I'm in a Las Vegas Frame of Mind (apologies to Billy Joel)

As the holiday season draws closer I am reminded that I need to thank a number of people who help make Classic Las Vegas possible and help make what I do easier and much more fun.

So, with that in mind and in no particular order (after all it is late at night):

To the Springs Preserve. Marcel Parent and the Educational Department for their continued support of "Untold Stories".  Each month (except January), I bring long-time residents out to talk not only about the history of Las Vegas but their role in that history.  Thanks to the Springs Preserve, this is the only continous educational program of its kind.  A very warm thanks to our regular class members and their friends that help make this program successful!  I hope more of you will join us in 2010,  Take advantage of the lower prices and the discount!

To Dennis McBride and the crew at the Nevada State Museum, Las Vegas for all their help and support throughout the year.  Dennis is like a brother to me and the crew at the State Museum is always willing to step up and help out.  Without them, there would not have been the Walter Zick event.

To Barbara Slivac who helped write the grant that made the Walter Zick event possible.  She is also a very good friend who supports the type of programming I try to do. 

To Nevada Humanties for supporting the cultural and educational programming that I do from "Untold Stories" to the Walter Zick event!

To Jack LeVine at VeryVintageVegas,  Jack and I have been friends for over two years now.  We discovered each other through our mutual blogs.  Since then we have become great comrades in arms when it comes to helping preserve not only mid-century Las Vegas but historic neighborhoods as well.

To Heidi and Scott Swank, Mary Margaret and Cary Stratton, Jenny and Zane Donaldson, Steve Evans, Bill Johnson and Mark Comstock, Pam Hartley, Susan Dean, Brian Paco Alvarez and Mary Joy Alderman who have invested in historic homes, helped restore them, appreciate their history and their place in downtown neighborhoods.

To Donna and Gail Andress and Peg Crockett for their continued support of all I do.  Donna, Gail and Peg have lived here since the 1930s and are incredibly helpful and supportive.

To the Historic Preservation Commission for their support of our Archive Project.  Thanks to a grant from them, we were able to archive 25 video oral histories on DVD with indexed transcripts.  They are available for viewing at the State Museum and Special Collections.

To the Cashman Family for their support of the Archive Project.

To the crew at Dona Maria's Restaurant Downtown for always making us feel welcome and staying open when we show up just before closing time.

To the Friends of Classic Las Vegas, from Las Vegas to Northern California to places around the United States and Europe, your continued support through yearly dues and memberships helps us to fight the good battle of preserving the history of 20th Century Las Vegas.  Without you, this would not be possible.

To all our readers who help support day in and day out this blog.  Knowing that you are out there and are reading on a daily basis helps our morale more than you can imagine.  I appreciate your support and your readership more than you know!

To all, we wish a very merry Holiday and may the New Year bring out the best in all our dreams!

Sahara Hotel Closes Two Towers

Each year, just before Christmas, the famed Las Vegas Strip is unusually quiet and slow.  Some great deals can be had in various hotels up and down the famed boulevard.

At the Sahara Hotel, one of the original properties on the north end of the Strip, they have been fighting an uphill battle in the wake of fewer tourists visiting Las Vegas due to the economic recession.  First, spokespeople for the Sahara Hotel said that they were closing two of the hotel's towers because of the slow Christmas traffic in Las Vegas.

Now, they are saying they aren't sure when the towers will reopen.  Could the Sahara Hotel be in greater financial difficulty than many have thought?  The years of poorly thought out remuddles have taken their toll on the property.  Add to that, all of the action the last few years on new hotels has been in the Mid-Strip and South end of the boulevard, far from the Sahara.

If the towers stay closed after the first of the year, it could be the harbinger of things to come for the former stomping ground of Louie, Keely and Sam.

From the Las Vegas Sun:

The Sahara hotel-casino in Las Vegas is temporarily closing two of its three hotel towers and its buffet, citing slow business during the holiday season.

Verena King, a spokeswoman for the company with Preferred Public Relations, couldn't immediately say Tuesday how many rooms at the 1,720-room property would be affected; or how many jobs would be affected.

"If the demand did increase, then more rooms would be made available (at the closed towers)," King said.

She said the closures are effective immediately and it's not known when, after the holidays, the towers will re-open.

The closures come as many industry analysts feel demand for Las Vegas hotel rooms will not grow enough in 2010 to fill all the new and existing hotel rooms in the U.S. gaming capital.

"We maintain our cautious outlook for Las Vegas, as we believe fundamentals should remain challenged through 2010 as Las Vegas attempts to absorb the large increase in supply in a contracting demand environment. We estimate Las Vegas Strip’s room supply to increase by approximately 15 percent (10,000 new rooms) over the next 12 months, starting with the opening of CityCenter (5,895 rooms) in December," Deutsche Bank analyst Andrew Zarnett said in a report Monday. "Based on our analysis, we expect same-store Las Vegas revenues to decline by 10 percent and EBITDA to decline by approximately 20 percent as new capacity cannibalizes existing Strip operators."

EBITDA, a profitability measure, means earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization.

Despite an uptick in visitation to Las Vegas, Las Vegas Strip gaming win fell 10.2 percent in October vs. October 2008 as statewide win of $800.3 million slumped 11.5 percent.

The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority reported that 3,153,159 people visited Las Vegas in October, up 3.7 percent from October 2008.

But the city's room inventory was up 2.8 percent in October, to 141,489 rooms -- so occupancy was down 1.2 percentage points from a year ago to 82.6 percent.

Oscar and Carolyn Goodman. readying to run for office? UPDATE

Mayor Oscar Goodman and wife Carolyn Goodman are supposed to confirm their intentions to change their voter registration from Democrat to non-partisan any time now.

This comes among growing rumors that Mayor Oscar Goodman, term limited out of running for mayor in 2012, is eyeing running for Governor.  Other gubernatiorial candidates include  Rory Reid on the Dem side and current governor, Jim Gibbons and running against Gibbo on the Republican side, Judge Brian Sandoval.

The mayor has said a change in his party affiliation will keep his options open should he decide to run for governor in 2010.

Rumors abound that Carolyn Goodman may run for Mayor of the City of the Las Vegas in 2012.

Stay tuned!

UPDATE:  The Goodmans have confirmed that they both changed their voter registration from Democrat to non-partisan but are remaining quiet on their plans to run for governor and mayor, respectfully.



Help ID this Mid-Century Modern Las Vegas Church

Okay, Dennis McBride and Tom Dyer and crew at the Nevada State Museum, Las Vegas are putting together a wonderful exhibit (hopefully to open in January) on Mid-Century Modern architecture in Las Vegas.

They are asking for our help.  Can you provide any information about this church:

Bishop Gorman, the old Bishop Gorman on Maryland Parkway, is the front runner but if you have more info, please post it here.  I'll pass the info on Dennis and crew.

Since we are in a mid-century modern frame of mind (and working on ideas for next year's event), here are some other mid-century modern gems:

Coming up later this week, all the info on New Year's Eve fireworks as well, as things we are grateful for this year as well as an update on our Archive Project. 

Stay Tuned!