Visiting with the Review-Journal editorial board a few weeks back to discuss his run for the open Ward Two Las Vegas City Council seat, former state Sen. and local businessman Bob Beers declared one of his goals if elected would be to \u201ctake down the city\u2019s \u2018Not Open for Business\u2019 sign.\u201d<\/p>\n
Anyone who\u2019s ever tried to negotiate the codes and regulations necessary to set up shop within the city limits knows what Mr. Beers means.<\/p>\n
Even if you\u2019re re-opening a premises considered \u201cokey-dokey\u201d for its former tenant, suddenly city inspectors want you to spend tens of thousands of dollars to re-do lighting, plumbing, lavatories, handicapped access.<\/p>\n
Restaurateur Andre Rochat, who has since opened upscale eateries within county jurisdiction on The Strip and no longer attempts to do business downtown, was famously required by city \u201cinspectors\u201d to build a $100,000 steel superstructure over a couple of sidewalk tables at his short-lived Frogeez on Fourth Street, \u201csturdy enough to hold up a city bus if one should fall on it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The operators of the nightclub Azul Tequila were lured downtown to Seventh Street and Ogden by city officials claiming they wanted to foster a late-night music scene. When neighbors complained about the noise, the city last fall required the owner and operator to spend another $100,000 enclosing their outdoor concert venue. <\/p>\n
\u201cTemporary banners\u201d have to come down after 60 days. Permits for permanent signs can then be \u201cpulled\u201d by only a small number of sign companies, which enjoy a de facto collective city monopoly, and charge accordingly.<\/p>\n
If you get that far, the meter maids will swarm your potential customers like mosquitoes, while \u201ccode inspectors\u201d arrive to inform you you\u2019re about to be fined for daring to hold a parking lot sale in your own parking lot without a \u201cspecial permit\u201d — or because the built-in thermometer in your freezer is \u201cpositioned improperly.\u201d<\/p>\n
And should you have the temerity to propose offering your customers food, alcohol, live music, or slot machines, you\u2019ve hardly scratched the surface.<\/p>\n
When the city of Las Vegas decided to waive the standard $20,000 liquor license fee (just enough to cover processing costs, which is the definition of a \u201cfee\u201d and how it differs from a \u201ctax,\u201d right?) for people willing to open a tavern in the Mexican used-furniture cinderblock promenade now dubbed the \u201cDowntown Arts District,\u201d sisters Pam and Christina Dylag figured everything was coming up roses.<\/p>\n
After leaving Las Vegas for college and to travel, the two marks — er, that is to say, sisters were ready to return and invest tens of thousands of dollars into starting their own business. The Velveteen Rabbit would be a boutique tavern named after their favorite children\u2019s book, offering \u201ccrafted cocktails,\u201d unique draft beers and independent music.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe reason we left was because places like this weren\u2019t here,\u201d says Pam Dylag, 27.<\/p>\n
And why do you suppose that is?<\/p>\n
As allowed by code, the Dylags would like to put five slot machines in their tavern — envisioned in what is now the bombed-out shell of a cinderblock structure on Main Street just south of Charleston.<\/p>\n
But they hadn\u2019t figured on the recent legal battle between big casino operators and the Dottie\u2019s tavern chain. Since slot machines are supposedly allowed in taverns only when the slot revenue is \u201cincidental\u201d to tavern operation, casino owners noticing the burgeoning number of Dottie\u2019s — slot parlors whose gesture toward \u201cfood service\u201d usually amounts to a single employee providing peanuts and soda pop — and raised a hue and cry.<\/p>\n
As a result, state regulations would now appear to require an enterprise like the Dylags\u2019 — presuming they want the revenue from those five slot machines — to provide 2,000 square feet of public space and a full kitchen.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is me and my sister; we\u2019ve been saving our own money,\u201d protests Pam Dylag. \u201cThere is just no way. We don\u2019t have the extra capital to put into a kitchen.\u201d<\/p>\n
So the sisters and their would-be slot route operator, Eagle Rock Gaming, are now applying for a waiver from the state Gaming Control Board and the Nevada Gaming Commission.<\/p>\n
The sisters are the first to seek such a waiver. The fate of their struggle could determine whether other taverns manage to open in the downtown Arts District.<\/p>\n
Since the city is promoting the district, you\u2019d think the city would help. But city spokesgal Diana Paul refers matters back to state regulators.<\/p>\n
Wes Myles, owner of the building where the Dylag sisters want to open, says he\u2019s disappointed city staff isn\u2019t offering more help. But is he surprised?<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s this assumption that all businesspeople are wealthy and sophisticated,\u201d says Myles, who also owns the Arts Factory.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Gaming Control Board regulations have an unintended consequence, and that is to make it tough on a lot of little people,\u201d adds Ward 3 Councilman Bob Coffin, a former legislator.<\/p>\n
Downtown Las Vegas has been \u201cabout to boom\u201d for 25 years. Brave (or foolhardy) entrepreneurs keep trying.<\/p>\n
Try asking members of the City Council if it isn\u2019t time to help them by taking a scythe to this thicket of regulatory red tape, repealing 60 or 70 percent of the current code and laying off half their enforcers. They\u2019ll look at you like you\u2019re speaking a foreign language.<\/p>\n
I asked that question of Planning Commission member Ric Truesdell at HIS Second Ward endorsement interview, earlier this month. (On Tuesday, Truesdell lost to Beers, somewhat dramatically.)<\/p>\n
\u201cOh, you\u2019ve got to have the CODE,\u201d Mr. Truesdell replied, as though I\u2019d asked one of the Dylags\u2019 future customers to give up his pocket flask.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Visiting with the Review-Journal editorial board a few weeks back to discuss his run for the open Ward Two Las Vegas City Council seat, former state Sen. and local businessman Bob Beers declared one of his goals if elected would be to \u201ctake down the city\u2019s \u2018Not Open for Business\u2019 sign.\u201d Anyone who\u2019s ever tried […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[36,34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-984","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-about-town","category-nevada"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pWqFl-fS","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vinsuprynowicz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/984","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vinsuprynowicz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vinsuprynowicz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vinsuprynowicz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vinsuprynowicz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=984"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/vinsuprynowicz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/984\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":985,"href":"https:\/\/vinsuprynowicz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/984\/revisions\/985"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vinsuprynowicz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vinsuprynowicz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vinsuprynowicz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}