Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman called the shutdown of the city “total insanity,” saying it is “killing us.” She also called for Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak to lift the restrictions and open up the economy.
“This shutdown has become one of total insanity, in my opinion,” Goodman said during a City Council meeting on Wednesday. “For there is no backup of data as to why we are shut down from the start, no plan in place how to move through the shutdown or how even to come out of it.”
Goodman noted that a relatively small number of the city’s population has died from the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, a novel coronavirus that emerged from mainland China and causes the disease COVID-19.
“Tragically, we have already lost, to this virus, 128 individuals in Nevada,” she said.”But let me tell you, with a population of 3.2 million living in Nevada, those whom we have lost represent less than half of one percent of our population, which has caused us to shut down our entire state and everything that makes Nevada unique.
Goodman added that some 900,000 people have lost their jobs and 300,000 have filed for unemployment.
“These are families that no longer have the ability to buy food for their children and other loved ones. Pay their bills. Pay their rent. Pay their mortgage. Pay their car payment. Or enjoy the life that they had prior to this shutdown,” she said. “It makes no sense. It makes no sense.”
The mayor added that experts said the virus would be around for at least a year and that the economy simply cannot survive such a huge shutdown any longer.
Councilman Cedric Crear, an entrepreneur himself who lost his aunt to the disease, acknowledged that businesses in Las Vegas are suffering but added, “It’s important that we do follow the regulations and follow the guidelines that our health care professionals are laying out for us because one death is too many.”
“We cannot keep our heads in the sand and think it’s going to go away,” Goodman said. “We’re adults with brains who can know what to do to wash our hands, to take all precautions not to spread this disease. It will be part of what we work through going forward,” Goodman added.
States like Nevada and Florida both have a relatively high numbers of residents who are considered vulnerable to the virus—namely, the elderly—and both states have economies that depend largely on tourism.
City manager Scott Adams told The Las Vegas Review-Journal that $160 million in aid from the congressional stimulus bill could be granted, but was unsure when it would arrive. “If there’s ever a time where the old saying, ‘show me the money,’ applies, it’s right now,” he said.
