By now we’ve all seen the video.
I was ready to let it die. Then this weekend Clark County Commissioner Michael Naft posted about new signs going up on Las Vegas Boulevard, including at E. Flamingo. The message is basically: watching a performance or taking a photo doesn’t obligate you to tip. If you feel harassed, find an officer or call 911.
Cool. Another smoke-and-mirrors move that looks like action without changing much of anything.
Do Uber riders even look up from their phones long enough to read a marquee at Flamingo and Las Vegas Boulevard? Most of the people walking that stretch are already in their own world. The sign might make the county feel better. It doesn’t do much for the visitor who’s getting followed after a $20 photo. Naft has also talked about more patrols at the Welcome to Las Vegas sign. Nothing visible has changed there either. Metro is already on the Strip. It would be easy to stop a lot of this. It just isn’t happening. This seems to be a growing trend.
I’m not writing another “Vegas is dead” post. That shit is getting old. But viral videos of costumed people fighting tourists over tips don’t help tourism, and the response should be more than a message on a display. This has been an issue for a while. Fremont figured out a version of managing it years ago. The Strip still hasn’t. And the longer it stays unmanaged, the more the sidewalk starts to feel like a cruise port, constant approaches, constant pitches, and the official answer when it goes wrong is “find an officer.”