Pair taking steps to clean up Gateway District

When it comes to neighborhood rehabilitation, one way to know you're getting somewhere is if someone talks about killing you.

By that measure, Walt Walters and Earl White have started making progress in the Gateway District, aka Meadows Village and Naked City, a neighborhood next to the Stratosphere long known as the go-to place for drugs and prostitutes.

They procured and set up bright construction lights a month ago outside an apartment complex Walters owns and stationed security guards in the area. Since then, the usual illicit goings-on along Tam Drive have been forced to relocate.

That got someone's attention. White said a passer-by delivered the warning, or threat, by talking loudly enough to be overheard by a security officer.

"They said they're going to get the heavyset black guy and the white guy that drives the Hummer," said White, who manages Walters' security and property management companies. "I was kind of disappointed because I've been losing weight.

"I've been working in underserved communities from Compton to Watts to Las Vegas; and if I had a nickel for every time someone threatened my life, I'd be a millionaire."

Which means the threat hasn't deterred them from walking the neighborhood and stationing guards there 24 hours a day to prevent vandalism to the construction lights. They also have plans to add lights in other parts of the neighborhood with the help of the Stratosphere and the Allure condominium tower.

"They have the blessing of the police department," said Mayor Pro Tem Gary Reese, whose ward includes the Gateway area. "All they're supposed to do is get license plates and colors of cars, types of cars, people walking and where they go and all that.

"That area over there has been a problem spot since I've been on the council."

The effort is not altogether altruistic. Walters owns three apartment buildings in the area, including one being remodeled for senior housing.

The owners of the Stratosphere have talked about bringing a sports arena to 20 acres nearby, and having a view of the gritty, dilapidated crime haven is hardly a selling point for the Allure condos.

And though the increased scrutiny in one area moves criminal activity without stopping it altogether, it's still worthwhile, said Deputy Chief Gary Scofield of the Metropolitan Police Department.

"If you're in the ocean and you're out there by yourself, and you're surrounded by 100 sharks, your chances of survival are slim. If you can disperse the sharks and get someone to keep an eye on the sharks, the chances get better."

Other neighborhoods, such as West Las Vegas and the area around Fremont and 15th streets, have made progress as residents and business owners have worked together with police, Scofield said. Those in the neighborhoods daily know who is there legitimately and who is up to no good.

"When a neighborhood doesn't take care of itself, people find it acceptable for certain things to occur," Scofield said. "The community has to be involved in the effort. They're setting the norms."

As pressure is applied, Walters and White learn how deep the neighborhood's problems run. Other property owners have hired Walters' company to watch their buildings as well, and taking over a new property usually means clearing out squatters and dealing with years of neglect.

In one case, six supposedly vacant apartments were occupied. On another street where two apartment buildings were back to back, the space between the buildings hid a nest of extension cords funneling electricity from the one unit that had power.

On many buildings, the electricity meters are broken or torn apart, and dwellings with broken or boarded-up windows are common.

A neighborhood cleanup April 26 attracted 400-plus volunteers, police and city officials, who promised a sustained effort to crack down on crime and on property owners who let their buildings get run down.

City officials met with neighborhood residents recently and are working on some of the building code issues brought up, Reese said. Because of budget concerns and issues related to foreclosures and abandoned properties, code enforcement staff are stretched thin just with normal duties.

It took decades for the area to decline as much as it has, and it won't be easy to win it back, he added.

"We go in there and clean it up, and bingo! It's really good," Reese said. "The drug dealers, the pimps and the prostitutes just go somewhere else. And then we hit them there and they go back.

"You do all you can, and hope and pray that somewhere you get a break."

That break usually means someone seeking to change an area.

"It's getting people with money to go in and reinvest, and that's what Mr. Walters has done," Reese said.

Most Gateway residents are good people, Walters said. They either have nowhere else to go, or they're starting over at the bottom of the ladder.

For the time being, the illicit deeds have been reduced somewhat and forced out of a "comfort zone" that had been established on Tam Drive. The next step is to make it uncomfortable to break the law elsewhere in the neighborhood.

"We're not going away," Walters said. "We're going to be a pain in the ass until it's over."

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