Private security officers yell at a man for stopping to watch the F1 Las Vegas Grand Prix from a pedestrian bridge last Saturday. (Image: TikTok\/@beianford)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nRace Related?<\/h2>\n The proposal\u2019s timing makes it seem like a response to crowd behavior during last weekend\u2019s inaugural F1 Las Vegas Grand Prix, during which the bridges were clogged with pedestrians attempting to watch and video the race.<\/p>\n
But the bridges\u2019 impedance of traffic flow is not a new concern. It has vexed the county — the Strip\u2019s governing body — for at least four years.<\/p>\n
The ordinance cites an analysis by UNLV\u2019s Department of Criminal Justice, which showed a 23% increase in calls for disorderly behavior on Las Vegas Boulevard from 2018 to 2022 — 11% of which occurred on bridges, despite their representing only 6% of the resort corridor\u2019s total available sidewalk space.<\/p>\n
The analysis also showed a 1,700% increase in calls for disorderly unhoused individuals on the bridges: from 56 in 2018 to 1,031 in 2022.<\/p>\n
The bridges\u2019 impedance of pedestrian traffic flow is ironic, considering that they were constructed in the \u201890s specifically to improve pedestrian traffic flow on the Strip intersections beneath them.<\/p>\n
Though the ordinance does not mention the MSG Sphere, the pedestrian bridge nearest to it has been perpetually clogged with pedestrians, who stand still and wait for the perfect Sphere visual to photograph since the world\u2019s largest external video screen was activated on July 4th.<\/p>\n
Civil Rights Impedance?<\/h2>\n A local official with the American Civil Liberties Union told the Las Vegas Review-Journal <\/em>that the ordinance violates the First Amendment\u2019s right to assemble, which practically guarantees that its passage will trigger a legal showdown.<\/p>\n\u201cThere\u2019s a right to engage in protected First Amendment activity, whether that\u2019s protests, whether that\u2019s street performances or street art, whether or not it ends up being someone who\u2019s attempting to administer religious services,\u201d Athar Haseebullah, executive director of the Nevada ACLU, told the newspaper. \u201cUnder this specific proposal, none of those activities would be permitted.\u201d<\/p>\n
The ordinance acknowledges its impact on First Amendment activity, but argues that \u201cample\u201d space for free speech would still exist on sidewalks that are not part of\u00a0 the proposed pedestrian flow zones.<\/p>\n
A public hearing on the measure will be held during the next Clark County Commission meeting, being held at 10 a.m. Tuesday, Dec. 5.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Tourists who stop on one of the 15 pedestrian bridges spanning the Las Vegas tourist corridor could soon get cited with a misdemeanor. That\u2019s if a new ordinance, introduced by the Clark County Commission last week, gets approved. The measure would establish \u201cpedestrian flow zones\u201d on the bridges — and within 20 feet of adjoining […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":78,"featured_media":300281,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,83505,81886],"tags":[13766,88893,82543,23,83694,82012,81969,88892,88611,88895,88894],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
Las Vegas May Criminalize Stopping to View Strip from Pedestrian Bridges - Casino.org<\/title>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n