Marketplace - A turning point for Stewart Avenue

Episode Date: February 8, 2024

Today, a story about one street in one neighborhood in one of America’s highest-profile cities, and the $23.9 million grant meant to transform it. It’s a 4-mile stretch of Stewart Avenue in East Las Vegas, where more than a quarter of the residents live below the poverty line. But upgrades — like improving bus stops, adding bike lanes and planting trees — could have big implications for the community. It’s part of our series “Breaking Ground,” where we look at how federal infrastructure spending might change the economy.

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All right, you know what? It turns out that what happens in Vegas definitely does not stay in Vegas. From American Public Media, this is Marketplace. In Los Angeles, I'm Kai Risdahl. It is Thursday today, the 8th of February. Good as always to have you along, everybody. We launched a series a couple of weeks ago called Breaking Ground on the premise that what the Biden administration is trying to do with the trillions of dollars of federal spending in the Inflation Reduction Act, the CHIPS Act, and the bipartisan infrastructure law, how that money is being spent specifically, it's got some historical precedent. So, of course, Roosevelt comes into office. He calls the Congress into emergency session, and we have the famous first 100 days.

Bill after bill pours into Congress from the White House. Whatever Roosevelt wants, he gets. We are not, repeat, not, saying that what's happening now is a new New Deal. But the same way that before the New Deal, there was the government and the economy, and then after the New Deal, there was the government in the economy, maybe this is another turning point. So today, one street in one neighborhood in one city and for very different people who have that street in common. So on Stewart Avenue, we have kids crossing the street in the mall. This neighborhood, I'm here on the east side of Las Vegas. Las Vegas, Nevada. You're probably hearing about it a lot right now with

the Super Bowl and the Republican and Democratic primaries and the GOP caucus. This, however, is not that. Well, here we are in the 207 bus on Stewart. Stewart Avenue comes out of downtown Las Vegas, which is north of the Strip and all the big hotels and casinos. It takes a dogleg left and then runs straight east, as does the 207 bus. All right, I'm going all the way in the back. 7-Elevens on either side, a couple of Strip malls, a newish-looking community center on one corner. Lots and lots of high-d. Apartments really. The farther east you go, away from town, street after street

of apartments and one-story houses hidden behind tall cinder block walls. Oh yeah, so here's more of the walls, right? Look at this. And a tiny little sidewalk, which is just brutal. Can you imagine this on a June day, July day? Forget it. There are parts of Stewart where the sidewalk just ends, or where the street goes from four lanes to six to handle all the traffic. This is East Las Vegas, where a lot of this city's service workers live. It's mostly Hispanic, and it's a neighborhood that's going to be completely changed. The businesses, the transportation, the quality of life by the infrastructure law, which is the government in this economy. So the proposed project runs all

the way down here, right? All the way out this way? Las Vegas is getting $24 million from the Department of Transportation. It's going to match that with $24 million of its own to do a whole big series of infrastructure upgrades on a four-mile stretch of Stewart Avenue. And I know. I know what you're thinking. Road construction. Happens all the time. Not that big a deal. Nothing new here. What is new is what the government's trying to do with this project and really with the infrastructure spending for all of the thousands of Stewart Avenues out there

in cities all over the country that are getting their slice of this federal money. Improving racial equity. Making economic mobility easier or even possible. Mitigating the effects of climate change. Things that only federal dollars can do at scale when the government steps into a local economy. And we should remember here that this is an election year, and it is far from settled that this is what the government should be doing with taxpayer money. That's what elections are for.

There are three schools within walking distance of the 207 bus stop near the intersection of Stewart Avenue and 28th Street. Maybe, the city says, the busiest stretch of this road. When school gets out, something like 200 people, kids, their parents, sometimes pushing strollers or with toddlers on their shoulders, they cross this intersection every day in the space of about a half an hour. The crossing guard putting up the stop sign for herself. Oh yeah, it's a power trip. Totally. They cross this intersection every day in the space of about a half an hour. The crossing guard putting up the stop sign for herself. Oh, yeah, it's a power trip. Totally.

Kimi Hanley is the crossing guard here. All right, so let's chit-chat before you actually start. How long do you think until you actually start? Five till. Five till. All right, so we got some time. So what's your basic shift like? You show up at 1.45-ish, right? 1.45-ish, yes. And then what happens?

And then we pretty much wait for the, you'll see the river of people coming soon. It's like a tsunami of people. But for some reason, we've got it down. You know, there's all kinds of unexpected things. One in five households in this neighborhood don't have a car. That means walking across a six-lane road. But there's a lot of running the lights right here, so we pretty much have to hold off the kids. The intersection a block away has the second highest number of car crashes in the entire city. Kim's been at this for a year and a half now, twice a day, beginning and end of the school day.

Why do you do it? Well, I need the extra money because I'm on Social Security. Fixed income. This is extra income for me. You've been here a while in Las Vegas? I was born and raised in Las Vegas. I was a blackjack dealer for 23 years. How come you're not doing that? That's got to be easier than this. Not really. It's easier. There's no traffic. There's a lot of different things that comes with the

pressure of blackjack dealings. Do you like blackjack? No. It's a job. So how come you do this now? I mean, this is, you know, there's a bunch of things you could do. Why this? I just found out that I could have the weekends off what I needed. And I could actually, it feels like I'm doing something for the community and for myself. It helps the kids. I feel like I'm actually accomplishing something besides taking people's money. As we're talking, things start to pick up. A parent walking

toward the school, a kid or two trickling out. Well, look, mom's got her hands full, right? She's got a stroller. She's got a baby. You know him before the baby's born. And then around 2.15, that river that Kim was talking about, hordes of kids gathering on both sides of the street. I see what you mean. It gets busy. And I back up, leaving Kim alone to do her thing as more and more kids keep showing up. She's a little fearless. She just kind of runs right out there. She's constantly on the move, Kim is, blowing her whistle, running into the middle of the street with her stop sign and the neon vest until every kid is across, A lot of them saying hello to Kim.

Thank you. It's really nice to see the same kids over and over. Yeah, I bet. We're out here like the post office. We're rain, hail, sleet, whatever. We're out here. So what's the worst part of this job? I think it's the weather, pretty much.

All right, so we're lucky today. It's cloudy. It's not that hot. What's it like out here in August? Because there are no trees. There's no shade. There's no nothing. Yeah, it's, never get used to it. You know, I put ice packs on me, because that's about all you can do, really. If it's not the sun and the heat, it's the rain. And when it rains here, the water flows downhill from downtown, east toward Lake Mead, straight down Stewart Avenue. Yeah, everything comes downhill. And so this is where the water and there's flooding. And we're trying to get the kids across the street, and it's almost like impossible. I mean, I had some parents carry them on their backs across this river that we have when the monsoon hits.

Eventually, the kids stopped coming. So while we wait for the stragglers, let me ask you this. What's the most important thing for people to know about this intersection right here? To have patience. It is a very busy intersection. There's a lot of little kids out there and families that need people to be safe on this road. It's really dangerous.

Thanks, Kim. Fixing that danger is a key part of the stewart avenue overhaul they're going to widen the sidewalks add a bike lane lower the speed limit and plant 700 trees so people aren't walking out in the las vegas summer sun all right showtime. Holy crap, it's hot. Just a block away from Stewart and 28th, we stop again. Welcome to East Las Vegas Community Center. Tell me who you are. My name is Guillermo Bonet-Leboy.

I am the recreation coordinator here at East Las Vegas Community Center. Tell me about the community here in East Las Vegas. Well, it's a very cultural and diverse community. They typically call this community center basically the heart of the East Side of the Hispanic community. We do have a lot of very hardworking families in the community. That's who attend. What do they do? Where do they work? I would say a lot of our families are in hospitality.

I would go as far as casinos, construction workers. More than one in four people in East Las Vegas live below the poverty level. And the unemployment rate out here is higher than it is in the city as a whole. Show me around a little bit. Oh, for sure. For sure. The East Las Vegas Community Center is huge. It reopened in 2022 after as a whole. Show me around a little bit. Oh, for sure, for sure. The East Las Vegas Community Center is huge. It reopened in 2022 after a big renovation. I believe they put about $2 million into the renovations of the facility,

which is beautiful. So we are a multi-generational facility where we offer programming for both youth and adults. Seniors are usually there in the morning. The community center offers low-cost breakfasts. And then Guillermo said people stick around. They play chess or pool. Oh, and here's the gym. Yeah, so this is where they do dance. Oh, dance. Sorry. Didn't mean to interrupt. Sorry. It's also dance. And they'll come in there. Wait, is she tap dancing? Yes, she's tap dancing. That's great.

She is 90 years old. No! And still tap dances like she was 15. Wow. So, yeah. There are tons of classrooms for everything from a sewing club to classes that help immigrant parents navigate the local school system. So what's the biggest challenge, you think, for this place? So what's the biggest challenge, you think, for this place? The biggest challenge that I've had so far is just making sure community members and the participants feel comfortable coming in here.

Sometimes it can be difficult with the financial aid process of things. Yeah, that's tough. Just because of the sharing of documents. Totally. How long have you been in Las Vegas? I have been in Las Vegas since I was three years old. I'm 34 now, so quite some time. I'm originally from the Dominican Republic. I would go back home every summer.

Are your parents still here? Yes. Are they still alive? Yes, my dad's in Vegas. So what do they think? My dad loves Las Vegas. He's actually a school teacher. He teaches bilingual science.

And then my mom was a district manager of Burger King. So they did pretty well for themselves, I would say. But as all people who move here, there's a little bit of struggle at the beginning and you kind of just have to find your way. And that's kind of how I found my way here by providing the community and people similar to me opportunities so they can be in places and jobs like my mom had or my dad had or I have. What he's talking about is economic mobility and a small, in the grand scheme of things, street upgrade that, with federal money, could have big implications for the local economy. Things like improving the bus stops or adding a bike lane is going to make it easier for people to get to and from work or school, and that making Stewart Avenue a nicer,

easier place to be is going to bring more businesses to the neighborhood, too. And that brings us to Stewart Avenue stop number three, about a mile west on the 207 bus. How are you? I'm Kai. Nice to see you, Carlos. How are you? You want water? I'm okay, thanks. Yeah? Coronas? Yeah, yeah. Carlos Gomez is vice president of business development at the Latin Chamber of Commerce of Nevada. They work with businesses across the state, and while there aren't a ton of businesses on this stretch of Stewart, businesses across the state. And while there aren't a ton of businesses on this stretch of Stewart, there are some. Moms and pops next to the 7-Elevens, restaurants, a tailor, that sort of

thing. And for those businesses, Carlos is kind of the guy. Tell me about yourself. Okay. I'm Mexican, born and raised in Mexicali, Baja California, Mexico. And so I'm 65 and happy and really, really fortunate to help people because I used to have a business, own a business in Mexico here, and I sold my business 2019 before COVID. So for me, now on, happy hour, afternoon, every single day. What kind of business? Construction. It was drywall and paint.

Then I moved for demolition a little bit. But I'm too old for that. So it's a lot of work, a lot of stress. So when you go talk to these small businesses, you know what they're talking about. Yeah. Carlos helps new businesses find their footing, and he helps existing ones deal with issues like inflation or hiring. And right now, the businesses he's working with in East Las Vegas are not doing so well.

So when the city works on Stewart Avenue, and in three years, whenever they get the money, they tear it up, and it's going to take two years to build it. So it's going to be like five years before it gets fixed. What's that disruption going to do to the people? Well, although the experience, yes. What's that disruption going to do to the people? Well, although the experience, yes, we had. On Fremont Street and Easter, which is pretty much close to this area, they do the sewer system. They spend 17 months doing that.

And what we saw is businesses weren't ready to the traffic problems and food traffic. So they lose everything there. That's the contradictory part of this whole thing. The same businesses that could benefit from the street getting an upgrade could also suffer from reduced foot traffic for years while the city is doing construction and it's harder to get around, Stuart. Do you trust the federal government? No. It's like when you're married. You're married.

You trust your wife. Sometimes I do. So that's the federal government. It's the same thing. You need to live with it. So it takes so many steps, so many red tape, so many things to bring $1 to our community. Coming up, the person handling all that red tape, the woman in charge of the Steward Avenue project. That's after the break. This is Marketplace. I'm Kai Risdahl.

We're continuing our series Breaking Ground on Stewart Avenue in East Las Vegas. The city won a $24 million federal grant to fix this street up. It's not a huge amount of money for a not-huge project, but it does show what happens when the federal government steps into a local economy. Our final stop of the day is the person in charge of getting that project done, red tape and all. Hi, by the way. I'm Kai. Nice to see you, Joey. How are you? Joey Paskey is the director of public works for the city of Las Vegas.

Up here like this with the microphone. Thank you. Sorry. It's all right. Not a natural thing for engineers to talk to is the microphone. We're like, ah. It's all good. You're doing great. What did you do before that? I was actually the city traffic engineer and deputy director of public works here at the city for a little over five years before that.

Where are we? This is a nice office. This is a nice office. So we are here at City Hall in the middle of downtown Las Vegas. The strip is what, that way? The strip is that way. So you can see the stratosphere there and the strip goes towards the south. So it runs north-south. Joey's got a coffee mug that looks like a stoplight on her desk. Also books on traffic engineering and fluid mechanics on her bookshelf. It's on the fifth floor of City Hall, two-ish miles from where the Stewart Avenue construction site is going to be. Tell me why Stewart Avenue.

That, without sounding bad, that part of town has been really neglected in terms of our infrastructure. It has not kept up with the glitz and the glamour and everything of everywhere else. And quite honestly, it was time. So we have looked at all of the roads in the city. We know which ones have the highest concentrations of crashes that cause fatalities and serious injuries. Stuart, Chunk of Stuart is one of those. So you read in the newspaper a couple of years ago that the Biden administration has these plans for infrastructure and you say, I'm going to get us some of that money. Yes, that's exactly what we said. That was pretty much what that was. Yes. Okay. And then what did you do? So then we

really looked at all of the different programs that came out of the bipartisan infrastructure law. And then we cross-referenced that with a list of our projects, ones that we had in design, ones that were near construction, and also ones like Stuart that hadn't started yet, but were kind of on our wish list. Let me zoom in on that for just a second. Fixing up Stewart Avenue had been on the Public Works Department's list for a long time, but the city wasn't able to get it going until now and this federal money. That is government in the economy. Cities getting support from the feds for projects that, big picture,

are actually pretty small, but that they don't have the funding for on their own. When do you actually get the money? That's a good question. It depends. Yes, it's complicated. But that's got to be crazy making because you have designers you have to hire,

you have scheduling you have to do, You have scheduling you have to do. You have contractors, I imagine. Right. So it kind of depends on the status of your project because this is design and construction. So what that means is for us is that. The city of Las Vegas was awarded the federal grant $24 million in August of 2022. They celebrated then, but they still don't have the money. Granted that you're a public works professional and I'm not, this seems really complicated.

It is. And here you are running a, I don't know, how many people you have working for you? 500 people? 550. Okay. 550 people in a major city in the United States. Let's say you're the public works department in, no offense to Ottumwa, Iowa, but it's not a big city like Las Vegas. How do you think everybody else does it? Well, a lot of them don't because they're nervous about doing it. They don't have experience doing it. But that's another thing that USDOT has done really well with this program is they've really tried to go out into these communities, into the smaller rural areas that might not have as many resources or haven't done federal work before, and they're trying to give them tools to do so.

They're trying to really remove the barriers from people applying for this money just because it's complicated. So you're going to put up signs at some point saying, you know, this money provided for and blah, blah, blah, and measure or whatever. And then you're going to tear this place up for like three or four years. And they're going to, they're going to take the hit, right? The folks who live out there. They are. They are, which is, it is unfortunate. However, one of the really big keys to this project, and we've made it very clear to the designers that are coming on board, is the community outreach component. This has to feel like it is not being done to anybody. This has

to be done with them. So their input, their opinions, their concerns will all be taken into account from the very beginning, not just when construction starts, but we're going to start now with the planning. There's going to be pain points. That's just inevitable. But we really do think that the end result is going to outweigh all that. Pain points, like Carlos was talking about for the local businesses, like Kim is going to have to deal with when it's even harder for kids and their families to cross the street. And at City Hall, Joey Paskey has her own complications, too, managing all that red tape. So President Biden comes to town on a campaign swing or an infrastructure stop or whatever, and the mayor calls you one day and says, Joey, President's got 20 minutes and he wants to come say hi. What do you want him to know about all of this? So what we typically

want people to know, and again, we were just- Not people, the person. The person. Well, I want him to know that this is working. It's going to take some time and people need to be a little bit patient. It was a year ago, you talked about putting the sign up for the corridor. We're going to be doing this. And USDOT sent it out and they're like, you want a grant? Here's this. And I'm like, I can't put the sign out right now because I'm, you know, it was a year ago, you talked about putting the sign up for the corridor. We're going to be doing this. And USDOT sent it out and they're like, you want a grant? Here's this. And I'm like, I can't put the sign out right now

because I'm not going to turn any dirt for the next five years. But I want them to know that it's working. I think we all know it's not enough money. It's a historical amount of money and we may never ever see it again. But I think what everybody needs to know is it's still not enough to maintain everything that we have, but Hey, it's a great start and we'll, we'll take anything we can get to make things better.

Do you worry about losing this money that Washington's going to change its mind and say, yeah, no. And I mean, their election's coming up, things change. Congress has changed Congress, who knows what they're doing, right? You worry about that? Yes, we do worry about that. But what we can control right now is the five years of the bill that we're going to get. 2031 is when the city figures it's going to be done with this one seemingly kind of small project. But we spent today on this one seemingly kind of small project for this reason. It's not a big new wind farm or a high-tech chip facility. It's not the Hoover Dam or the New Deal. It's not something we're going to be talking about

in 90 years. But for the people who live in East Las Vegas, it's something they're going to be thinking about every single day. This final note on the way out today, a very big economic reality that's hitting this not very big in the grand scheme of things project on Stewart Avenue. It's something we talk about a lot on the show, and we tried to avoid it today, but sometimes you just can't. sometimes you just can't. Total projected cost when Las Vegas asked for the federal grant on this thing back in 2022, just shy of $50 million. Now, a year and a half of inflation in this economy later, well, many millions more. Does it keep you up at night? A little bit. Yeah, a little bit. This is radio. They can't see your smile. You're smiling so you don't cry, I suppose. A little bit.

No, it absolutely does. This one and other projects, too. I mean, projects are costing way more than we thought they would, and we're not going to be able to deliver as much as we want as quickly as we wanted to. So we're going to have to prioritize. This is absolutely one of our highest priority projects that we're going to have. So we're going to make sure that we have the funding. This one will, it'll go one way or the other. It'll go.

It'll go, but it's complicated. More of our series, Breaking Ground. The new ways that government is in this economy coming up in a couple of weeks. John Buckley, John Gordon, Rick Carr, Diantha Parker, Amanda Peacher, and Stephanie Seek are the Marketplace Editing staff. Amir Bibawe is the Managing Editor. I'm Kai Risdahl. We will see you tomorrow, everybody. This is APM. All over the country. We need to improve reading in Wisconsin. Schools are changing the way they teach reading. I'm calling for a renewed focus on country. We need to improve reading in Wisconsin. Schools are changing the way they teach reading.

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