Mayor says Fremont Street appeals may be near an end

A court ruling setting aside several Las Vegas ordinances that sought to limit activities such as handbilling and business solicitation at the Fremont Street Experience could be appealed, but Mayor Oscar Goodman said Monday that it might be time to let the 12-year-old lawsuit go.

The City Council will hear its options at an upcoming meeting, he said, and can weigh the merits of appealing the decision, trying to craft another set of ordinances or taking some other approach.

"This case has been going on since way before any of my council even got here," Goodman said. "I'd just as soon put it to rest and not appeal it, but we'll follow our attorney's advice, of course."

At the same time, he said the city would fight anyone who tried to pass out adult material, such as the escort advertisements handed out on the Strip.

"You don't want to see one of these situations where a man takes his daughter down to Fremont Street to see the light show and has some smut shoved in his daughter's face," Goodman said. "If they use the same aggressive mannerisms that they do out on the Strip, we're certainly not going to tolerate that."

The American Civil Liberties Union challenged the ordinances on free speech grounds, arguing that bans on passing out literature and advertising or on setting up tables to promote a cause were unconstitutional.

The case has been winding its way through appeals, revised ordinances and more litigation since 1997.

In enacting the ordinances, city leaders said businesses that rent space or kiosks from Fremont Street Experience LLC, which operates the pedestrian mall, need some protection against people setting up competing sales operations next door for free.

"They charge rent, and they make a substantial amount of money toward their operations, for the maintenance of the Fremont Street Experience," Goodman said. "To have a contemplation that somebody could go in there without paying rent and start selling material ... that would appear to be deeply unfair to me."

The ruling, by District Judge David Alan Ezra, acknowledged this concern.

Contact reporter Alan Choate at achoate@reviewjournal.com or 702-229-6435.