… does it take to fix an escalator?
According to the Los Angeles Times‘ Vegas blogger, Richard Abowitz, there’s still a broken escalator at the Las Vegas Tropicana. I first read about this in the LVA forums weeks — weeks! — ago. It’s a free market and all that, but who in their right minds runs a Strip casino as though it were Nevada Palace (slated to close on Leap Day, so hurry up and visit if you haven’t been to the casino that time forget and the decades cannot improve)?
This isn’t Abowitz’s first bizarre experience with owners Columbia Sussex, the previous one having led him to dub the Trop “a warehouse with gambling.” He also noticed problems remarkably similar to those chronicled at the Sussex-ed Atlantic City Tropicana. There the damage control continues, including restoration of the much-depleted security force. With prospective owner Curtis Bashaw practically camped out on the A.C. Trop’s doorstep, at the nearby Chelsea Hotel, the big question is: When’s he going to make his much-bruited move? There are only two bids on the table right now, one from Colony Capital and a higher but somewhat more ephemeral-looking one from a mystery group.
The Trop speaks. S&G has obtained a copy of an unpublished letter to the editor of the Las Vegas Sun. It probably wasn’t published because it was sent out w/o a signature. Columbia Sussex spokesman Hud Englehart says, “That was not intentional, as I understand,” and says it was drafted by both Western Region Vice President of Hotel Operations Asaad Karam and regional veep of gaming ops Rick Yuhas.
For some reason, the letter was e-mailed to the Sun from the Vegas Trop, even though Karam is in Phoenix. A good thing it wasn’t snail-mailed, because it might still be in transit — given that it’s addressed to an office building the Sun hasn’t occupied in almost a decade.
Skydiving. Yes, skydiving. As in, the Significant Other wants to do it this weekend. My stomach tightens into a knot at the mere thought of leaping out of a plane. Does this make me a coward? Don’t everybody say “Yes” all at once, now.
