Monthly Archives: June 2021

As we head into Memorial Day weekend, the unofficial start of the summer travel season, one thing is clear: the pent up demand is very, very real. Las Vegas, which just last week announced it would end all pandemic-related restrictions on June 1, isnt wasting any time.

As SFGATE has recently reported, hotel prices are up significantly for the most sought-after destinations (Hawaii, Florida, anywhere with a beach) while many cities remain a relative bargain compared to pre-pandemic times. One big city bucking the trend is Las Vegas over the last six months, from December 2020 to May 2021, average hotel prices in Las Vegas have risen from $134 to $179, according to hotel search site Trivago.coms Hotel Price Index.

Sin City at dusk.

The citys reopening is owed, in large part, to a notably successful campaign by the citys tourism industry, which has been using a wide range of carrots (strip club vaccinations, anyone?) and sticks to encourage the citys hospitality and service staff to get vaccinated. The casinos, in particular, have some of the highest employee vaccination rates in the city.

Considering tourism is estimated to contribute some $57.6 billion to the citys economy (in 2018, the last year for which data is available), according to the Convention and Visitors Authority, its no wonder the casinos have made such a concerted, and effective, effort. And it has paid off.The Cosmopolitan, which had its own inoculation site, distributed $1 million in cash bonuses to reward its workforce for a high vaccination rate which stands at 84 percent, the company told the Washington Post.

The (other) City of Lights.

By all accounts, the City of Second Chances is looking a lot like its pre-pandemic self. May is always the citys busiest month and, with gaming floors open at 100 percent capacity (and no social distancing) at many resort-casinos including MGMs Bellagio, Mandalay Bay The Mirage, New York-New York, Luxor, Excalibur and ARIA resorts the Strip is starting to look a lot like the buzzing, bustling adult playground you know and maybe even love.

The monorail is even starting back up on May 27, with trains arriving every 4 to 8 minutes at each of its seven stations: the MGM Grand, Ballys/Paris Las Vegas, Flamingo/Caesars Palace, Harrahs/Linq, Las Vegas Convention Center, Westgate/Convention Center, and the Sahara, reports the Las Vegas Sun.

Panoramic view of the Stratosphere Casino Hotel & Tower (on left) and The Strip (on right), Las Vegas.

Clark County allowed buffets to reopen beginning on May 1 when it relaxed rules for other staples of Vegas life like tattoo parlors and dance floors. The MGM Grands buffet is reopening May 26 at 7 a.m., for the first time since March 2020.

The biggest buffet news, reported breathlessly by Eater Las Vegas, is about Caesars Palace's Bacchanal Buffet, which underwent a $2.4 million renovation in order to reopen earlier this month.

The 25,000-square-foot, 600-seat Bacchanal Buffet reopened with throngs of crowds waiting to explore the nine open, interactive kitchens, with many dishes already individually prepared, shared, or plated in real-time by staff from behind the counters, reports Eaters Susan Stapleton. At $64.99 per person, its not for everyone. It is, however, a culinary spectacle befitting its hometown.

For the first time since 2010, Sin Citys famed stretch is welcoming a new arrival next month. The Resorts World Las Vegas is scheduled to open on June 24, according to Travel & Leisure. The complex is made up of three separate hotels: the 1,774-room Las Vegas Hilton, the 1,496-room Conrad Las Vegas and the Crockfords Las Vegas, with 236 rooms and suites.

The 88-acre property will have 40 different restaurants and bars, a 5,000-capacity concert venue, some 70,000 square feet of retail space, a 100,000-square-foot boutique mega club, a Bali-inspired day club, and a five-and-a-half-acre pool area with Vegass largest pool deck.

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Is Las Vegas back? You can bet on it.

CHICAGO, IL - SEPTEMBER 8: Oakland Athletics fans cheer during the twelfth inning against the Chicago White Sox at U.S. Cellular Field on September 8, 2014 in Chicago, Illinois. The White Sox defeated the Athletics 5-4 in 12 innings. (Photo by Brian D. Kersey/Getty Images)

The Oakland As initial interest in Las Vegas felt as though it was a bluff. They had seemingly been pushed towards exploring relocation by Major League Baseball, whose involvement in the long standing stadium dispute between the As and the City of Oakland can hardly be called altruistic. Nonetheless, the As contingent headed to Las Vegas, getting a feel for different areas for a potential ballpark.

As a result of that trek, the As have a price tag. It is expected that a new ballpark for the team, should they relocate, would cost approximately $1 billion.

The As obviously have a shopping list of preferences should they relocate. They would like the new stadium to be downtown, near the non-stop entertainment and excitement that the city is known for. This would make a trek to the game more than just a night at the ballpark; it would potentially lead to additional income for businesses in the area.

The team is not looking for a massive stadium downtown either. According to the same report, the team wants a ballpark with approximately 30,000 fixed seats and room for another 4000 standing room customers. Even though the stadium will not be overly large, having all of the state of the art amenities will be costly.

It also remains to be seen how much of that price tag would need to come out of the As pocket. While the franchise had committed to making a significant investment in Howard Terminal, the city would also be on the hook for a large chunk of the cost to revitalize the area. While this could eventually be profitable, it will require a large initial outlay of funds in order to happen.

Although the vote on the Howard Terminal Project has yet to occur, the As have options. Should the vote not go their way, that move to Las Vegas could become a reality. And if it does, the As know what type of price tag they will be looking at when it comes to a new stadium.

Want your voice heard? Join the White Cleat Beat team!

The Oakland As have their price tag for a new, state of the art stadium in Las Vegas. Those fallback options are already in place.

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Oakland As have price tag for Las Vegas stadium - White Cleat Beat

Posted: Jun 1, 2021 / 09:05 AM CDT | Updated: Jun 1, 2021 / 09:05 AM CDT

Las Vegas Strip (Mario Tama/Getty Images)

LAS VEGAS (NewsNation Now) After months of pandemic shutdowns and restrictions, Las Vegas fully reopened its hotel resorts, casinos, and restaurants Tuesday.

Previously, casinos, where 80 percent of staff were vaccinated, could operate at 100 percent capacity, but several venues didnt meet that threshold. Now, all businesses are back, ushering in a new milestone for the valley, as Clark County moves forward through the pandemic.

Its a time many have all been waiting for, and from the Las Vegas Strip to Downtown, people are celebrating. The Fremont Street Experience hosted what they are calling Downtown Rocks Again!

Three music stages were set up, where people of all ages can come down and enjoy live tunes from a variety of bands that will be playing. The Viva Vision Canopy screens also ran a countdown clock, counting down to midnight.

A recorded message by Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman was shown and Fremont Experience officials were in attendance. Headliners included Spandex Nation and Zowie Bowie.

Its great. Its an American summer, following the pandemic, everyone deserves to go out, said David Charles, visiting from Los Angeles.

Local Wendy Pineda told NewsNation affilate KLAS, I guess at how packed it is normally, that it is not going to make much of a difference here.

With this full reopening, that of which is easily one of the biggest to happen thus far in the country, vaccinated people will not have to wear masks or practice social distancing. Restaurants and stores will most likely go back to regular hours, and there will be no capacity restrictions.

However, that doesnt mean the city is done with social distancing and mask-wearing, as each business is allowed to implement what they feel comfortable with within their own business.

If hospital capacity does rise, Clark County commissioners may implement COVID-19 protocols once again.

The Associated Press and NewsNation affiliate KLAS contributed to this report.

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Las Vegas fully reopens, return to pre-pandemic guidelines on June 1 - NewsNation Now

LAS VEGAS (KLAS) Many questions have arisen after a shooting at a City of Las Vegas pool. The incident happened Sunday night at the Pavilion Center Pool near Alta.

There were numerous shots fired, and several shell casings were found.

City staff tell the I-Team the pool was rented out for what was believed to be a family reunion. We found, however, that it was a party advertised with general admission.

Weve got several investigative teams working this 24 hours a day to bring this to a resolution, said Metro Capt. Fred Haas, who heads the Summerlin Area Command. Were still trying to find victims and witnesses of this crime.

On Eventbrite, a Bancs and Spanks 3.0 Indoor Pool Bash was advertised for Sunday, starting at 3 p.m. The private location was only given out through direct message, and tickets were $30.

The event rules called for no verbal or physical altercations. Sources tell the I-Team more than 100 shots were fired, leaving at least one person injured.

As of Tuesday, Haas reports no arrests, no weapons recovered and no motive identified yet, as police try to piece together what happened. The captain tells us Metro received no notification ahead of time that any party was going to be held at the location.

We have to make sure that these events are safe, not only for families that are having the events, but for the rest of the community, as well, Haas said.

Councilwoman Victoria Seaman says the person who rented out the pool from the city did it under false pretenses.

We take public safety very seriously, and we are going to get to the bottom of it, she told the I-Team, and were gonna find out what happened, so we can make sure it doesnt happen again.

A now deleted Instagram post by the organizer offered a $400 prize for the best twerker. Video from the event is circulating on social media, with some of it showing alcohol, which Seaman says isnt allowed at the pool.

These are not the type of events that we would rent out our spaces to, Seaman affirmed. These are for community, family events. Very disappointed.

Palo Verde High School is next door to the pool, and a playground sits in the other direction. Theres also a church and homes just across the street. We spoke with a couple of neighbors who say they heard what they thought was fireworks for Memorial Day. We now know that was shots fired.

Metro Police are asking anyone with information to come forward. They say more than 100 people attended the party.

If you wish to remain anonymous, contact Crime Stoppers at 702-385-5555 or on their website.

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I-Team: Shooting investigation at City of Las Vegas pool - KLAS - 8 News Now

He wore a silk shirt and kept a slight scent of cologne about him. He liked to talk. There was always someone to talk to, like the production assistant from Los Angeles who blew $1,200 on video poker. They all brought their stories to the 40-foot marble bar at the Rio hotel, and later to a less glamorous joint a few miles from the Strip.

It was a good life, and through the years, Bernard Sykes met Hollywood actresses and local characters, professional athletes including Mike Tyson, and first-time visitors to the United States. Sometimes, as customers swigged beers and sipped martinis, sharing the kind of intimacies told only to strangers, theyd slide a $100 bill across the counter as a tip.

Bernard Sykes has been out of work as a bartender for more than a year because of the pandemic. (Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)

Then, last spring, like a dust devil of bad luck, Sykes life shattered.

They let me go immediately, Sykes said, recalling the start of pandemic shutdowns that cost him his $14-an-hour job. Ive been out of work ever since.

A year and two months since the coronavirus paralyzed the nation and drove record unemployment including staggeringly high percentages among service industry employees, who make up more than a quarter of this citys workforce the U.S. is emerging from the aftershock of a pandemic crisis that dimmed blackjack tables and led to long lines at food banks.

In Las Vegas, where gambling revenue plummeted by nearly 45% last year and tens of thousands of the citys service industry employees remain out of work, casinos and restaurants are set to return to full capacity Tuesday. It is, in a sense, a test of Americas ability to reclaim itself. But the contours of that comeback are not fully drawn, and many wonder whether they will return to the livelihoods they lost or be forced into another year of uncertainty.

There is all this talk from politicians and whatnot about Vegas coming back, Sykes said. But Im still out of work [and] so are so many others as well.

But theyll be coming soon at least thats what elected officials hope: the gamblers, suckers and all the rest, driving across the desert from California or landing at McCarran International Airport with connections from London and Beijing. The Las Vegas Strips allure is the promise of escape into a nonstop party, an all-hours pulse shaped by capitalistic excess and the vagaries of chance. The casinos didnt close for even a day after the 9/11 terrorist attacks or after a 2017 mass shooting along the Strip that left 60 victims dead.

Yet Las Vegas went silent for nearly two months early in the pandemic, and since then, it has returned like a man slipping on his best suit piece by piece, inching back toward the days when the city welcomed a professional football team, hosted a Democratic presidential primary debate and saw its casinos rake in $6.5 billion in the year before people started wearing masks.

By April 2020, the unemployment rate previously around 4% in Nevada and in Las Vegas had climbed to nearly 30%. Democratic Gov. Steve Sisolak, who had initially ordered strict shutdowns, allowed casinos to reopen last summer, then lowered capacity limits with the fall and winter coronavirus surges. Capacity restrictions have fluctuated since.

Las Vegas showgirls pose for portraits across from the New York New York Hotel & Casino. (Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)

Weve taken action to strike a balance between protecting public health and also protecting our fragile economy, Sisolak said in a public address to Nevadans this month.

But critics say the partial shutdown unnecessarily hurt the state and its economic center of Las Vegas.

If we had kept things open and observed distancing, we never would have been in this financial mess, said Oscar Goodman, a former Las Vegas mayor.

The city made headlines in April 2020 when Goodmans wife, current Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman, called for casinos and other nonessential businesses to reopen, suggesting that Las Vegas could serve as a test case or, as she put it, a control group on the dangers of the coronavirus.

Now, after a year of shutdowns and reopenings, the city is betting on revival.

John Restrepo, a longtime Las Vegas economist, said early revenue projections show tourists are starting to return.

But how much they spend is another question, he said. The economy here is so dependent on tourism. So how the economy improves around the country will dictate how and if Vegas truly bounces back.

Nevada recently received $4 billion in federal COVID-19 relief funds, with $130 million going directly to Las Vegas. But its comeback will be determined by how safe people feel in convention centers and on gambling floors. New guidelines released this month by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say fully vaccinated people do not need to wear masks inside or outside. Most casinos agree.

These days, crowds of people gripping yard-tall margaritas have again packed the sidewalks lining the Strip. A familiar, unyielding sun beats down on marquees touting Bruno Mars upcoming six-night residency, and this month, the convention center welcomed one of its first trade shows since the shutdowns: the Tobacco Plus Expo. Thousands are expected to attend the World of Concrete trade show in June, featuring a bricklaying championship.

But not everywhere will reopen: Caesars Entertainment recently announced it was closing several smaller entertainment venues and shows.

Tourists stopped on a recent afternoon to snap pictures of the pink 1974 Cadillac Eldorado parked outside A Little White Wedding Chapel, where angels floated on a ceiling painted to look like the sky. Inside, Charolette Richards sat at a desk surrounded by pink walls and reminisced about the six decades shes been in the Las Vegas wedding industry.

Charolette Richards, owner of A Little White Wedding Chapel, says her venues drive-through window for nuptials saved the business. (Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)

Shes married thousands of couples and overseen the nuptials of many celebrities, she said, including Bruce Willis and Demi Moore.

Las Vegas has more than 50 standalone chapels, which in 2018 generated $2 billion for the local economy. Last year, most had to close in March and April when Clark County suspended issuing marriage licenses.

Richards business took a roughly 30% cut last year, but she was luckier than most. The chapel is famous for its drive-through window, so couples dont even have to get out of their cars for the ceremony.

The window really saved us, said Richards, a stylish 86-year-old woman with a soft voice.

A few minutes later, a Nissan SUV pulled up to the window. A woman sat behind a wheel, a white veil draped near her headrest, and her soon-to-be-husband smiled from the passengers side. From the back seat, two teenage boys waved.

This work brings me so much joy, Richards said. A joy I leaned on this past year.

But many locals are still yearning for a return to more stability. The Culinary Workers Union, which represents some 60,000 people who work in hotels here, said 98% of those employees, who are mostly Latino, Black or Asian American, were furloughed at some point during the pandemic shutdowns.

By this month, union officials said, only about half had been called back to work. The union has urged state lawmakers in Carson City to pass a right-to-return law that would require employers to offer laid-off casino, hospitality and travel-related workers in Nevada their old or similar jobs before opening the positions to new applicants.

California lawmakers recently passed a similar measure.

Opponents of the bill primarily large corporations that run hotels here had argued that a provision of the bill would invite litigation. The resort industry has since taken a neutral stance.

Still, many workers, including Yaneth Chavez, remain hopeful that theyll eventually be called back. Shes lived in Las Vegas most of her life, meeting her husband while working at a casino.

After being laid off from her longtime casino job last year, Yaneth Chavez eventually found inconsistent on-call work at Allegiant Stadium, but its far from enough. (Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)

For nearly 20 years, she prepared food at the Red Rock Casino. Her $18-an-hour salary helped pay for child care for her two sons, now 8 and 10, and family vacations. But then the she got the letter.

Layoffs at the Red Rock Casino will commence on May, 1, 2020, it read, and your layoff will occur at that time.

This broke my heart, Chavez said on a recent morning outside her home in North Las Vegas. The job gave me purpose.

Over the last year, Chavez, 39, received unemployment benefits as she searched for new work. Last fall, she got an on-call job working events at Allegiant Stadium, a new multibillion-dollar facility where the NFLs Raiders play. Its nothing like the consistency of her casino job, she said, and shes visited a food bank in recent months.

This has all been very, very stressful, she said.

For Sykes, the laid-off bartender, his days are now filled with busy work.

He once talked to actress Sanaa Lathan about Las Vegas best restaurants and Tyson about an upcoming fight. But he has since removed everything from the closets in his home and sorted through years of clutter. He pawned three diamond rings for $4,000 so he could pay bills. He spends a lot of time with his 3-year-old granddaughter and sometimes hops in his car to drive down Las Vegas Boulevard.

Tourists have started to return to Las Vegas after much of the citys hospitality industry shut down last year. (Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)

When the pandemic began, he parked and walked down the middle of the empty thoroughfare.

It took my breath away, he said. Never in my life did I think I would see this city grind to a halt.

Sykes has kept in touch with former co-workers and occasionally visits them inside the casino. The 56-year-old applied to new jobs in Las Vegas but hasnt received callbacks, and he wonders whether its because of his age.

A lot of these places want young bartenders who look a certain way, he said.

On a recent afternoon, Sykes sat at a table in a strip mall near the Henderson casino where he once worked. A steady stream of cars pulled in, many of them driven by other locals looking for an excuse to get out of the house after a year of restrictions.

Sykes gazed at the cream-colored building with a massive marquee advertising 18-ounce king cut prime rib for $32. He said he wanted to get back to the man he was. Make some money, pour a drink for a stranger, talk about politics or the weather, listen to the shuffle of cards and the spin of roulette wheels, and laugh a little.

This is the first in a series of occasional articles about Las Vegas emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

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Las Vegas is betting on the gamblers and tourists returning. Will lost jobs come back? - Lookout Santa Cruz