Las Vegas in Trouble? Mayor Goodman with Cenk on Msnbc

big cities and small towns all across the country are feeling the pain of the great recession but few have been dealt as bad a hand as las vegas unit and biggest for decades always is in the desert has been the symbol of money materialism in excess but today the capital of america gambling is facing longer august on its future getting pods biggest ok despite recent optics in gambling in tourism revenue vegas is down on the slope of unemployment at fifteen percent hotel vegas easier twenty percent and the city has the highest foreclosure rate in the nation couple that with a rising airfares and fewer jurors of money to burn annual microcosm of an american economy desperate for a winning streak mayor oscar goodman joins me live from las vegas may have been it's great to have you here uh... there looks like i a decade ago and good good it looks like this in a little bit of trouble here you saw the loan out and i think i would say it was not true another way of a sound check your edinburgh pretoria dot even don't even go there forget about that time go where everything f everything is coming back stopped uh... the uh... the tourism israel returning to us there's no question about it with that twelve months of increases or as a visitation is concerned you say that there's a twenty percent vacancy but that means there's an eighty percent occupancy which is the the envy of every tourism destination in the world our average daily rate for the rooms is a returning so dot right a software or a good shape this weekend hot even i_e_ the mayor of the great city bus tickets at a hard time getting a reservation an arrest or because we have so many people at the scene the convention here on made a good man let me show you some home prices in vegas to give you a sense of what i think maybe the trouble in two thousand the median price for existing homes a hundred and thirty thousand dollars it'll fly the jump all we have to two hundred eighty five thousand dollars but now in twenty ten is even lower than it was years ago at a hundred and twenty three thousand dollars now that's your basis that's your base for clean up property taxes exhortation and everything you stand on the government doesn't is not a sign of enormous trouble ma bell wrote you know what if we have to uh... addressed the issues there's no question about that but the truth of the matter is that it's really a placer that is a great by at this point i'm of the reason that we got where but we are right now which we were not so very very fast when u co-op that fear of course you come down quickly in we had twenty five thousand construction workers which were building the city center place of eight point nine dad billion-dollar project out there and when they finish that of course they were looking for more work and other work is now coming back were building a new performing arts center here we have a new medical complex going in the downtown so well i don't cry over us there and and don't cry for us because we're doing pretty good here father there's no question that we had a bump in the road but we're coming back and everybody's very optimistic as i a m they're going to get one of the reasons that i i'm going down this road is these a little worried some of the uh... hedge funds and start a bet against municipal bonds including the bottom our biggest necessarily there is a start on the wall street journal about betting against the vada and they think uniting the be able to pay the bills made and well one of the person we have to do jack as we have to go above that instead of on a from the citadel picture alrighty kada as far as uh... we we've never of our bond rating is excellent here at the state bond rating is actually bar local pond ready uh... the movies out there that i think the the route that derick there in fine shape we have no problem in selling bonds the matter fact on the chairman of the convention authority here we went out for bonds we saw them virtually within a matter of hours of the city as bond of new city hall project there that's going up here we sold bonds without any difficulties of as i say the media i would like to putting up appall over what's aka happening here but the community about what i want so uh... the tourism comes back to the people are spending money when they have confidence in their economic situation from where they come pat would have before they get to las vegas once that is that where it used to be will be just right for the not nobody should cry over us mayor goodman has now macau was of course exploding in incised stab if over in china what's the biggest battle plan into overcome visted grown attraction in macau you guys have always are usually getting right back well it's a it's like everything else las vegas is the ultimate tours destination the world we have casino efficacy you know with lee the best restaurants of the world the best we dealt book to shopping in the world the best entertainment in the world and it's not a situation where you have one or two venues that people can come to here or there is a total experience work folks income they could have their meetings and conventions during the daytime and that night they could have a great time well as far as i'm concerned body even though the cow is at the very very successful that helps us as well because a couple of our casino owners have interested macau and their stocks are at all-time highs is far as i could see father though that instills confidence as far as they guses concernent in our future because we have a very very passes like i'll never forget that when the lyrics city uh... that's what they were going to have legalized gambling people began to ring the rison and say oh my goodness las vegas is going to disappear all it does is it gives people it's like uh... i guess spring training whether they can go over to pick out there get a taste of gambling and then come through mccoy las vegas by doing they're on they're going to mean i love biggest i go all the time a bag next so my guardian hoping i was a nude gave me a good rate or something dot i'll tell you that's already a winner on the football game a and end is what happens in vegas still stay in vegas yet sure does that idea addressed a group of had nuclear scientist this morning at two thousand of the word town and uh... i was telling them that we have to let that the president though i understand that las vegas is a great place that conventions a great place to have beatings and that it might uh... what stays here at what happens you will stay here albee's acting as a scientist go nuclear in their party i know that without fail if they're going to be a tiger for proper right and he'll let let bygones be bygones who look president obama said ok it's it's after the little girl yet i think we finally we vote we've over-covered alright las vegas mayor oscar goodman always a pleasure thanking for joining us thanks jen narration effective okay