Las Vegas is a tourist town. Tourism is the life blood of the city and the people who work here rely on tourism for a majority of our jobs. That’s what pays the bills.
Now I know many of you are reading this going “DAH”. You know that, I know that, but the people who are the powers-that-be, seem to think we are a well-diversified, urban community. Like Chicago or Miami. We’re Not. We Are Las Vegas. We’re different!
The First Act of Stupidity:
The Deuce was introduced as a unique tourist transportation solution. It easily took people from the strip, to downtown. Simple, easy and convenient. The tourist just walked out of their hotel to the curb, found the stop, got on and rode it to the next tourist destination.
Any time, day or night, the tourist had an easy to remember system to get from downtown to the strip and to where they most likely would want to go to.
A simple, easy and affordable way to see the strip and downtown? What were we thinking?? So the powers-that-be decided they needed to confuse the tourist. Introducing – The Ace!! It goes part way down the strip, turns and goes down Convention Center Drive and onto Paradise to downtown.
FYI: Convention Center Drive and anywhere along Paradise is like grid lock central during any one of the many major conventions that still come to this town. Unless Obama takes another swipe at us, than we’re a ghost town.
The Deuce now starts at Mandalay Bay and ends at Palace Station. Don’t know where Palace Station is? Now you see my point?? It’s where OJ did his deed that made him a Nevada resident for the next nine years. The Deuce no longer serves downtown.
The second Act of stupidity.
Actually it’s the usual greed over common sense. MGM is implementing a chain wide “Resort fees”. Like the airlines, they are now charging you an additional fee for using their hotel.
It’s not that Resort Fees are anything new. It’s just that I thought we were trying to attract tourists back to Las Vegas. We need to give you a reason to COME here, not another reason to go elsewhere.
As a tourist destination, we are already fighting against MGM’s casinos in other states. As a traveler, the airlines are raping us with new fees and body cavity searches. As the destination, we need to make it worth your effort and hassle to come here. This isn’t how you do it!
Room taxes were raised to pay for… well, not really sure who gets their palms greased with new fees. The car rental fees were raised to pay for some art thing nobody goes to or uses. Especially tourists…
So now we add “resort fees” to the long list of add-ons the tourist has to budget into an already tight budget? And what do you get for the new fees? You get free incoming faxes and the use of the phone they put in your room. Plus a few other little luxuries that are already there.
The year is young and we already have two top contenders for the stupidest marketing idea of the year award….
See if you can make sense of the bus routing. Here is The RTC Website
I think that you missed the problem with the Deuce. Maybe, just maybe, Oscar did play a role in that and that’s why the Deuce took a sharp left turn to turn around before it entered Oscar’s jurisdiction. Think about it.
About the time that this decision would have been made, the good mayor was involved in very heated situations with the Culinary Union and just about anyone who wanted city money spent on anything other than the new City Hall. His popularity was about as thin as it has ever been.
I think a compromise was reached. Oscar gets the new City Hall and the silly little bus only lanes downtown that will serve City Hall. Since Oscar is Vice Chairman of the RTC and his focus was the new city hall, the new bus route with cute neon signs was needed to support it.
The Chairman of the RTC works for District C, which is the Centennial area where the longer Ace Express operates from. This is also part of Oscars bus line downtown.
Clark County Commissioner Chris Giunchigliani serves District E and is on the RTC board. District E includes most of “the strip” as well as the turn around area for the Ace Express.
Gary Reese serves the area of the City of Las Vegas from Sahara going to downtown. Oops, he isn’t on the RTC board. Ward 3 doesn’t get an inside vote.
There are many political movers and shakers on the strip with significant influence that did not approve of Oscar’s behavior since the recession and they probably wouldn’t loose any sleep if the Deuce did not go downtown.
So, the way I see it, this makes perfect political sense. The problem is that it does not make a lick of common sense. And it’s bastards like you, me, and anyone else with a brain that are causing problems by raising our hand up and asking for accountability when we see a problem.
Your podcast raised the question about whether the Deuce route was run by Oscar’s desk. I think, yes. Not only because he is Vice Chairman of the RTC, but he was fixated on the new City Hall, the neon signs in the medians, and the cultural corridor. I think that he was banking on word getting out that “the easy way to get downtown” would be to catch the ACE Gold Line at Showcase, Paris, Wynn/Encore, Sahara, or Strat.
I think that the only winner in this deal is the Palace Station.