A truly great city needs truly great public transportation

Any list of the best cities in the world includes our home in Las Vegas, but you don’t see it at the top of those lists very often, as wasted money and poor priorities prevent Las Vegas from making the leap that takes us from ‘tourist destination’ to ‘world-class city’. Governmental boondoggles have cost taxpayers millions of dollars, from repaving roads for an F1 race (that most of us can’t afford to attend), to building a stadium designed to bring the worst franchise in Major League Baseball to Las Vegas (and this from a Rockies fan).

It’s easy to see why these priorities are in such bad shape, as Las Vegas, Clark County, and the state of Nevada have been sold to a handful of wealthy corporations, as illustrated by a cursory glance at any donation report. The Clark County Commissioners are universally sponsored by Station, MGM, and the rest of the Strip corridor, who, along with Cox Communications (appearing on every donor form as well) have purchased themselves the ability to govern in the way they best see fit.

This has led to a tourist destination without an American Alliance of Museums accredited general art museum, depriving children and adults of the education that comes from a great museum. It’s easy to see how gambling establishments could see an educational non-profit museum as competition for time and dollars, so companies that spend millions buying politicians and advertising haven’t worked together to start a museum anywhere in Clark County. Imagine the museum we could have built with that F1 money, a permanent oasis of beauty and knowledge in the desert.

We also live in a city that, despite being a tourist destination, is saddled with the worst public transportation in America (according to a study by Clever Real Estate that featured 30 American cities). The average commute for a driver in Las Vegas according to that study is 23.4 minutes, but the average public transit commute is 57.6 minutes. If I wanted to leave my house right now I could be walking in the Bellagio Conservatory within 20 minutes via car, or I could walk to the 103 bus, ride it until I change to the 202, ride it past Las Vegas Blvd, and then walk back to the Bellagio. That journey will take me nearly 80 minutes right now.

It would be great to live in a city where I could take a train to the airport, to the Strip, to the baseball stadium we’ve already built (that the A’s couldn’t fill today anyway). A truly great city needs truly great public transportation, as illustrated by the ease of getting around in London, Paris, New York City, and Chicago.

To build this public transit, a great art museum, or municipal internet for every home (see NRS 268.086 and NRS 710.147 to see how Cox bought a near monopoly in Nevada) we need leaders who will do what is right for constituents, not what is right for a handful of wealthy corporations.