Las Vegas faces flag fallout

The council’s vote last week to order a Hummer dealership to take down a 100-foot flag pole flying the Stars and Stripes has garnered attention across the country and overseas, inundating the city with e-mails and phone calls.

Almost all the writers vehemently disagreed with the council’s decision, and some declared boycotts on Las Vegas.

“No more messing around with people who order flags removed. No more Vegas for me!” wrote Terrill Groetken, a Minnesota resident. “Our family reunion will have to be held elsewhere, Reno, Laughlin or at a Indian casino somewhere.”

A writer identifying himself as Art Wallace of Escondido Calif., wrote: “I just cancelled my reservations at New York-New York and I told them why. I don’t want to stay in a city that will not let a business fly the USA flag. I find you all disgusting.”

The city had received more than 100 e-mail messages by Tuesday afternoon and scores of phone calls, all protesting the order that would have Towbin Hummer remove the flag and flagpole within 60 days.

Some of those unhappy with the city’s decision changed their minds after the city responded to their messages.

“Have the good people of Las Vegas lost their collective minds?” asked Robert Paterniti in his first e-mail. He said he and his wife were canceling a fall vacation.

But after the city wrote back with its side of the story, he responded: “See you in September.”

In its response, city officials stated their patriotic pride and love for the U.S. flag. The response also pointed out that some had said Towbin Hummer was exploiting the flag for commercial purposes because the dealership had not built a memorial as promised.

Dan Towbin, owner of Towbin Hummer, said “95 to 98 percent” of the response he has gotten after speaking to Fox News, CNN and other national news outlets has been on his side.

He hopes the council will back off its unanimous decision and allow him to keep his flag.

“I think it was a decision that should be reversed,” Towbin said.

Las Vegas businesses can build flag poles 40-feet high, but need special approval to go taller.

But Towbin said a 40-foot flag wouldn’t work at the Hummer dealership.

“The building’s oversized, the sign’s oversized, the cars are oversized. A 40-foot flag would not turn anybody’s head to the flag,” he said.

Mayor Oscar Goodman, who made the motion last year to allow the flag to be 100 feet, said he wouldn’t change his mind until the veterans memorial that Towbin had promised was built.

“Get us a memorial, and then we can talk about a flag in excess of 40 feet,” Goodman said.

By Tuesday, the dealership had poured a small concrete pedestal at the base of the flag, and Towbin said a plaque to honor veterans was being engraved.

The memorial was delayed because the council hadn’t given final approval to the flag pole.

But he said he is starting to build the memorial despite the flag pole’s imminent doom “because the council made such a big deal about it.”

Councilwoman Lois Tarkanian, whose ward includes the car dealership on Sahara Avenue, between Decatur and Jones boulevards, said she hasn’t heard anything to change her mind.

When Towbin came before the council in May 2006, he agreed that if there were community protests about the flag, he would take it down.

“Any agency or entity that makes a commitment to the city has to abide by those commitments,” she said.

Towbin questioned the motives of those who complained about the noise, and said community opposition was never proven at the City Council meeting.

Tarkanian, like Goodman, said the decision was not about patriotism. She pointed to a city ordinance that forbids homeowner associations from preventing flags to be flown. She also said she offered to allow Towbin to have a 75-foot high flag, but was rebuffed by him.

The city and residents who live near the dealership, say that the stories aired on Fox News and CNN don’t present their side of the story.

“We’re getting beat up, from the news to talk radio. You name it,” said Conita Jones, who lives near the flag and opposes it.

On windy days she said she can hear the flag flap from her home, about 1,000 feet from the 30-by-60-foot flag.

Jones opposed the flag because she said it would set a precedent for other car dealers along Sahara Avenue, a commercial strip that directly abuts homes.

“There’s not a person here that hates that flag,” she said. “There’s just a better place for it.”

Jones, a Vietnam Veteran, said there has been a contentious relationship between the dealership and the neighborhood. In the past, residents and dealerships in the area have dueled over test drives on neighborhood streets.

“He’s a great businessman. You have to admire that,” Jones said. “But it’s at the expense of the neighborhood.”

Towbin said at the council meeting May 16 that the city never contacted him for the six-month review. Letters from the city to Towbin indicate he was notified of the review in August.

Gary Swanciger, one of the residents closest to the flag, said the flapping wakes him at night.

“It’s not fair to the neighborhood,” he said.

The flag was about selling cars, Swanciger said, not a public display of patriotism as Towbin maintains.