In the earliest days of The Smith Center, well before we had broken ground on our Downtown Las Vegas campus, Oscar Goodman was our best cheerleader. Las Vegas’ then-mayor seized every opportunity to get in front of people and explain that this was the largest city in North America without a world-class performing arts center. And as things came more into focus, he was great at promoting what we were planning.
One specific memory from that time really sticks out. We took a trip to West Palm Beach, Florida, to look at a similar 60ish-acre development down there. It was mixed-use – a hotel, shopping, dining, a movie theater – and the impetus for the whole complex having been built there was the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts, just across the street. Oscar, Smith Center Chairman of the Board Don Snyder, then-City Councilman Lawrence Weekly and I toured the neighborhood, ate lunch and then walked across the street to the Kravis Center.
We were sitting third-row center as Judy Mitchell, president of the Kravis Center, told us their story, how the Kravis Center provided the spark for all the other development around it. Oscar was looking around, checking it out, and then he nudged me with his elbow and said, “So is this what we’re going to build?” And I said, “Well, yeah, Mayor, something like this.” And without skipping a beat, and with Judy Mitchell still speaking onstage, he yelled out, “Holy sh*t! We’ve got to have one of these!”
That’s my mayor. That’s Oscar Goodman.
He and his wife Carolyn both deeply understood the importance of making this a world-class city, knowing for that to truly happen, Las Vegas needed a world-class performing arts center. They felt that personally, not only for their own family but for the broader community. And they recognized that it would become a great economic development tool, too.
Oscar Goodman was there when we needed him, not only to talk about the value of what we were doing but to help others get to a place where they could vote for it. The City of Las Vegas provided the land, the parking and the infrastructure to the curb to make The Smith Center possible. And it partnered with Clark County on the rental car tax, which had been passed by the state. The city, county and state working together speaks to the power of the project.
Cut to opening night, March 10, 2012. Carolyn Goodman was mayor. And she will tell you what a joyous time that was, seeing The Smith Center on national television with the greatest performers on earth celebrating Las Vegas, not only as a destination city or the Entertainment Capital of the World, but as a place that celebrates the arts and entertainment.
I often say there would be no Smith Center without Fred Smith or without the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation, and I often say there would be no Smith Center without Don Snyder. Likewise, The Smith Center would not be the same without the Goodmans. They were tireless in their efforts to promote what we were doing.
So as I see Carolyn’s term drawing to its finish later this year, I think back on the quarter of a century that has passed while they both have been in office, and I realize how much The Smith Center signifies the great work they’ve done for Las Vegas in general.
It’s fitting that their name is Goodman, because they did so many good things for this city and this community of ours.
The post One Good Turn and Then Another: The Smith Center wouldn’t be what it is today without Mayors Oscar and Carolyn Goodman appeared first on Vegas Legal Magazine.