My Point of View/By Rolando Larraz
I am wondering who is in charge of the traffic lights in the city because I have the feeling that whoever is in charge may have diarrhea of the brain, or may be a sadist who likes to aggravate as many of the population as possible.
For example, there is no school going on right now, but the flashing lights in the school zones are flashing since early in the morning, making everyone slow down for no reason at all.
Some flashing lights are in the 15 MPH zone, making the traffic slow down unnecessarily, and making me wonder if the person setting the school zone traffic light ever drives in those areas.
Some of those traffic lights in the city (not in the school zones) are also a reason to wonder about the common sense of those setting the lights; many of those light-settings are questionable, like having to sit at a red light for a long time while the cross street has no traffic at all, making us wonder why we waste time at that one light while traffic is lined up waiting for the light to change.
Then, there is Gass Street traveling east to west from Charleston Boulevard getting a red light on Las Vegas Boulevard, when the light turns green one advances fifty feet and the light turns red on Fourth Street.
When the light turns green on Fourth Street and a person drives a few feet, the light on Third Street turns red and one has to sit there for a few minutes while no traffic is going either way on Third Street.
The light turns green, but before one gets to Casino Center Boulevard, the light turns red and one has to sit there for another few minutes that feels like forever with no traffic going south to north or vice versa before the light turns green.
And let’s not even think about the corner of Wyoming and Main Street going east to west where the lines are waiting to cause a traffic tragedy.
Going from east to west on Wyoming, the right lane is supposed to be a right turn lane to Main, but the tiny little sign advising the drivers that the right lane is only to turn right to Main Street no one sees; most drivers in the right lane assume that they are in the lane to continue straight on Wyoming to Commerce, while the left lane that appears to be a turn lane lets you advance straight and those in the right lane many times almost hit the driver in the left lane because
they assume that the right lane is for going forward when in reality it’s to turn right onto a one-way Main Street.
I have seen so many “almost” accidents in that corner that it is not funny; I have written about this many times but it seems like the city does not care one way or another; the city is too busy firing employees that are not bilingual.
Yes, that is no mistake in the city of Las Vegas; if you do not speak Spanish it costs the employee his or her job even if he or she has been in that same position for more than twenty years.
It is a known fact that every city ward has its own clique, but losing their job for only speaking the language of this country is a little too much for my taste while the other co-workers may not even make an effort to speak the language of those who give them the opportunity to earn a decent living in a country that may or may not be their country of origin.
And on a little more serious note about the city of Las Vegas, besides the arbitrary and dictatorial regime of City Councilwoman Olivia Diaz where only her Mexican language is allowed within her Ward — let’s talk a little about the Alpine Hotel fire that happened almost fourteen months ago where six people lost their lives in a fire that could have been avoided if the code enforcement gestapos would have done their job.
The code enforcement agent that was assigned to the area of Ward 5 where the small downtown hotel is located has not inspected the property for two years, but that did not jeopardize the job of whoever was supposed to inspect the property after giving violations notice two years earlier and never coming back to make sure that infractions were corrected.
The excuse given by the city is that there are many things to do and many places to check and they did not have time in two years to revisit the property.
However, after the fire all the weight of the law fell on the property owner for not following up on the code enforcement visit to confirm that the violation was corrected.
It is the property owner’s fault for not going to the city, grabbing the code enforcement agent by the hand and forcing him/her to come back to reinspect the property?
The Alpine Hotel owners are facing several charges but the code enforcement agent is back to work and suffers no reprimands, punishment or suspension.
Only in the city of Las Vegas where the city charter allows it to happen because no one is responsible for anything.
God Bless America!
My name is Rolando Larraz, and as always, I approved this column.
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Rolando Larraz is Editor in Chief of the Las Vegas Tribune. His column appears weekly in this newspaper. To contact Rolando Larraz, email him at: Rlarraz@lasvegastribune.com or at 702-272-4634.
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