LAS VEGAS — A Clark County leader is proposing closing part of the Las Vegas strip permanently to make it more accessible and friendly to pedestrians.
This comes as part of Las Vegas Boulevard is shut down for this year's NFL Draft.
Clark County commissioner Tick Segerblom sent a tweet on the first day of the draft considering this idea.
one interesting aspect of the draft is the closing of the strip - i think we should consider doing this permanently, people love walking between the properties
— Tick Segerblom (@tsegerblom) April 29, 2022
“It’s just an absolute experience. No cabs. Just being around the people having a moment of beers and celebration," said Jason Lappano.
Lappano enjoys the freedom to walk around the Strip with part of it closed to vehicles for the NFL Draft. He and his friends are in town to support the Las Vegas Raiders and are taking advantage.
“Absolute respect. It’s the NFL. It’s time for us to step it up and make the right choices,” he said.
For a group of tourists from the U.K., it gave easier access to various Strip properties.
“Everywhere else is busy. Everything is so busy here. Where we’re from, it's nowhere near that busy,” said Felix Galloway from Bristol.
This prompted Segerblom to tweet an idea to make closing the Strip a more regular feature.
“Walking and walkability is kind of the future, especially for the younger kids, so I would love to. That’d be the goal,” he said.
He says it could be like how Fremont Street is without the canopy with the area strictly for walking. He says major roads like Flamingo Road and Tropicana Avenue should have vehicle traffic, but still have people able to walk along Las Vegas Boulevard.
“It just seemed very fun to me to be out there in the middle of the day just standing there and looking back and forth,” he said.
Some tourists gave a nuanced take on the whole idea.
“I don’t know about the people that have to drive up and down every day and use the city, but as a tourist, it’s a really good use of the space,” Galloway said.
Commissioner Segerblom says the tweet gathered some positive and negative feedback and is meant to spark a conversation about trying.
“Obviously, we have Formula One happening, so we’re not going to turn it into a grass place, but it certainly makes sense to me to at least do this more often,” he said.
Commissioner Segerblom says this isn’t something that will happen overnight, and county leaders still have to assess what did and didn’t work with the NFL Draft before making any sort of decision.
This story was first reported by Jeremy Chen at KTNVin Las Vegas.
