VEGAS MYTHS BUSTED: The Mayor of Las Vegas Presides Over the Strip

Posted on: November 4, 2024, 08:01h. 

Last updated on: November 4, 2024, 10:14h.

Corey Levitan Read More
Expertise: Commercial Gaming, Entertainment, Expert Insight, Las Vegas, Restaurants, Las Vegas Myths.

There’s another big election on November 5 — for the city of Las Vegas. Residents will get to decide their first mayor who isn’t a Goodman in 25 years. (Both Oscar Goodman and his wife, Carolyn, maxed out at three terms each.) Whichever candidate wins, Shelley Berkley or Victoria Seaman, one thing is clear…

Even the souvenir lamp behind Las Vegas mayors (and spouses) Carolyn and Oscar Goodman perpetuates this myth. The Welcome to Las Vegas sign welcomes visitors to the Strip, not to the city of Las Vegas. (Image: LA Times)

Neither will have an iota of authority or influence over what happens on the Las Vegas Strip. The myth that Las Vegas mayors do is a consequence of another myth we previously busted — that the city of Las Vegas includes the Las Vegas Strip.

It doesn’t. If your entire Vegas vacation consists of landing at Harry Reid International Airport and staying on the Strip, you’ll never once set foot in the city of Las Vegas, which is what is commonly known as downtown.

In fact, Las Vegas Boulevard (the former Highway 91) was renamed in 1959 not because most of it passed through Las Vegas, but because most of it led to Las Vegas.

It’s a distinction largely lost on members of the public and media who don’t reside here, and there’s an actual conspiracy to keep it that way — one perpetuated by the myth’s own subjects.

No mayor of Las Vegas has ever resented being mistaken for leading the most world-famous part of Clark County. That’s why Mayor Carolyn Goodman recently threw shade on the Oakland A’s for their Strip relocation plans and national media outlets gobbled it up.

Former Las Vegas mayor Oscar Goodman arrives at a recent event with his ever-present martini glass and showgirls. In the background at right is the current mayor, his wife, Carolyn Goodwin. (Image: X/Twitter/City of Las Vegas)

Mayor Oscar — or as we like referring to him, O.G. — was especially guilty of this. Always arriving bookended by beautiful ladies in showgirl costumes, the former mob attorney routinely presented keys to the city, held press conferences, and attended major openings in a place that he wasn’t the mayor of.

“They don’t know I’m not the mayor here,” he reportedly would say to any local calling him out.

When specifically asked about the boundaries of his jurisdiction by NBC’s Chris Matthews in 2007, during an interview taped at Caesars Palace, O.G. replied: “I’m the mayor of everywhere!”

We love O.G., we really do.

Why Strip Casinos Play Along

Casinos on the Las Vegas Strip also love this myth. Having the actual Mayor of Las Vegas speak at their functions further legitimizes their essentially illegitimate claim of Las Vegas as a property address.

All of them are either in the unincorporated Nevada townships of Paradise or Winchester, which saves their corporate overloads from paying additional taxes to an actual city. Their inaccurate Las Vegas addresses have been overlooked by the US Postal Service since the townships were founded by the casinos’ mob owners in the early ’50s.

Mayor Carolyn continues the charade of presenting keys to the city outside city limits. Here, she presents one to Ne-Yo during the R&B star’s set at Wynn’s Encore Theater on August 7. (Image: Wynn Las Vegas)

The only people who don’t want you confused about the geographical limits of the Las Vegas mayor’s authority are the commissioners of Clark County. These are the seven elected officials who actually govern the Strip.

That’s why, beginning in 2013, then-Commissioner (later Nevada Governor) Steve Sisolak established Clark County’s own “Key to the Las Vegas Strip” awards, whose ceremonies would forever exclude speeches or even appearances by any city official. (Read: the mayor.)

This development didn’t sit well with Mayor Carolyn who, after being uninvited from a Key to the Las Vegas Strip presentation to Britney Spears at Planet Hollywood in 2014, called the political power play “ridiculous” and “infantile.”

Recently, new commissioner Tick Segerblom announced a unique strategy to battle the confusion. He wants to change the name of  Clark County — a name known only to those who have lived in Las Vegas — to Las Vegas County. This would eliminate much of the temptation for Strip casinos to invite irrelevant mayors to their events, as well as increase the commission’s international visibility.

In response, Mayor Carolyn expertly belittled Segerblom while giving off the appearance of taking the high road.

“Las Vegas is world-famous and I would love to have Tick and the county be a part of our city,” she told KVVU-TV in a statement.

Look for “Vegas Myths Busted” every Monday on Casino.org. To read previously busted Vegas myths, visit VegasMythsBusted.com. Got a suggestion for a Vegas myth that needs busting? Email corey@casino.org.