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Maturity is the key word here. You are right, we don't have it. So.... If buses could work on existing infrastructure, that is fine, too. The park and rides are nice. I am going from Summerlin to the airport for a trip at Christmas for $2 and I can park free for two weeks, longer with an extension request. That is pretty cool, and that is a start! Time spent traveling is the same and the bus shows up. Just don't tell too many about this or they will find a way to get rid of it to pay cab drivers more.
There just needs to be a little more "maturity" in providing services for folks who cannot afford to or are able to drive, or who want to plan an inexpensive, safe trip home instead of driving drunk. Thanks for thinking about that day in the future when we can no longer drive and Mr. Wynn will no longer send a limo. How about this? Add another nickel to cigarette taxes and the money will be there like magic. That is the only thing anyone will pay more for. Sit and smoke and raise money! It may as well fund useful things for the community as long as it is going to cost for health care that no one here thinks we should have. Wicked thought: Maybe that would be the answer for education, too, as the casinos will not permit a lottery. We are too immature. Just don't tell anyone it is going for schools.
You obviously want to turn Vegas into something it isn't. But there are places that give you what you want. Why don't you just move there, and stop trying to turn Vegas into something it doesn't want to be.
I live in NYC. It has pretty much what you seem to be looking for. NYC has a lot of aspects I don't like. But I have no allusions it will ever change. I'll just live with those aspects till I can leave. I think you too need to take the same attitude about Vegas.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tornado Baby
Maturity is the key word here. You are right, we don't have it. So.... If buses could work on existing infrastructure, that is fine, too. The park and rides are nice. I am going from Summerlin to the airport for a trip at Christmas for $2 and I can park free for two weeks, longer with an extension request. That is pretty cool, and that is a start! Time spent traveling is the same and the bus shows up. Just don't tell too many about this or they will find a way to get rid of it to pay cab drivers more.
There just needs to be a little more "maturity" in providing services for folks who cannot afford to or are able to drive, or who want to plan an inexpensive, safe trip home instead of driving drunk. Thanks for thinking about that day in the future when we can no longer drive and Mr. Wynn will no longer send a limo. How about this? Add another nickel to cigarette taxes and the money will be there like magic. That is the only thing anyone will pay more for. Sit and smoke and raise money! It may as well fund useful things for the community as long as it is going to cost for health care that no one here thinks we should have. Wicked thought: Maybe that would be the answer for education, too, as the casinos will not permit a lottery. We are too immature. Just don't tell anyone it is going for schools.
Maturity is the key word here. You are right, we don't have it. So.... If buses could work on existing infrastructure, that is fine, too. The park and rides are nice. I am going from Summerlin to the airport for a trip at Christmas for $2 and I can park free for two weeks, longer with an extension request. That is pretty cool, and that is a start! Time spent traveling is the same and the bus shows up. Just don't tell too many about this or they will find a way to get rid of it to pay cab drivers more.
There just needs to be a little more "maturity" in providing services for folks who cannot afford to or are able to drive, or who want to plan an inexpensive, safe trip home instead of driving drunk. Thanks for thinking about that day in the future when we can no longer drive and Mr. Wynn will no longer send a limo. How about this? Add another nickel to cigarette taxes and the money will be there like magic. That is the only thing anyone will pay more for. Sit and smoke and raise money! It may as well fund useful things for the community as long as it is going to cost for health care that no one here thinks we should have. Wicked thought: Maybe that would be the answer for education, too, as the casinos will not permit a lottery. We are too immature. Just don't tell anyone it is going for schools.
Tobacco tax provides about 200 million a year in revenue. That is at $0.80 per pack. There have been moves to more than double that though it would not double revenue. The tax becomes high enough it leads to less smoking and a black market.
The state budget for education is around 2.4 Billion per year.
So no you are not going to fix anything with the cigarette tax.
You obviously want to turn Vegas into something it isn't. But there are places that give you what you want. Why don't you just move there, and stop trying to turn Vegas into something it doesn't want to be.
Before I leave town, I plan to raise a lot of hell, before that time, in my retirement years, with nothing else to do with my time.
#1 Lower those 45MPH speed limits to 35MPH, or institute night time speed limits like in Tucson.
#2 Scream and holler for more bike lanes along our major avenues
And? When it's well known there's a contract out on me, and my house gets too pelted with eggs, tomatoes, paint, and my car tires are slashed too often, then I'll leave!
My most current bout of raising hell, which was a complete success: lowering the volume in our public buses.
Those that constructively criticize a city are the real historical hero's. I plan to be one of them!
Great post! My point was that the cigarette tax is the only one people here would be willing to pay, because they love to sit and pollute themselves and others, regardless of what it may fund. If it is for a specific need for the common good, thumbs down. And suggesting improvements is not an attempt to transform the city into something it isn't. Seeing that difference might just be a sign of maturity. Eventually they had to pave roads and put in phone lines, right?
The old "move if you don't like it" is a silly, immature response. Efforts to improve a place are made because one likes it, not because one doesn't!
What you think are improvements and not only not universally considered as such, but in Vegas, they be considered a waste of time and tax money by the majority there.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tornado Baby
Great post! My point was that the cigarette tax is the only one people here would be willing to pay, because they love to sit and pollute themselves and others, regardless of what it may fund. If it is for a specific need for the common good, thumbs down. And suggesting improvements is not an attempt to transform the city into something it isn't. Seeing that difference might just be a sign of maturity. Eventually they had to pave roads and put in phone lines, right?
The old "move if you don't like it" is a silly, immature response. Efforts to improve a place are made because one likes it, not because one doesn't!
That might be but you don't know that. No improvements are ever universal, some attempts can go wrong, (like that stupid monorail), and some people will never want to move forward. Such is life. This town has every goofy a** toy ever imagined, but some basic services and a reasonable standard of services for the workers who support this economy are wrong? And tourists do complain about services this city does not have if you must defer to them. Just because this is a playground does not mean it can't be a safer and healthier playground.
Other older cities have old, crumbling infrastructures and have have the task of rebuilding. This city has the advantage that it can purpose build for the future. We are growing faster than we know and answers are not simple. It is not wrong to think it forward, some day it will stick!
Great post! My point was that the cigarette tax is the only one people here would be willing to pay, because they love to sit and pollute themselves and others, regardless of what it may fund. If it is for a specific need for the common good, thumbs down. And suggesting improvements is not an attempt to transform the city into something it isn't. Seeing that difference might just be a sign of maturity. Eventually they had to pave roads and put in phone lines, right?
The old "move if you don't like it" is a silly, immature response. Efforts to improve a place are made because one likes it, not because one doesn't!
Yes, move if you don't like it, don't you just love these posters!!!
Pittsburgh, early 1900's, air so polluted you couldn't even open a window in your house.
"Nothing wrong with Pittsburgh! I work in one of those steel plants! If you don't like it, move!"
Los Angeles, right up until 15 years ago, with their 200 Red Alert Days of smog, equal to smoking 2 packs of cigarettes a day!
"I'm tired of these newcomers criticizing L.A., you knew what you were getting into when you moved here! Now just shut up, turn around, and go back to where you came from!"
Cleveland, oil refining capital of the country in the 1870's. They didn't know what to do with the gasoline residue, from the refineries, and they dumped it into the rivers, flowing into Lake Erie, which almost became a dead Lake!
"I work at one of those sticky refineries. Yeah, I know, it even flavors the beer and milk in this city, and there's some spectacular fires in those rivers, at times, but if you don't like it, move!"
The Millennial Generation: Hey! Casino moguls, what are you going to offer us, given we're not gamblers like our parents? We've got lots of money to spend, how about some multi-million dollar night clubs, and then? We'll stop criticizing your city and make it more profitable! And no train to meet us at the Airport? Shame on you!
^
You know what, if you're issues get broad public support, you'll see changes. I'm not seeing that support developing. Quite specifically, a lot of people move to Vegas to get away from the big tax, big spending, intrusive government in CA (and other places, but CA is the main one.) So when they see that starting to happen in Vegas, they make their displeasure known.
Going to your specific issue, light rail plans have been floated, and got a lot of negative public reaction. Yes, it would benefit some people, but given that fact that most people in Vegas have willing molded their lives around the areas autocentricity, do you think these people are going to support spending vast amounts of money, likely raising their taxes, to build, maintain, and operate a rail system they don't think they'll ever have a use for?
As far as it being an issue for the tourism industry, I think you have this pretty wrong. If people are spending hundreds of dollars flying into town, to likely spend hundreds or thousands more, how much do they care if the spend $20 to get to their hotel. Do you really think this is going to effect their decision. So far the answer has been shown as no, as visitation number keep increasing. Don't you think, if the casino industry saw this as an issue, they'd be pushing for a rail system to the airport (or just build one themselves.) Oh, and if you don't want to pay for a cab to/from the airport, take one of the shuttles.
Yes, move if you don't like it, don't you just love these posters!!!
Pittsburgh, early 1900's, air so polluted you couldn't even open a window in your house.
"Nothing wrong with Pittsburgh! I work in one of those steel plants! If you don't like it, move!"
Los Angeles, right up until 15 years ago, with their 200 Red Alert Days of smog, equal to smoking 2 packs of cigarettes a day!
"I'm tired of these newcomers criticizing L.A., you knew what you were getting into when you moved here! Now just shut up, turn around, and go back to where you came from!"
Cleveland, oil refining capital of the country in the 1870's. They didn't know what to do with the gasoline residue, from the refineries, and they dumped it into the rivers, flowing into Lake Erie, which almost became a dead Lake!
"I work at one of those sticky refineries. Yeah, I know, it even flavors the beer and milk in this city, and there's some spectacular fires in those rivers, at times, but if you don't like it, move!"
The Millennial Generation: Hey! Casino moguls, what are you going to offer us, given we're not gamblers like our parents? We've got lots of money to spend, how about some multi-million dollar night clubs, and then? We'll stop criticizing your city and make it more profitable! And no train to meet us at the Airport? Shame on you!
Sorry but again you are way wrong. The battle for CA air was one I know very well. I either lived there or traveled there weekly through the whole period.
It was the people of the basin who drove the solutions to the air pollution problems of CA. And they did so while being resisted by most of the rest of the country. The auto industry fought hard to keep the CA Air Board from setting pollution standards and were only barely defeated. CA also cleaned up industry, particularly the refineries, to an extent not believed possible.
You will not get that kind of consensus here on things like the monorail as it is not a wide spread need. It is part of the tourist infrastructure. The residents are not going to ride it. Similarly the town will not support light rail as it is structured almost perfectly to prevent light rail working. The tourists obviously like the taxi setup and we have established it in a way that supports the tourist and not the resident. A well experienced visitor was not even aware the shuttles exist...a much more cost effective way to get to your hotel.
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