By Alan Snel of LVSportsBiz.com
The National Football League delivered more than just a very popular player selection event to Las Vegas. In closing a small section of the Strip for the Draft, the NFL showed how wonderful it was for people to take to the streets for three days.
And Clark County Commissioner Tick Segerblom noticed.
Segerblom told LVSportsBiz.com Monday he will bounce an idea of closing the Strip to cars for a weekend morning for walkers, bicyclists, joggers etc off the Strip’s hotel-casino owners to see if they would come on board.
“Definitely lots of interest out there, why not try it on weekend mornings and see what happens,” Segerblom told us today. “Any morning on the strip would be great, even in July and August.”
On Thursday, Segerblom tweeted about the concept of closing the Strip for people to walk it.
“I tweeted about closing the strip to cars permanently after watching how people enjoyed walking on it,” Segerblom said Monday. “I received more responses to my tweet than any I have ever done – lots of positives but lots of negatives too.”
Now, the county commissioner and former state legislator will move forward with the idea by contacting the hotels along the Strip. After all, they call the shots.
I will run it by the casinos before I do anything, nothing will happen unless they want it to happen — Clark County Commissioner Tick Segerblom
You might recall that LVSportsBiz.com also proposed the idea of closing the Strip to motorized vehicles for a weekend morning now and then after seeing how many people came to the Strip to bike and walk when the hotels were closed in April and May of 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Why not try it on weekend mornings and see what happens — County Commissioner Tick Segerblom
The NFL closed the Strip from Flamingo Road to the entrance of the Paris and Bellagio hotels. The league also closed Flamingo Road from the Strip to Koval Lane.
Lots of NFL fans walked in the road — a scene that you don’t see very often. The Strip does get closed for special events like the New Year’s Eve celebration, a NASCAR race promotion or a marathon run event.
It’s not uncommon for cities to close a main boulevard to motorized vehicles and let the people take to the streets. Bicycle event organizers call them a “ciclovia.” And even the city of Henderson closed one side of its Paseo Verde Parkway to have a ciclovia-style event called a “Stroll n Roll” in November 2013.
PSA