As in the flowering bromance between Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) and mouthpiece-for-hire Sig “The Fixer” Rogich. The former, a longtime supporter of a proposed maglev train betwixt Las Vegas and Anaheim, switched his allegiance to Rogich’s Choo-Choo-to-Nowhere, by the strangest of coincidences, at the very moment that the Sigmeister was lining up casino bosses to endorse Reid’s troubled reelection bid.
Since Rogich has been carrying water for Reid by the tubful lately, the senator is returning the favor by yanking $45 million in federal seed money out from under the maglev project and redirecting it to local highway improvement. The good news is this will expedite the all-important McCarran International Airport-to-Fiesta Henderson commute.
The bad news is that Southern Californians and Nevadans alike will have to resign themselves to the near-inevitability of Rogich’s Desert Xpress. Both it and the maglev train may have been pie in the sky notions but Desert Xpress is an obvious non-starter. If you’ve fought your way over the El Cajon Pass, why would you park in Victorville and take a train into Vegas? For that matter, what sane Las Vegan would pay to ride the rails to V-ville, then pay again to rent a car for the rest of the journey?
The viability of the whole project rests upon Caltrans playing deux ex machina by building a connector line that will link Desert Xpress to the rest of the Golden State’s commuter trains. In light of California’s crippling budgetary problems, I wouldn’t hold my breath.
Ditto Rogich’s claim that Desert Xpress won’t require taxpayer support. We’ve heard that one before and its afterbirth was the bankrupt Las Vegas Monorail. But if maglev is effectively dead and Desert Xpress is a conceptual non-starter, why not do the unpalatable but obvious thing and try to drum up funding — and new management — in order to connect the Monorail with McCarran? It’s that or tear it down, and it’s the only sort of commuter rail Las Vegas is wont to see in this decade.
(A digression: I don’t begrudge firefighters $200K a year for risking their lives on my behalf, so I don’t see why Rogich does. He gets paid a lot more than that to whisk about with his entourage and flap his jaw at no physical risk to himself whatsover.)
Like the proverbial stopped watch that’s right twice a day, Rogich stumbles onto an obvious but generally unspoken truth about Nevada’s overreliance on casino taxes (6.75% of gross revenues) vs. mining ones (5% of net revs). The latter is an extractive industry which means that once the precious stuff is gone, it’s gone — and so is the industry. You’d think the folly of placing most of Nevada’s eggs in gambling’s basket would be obvious by now, but it’s still a tough sell.
Grudge match. There’s a lot of history between the Culinary Union and Archon Corp. Treasurer/MILF Sue Lowden, none of it good. As for Paul Lowden‘s career as a casino mogul, if it weren’t for his wife’s celebrity he’d be on the same “Whatever happened to …” slagheap as Margaret Elardi and the Herbst Brothers … assuming he’s not there already.
Why not build the Monorail to McCarran? Because it frightens the taxi lobby, and Taxi Juice seems to be the most intimidating brand of juice in this town.
While you’re going there, though, why don’t you ask Clark County why they bum their own RTC transit system to McCarran’s impossible to find ZERO Level (accessible from baggage claim only by elevator because the escalator ONLY goes up from that level) while the taxi bays are conveniently off the floor from baggage?
I’ve been asking that one around, and the best response I got was “complain to the R-J’s Road Warrior column,” which I may someday but I doubt it’s going to help. No force either public (government) nor private (strip club bosses) can even muster the spinal fortitude to keep cabs from acting like total sleazeballs on their customers, so how would we even begin to dare point out that one mode of transportation has a severe advantage at the airport?
comparing firefighters salaries with spinmeister’s won’t get you very far in the quest for equity. In my opinion the only firefighter worth $200k is the one aiming a hose at MY house!
I’ll disagree with the firefighter thing. Given the cost of living in this city is really low, $200K is absurd.
I’ve seen a mite few places where I could imagine that maybe happening, simply because the region is so expensive to live, but Vegas? Nah.
The problem is you’re looking at salary, not lifetime earnings, these guys get pensions for 20, 30, even 40 years after they stop working when you add that up and amortize it over the years they worked their salary is astronomical and that doesn’t include health benefits.
All public employee unions have done for the past 30 years is financially rape the taxpayer with high salaries, outlandish benefits, and pensions that make you drool.
People are starting wise up and soon rise up against this treatment. Look at teachers, in my parents suburban NYC school district the average salary is 85k and 25% of teachers make over 105k, for working 6 hours a day 180 days a year and then they get a f-cking pension too.
Maglev would be cool and the sort of long range investment that Las Vegas needs for a soon to be necessary reinvention. The terrain between LV & the LA area is among the best suited in the hemisphere for Maglev (mostly flat & streight) but the technology still has lots of bugs and federal funding until it is appropriated in each budget cycle is hardly a sure bet. If LV/LA rail is ever going to really happen in the lifetime of anybody over 30 the Victorville plan might just be the only realistic route. Building rail in an already developed, urban area rarely, if ever, happens in real life. Also, in LA/LV the tourism lobby probably trumps the airline or highway lobby. In the two areas that took a hard look at new high speed rail well over a decade ago (Dallas/Houston — Miami/Tampa) the airline lobby was key to scuttling the plans.
I started reading about a proposed train between Las Vegas and Los Angeles when I moved to Las Vegas in 1995. 15 years later nothing has been done. I wish somehow both of these states (and cities) could pull this off but I have a feeling this won’t get done for at least 10 years.
The lst thing I want to do when I get off the plane in Las Vegas is ride a bus. My time in Las Vegas is precious by the minutes, especially when I first get there. I ride in a private car every single day, there is nothing about riding in a bus in Las Vegas that is appealing.
Even though I’m a diehard user of public transportation, Jeff has a good point. Taxi rates in LV are exorbitant and it’s not nearly as expedient as in, say, Manhattan. (Vegas cabbies are notorious for longhauling.) However, a rental car provides the freedom of mobility one really needs to access the full range of Vegas experiences … although if you haven’t tried the go-kart rides to and through Red Rock Canyon, you’re really missing something.
But two things about Jeff’s argument:
1) McCarran does not exclusively serve tourists who are excited to be here, it’s a gateway for arrivals and departures alike and serves many profiles of people. Since I don’t drive and don’t hold a license, it’s usually the last thing I see of this town before taking off for some other place, where I’m usually happier than I am in Vegas.
2) I wasn’t saying everybody needs to use a bus. But I have never seen an airport cater so specifically to taxis as McCarran. In LAX, SFO and the like there’s often shuttle services, and in Orlando the private coach bus company Mears pretty much has ground transportation cornered.
So what’s the cause? Well, taxis are much more politically noisy in LV than in other cities.
Also, go-kart rides in Red Rock Canyon? I’ve been there several times but whaaaa-?