Just some things that irritate me,  make me wonder and really make me mad.  Hey, it's my birthday.  I should get to blog about personal stuff every now and then.

1.  The NBC Late-Night Fiasco.  I know there are folks on Team Conan and folks on Team Leno.  But guess what?   There are no people on Team Zucker and that’s the way it should be. 

 Jeff Zucker, the one-time boy genius who was going to make NBC #1 forever and ever, instead, made one of the worst decisions in network history.  Now Zucker is blaming Conan for not delivering a higher audience for the Tonight Show and blaming Jay for not delivering a higher audience for the Jay Leno show.  

Despite the fact, that he, Jeff Zucker, was the architect of this entire fiasco. 

In the old days of corporate America when you screwed up on a scale this grand, you did the right thing by taking the blame and stepping down immediately.  Not Jeff Zucker, he really wants to be the poster boy for everything that we hate about Corporate America today.  That is, instead of admitting your mistakes and taking your punishment, you instead blame the victims and ask all of America to ignore your hand in designing this fiasco and ask that we all just pretend you’re not to blame.  Sorry, Jeff Zucker, there’s a reason the only person on Team Zucker is you.

2.  Post-Apocalyptic Movies.   They come around every few years.  Anyone remember “The Postman” with Kevin Costner?  Earlier this winter we had “The Road” with the wonderful Viggo Mortensen and based on the acclaimed novel by Cormac McCarthy.  Didn’t do well at the box office.  I’m thinking when it comes to post-apocalyptic movies, movie goers want someone forceful, charming and who offers hope.  Kevin Costner in “Postman” not so much, Denzel Washington in “The Book of Eli”, hell yeah!

3.  Mel Gibson in “Edge of Darkness”.    With all the problems Mel has had with his fans and his personal life the last few years, is this really the time in his career to start channeling Jack Nicholson?  Doesn’t he realize that Jack is still alive and can probably kick his ass for stealing his act?

4.  Smokey Robinson.  Who knew that Smokey was Wayne Newton’s half-brother?  I didn’t .   Did you?  Well, have you seen Smokey lately?  I saw him the other night on an American Masters documentary on Sam Cooke and my jaw dropped to the floor.  There was Smokey, our Smokey, looking like he had gone to Wayne Newton’s plastic surgeon and was proud of it!

 All I could do was hang my head in despair.  Has looking youthful in America sunk so low that someone like Smokey has to chase the fountain of youth to be taken seriously?  For God’s sake, he’s Smokey Robinson!!!!  That should be enough to let him grow old gracefully and still love him!

5.  The Las Vegas Sun.  I read the paper every day on-line.  When I click on News it takes me to a new page where it previews the big Las Vegas news story of the day and has one or two other line items for other news stories.  Underneath it says, More Las Vegas News.  I click on that thinking it will take me to more news stories about what is happening around Las Vegas. 

Instead, it takes me to the weather articles.  Rain in the forecast, not so much.  In the winter, reports of a cooling or cold trend, in the summer, reports of the heat.  I don’t really want to know the weather.  I want to know the More Las Vegas News stories.  Why doesn’t the Sun have a separate weather page?  Or do they really think the weather in Las Vegas changes enough to warrant being the end page for More Las Vegas News?

6. Sheldon Adelson.  He built a new casino in Bethlehem, PA on the grounds of the old US Steel plant.  As part of the deal with the city, he also funded a museum detailing the history of Bethlehem and the importance of US Steel to the community. 

Years before, Shel Adelson built a casino/hotel in Las Vegas called “The Venetian”.  It was built on the site of the famed and beloved Sands Hotel.  We didn’t get a museum detailing the history of Las Vegas or the importance of the Sands Hotel.  The Sands was home to the Rat Pack.  The Sands was one of the first hotels to break the color barrier.  The Sands was the hotel we think of when we think of Classic Las Vegas.  We got squat for all that history.  Thanks, Shel.

7. Cell Phones.  If you are shopping in Trader Joe’s, do you really need to be talking on your cell phone?  Do you really think the rest of us care about your conversation, that we care about who is picking up the kids, what’s for dinner, what your plans of the evening are?  News Flash!  We don’t. Trader Joe’s are not large stores.   If your call is that freakin’ important take it outside and let the rest of us shop in peace.  Because you standing in the middle of the aisle talking away while you and your cart block the rest of us from shopping is only making us hate you more.

8. Trying to park your car while talking on your cell-phone?  Please get off the phone!  Now!

9. The El Cortez.  With all the focus on rehabilitating Downtown, will someone, besides us, please acknowledge that the crew behind the El Cortez ROCKS!  Jackie passed his legacy to a group that understands his legacy.  Thank-You!!!!

10, Endangered Buildings.  As the economy starts to rebound more and more buildings and homes will become endangered:

•  Flora Dungan Humanities Building designed by Zick and Sharp.  One of the last original campus buildings yet, UNLV higher ups want it gone.

• Valley High School- an impeding update will destroy much of the original Zick and Sharp original architecture.

• City Hall, another Zick and Sharp late mid-century modern architecture.  Mayor Goodman wants a new City Hall closer to the Smith Center.  If the that happens, the current building will be torn down to make room for a new casino/hotel.

• East Fremont Motel Auto Courts.  One of the largest and last standing groups of motor auto courts still in existence.  Not to mention the wonderful neon signage still standing.  All are endangered.

• The Las Vegas High School Historical Neighborhood.  Despite being on the Historical Registry of Historical Places, this neighborhood still does not have City Preservation Protection.  Thus, many of the homes that date back to the 1920s-1930s are being torn down and in there place are rising McMansions.  This is our best example of a Historic District and we are letting it go to waste.

 You know how much we love the Mint Hotel around here.  Well, we aren't the only ones.  Seems our good friend, John L. Smith, columnist for the Review-Journal, does as well!

From today's R-J:

With the crescendo of coverage of the opening of CityCenter and its promise of 12,000 jobs, you might have missed the news of the downtown closing and loss of 100 jobs. Although in recent years it's been called Binion's hotel, most locals still recognize the tower with the penthouse restaurant as the Mint, a casino that opened in the mid-1950s, was bought by Del Webb in 1961, and in 1965 briefly became the valley's tallest building.

The Mint was eventually bought by the Binion family and is now the property of TLC Casino Enterprises, but I never heard anyone but tourists call it Binion's hotel.

With its glass elevator, ritzy "Top of the Mint" restaurant, Quarterdeck seafood house, and Merri Mint Lounge, it was a happening place. In its heyday, Vic Damone and Patsy Cline headlined there. The Mint 400 off-road race attracted national media to Fremont Street.

Thompson drew an assignment to write about a narcotics officers' convention and the Mint 400 when he crossed the desert on his long, strange trip. He stayed at the Mint in Room 1850. A legend was born, but Thompson didn't need hallucinogens to colorize the Mint's characters. They were everywhere.

Suzi Arden and Freddie Bell were lounge favorites. Lee Greenwood dealt cards there. And singer Patti York, Howe recalls, occasionally worked as an elevator operator.

Long before Thompson made the scene, Lee Marvin and Woody Strode took a break from the 1966 shooting of "The Professionals" and made headlines when they ambushed Vegas Vic from their suite at the Mint.

Whether out of an abundance of playfulness or whiskey, Marvin and Strode got it in their minds Vegas Vic was making too much noise. Since they had a long bow at their disposal (the movie was a Western), they used it to shoot arrows at the metal cowboy famous for saying "Howdy Podner!"

Vic escaped with minor injuries, and Marvin and Strode got their archery privileges taken away.

That was tame compared to the time former Mint public relations director Howe whacked a Christmas tree and wound up on the naughty list.

At the Top of the Mint, management placed a Christmas tree to celebrate the season. Trouble was, the crowds were big and the tree kept getting in the way of customers. Howe rang in the New Year by hurling the offending evergreen off the top of the Mint and watching it twinkle out of sight.

That would have ended it if New Year's celebrants hadn't seen an object dropping through the darkness and assumed it was a jumper. Security was called, but Howe wasn't fired. He was only suspended.

Howe confirms the story, but playfully adds, "There's no truth to the rumor I was naked at the time."

Watching the tower go dark is almost too much for this die-hard Vegas guy to take.

"When I heard, my stomach just fell out," Howe says. "The Mint was a perfect place. It made money. It was a boutique little (365-room) hotel with a great staff and great service. We treated the $5,000 cardholder like a high roller. The Mint had a certain cachet that a lot of properties on the Strip wish they'd had. It's a damn shame it's gone."

Ironically, the boutique hotel experience is part of the $8.5 billion CityCenter's marketing strategy.

May the new Las Vegas have even half the colorful characters that place did.

The RTC is going neon.  Well along the new bus routes anyways.  Seems they are teaming with the Neon Museum and others to restore neon signs from our collective past and use as transit markers on their new routes.

From the Review-Journal:

In the Arts District, a massive sign reading "18b" shadows the transit stop. For those of us who aren't as cool as we think we are, 18b means 1800 block, which is how the artsy crowd refers to that area. Down the street is the retro sign from the 5th Street Liquor store and, across from the Las Vegas Convention Center, stands the original Landmark casino sign -- reborn on the same spot of the old establishment.

"It's an interpretive, artistic way to illuminate the route for the ACE," said Jacob Snow, general manager of the commission. "We want to make it cool looking and make it a positive experience."

Downtown once had a reputation for prostitution, cheap shrimp cocktails, homeless people and cheesy casino giveaways. It has re-emerged as a gathering spot for the younger crowd with trendy bars that offer no gambling.

I found this piece by Courtney Mooney on the history of Berkley Square.  Lots of info about the first subdivision for African-Americans in Las Vegas:

Rediscovering a Las Vegas Neighborhood’s African American Roots

by Courtney Mooney

Survey and inventory of historic resources should be an integral part of every city’s redevelopment process. This type of research is not only a valuable economic planning tool but also an exciting opportunity to unearth valuable gems, as was the case with a study of West Las Vegas, a historic, predominantly African American, area of Las Vegas, Nevada. The City of Las Vegas’s Historic Preservation Plan calls for the ongoing documentation of historic neighborhoods and properties. Each year, the City of Las Vegas Planning and Development Department applies for grant money from the National Park Service’s Historic Preservation Fund for survey and inventory through the State Historic Preservation Office. In 2002, the award funded the research of the “Historic Westside” area.

The rediscovery of the origins of the Berkley Square neighborhood in West Las Vegas, a post-World War II subdivision marketed to African Americans, began with a chance newspaper research find during this 2002 survey. (Figure 1) Two newspaper articles published in December 1949 announced the opening of a new subdivision named “Westside Park,” with 155 tract houses designed by a “famed” African American architect, Paul Revere Williams.(1) Because the development site was outside the 2002 survey boundaries in an area now called Berkley Square, this information became a side note in the historic context statement.

In 2004, discussions about moving the La Concha Motel’s mid-century, free-form concrete lobby again raised the name of architect Paul R. Williams. (Figure 2) Williams was well known for his movie-star homes and public buildings in Los Angeles, such as Frank Sinatra’s Trousdale estate and the Los Angeles County Courthouse. With the potential connection to the West Las Vegas subdivision in mind, the City of Las Vegas Historic Preservation Commission began discussing Berkley Square as a possible survey area for the 2004 National Park Service grant.

Several issues complicated the decision to survey this area. The 1949 articles referred to a development called Westside Park, but the subdivision was now called Berkley Square, with county assessor information showing construction dates of 1954-55. What happened between 1949 and 1954? Were the Berkley Square homes actually designed by Williams? All the Historic Preservation Commission had to go by were documents describing a land sale and a current photograph of a house that resembled the architect’s sketch accompanying the 1949 articles. The Commission voted to include Berkley Square in the 2004 survey and hired a historic preservation consultant, Diana Painter of Painter Preservation and Planning, to document the neighborhood and solve the mystery.

Painter began by documenting and photographing all buildings within the neighborhood, providing a Nevada State Historic Resource Inventory Form for each. A historic context statement was prepared to help assess the importance of the properties within the contexts of Las Vegas history and mid-century residential design. In addition, research was conducted at the historical society, local libraries and museums, and the Environmental Design Library at the University of California at Berkeley. Painter also used information from a previous interview with Karen Hudson, Williams’s granddaughter. From this research, she was able to stitch together compelling arguments for a probable link to the Los Angeles architect as well as for eligibility for listing on the National Register of Historic Places.

Besides attracting a famous clientele and important public commissions, Williams was the first black architect to become a member of the American Institute of Architects and served on the California Housing Commission and the California Redevelopment Commission. He published two pattern books on small houses, Small Home of Tomorrow (1945) and New Homes for Today (1946).(2) By 1949, he had won three national competitions for small home design, and he would eventually design military housing and other housing stock for subdivisions. According to his granddaughter, the modernized ranch house became his specialty.

Williams’s design for Berkley Square filled a desperate need for adequate housing in West Las Vegas. Platted by surveyor J.T. McWilliams in 1905, settlement began as a wayside for miners. It was hoped that the arrival of the railroad would bring prosperity, but these hopes were unrealized. The railroad company owned most of the land east of the completed tracks, as well as all of the water rights, effectively controlling development for decades.

During the 1930s, McWilliams’s Townsite, now called “the Westside,” had few permanent buildings, but blacks were free to own businesses and live on the east side of town. Subsequent segregation practices in Las Vegas forced most of the black families to relocate to the Westside. Well into the 1940s, the area lacked basic amenities such as sewer and paved streets, with sometimes two or more families living in small, one-room wood shacks. Low-income minorities and whites continued to find refuge here, with the black population having the strongest cultural presence. A community of churches, businesses, and nightclubs was formed using the residents’ own resources and ingenuity. Adequate housing lagged far behind, however, especially during and after World War II, when many black soldiers returned home or residents lost their jobs at the local Air Force base or military industrial plants.

Westside Park/Berkley Square was the result of “four years of planning, designing and negotiating with government officials, by a group of local businessmen endeavoring to make the first real contribution to improvement of conditions on the city’s Westside.”(3) It was sorely needed in 1947, when the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) began discussions with the City of Las Vegas to develop a “new 2-bedroom project for colored people…with Federal Housing insured loans.”(4) The property changed hands several times, but finally in 1954 with new owners, Edward A. Freeman and J.J. Byrnes, the subdivision was recorded as Berkley Square with 148 lots on 22 acres.

The new “Berkley Square” name came from Thomas L. Berkley, of Oakland, California. Berkley was a distinguished African American attorney, media owner, developer, civil rights advocate, and a frequent guest at the White House during the Kennedy and Johnson administrations. It was in his civil rights capacity that he became partial financier of Berkley Square. An article in the Las Vegas Review Journal from April 1954 stated that Berkley Square was “the first minority group subdivision to be approved for construction in the state of Nevada.”(5)

Painter’s report established Berkley Square’s eligibility for nomination to the National Register of Historic Places as the first subdivision in Nevada built by and for African Americans. The subdivision contributed to improved living conditions for the community and represented the progress of local civil rights activism. In addition, Berkley Square is significant for its association with attorney Berkley and architect Williams. The neighborhood of suburban one-story ranch houses also retains much of its architectural integrity

It's official!  Berkley Square, designed by mid-century modern architect, Paul Revere Williams, was the first subdivision to be built in Nevada by and for African-American residents of Las Vegas.  It is now on the National Registry of Historic Places!

The historic Berkley Square Neighborhood, located in West Las Vegas, has been listed in the National Register of Historic Places.  The Register, a National Park Service Program, is the nation’s official list of cultural resources worthy of recognition and preservation. The city of Las Vegas Planning & Development Department nominated the neighborhood on behalf of the Berkley Square residents after a consultant’s report found that the neighborhood met the National Register criteria for historic district designation.

  “I am thrilled that the National Park Service has recognized this important and historic neighborhood. This is truly an incredible honor for our community,” Ward 5 Councilman Ricki Y. Barlow said.  

 The Berkley Square Historic District is located about one and one-half miles from downtown Las Vegas near Owens Avenue and D Street, and is bound by Byrnes and Leonard avenues on the north and south, respectively, and G and D Streets on the west and east, respectively.

The district includes 148 homes constructed in 1954-55 in the Contemporary Ranch style with two models that varied by roof type, porch overhang and façade finishes and fenestration. The neighborhood was designed according to Federal Housing Administration standards of the day, showing concern for traffic and pedestrian safety with limited access points and sidewalks separated from the streets by a grass strip.

Berkley Square is the first subdivision to be built in Nevada by and for African-American residents of Las Vegas. It was designed in 1949 by Paul R. Williams, an internationally-known African-American architect from Los Angeles who made great strides for his race in the profession.

The developers and builders comprise an A-list of prominent African-American community activists and civic leaders, including financier Thomas L. Berkley, an attorney, media owner, developer and civil rights advocate from Oakland, Calif. It was also financed by Edward A. Freeman and J. J. Byrnes of Los Angeles. The developer was Leonard A. Wilson of Las Vegas. Construction was supervised by Harry L. Wyatt of the Las Vegas firm Burke and Wyatt.  Massie L. Kennard, a Las Vegas civil rights leader, was the real estate agent.

Berkley Square contributed to improving living conditions for the city’s African-American community, and represented the advances that were being made as a result of local activism in the community in the late 1940s and early 1950s. It is additionally representative of the massive building boom that took place in Las Vegas and across the country in the post-war era, and retains good integrity as a residential suburb of that time.