By Rolando Larraz
Las Vegas Tribune
Las Vegas Tribune
A 
new city ordinance aimed at getting the city’s homeless population off the streets went into effect in November of last year, but criminal penalties will not apply until Feb. 1, 2020.
This is supposed to reduce the number of homeless on the streets of Las Vegas where legitimate residents and business owners live and work, paying rent, taxes and other forcibly and unnecessary government charges.
The two city council persons at the city’s most dysfunctional wards opposed the ordinance as the councilwoman in Ward 3, Olivia Diaz, stated “I need to focus on transitional and affordable housing,” ignoring the needs of the rest of the residents in Ward 3. After all, her counterpart on voting against the new ordinance, Ward 1 councilman Brian Knudsen, has said “downtown business is booming” despite the inconvenience of having to walk over one homeless person and another at the front doors of downtown businesses.
It is possible that Councilwoman Olivia Diaz and her Ward 1 counterpart, Brian Knudsen, are thinking of going in the business of renting spaces in the downtown for the homeless to camp at and interrupt the business of the strange, uncommon and ridiculously normal people who pay rent, power and other unnecessary bills that normal people pay while living in a normal habitat, not to mention the attorneys whose nice and beautiful properties have been taken over by Knudsen and Diaz protégées, and yet whose business pays taxes, mortgages, utilities, and most importantly, is responsible for the staff payrolls that are not dependent on government assistance.
People who come downtown to do business in Ward 3 many times are scared to get out of their cars and wonder if it is safe to come back at sundown because of the depressing view they see when arriving at
some downtown locations.
The city does not need caseworkers “to get people back on the right track”; the city needs caseworkers to get people out of the casinos where they lose their checks hours after they cash it in the local casinos.
One case in mind is an individual who receives two checks — not one, but two — and on the fourth of every month is back under the same tree sleeping because he left his two checks at the Palace Station.
Instead of case workers “to get people back on the right track,” Diaz—not Knudsen, who has his own troubles in his Ward 1 with people turning residential areas into their own commercial area with the
expenses that other businesses incur and with semi-trucks parked on side streets — is using these “caseworkers” to make deals with those casinos who welcome the homeless checks every month to stop taking their money, talking to property owners reminding them that turning Las Vegas into another Los Angeles with super high prices for their trashy places is not helping anyone.
In fact, it is possible that turning Las Vegas into another Los Angeles with super high price rents for trashy downtown places could hurt the downtown gaming places who are losing that extra cash people
have to pay for a roof over their head. It is a fact that the old casino operators’ mentality is a thing of
the past; today corporate mentality may not care as much for the community as their old counterparts did, but it will never be known unless some type of communication is established.
new city ordinance aimed at getting the city’s homeless population off the streets went into effect in November of last year, but criminal penalties will not apply until Feb. 1, 2020.This is supposed to reduce the number of homeless on the streets of Las Vegas where legitimate residents and business owners live and work, paying rent, taxes and other forcibly and unnecessary government charges.
The two city council persons at the city’s most dysfunctional wards opposed the ordinance as the councilwoman in Ward 3, Olivia Diaz, stated “I need to focus on transitional and affordable housing,” ignoring the needs of the rest of the residents in Ward 3. After all, her counterpart on voting against the new ordinance, Ward 1 councilman Brian Knudsen, has said “downtown business is booming” despite the inconvenience of having to walk over one homeless person and another at the front doors of downtown businesses.
It is possible that Councilwoman Olivia Diaz and her Ward 1 counterpart, Brian Knudsen, are thinking of going in the business of renting spaces in the downtown for the homeless to camp at and interrupt the business of the strange, uncommon and ridiculously normal people who pay rent, power and other unnecessary bills that normal people pay while living in a normal habitat, not to mention the attorneys whose nice and beautiful properties have been taken over by Knudsen and Diaz protégées, and yet whose business pays taxes, mortgages, utilities, and most importantly, is responsible for the staff payrolls that are not dependent on government assistance.
People who come downtown to do business in Ward 3 many times are scared to get out of their cars and wonder if it is safe to come back at sundown because of the depressing view they see when arriving at
some downtown locations.
The city does not need caseworkers “to get people back on the right track”; the city needs caseworkers to get people out of the casinos where they lose their checks hours after they cash it in the local casinos.
One case in mind is an individual who receives two checks — not one, but two — and on the fourth of every month is back under the same tree sleeping because he left his two checks at the Palace Station.
Instead of case workers “to get people back on the right track,” Diaz—not Knudsen, who has his own troubles in his Ward 1 with people turning residential areas into their own commercial area with the
expenses that other businesses incur and with semi-trucks parked on side streets — is using these “caseworkers” to make deals with those casinos who welcome the homeless checks every month to stop taking their money, talking to property owners reminding them that turning Las Vegas into another Los Angeles with super high prices for their trashy places is not helping anyone.
In fact, it is possible that turning Las Vegas into another Los Angeles with super high price rents for trashy downtown places could hurt the downtown gaming places who are losing that extra cash people
have to pay for a roof over their head. It is a fact that the old casino operators’ mentality is a thing of
the past; today corporate mentality may not care as much for the community as their old counterparts did, but it will never be known unless some type of communication is established.
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