[Love2LiveNCities]

So i am studying Urban Planning/Geography at Jacksonville University in Florida. Talking with professors and reading alot of geography society material...they say urban planners are in high demand in general...but particularly in Las Vegas. Does anyone know anything about this, and if anyone has any information on companies and salaries. I think i would love to live and work in vegas in 2 years when i am ready if this statement stands true. Its interesting, i know vegas gets a face lift every few years, but i didnt really consider that planners where a huge part, thought it was more architectural services.

so anything ya know, or if you even think its a good thing to do for at least 10 years or so. let me know your thoughts.

[desertsun41]

Ya know.....of all places to learn urban planning, LV has to be the last. Allow me to say some things without the hate mail. Im picking on your city leaders, not the city.

The way much of this area was planned was by illegal favors by corrupt policitos. The city planners set in place some zoning rules that they themselves do not follow. If I want to open up a store, they tell me how many parking spaces and how many handicapped spaces I must have. Yet they build parks all over town with inadequate parking spaces and these parks have events nightly which draw hundreds of cars. The poor businesses next to these parks have to hire security to keep out the park attendees. The park attendies park on the streets obstructing traffic flow.

You have city planners who are still installing traffic circles when the Federal Highway Administration has deemed them functionally obsolete some 60 years ago. They install 4 way stop signs on intersections where maybe one car a day comes from the a side street while stopping 6 lanes of traffic in the process.

These planners have allowed builders in their ever quest to put more units per acre to place the homes so close to the street set back that there is not enough room to leave your car in the driveway without hanging in the street. Those homes where there is enough room to leave your car in the driveway, your car is directly sitting on the sidewalk. This is illegal in every city but LV. If you park on the sidewalk in any city in America just see how long before they tow you.

You have the worst White Elephant DOT in America. The man in charge, ol Bobby boy is from the old school. He dont believe in change even though LV has seen more change in the past 10 years then any city in America ever has. He plays by old school rules by using cheap and inaccurate traffic data to design road infrastructure that does not work. We all know the hot spots I am referring to.

Your the degreed city planner. You tell me. What is more efficient....urban ramps or a full cloverleafs at interchanges? Look what they do here. If you build a bridge you do not need traffic lights. That is what the damn bridge is for.

LV also has something else quite unique. We have some ramps that you have to make a left to make a right. Or a right to make a left. Im laughing while writing this one. Take Jones/95 or Rampart/Sum Pky for 2 examples. They built the on ramp on the wrong side of the road !!!

LV/NV is in the dark ages when it comes to great highway infrastructure. You should look at some of the more modern cities with first class road networks all in the 21st century like Indianapolis, St Louis, Houston, Pittsburg, to name a few.

Since the beginning of time, cities were born and died by the ability to move traffic and conduct commerce. Nothing is more important to a cities economy then it's road infrastructure. Nevada fails miserably here.

But we survive dont we.

Good luck to you my friend. I dont believe you will be able to put your talents to work here. When Bobby M. retires you might have a shot.

[dynimagelv]

Now DS41.......our planning department has always been EXCELLANT.....without it we would never have paved the jeep trail out to Paradise Valley [paradise road] we would never have had building numbers that flipped from one side to the other as you crossed Sahara Ave on Decatur........or streets that had three differant names in the course of 4 miles [Spring Mountain/Sands/something/something else/

Life would be so boring.

[Love2LiveNCities]

thats all very interesting. and Yes you are correct, with a road system no city can expand in any sort of limits. sounds like they are detering the process of better systems because its expensive and yes a hassle and ugly. But once its done the city can explode with more business and infastructure. I lived in Northern Virginia most of my life near DC, it was crazy, and they wanted to do the new woodrow wilson bridge and the springfield mixing bowl. caused so much hassle but now traffic (still sucks) but is an easier flow. You cant plan a city without planning the growth of every aspect. I find it lazy. If you know the area is going to boom and most have known with LV for half a century, then you plan for it...not deter it. I guess thats why the demand is high...maybe an influx and knowledge needs to be placed. But thanks for teh pointers i greatly appreciate it.

[olecapt]

DS is right in a limited way. But pretty well dead wrong in the overall view.

We had an unfortunate time when a number of commissioners got caught with their hands in developers pockets. But most of that appears to have been cleared out. Could happen again but the overall process worked reasonably well even during the dark period.

Urban planning is alive and well in Las Vegas. Have just been involved in reviewing the master plan for Lone Mountain That plan is current under active review and will go to the County Commissioners in the next months. This is a review that takes place every four years and basically is changed very little outside of this process.

The discussion goes down to the details. And the population interacts very strongly with the planning staff. The planners for instance are trying to smooth one of the boundaries against the 215....but the population is having none of it. The general rule is that there is a 330 foot down zoned border to the core area. The planners want to smooth an irregularity by moving the border to a straight line that would increase the down zoned area to as much as 990 feet. It is likely the citizenry will prevail. There are all the moves to create small commercial or professional zones at section/section line crossings by the owners who have held these properties for years on the hope of rezoning. They too will likely fail.

The road system is in fact quite functional and works about as well as any I have seen. The I15 will be a problem forever but much of the rest works very well.

Development of highways is always an interesting political football particularly in a place like Nevada with its north/south split. It is not all as it appears however. The most powerful political body is not really the State Legislature but the Clark County Commission. When NDOT and the state legislature did not do the right thing on the beltway Clark County did it anyway.

It is a very powerful and interesting urban planning environment. Probably one of the most vibrant in the US.

Note that the whole thing is now trapped in the doldrums as the economy goes south. In fact for the next few years the big challenge will likely be cleaning up the messes made as major developments collapse. What do you do with a major PUD when the primary developer walks away with it 1/3 done? The residents were promised many things...but the new developer has no requirement to meet them and may well prefer other paths.

It will be an interesting time.

[desertsun41]

Originally Posted by dynimagelv

Now DS41.......our planning department has always been EXCELLANT.....without it we would never have paved the jeep trail out to Paradise Valley [paradise road] we would never have had building numbers that flipped from one side to the other as you crossed Sahara Ave on Decatur........or streets that had three differant names in the course of 4 miles [Spring Mountain/Sands/something/something else/

Life would be so boring.

Well just logging on here I expected to see the same ol bashing me. Especially you dynimaglv. Thanks for agreeing. I dont know how anyone cant agree. Its the truth.

But your additional observation is another huge boondoggle I did forget to mention. The street names changing names for no reason. It makes for a nightmare for delivery people as well as new comers.

Whats a Jeep Trail to Paradise Valley? I never heard that one yet.

[dynimagelv]

When I first got here in 1962 Paradise road was dirt and branched off from Las Vewgas Blvd and ran out to Paradise Valley....the road had been cut by one of the ranchers in that area[just by repeated use] to make a short cut home.....eventually it became a real road.....

Tropicana was gravel for where it crossed Paradise until you got to Boulder Hwy...and I mean NARROW gravel and it followed the terrain.

[dynimagelv]

Originally Posted by desertsun41

Well just logging on here I expected to see the same ol bashing me. Especially you dynimaglv. Thanks for agreeing. I dont know how anyone cant agree. Its the truth.

But your additional observation is another huge boondoggle I did forget to mention. The street names changing names for no reason. It makes for a nightmare for delivery people as well as new comers.

Whats a Jeep Trail to Paradise Valley? I never heard that one yet.

ROFLMAO...I NEVER claimed that LV was perfect.... just more perfect than anywhere else.

[desertsun41]

Originally Posted by Love2LiveNCities

thats all very interesting. and Yes you are correct, with a road system no city can expand in any sort of limits. sounds like they are detering the process of better systems because its expensive and yes a hassle and ugly. But once its done the city can explode with more business and infastructure. I lived in Northern Virginia most of my life near DC, it was crazy, and they wanted to do the new woodrow wilson bridge and the springfield mixing bowl. caused so much hassle but now traffic (still sucks) but is an easier flow. You cant plan a city without planning the growth of every aspect. I find it lazy. If you know the area is going to boom and most have known with LV for half a century, then you plan for it...not deter it. I guess thats why the demand is high...maybe an influx and knowledge needs to be placed. But thanks for teh pointers i greatly appreciate it.

But one difference here is no one on earth could ever have predicted that LV would explode in unprecedented growth....mostly from 2000 -2003 like it did. For that no one can blame the planners. And some new roadways were drawn up 20 years prior but by the time the financing came through the plan was obselete. NDOT built it anyway.

There was a great deal of corruption in how our roadways and zoning were built also. You have corrupt politico clowns approving a Ride Aid store in a residential zone and pushed it right through. I do believe she is in prison for that as well as other crimes. Then you have the Lake Mead/215 bridge to nowhere that we all paid for but are not allowed to use. Then you have that Commercial Realtor who bought up all that airport land for peanuts and sold it the next morning for a 500% markup.

Corruption never died with Bugsy and Howard. It lives on. But then again that is part of the Vegas mystique.....at the motorists expense.

[desertsun41]

Originally Posted by dynimagelv

ROFLMAO...I NEVER claimed that LV was perfect.... just more perfect than anywhere else.

Thats funny. But where in hell is Paradise Valley and the Jeep Trail?

I like hearing old stories from people who were here forever. The best one I heard is some one told me they remember when 95 was a one lane road with traffic lights.

This might be a good idea for a "I remember when" thread.