Best of Las Vegas -- Las Vegas Review Journal

Stupak, his projects frequent targets in Best of the Worst categories

By PETER O'CONNELL
REVIEW-JOURNAL

No one could know the precedent that was being set in February 1987 when the Best of the Worst was first published as a kind of evil twin to the Best of Las Vegas readers' poll.

Tucked inside the Living section, the new feature related readers' gripes about bad commercials, speed bumps and intersections.

But the first category in the first Best of the Worst listing concerned hotel architecture.

"Bob Stupak's Vegas World," readers declared.

Voters also selected the property as the city's Worst Eyesore. But who could have known that readers had commenced a relentless attack that would not abate even as Stupak emerged from a near-death experience eight years later?

Since that rude introduction, Stupak has been selected as the Community's Biggest Embarrassment (1989, 1992, 1994-96), Most Annoying Las Vegan (1993-95), Worst Dressed Las Vegan (1994-96, 1998) and City's Biggest Blowhard (1994, 1995).

Vegas World also took a beating, including 1991, the year it won Building You'd Like to See Razed. By 1994, Vegas World was history and the Stratosphere began racking up Worst wins, including eyesore and Las Vegas Event You're Tired of Hearing About. It picked up the Ugliest Building prize in 1995, the year Stupak was nearly killed in a motorcycle accident.

Even in 1996, as Stupak continued his miraculous recovery from the accident that left him in a coma for five weeks, readers showed no mercy.

"Talk about piling on," said the Review-Journal, whose staff that year selected Stupak as Favorite Male Las Vegan in the People listing.

Chastened, readers the following year fixed their sights on other targets, with Stupak doing no worse than second-place finishes for Worst Dressed Las Vegan and Las Vegan You're Most Tired of Hearing About.

The rehabilitation was complete by 1999, when voters in Best of Las Vegas -- that's right, Best of Las Vegas -- chose Stupak as Most Unappreciated Las Vegan in the People listing.

Through the years, readers also have lashed out at such enduring problems as traffic, dice clocks, the Department of Motor Vehicles, Lonnie Hammargren's house and Wayne Newton.

They've slammed the carpeting at the El Cortez; the cocktail waitress uniforms at the old Aladdin; the rudeness of Caesars Palace employees; the parking lot at the MGM Grand; and Wayne Newton.

No targets as inviting or as enduring have emerged in the post-Stupak era of the Best of the Worst.

Downtown in general and the Fremont Street Experience in particular have taken some hits, though.

Drivers still rail against traffic problems, reserving particular ire for the Spaghetti Bowl and the intersection of Flamingo Road and Las Vegas Boulevard.

Diners still don't like waiting in line for buffet food at the Rio. And a surprising subset of the population continues to demand that Wayne Newton be banished from the Strip.

At the same time, there is no evidence that readers have lost the vinegar that has fueled Best of the Worst for 14 years.

This caustic attitude was best revealed in 1989, when numerous respondents objected to the inclusion of a category for Most Blatant Exploitation of the Female Body (won by Crazy Horse saloons).

"This section implies certain moral judgments have been made by the R-J. It should be removed," one reader wrote. And it was.

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