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Coffin opposes approving $8.5 million plan to reopen F Street
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LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
Updated: Feb. 15, 2012 | 7:44 a.m.
A Las Vegas city councilman wants city leaders to back off plans to reopen a thoroughfare into a historically black neighborhood.
Councilman Bob Coffin said the proposal on today's City Council agenda to authorize more than $8.5 million to reopen F Street is a mistake. The street was closed in 2008 for upgrades to Interstate 15 near downtown.
Coffin said lawmakers, including himself, a former state senator, were fooled by assertions that the community wasn't alerted to the pending closure when, in fact, notice was given.
He said there are plenty of places to pass under the freeway instead of reconnecting a lightly used city street.
"If we spend all that money, all we are going to do is open up a bombed-out street one more time," Coffin said of the portion of F Street that was blocked. "What a horrible waste of money. It is as bad as that 'bridge to nowhere' up in Alaska."
When the Legislature approved Assembly Bill 304 in 2009 in response to protesters who opposed blocking the street, Coffin said he and other lawmakers were told by Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford, D-Las Vegas, and others that city, state and federal officials didn't give nearby residents proper notification of the project.
Since then, Coffin, who left the Senate because of term limits and won a seat on the City Council, has researched the project and found plenty of documentation that he said shows residents were notified.
"I went along, (Horsford) was the leader, he needed this badly, he says it is important, it is the right thing to do," Coffin said of the bill. "Only it turned out not to be the right thing."
Horsford did not return a call for comment.
F STREET HISTORY
The Planning Commission voted in late 2005 for an amended version of the highway project that reflected plans to save money by reducing the number of bridges required by diverting traffic from F Street one block east to D Street to pass under the highway. The City Council followed suit, although the closure wasn't prominently mentioned in the documentation.
Coffin pointed to records showing hundreds of notices sent to residents within 400 feet of the project, which is required by law, as evidence the community received fair warning of the plan.
The item on the agenda today would authorize following the Legislature's direction and using about $800,000 in property tax revenue to back bonds worth $8.5 million to be repaid over 10 years.
Once approved, they would be combined with about $8 million in state and federal money to proceed with the project.
But Coffin said F Street already has cost the public too much money, and he wants the city to slow down and give the Legislature a chance to reconsider the idea in the 2013 session.
"I feel like we have to talk about this and try to get people aware of the fact that this is a horrible mistake," he said.
COALITION WANTS PROJECT
If anyone is making a mistake it is Coffin, said Trish Geran, who grew up in the blighted neighborhood affected by the blockade. Geran is chairwoman of the F Street Coalition, a group that has successfully used the courts and the political process to get funding to reopen the street.
She said Coffin is overlooking decades of racial discrimination aimed at the historically black neighborhood, which has suffered from poor public services, thoughtless highway intrusions and a general decline in quality businesses.
Geran said the 2008 closure of F Street was another in a string of bad decisions by local government, similar to failed street closures in the 1960s aimed at blocking the community from downtown.
"They've taken advantage of that community long enough," Geran said. "F Street is really not necessarily about just a reopening. It is about a symbolic change of fairness and justice."
Geran said that by closing the street, the city cut the neighborhood off from a straight shot to what is now Symphony Park, an area of downtown where the city is spending tens of millions of dollars to juice development of a concert hall and other economic development projects.
In addition, the city is moving into a new city hall on Main Street and on Tuesday celebrated the opening of the $42 million, publicly funded National Museum of Organized Crime and Law Enforcement, or Mob Museum. Those projects are examples of city officials spending freely on other development projects, Geran said.
"I personally don't know anyone who would want to go see the Mob Museum," she said. "So he (Coffin) gets to do what he wants to do and that's fine? We don't have a museum."
Geran said not only will reopening F Street create much-needed construction jobs, the project will be valuable to the culture of the community because it will be decorated with historic murals.
OTHERS WANT ROAD REBUILT
Neighborhood activists aren't the only ones resisting Coffin's efforts to rethink the plan to reopen the street.
Other council members have yet to join him in questioning the project, saying the Legislature already has spoken and it is the city's job to follow the law.
"If the state law says we need to spend a certain amount of money to reopen that, then that is what we need to do," said Ward 4 Councilman and Mayor Pro Tem Stavros Anthony.
Ward 5 Councilman Ricki Barlow, who represents the area, had a similar reaction to Coffin's efforts.
"We are only abiding by the state mandate to find the funding," Barlow said.
Matthew Callister, a former legislator and city councilman who represented the F Street Coalition's position in a federal lawsuit aimed at stopping the blockade, said there are legal reasons to reopen the street.
Callister said that even if the city and state followed their own procedures, they didn't meet federal requirements for notifying minority communities of projects that could hurt neighborhoods.
The allegation was contained in the F Street lawsuit but wasn't settled because the Legislature decided to force the issue.
"What was significant was what was missing, which was massive outreach which was required by federal law," Callister said.
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@40-oz. You can have it if you are willing to give up that nice lavish place that I'm sure motivated you leave Bruce and Elm.
This is about correcting a wrong that was done. Usually it will affect the offending parties finacially as well as the recipients in other ways. It just so happens that, public officials will be forced to come up with much needed funds that could have been used elswhere. Protocol was followed in addressing an issue that is important to the infamous "Historic Westside, Las Vegas and the ruling parties decided in their favor. The most logical thing to do from here is to accept the decision and move on as the people of the area have done on many occasions when issues are not decided in thier favor.
When is the race card going to get played out? How many cards can there be in a 52 card deck? Notice was given. It's a little late to argue that it wasn't. Everything is not about race. Sometimes it's about reason. This is reasonable. If this 'community' and it's political leaches cared about the community they would invest their time into improvement of the community and the neighborhoods and give people a reason to want to want to go there or come from there.
My old triplex at Bruce and Elm St. is now occupied by pillars to support the downtown freeway. Can I have that freeway moved and my apartments back?
In response to iamretired...$8.5 million dollars to "have it the way it was"? Oscar Goodman's agenda was to promote the downtown area, that's correct, and he's done a darn good job of it. Anyone who has lived in Vegas for a long time is happy to see downtown Vegas being brought back to life and see business return. Keeping the homeless from frequenting this area is crucial to ensure that tourists and locals alike will feel safe and continue to support the redevelopment we so desperately need. I do, however, totally support the idea of rehabing businesses and housing complexes on the west side. This is where the money should be spent. No one is being "excluded" by living in any particular area of Las Vegas in this economy. We are all suffering from investors cashing in on foreclosed properties and turning neglected neighborhoods everywhere into rental nightmares.
So now that COFFIN, is out of the state office he owes no one? That district has helped him and supported him for over twenty years. Now he is a city councilman and all bets are off? You and the rest of the state legislators said you would fix it, Now fix it.
And no one has mention that all this leads back to GOODMAN!
The plan was to cut off another way for the homeless to stay out of downtown, as we all know that was OSCAR"S agenda! People who work and walk to work by no other choice, should have it the way it was. I am white and a democrat and I am ashamed of COFFIN'S view on this now, after he got elected to city council. It is a matter of principal now, besides the obvious that OSCAR did to the westside. The city has ignored the westside and spent millions on downtown the new city hall, while there is empty unfit housing buildings on the westside for twenty years. Wake up city council members, fix all the housing complexes and spent some money there!
"They've taken advantage of that community long enough," Geran said. "F Street is really not necessarily about just a reopening. It is about a symbolic change of fairness and justice." this is the type of ignorant drivel that keeps racism alive and well in this country.
historic murals? please, enough of this stupidity, please please please
I think they should go with the assertion that legal notice was served, and insufficient timely protest was received. Then if interested parties think that such a right-of-way has merit, they can get in line with other projects competing for funding. The idea that this "blockade" is injurious to the neighborhood is pure legalistic nonsense. The availability of nearby alternative routes, is apparent. We live in an imperfect world, one of limited resources, and this is a good example of potentially wasting money on a non essential project.
Thank you City Councilman Bob Coffin for having the courage to do something financially expedient yet politically incorrect.
Keep it closed!!