Editors’ Note

A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania Law School, Oscar Goodman moved to Las Vegas in 1964 and soon became one of the city’s top criminal defense attorneys. Elected its 19th mayor in 1999 (his third term began in April 2007), he serves as the Chairman of the Board of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.

Las Vegas seems to have gotten a facelift in recent years. The city is now more of a family and entertainment destination than it has been in years past. How would you describe Las Vegas today?

It’s a tale of two cities. It’s a great entertainment destination, where we have the finest restaurants, the best retail shopping, the most wonderful shows, and the most glamorous hotel casinos. The other Las Vegas, of course, is the valley of 1.9 million people who enjoy the same things the visitors have available to them but, at the same time, they yearn to have an identity independent of the entertainment capital. They want Las Vegas to be thought of as a great American city. So I think that there are two forces in play at the same time.

Among your many initiatives to improve the city, you have been very focused on revitalizing downtown Las Vegas.

Yes. When I was elected, the downtown area was in a state of lethargy. There was no energy. I likened it to an apple: once the core begins to rot, then the apple rots, and then the bushel rots. It would have a reverberating effect throughout the entire community. So it has been my pet project to see if we can put life back into the downtown area, as there was when I arrived here in 1964. At that time, downtown was the spot that glittered more than any other. So I’ve been spending most of my time trying to get downtown going in the right direction.

It seems that every government official at the federal, state, and local level names education as one of his priorities. How successful have you been in improving Las Vegas’ educational system?

Unfortunately, with the way government works here, I have nothing but the bully pulpit to utilize as far as education is concerned. We have an independent school district board that is responsible for the product that’s offered to the community. As far as being able to put a program in place, I have no jurisdiction over that – I wish I did.

The gaming industry has gotten a bad rap over the years. Do you think most people have an understanding of the good that the gaming industry does for Las Vegas and its surrounding communities?

There’s a big difference between the casinos of the past and those of the present. In the past, it was sort of live and let live. Now there are formalized programs in the casino industry, which celebrate diversity and reward the continuing improvement of individuals. All you have to do is visit the innards of one of these casinos, and you can actually feel it and taste it. It’s a whole new ballgame.

It’s now your third term in office. Over the course of your terms in office, how has your role changed? How do you define your role as Mayor of Las Vegas?

There are about 700,000 people in Las Vegas, but 1.9 million in the city and the surrounding valley in total. For reasons beyond me, everybody thinks I’m their Mayor, even though, for about 1.2 million of them, I may not be. They look to me for the message that I send out. I am not shy – I speak my mind. I love being the Mayor, but I don’t have to be the Mayor. I had a life before I took this role, which I enjoyed very much. So unlike most politicians, this is not the be-all, end-all for me. This is a nice respite for me.