1,000 airline tickets to travelers and they got snatched up in less than two hours. It showed when CES announced Wednesday it was holding its annual mega-convention in January as planned. It showed when Orbitz reported this week that room and travel bookings to Las Vegas picked up immediately after Gov. Steve Sisolak announced that Nevada’s resorts could reopen June 4.
Clearly, people are eager to see our city again. As long as that’s the case, there’s no reason we can’t bounce back and become even stronger than we were before.
Still, we need to proceed very carefully. Until the coronavirus is conquered, our future hinges on maintaining our city’s reputation as a place where people can have fun and feel safe doing it. And that means doubling down on our specialty since long before the pandemic — treating visitors with care.
Resort operators have answered the call by adopting social distancing methods, dialing up the sanitization of their properties, doing temperature checks of guests and employees, and more. But we all can support the cause by protecting our guests and each other — wearing masks, being vigilant about handwashing, not going out or to work when we’re sick and so forth. That applies wherever we are, on the Strip or in the community.
Another critical need is for state, local and resort leaders to keep a sharp eye on health data and be ready to take action immediately to curb new outbreaks. We can’t afford a letdown that would result in people getting sick here, then going home and spreading the coronavirus. The long-term damage to our tourist industry and our economy would be too great.
We still have our work cut out for us.
But there’s comfort in knowing that while Las Vegas has been down, we’re not out. We’re moving again. Now, let’s keep the momentum going by being as protective and vigilant as we were during those 78 days.
