A boost for downtown

Nancy Deaner, 17-year veteran of the city's cultural affairs department and newly appointed director of the Las Vegas Office of Cultural Services, sees big things in store for downtown Las Vegas.

In Ms. Deaner's vision, such new arrivals as the Mob Museum in the old post office, the Neon Museum on Las Vegas Boulevard and the Smith Center for the Performing Arts will combine with the Fremont East Entertainment District and 18b Arts District to form a cohesive, vibrant downtown tartan based on art, entertainment, culture and music.

"It will knit together and fill in all of downtown," Ms. Deaner says. "The fabric is getting tighter."

"The first time I gave a Smithsonian cultural tour, they really wanted to see where the neon signs are, Fremont Street," she told the Review-Journal recently. "As I took them through every sign, I realized I was giving them a complete history of the city of Las Vegas, of buildings and places that were no longer there but told the story of who we were. ... It's like the Cliffs Notes version of graphics design in America. People from all over the world come to look at it for that reason."

It's easy to get caught up in the town's current economic struggles, but "I think the arts are getting ready to just burst forward here," Ms. Deaner asserts. "I think there are a lot of jobs, work and viable businesses that will spring forth."

Things are indeed jumping in parts of the downtown. The Triple George Grill, near the old post office, and the Mundo restaurant, across the street from the new Smith Center, already show great promise, as does former Mayor Oscar Goodman's new steak house in the refurbished Plaza hotel.

Of course, "knitting together" attractions that appeal to different crowds at different hours of the day -- especially on opposite sides of the tracks -- may not be quite as seamless as the new director envisions. But she certainly deserves support and encouragement.

Meantime, Ms. Deaner may discover her real struggle will be not so much with the city's entrepreneurs as with folks who draw their paychecks from the same place she does.

There were thriving businesses near the corner of Fremont and Las Vegas Boulevard 17 years ago. The city seized and bulldozed them under eminent domain, replacing them with Neonopolis. How's that working out?

Andre Rochat still runs restaurants in the valley -- but not downtown. Ask him about the expensive retrofitting the city required of him at Frogeez on Fourth Street, years ago -- and the meter maids who harried his customers long after dark.

More recently, Las Vegas officials lifted noise guidelines downtown in order to attract clubs including Azul Tequila, hoping they'd bring in live music and breathe life into the formerly rundown area of East Fremont. Azul owner Francisco Lara did just as he was asked -- only to face threats last fall that the City Council would put him out of business by reinstating the noise ordinances when neighbors complained.

Mr. Lara and building owner Frank Elam ended up agreeing to put walls and a roof around their "outdoor" venue, at a cost of more than $100,000.

Ms. Deaner's enthusiasm is welcome. Now if they'll just give her the power to tear up any new blizzard of parking tickets and "code" citations, we'll be getting somewhere.