Here is what Las Vegas needs to get through this coronavirus disaster: a reliance upon science, medicine and common sense to determine when and how to reopen business in this state, and more money from the federal government to help the people in our community who have lost or are on the verge of losing their jobs, their businesses and their hope.
Here is what Las Vegas absolutely does not need: Mayor Carolyn Goodman uttering one more word about what she thinks is good for the people of this city and this state.
Anderson Cooper, who the mayor said in the middle of a personal disaster (her appearance on CNN this past week) was an excellent interviewer, spent an inordinate amount of time showing the entire world what is arguably the single worst interview ever to air on television. And, sadly for Las Vegas, that segment on CNN has become one the most watched pieces of cable news in a very long time.
Even I, who has no facility with the Twitter world, was compelled to follow just a few responses during what was a real-time reaction to each word Carolyn uttered to a disbelieving Cooper who just couldn’t fathom the depth to which Las Vegas’ mayor dove toward political oblivion for herself (not that she cares) and financial destruction of our tourism-based economy (for which we should all care).
One woman decided a picture was worth 1,000 words — which aren’t allowed on Twitter — and sent a screenshot from CNN with Goodman talking and Cooper burying his head in his hands, as if trying to remove himself from the reality of her words. “No additional commentary necessary,” followed that picture.
None, indeed.
Another woman who grew up in Las Vegas and who has contributed mightily to its success through the years tweeted, “She has lost her G-damn mind! Sisolak must be furious. LVCVA is losing their minds, I’m sure ... OMG!”
Another one, “She needs to get off the air! OMG she is making our city look terrible!”
And from there things on Twitter went downhill, just like the mayor’s interview, which can be summed up in a sentence or two: Open up the city, the hotels, restaurants, tattoo parlors and spas, conventions and whatever else brings people from all over the world to Las Vegas, get them close to each other, and then send them back home. If they get infected and inflict the damage back home, so be it. This is America. We have a right to be as stupid, reckless and flagrantly uncaring for the lives of others as we want to be!
No, I am not exaggerating. Everyone should go to CNN.com and watch the interview. I am certain the marketing geniuses at the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, and most of our larger hotels, have already worn out the replay buttons on their own computers by now, trying in vain to find something redeeming in her words.
Fixing the damage to the reputation of a city that has always shined bright as the one place on earth where people can feel safe and free to let loose — of their inhibitions and their loose change — will be very difficult given the mayor’s words of reckless abandonment of all things sensical.
If I didn’t know any better (and perhaps I don’t) I would have a hard time distinguishing Carolyn’s attitude from that of Georgia’s governor who thinks it is OK to open his state up at time when almost all commonsense-driven science says it is way too early to abandon social distancing and wariness for the virus’ potency. To which the governor says, OK, then let’s just open tattoo parlors, spas and bowling alleys. What harm could that do?
Carolyn is not wrong in one respect. The people who can least afford to get hurt in this crisis — the working men and women in our number one, two and three industries, tourism — are the people who need help right now.
Her solution — to reopen the town without any thought or any plan to mitigate the incredible risk to our residents as well as our tourists and their friends and family back home — is nuts!
Gov. Steve Sisolak’s solution was right and, fortunately for Nevadans, he did it early enough to make a significant difference in our disease and death rate compared to most other states. So until science, medicine and common sense converge on an appropriate time to start to reopen it would be insanity to suggest otherwise.
I think, as I wrote over a month ago, the right answer is for the federal government to continue to recognize that the working men and women and small-business owners in our country must be held harmless.
They are the victims of government action to close the country down, which should make them the first in line to be made whole by that government. Yes, another trillion dollars or two paid directly to those who have lost their jobs or small businesses or who are on the brink of losing them should be at the front of the line for federal help.
That is doubly true for Las Vegas which is at the epicenter of this economic shutdown. In this tourist-dependent region, we have acted selflessly by closing our city to people from around the world. We will be among the last states to be back to any sense of normalcy because we are wholly dependent upon the desire of others to travel here.
Whatever the mayor’s motivation, had Goodman expressed that sentiment on CNN she would have had heads across the country nodding in agreement to a most sensible position.
Instead, she expressed an opinion — speaking for all Las Vegans — that makes us sound like the most uncaring, heartless and scientifically and medically deficient community that ever existed.
And that is not Las Vegas. Carolyn Goodman can no longer speak for us.
Brian Greenspun is editor, publisher and owner of the Sun.