Nor'Town: Politics in North Las Vegas, Nevada

Viva La Revolucion de Helado!

Well, "Community Ice Cream Social" doesn't pack the punch of "Picnic Against Pardee", or "Picnic Against Apartments," but in our little company town, it's probably more prudent not to speak the names of one's overlords out load.

Anyways, the Picnic Against Apartments Awareness Raising Ice Cream Social will take place at Seastrand park on May 3rd from 1-4pm and will boast music, raffle prizes, refreshments, snacks, free ice cream, and balloons. There WON'T be any barbecue, so no grills please. Besides, you can get your fill over at Tom Collins' place right afterwards, where Pardee helps pay for the meat.

Man, I'd pay good money for a balloon with the mayor's head on it, wouldn't you?

Anyways, volunteers are still needed, and you should contact Sally Breach at eldorado3rd@cox.net ASAP if  you want to help out with time, money, or supplies.

David Salmon and others will be there to offer advice to those directly affected by the various apartment projects around Nor'town, and you can sign up for a web community thingy about the apartments over here. Salmon is the fellow who wrote the cogent but ultimately unconvincing letter urging the council to vote down the Pardee apartments.

Of course, the Nor'Town council voted for the apartments, but if Nor'Towners become more vigilant and politically active, that won't happen again.

Picnic Against Apartments

Your help is needed to support a picnic against apartments on May 3rd, 2008, from 1pm-4pm at Seastrand Park on Centennial between Camino Eldorado and Revere.

You can help by donating money, food, drink, paper plates, napkins, balloons, signs, etc. Contact Sarah Humphreys ASAP if you can help at sahumphreys@embarqmail.com.

"You May Have Woken a Sleeping Giant"

So said North Las Vegas planning commissioner Dean Leavitt at the end of an endless evening at the Nor'Town City Council.

The dominant issue for the evening was about the apartments at Revere Street and Centennial. Council chambers were filled with red-shirt bedecked citizens who voiced their objections to the project.

In the end, the protestations were for naught. The council voted to support the apartment development. The vote:

Mike Montandon: for
Stephanie Smith: for
Robert Eliason: for
William Robinson: against
Shari Buck: against

Those voting in favor were convinced that the city would lose a court battle with the builder because an ancient development agreement zoned the area for commercial or multifamily dwellings.

Those voting against figured that the city might be able to win such a suit given Pardee Homes' apparent tendency to allow their sellers to tell a stretcher or two to sell houses.

Either that, or they were running for mayor. Both Robinson and Buck may have thought that the city losing a lawsuit might be a cheap price to pay to slip into Mayor Mike's chair. Indeed, Buck encouraged the redshirts to pursue their fight "for good" and seemed bent on turning them into campaign volunteers as she worked the crowd after the vote.

As the mayoral contest heats up, stand by to see Robinson and Buck remind Nor'Towners about fellow mayoral candidate Stephanie Smith's vote.

Leavitt may be correct that a sleeping giant has awakened. Even a small group of motivated citizens can have a huge effect on NLV elections. Elections turn on very small numbers here because of the historic apathy of the voters. Enthusiasm is a precious us product. It is small surprise that Buck would like to bottle up some of it for her own campaign.

Unless, of course, the giant starts getting bored, or distracted again, and falls back into a doze. Then the council will be able to settle into its pro-growth rut once again.

The Battle for Ann Road

I figure the battle for Ann Road, as waged in the Nor'Town planning commission, is about 1 to 1.

Two weeks ago, the planning commission voted to allow Pardee Homes to shrink backyards to about the size of a postage stamp. (VN)

At the planning commission meeting on Wednesday night, the commission unanimously voted to deny the application of a developer to build multifamily units near the corner of Ann Road and Clayton. Over 30 irate citizens from the neighborhood appeared, and about 17 or so got up to speak against the proposal.

The most entertaining moment of the whole interchange was when the lawyer-lobbyist for the developer admitted that she had sent notice to only four email addresses for a meeting where unsurprisingly no one attended.

One can only speculate what would have happened if no one, or only one or two people, had spoken against the proposal. But that's what blogs are for, idle speculation based on little or no facts. So, I suspect it would have passed otherwise since several members of the commission said they had spoken with the developer and thought it was an "exciting" and innovative idea.

So, it just goes to show once again, that it usually pays to get off your butt and head to meetings, especially if you can get a bunch of your neighbors involved.

Unless, of course, you live in south Nor'town, where your complaints about nearby junk yards, garbage dumps, and mega-laundromats designed to clean the sin off of sin city's sheets will fall on deaf ears. Cato and Leavitt were the only two commissioners to vote against a proposal for a special use permit to stick a great big tank filled with bleach and other nastiness on a laundry property.

And will somebody please inform Mr. Sparkman that he doesn't live in the soulless, yuppie hell called Summerlin. He lives in Bootlegger-Born Nor'Town!