The closure of F Street occurred when Interstate 15 was upgraded in 2008. It was less expensive to close it to through traffic than to build a bridge to the east side of the 15. Plus the powers that be theorized D and H Streets provided direct access from West Las Vegas to downtown. Hundreds of notices went out to residents around the F Street area. Meetings were planned and publicized for local residents to give voice to their concerns about the proposed closure. No one from F Street attended those meetings. However, once the street was closed, the uproar began.
There were claims that nearby residents were not notified about the pending closure. These claims turned out to be lies. There were claims that because the residents were not notified and because the area is predominantly black, actions to close F Street without notification was in violation of Title 6 of the Civil Rights Act. Furthermore, it was claimed that the only thing this whole brouhaha was about was upholding the law. The F Street Coalition claimed that they were only interested in seeing legal justice done. That, of course, also turned out to be a lie, bold and simple.
In 2009, State Senator Bob Coffin voted to force the re-opening of F Street when faced with the threats of cuts to Las Vegas city projects. Las Vegas City Councilman Bob Coffin more thoroughly looked into the many claims when the issue recently came before the City Council. He found that he and others were fooled into believing the citizens were not properly notified. In effect, lies drove Assembly Bill 304 to passage. Leading the charge of falsehoods was Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford, D-Las Vegas.
We now find out the residents never had the law in mind when all the claims were made about not being notified. Now the resident are claiming it is about “more than the law”. It is about allegations of racially motivated street closures “in previous decades”. As Mayor Carolyn Goodman has stated, it is because of past attempts to segregate. As City Councilwoman Lois Tarkanian has stated, it “we have a moral obligation”. As F Street Coalition Chairwoman Trish Geran has implied, not re-opening F Street overlooks “decades of racial discrimination”. As West Side resident Arby Hambric states, F Street must be re-opened because “they owe it to us”.
This is racist blackmail pure and simple. It is using the race card to get $8.5 million spent for a mural and a road opening that is totally unnecessary. And that is the point. With D and H Streets providing access to Symphony Park, this project is fundamentally unnecessary. The money could be used to re-employ many of the people who have been laid off in the past couple of years. The money could be used to improve education in the West Las Vegas area. In the words of City Councilman Bob Coffin: “What a horrible waste of money”. In the words of City Councilwoman Lois Tarkanian: “What a tremendous waste of money”. Yet the city council voted to spend this waste of money to forever assuage the guilt for past misdeeds we are apparently doomed to carry forever. How sad. How short-sighted and sad.