Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas Sign gets Vandalized AGAIN!

From Fox5:

The iconic Las Vegas sign has been vandalized for the second time this year.At about 7:30 Friday morning, a barefoot man wearing a barrel and a Santa's hat threw red paint on the front of the “Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas” sign and black paint on the back of it, as FOX5 News was broadcasting live.

The man, Joe Pepitone, told FOX5 News he threw the paint at the sign as a form of protest. He was also one of the protesters in front of the Clark County courtroom during the O.J. Simpson heist trial.

At the time, FOX5 was reporting at the world famous sign on the southern end of the Strip about a program Metro police have implemented to try to get graffiti artists to redirect their tagging to actual art canvasses to be sold to fund the program.

Pepitone, who was half-naked, said he had lost his job and gambling winnings.Police said Pepitone could face jail time if cleaning up the damage costs more than $250. Otherwise, he could face a fine, police said.Pepitone tripped and cried after defacing the sign, and he complained of ear ringing, so an ambulance transported him to a local hospital for treatment.

Needless to say Joe Pepitone, Reality called, your 15 seconds of fame are up.

As City Center opens, the Mint Tower Closes

 You know how much we love the Mint Hotel around here.  Well, we aren't the only ones.  Seems our good friend, John L. Smith, columnist for the Review-Journal, does as well!

From today's R-J:

Somewhere out there, Hunter S. Thompson is grumbling in his grave. Above ground, K.J. Howe is nursing a helluva heartache.

The Mint hotel, which Thompson observed in "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" and Howe promoted for a couple decades, is going dark.

With the crescendo of coverage of the opening of CityCenter and its promise of 12,000 jobs, you might have missed the news of the downtown closing and loss of 100 jobs. Although in recent years it's been called Binion's hotel, most locals still recognize the tower with the penthouse restaurant as the Mint, a casino that opened in the mid-1950s, was bought by Del Webb in 1961, and in 1965 briefly became the valley's tallest building.

The Mint was eventually bought by the Binion family and is now the property of TLC Casino Enterprises, but I never heard anyone but tourists call it Binion's hotel.

With its glass elevator, ritzy "Top of the Mint" restaurant, Quarterdeck seafood house, and Merri Mint Lounge, it was a happening place. In its heyday, Vic Damone and Patsy Cline headlined there. The Mint 400 off-road race attracted national media to Fremont Street.

Thompson drew an assignment to write about a narcotics officers' convention and the Mint 400 when he crossed the desert on his long, strange trip. He stayed at the Mint in Room 1850. A legend was born, but Thompson didn't need hallucinogens to colorize the Mint's characters. They were everywhere.

Suzi Arden and Freddie Bell were lounge favorites. Lee Greenwood dealt cards there. And singer Patti York, Howe recalls, occasionally worked as an elevator operator.

Long before Thompson made the scene, Lee Marvin and Woody Strode took a break from the 1966 shooting of "The Professionals" and made headlines when they ambushed Vegas Vic from their suite at the Mint.

Whether out of an abundance of playfulness or whiskey, Marvin and Strode got it in their minds Vegas Vic was making too much noise. Since they had a long bow at their disposal (the movie was a Western), they used it to shoot arrows at the metal cowboy famous for saying "Howdy Podner!"

Vic escaped with minor injuries, and Marvin and Strode got their archery privileges taken away.

That was tame compared to the time former Mint public relations director Howe whacked a Christmas tree and wound up on the naughty list.

At the Top of the Mint, management placed a Christmas tree to celebrate the season. Trouble was, the crowds were big and the tree kept getting in the way of customers. Howe rang in the New Year by hurling the offending evergreen off the top of the Mint and watching it twinkle out of sight.

That would have ended it if New Year's celebrants hadn't seen an object dropping through the darkness and assumed it was a jumper. Security was called, but Howe wasn't fired. He was only suspended.

Howe confirms the story, but playfully adds, "There's no truth to the rumor I was naked at the time."

Watching the tower go dark is almost too much for this die-hard Vegas guy to take.

"When I heard, my stomach just fell out," Howe says. "The Mint was a perfect place. It made money. It was a boutique little (365-room) hotel with a great staff and great service. We treated the $5,000 cardholder like a high roller. The Mint had a certain cachet that a lot of properties on the Strip wish they'd had. It's a damn shame it's gone."

Ironically, the boutique hotel experience is part of the $8.5 billion CityCenter's marketing strategy.

May the new Las Vegas have even half the colorful characters that place did.

RTC Transit finds its future in Las Vegas' past

The RTC is going neon.  Well along the new bus routes anyways.  Seems they are teaming with the Neon Museum and others to restore neon signs from our collective past and use as transit markers on their new routes.

From the Review-Journal:

Downtown Las Vegas has developed into a hip place to hang out and now the Regional Transportation Commission is hoping to play off the newly chic neighborhoods.

Like downtown, the transit agency aims to reinvent itself; it's working to shake the stigma attached to hopping on a public bus. The latest effort comes in the form of neon signs -- some dug out from the old neon boneyard and others newly built. They adorn three stops along the agency's trendy new ACE transit line.

 

In the Arts District, a massive sign reading "18b" shadows the transit stop. For those of us who aren't as cool as we think we are, 18b means 1800 block, which is how the artsy crowd refers to that area. Down the street is the retro sign from the 5th Street Liquor store and, across from the Las Vegas Convention Center, stands the original Landmark casino sign -- reborn on the same spot of the old establishment.

"It's an interpretive, artistic way to illuminate the route for the ACE," said Jacob Snow, general manager of the commission. "We want to make it cool looking and make it a positive experience."

Downtown once had a reputation for prostitution, cheap shrimp cocktails, homeless people and cheesy casino giveaways. It has re-emerged as a gathering spot for the younger crowd with trendy bars that offer no gambling.

The redevelopment has even surprised Las Vegas natives such as Snow. Now, Snow is doing the same with the bus system.

Over the years, the agency has gradually faded out its purple and green, exhaust-billowing Citizens Area Transit buses, replacing them with the gold single and double-deck RTC vehicles. In March, the transportation agency will unveil the new ACE system.

Passengers purchase their tickets at the stops, which, combined with the bus-level curbs, will allow a more convenient and quicker boarding process. The new vehicles are the closest Las Vegas will have to light-rail.

And the vehicles themselves?

"This is not your grandfather's bus; this is not a toaster on wheels," Snow said.

So in introducing this new line that will primarily serve downtown and the Strip, why not draw more attention to it with the old-school signs?

"They add native history," Snow said. "We don't have a lot in terms of keeping our history."

In addition to the neon bus stop demarcations, the agency has chosen a handful of artists to create pieces that will be installed on each bus shelter's eight panels.

The idea to install cool signs was actually born years before downtown became popular again.

Snow credits former Clark County Parks and Recreation Director Pat Marchese, who suggested raiding the boneyard for signs that could be erected in the rights of way of a planned light-rail system. The light-rail fell to the wayside, but that didn't mean the RTC should do the same with the signs, Snow said.

The ACE project is still under its $60 million budget, which means Snow and his associates may head back down to the boneyard, a Las Vegas Boulevard property where the signs are stored. He figures he might be able to afford three more signs that would be installed on the Grand Central Parkway stretch of the ACE route.

"This is going to be a lot of fun," Snow said.

And if his strategy works, Las Vegans might think the same about riding the bus.

The Las Vegas Arts District gets a new name and a new sign!

After several years of anticipation the "18b" sign arrived in Las Vegas' Arts District this morning. 18b is the official name of the arts district.

The name represents the original 18 blocks that make up the district. The sign is part of a series of new and historic signs that are being placed along the Casino Center Rue in Downtown. Casino Center is being transformed into a major transportation hub and corridor that will connect the Las Vegas Strip with Fremont Street, Symphony Park and 18b.

In addition several local artists were commissioned to design bus shelters using historic signs from the Neon Museum such as the 5th Street Liquor Sign and the Landmark. The entire project is being anchored by a new transportation hub currently under construction on Casino Center and Bonneville. The new transportation center will replace the one directly behind the Historic Post Office and Court House on Stewart Avenue.

Thanks to Brian "Paco" Alvarez for letting us use the images!