Split Over the Arts District's Future, a Move to Ban Flock Cameras, and Why the Raiders Are Different Now

0:00Today on CityCast Las Vegas, you recently heard us talk about the proposed business improvement district that some developers want in the arts district, and now a handful of business owners in the area are speaking out against it. Executive producer Leyla Muhammad will join us to break it all down, then criminal defense attorney and writer David Figgler also gets in on the party to dive into the latest drama surrounding flat cameras in the valley. Then I'm running through everything you need to know about the Raiders before they kick out the season this weekend against the dolphins. And we've got a member's only bonus segment for you today as well. We're getting into why the reported crime rate has drastically dropped in naked city, and what it means for the future of the gateway district. But before we dive into the show, we have to acknowledge that today marks 25 years since the 9-11 terrorist attacks. And all of us here at CityCast Las Vegas want to pass along our gratitude to our first responders and send our thoughts and prayers to all those who are impacted and are still feeling the effects of that fateful day.

1:01And if you're looking for a way to take part in any remembrance events, this Saturday Floyd Lampark is actually hosting a 9-11 day of service ceremony starting at 8 a.m. There will be speakers there from police and fire departments along with live performances by local youth and a planting of 500 American flags as well, which will then be followed by a park cleanup and assembly of care kits for all of those in need as well. So definitely check that one out. In the meantime, though, this is CityCast Las Vegas. I'm Jesse Merrick, and here's what Las Vegas is talking about. All right, Layla. Look, initially we were talking about the business improvement district that some property owners want to bring to the artistic district of it being potentially a good thing. But now some local business owners apparently are speaking out against that what's going on. Yeah, so that business improvement district petition was launched recently for the arts district. Like you said, by a group of property owners and business owners, that basically means

2:01those local owners and the arts district would pay a tax or fee to supplement improvements and services in that commercial neighborhood. In our last. Yeah, exactly. That's exactly what I was going to say in our episode last week, Jesse, you compared it to an HOA, which can be loaded language, but those can be tricky. Yeah. Yeah, it's comparable. If you're looking for a comparison there, cherry, Sam Cherry, who's the developer we interviewed last week, he's on the board for the arts district bid. He explained that efforts have been going on for about a decade in different iterations to get a business improvement district in the arts district. He actually noted that his opinion changed. He was opposed to it previously, but now is saying the neighborhood needs a united voice to interact with the city to build a sustainable future for the arts district as it's grown in its offering, specifically noting the offerings on Main Street and the

3:02strain construction on Charleston has put on business owners. While cherry said that a majority of owners support the petition reporting from Fox five notes that is actually a divisive issue in the neighborhood focusing on that tax that it would place on mom and pop owners or property owners and trickle down to mom and pop owners. So to my understanding that tax would be placed on property owners, which could lead to a rise in rents for those business owners who don't own their property and that puts them at risk of being priced out of that neighborhood, but they still do need over 50% of assessed value in the district. So more support from business owners to codify this bid and actually put it in place. Yeah, it could be interesting there with how that kind of plays out because it could be some of the big money players that get involved in maybe sway things there. There's just so many layers, I think, to it all. David, you've been tapped into this thing from the get go. I'd love to hear your thoughts. I'm glad that we get you on the show to dive into this.

4:03What's your take on this thing overall? The good, the bad, the ugly concerns hit us with all of that. So Jesse, I actually went to a couple of the open houses when the bid was being proposed to all the businesses and owners and patrons like myself of the arts district. It was mixed back then. It's mixed now. One takeaway, which I thought was interesting is that while technically they do need 50% of the property owners, they're the ones who carry the sway. I mean, business owners may support the idea, but it's really the property owners who have to be on board. The people will own the physical buildings. They said, well, 50% is the technical number that we need. We really don't like doing these bids unless we have buy-in of at least 75-80% of the people. The number might be even a little bit higher. Bids are not a new thing. They've been allowed by Nevada law for some time. They are all over the country with different results. It really depends on the area, right? What is the goal of the bid?

5:04I think initially it's to do things that people there don't think the government is doing, and that begs the question, why isn't the government doing the things that they should be doing with regard to cleanliness and safety and support and even marketing, those sort of things? I think it ultimately comes down to what will a bid district look like? To your point, Jesse, will the trickle down of the fees or the taxes of these big property owners really make it cost prohibitive for interesting upstart businesses to not just continue to exist, but even come into the district? Or are we really setting the stage for, you know, to use the G word, a more gentrified, corporate cheesecake factory world down in the arts district? Do you know what kind of makes... Please know cheesecake factory down in the arts. What's close? I mean, the Fox 5 article said star by star. Starbucks closed by two, but that said, you know, I think what people really like about

6:07the organic rise of the arts district is just how diversely funky it is, how there are all sorts of different businesses that cater to all sorts of different groups of people, people can explore and discover things that they went otherwise fine, and what you don't want is an outdoor mall that you could see anywhere else. So, you know, I listen to your interview, Jesse, with my friend Sam Cherry. The thing that he seemed to emphasize was this thing called the ambassadors, right? He didn't give a lot of detail though, and I think that that's maybe the biggest concern to people outside of the cost and the ability to be able to like continue their businesses within the district. What do these ambassadors look like? Are they gun-toting people? Are they trained? How much do they cost? You know, he talked about it in the way where they interact with people who might be on-house. This was a plan that was implemented by the Zappos people in downtown Las Vegas. They called them Rangers, not ambassadors. It was an abject failure from my perspective.

7:08It just doesn't work. And so what you wind up getting, potentially, is, you know, armed guards shooting homeless people away or calling the cops on people. And I think a lot of people don't think that that kind of sets in with the vibe of the bit either. So your point of the changing nature of the arts district, it does feel like we are creeping up on a more residential version of this neighborhood or at least more developments that are going towards that way. So I wonder if the bid is a, you know, different iteration of making the arts district more residential or more friendly for people living in these big developments there. That's not, you know, targeting noise ordinances and changing that, but making the neighborhood safer and cleaner and addressing those issues that the city aren't, that the city isn't doing. Yeah. I think there's so much to like tackle with this one. Like David Barrett some really good points to.

8:08And to me, the thing that I maybe don't just don't agree with is like, okay, the safety aspect of them already kind of having a program that handles that. Why do they need something else? And also the marketing aspect of it as well. The media is the thing here in 2026, all these businesses do a great job of marketing themselves. Why do you have to pay into a fund to do more of that for the arts district, but it's already done that organically. Let that continue. I think the big thing for me where the bid would come in the most handy, I think is creating like a unified voice or a place for business owners to like sound off and then come together as a united front because as we've seen with parking, like it's coming from so many different areas and it's, it's organized, but not. I think something like this would help organize it. It's just a matter of figuring out a way to do it effectively. That to me is the only thing that I think is like very valuable with something like this, with where the arts district is at right now. Yeah, I agree, Jesse, that marketing, those businesses down there are doing a great job. But thinking about my last experience at first Friday, David to your point of saying like

9:10you don't know how invested Metro and the marshals on this pop patrol are paying attention to the neighborhood. First Friday does seem to be kind of a sticking point with safety. I don't know if the neighborhood is prepared to handle that festival as it grows. So I do wonder if the bid could have some positive effects on continuing to make that festival the community oriented gathering place. I was getting dropped off and there were fights. There were probably like three fight different fights on the street when I was getting dropped off on Main Street. You just need an ambassador to calm everyone down. They just go relax, chill. Right. But no matter what the investor is actually trained in, that's what I want to know. How many of them do you jitsu or anything like that? That's what I'm very curious about the backgrounds of it all. But obviously a lot has to happen to make this work for everyone and that's the really tricky part. Because let's be real. It's not just an art district, art district problem.

10:12Anytime there are big events, a first Friday, we talk about the Great American Food Festival right with the massive fights that we're going on there and kids getting involved. So it's a problem with everywhere. I don't think that's something that's unique to the art district in that regard. But we'll see how this kind of continues and moves along. And to David's point, see if they can reach that like 50 to 70% threshold and how this moves forward. So let's talk about something else that's pretty controversial. Flot cameras, David. What's the deal right now with flot cameras? Because it sounds like nobody wants them around, although they are. They seem to be universally hated right now on some level. People just want to get the flock out of their cities. You're welcome. Actually, that is one of the campaigns against it. So I guess we should really start with what flot cameras are. There are devices which gather basically pictures of everything on the streets and then have

11:15the ability to kind of process it, make it, let's just say, database searchable and friendly for AI to analyze. And I'm going to put a pin in that AI thing for just a second. So these are really just sort of these cameras, essentially, that are capturing everything that happens in our city all the time. I mean, just like camera, essentially, in coverage beyond anything that anyone has ever thought of before. A literal big brother, I in the sky, right? The bigger question is what are people who have access to flock doing with all this picture information, all this data? And that's where it starts to get kind of wonky. So the reason we're talking about this specifically today is because there are two competing bills that are apparently going to be introduced in the 2027 legislative session. There is a move from some of legislators to outright ban flock until we can figure out

12:20exactly how this can go wrong and really do a lot more research before implementation. And then there's another group of legislators who are kind of like, well, we just need guard rails because we've heard of abuses and we just need to put in to affect these sort of guard rails to make sure that it's not being abused or exploited in ways that are either unconstitutional or maybe even immoral or just basically sketchy. So that's kind of the fight that's sort of shaping up. You get a lot of like Lombardo and Ford who are candidates for governor. They both seem to be in the guard rail camp, but then there are others who are seeing some of these abuses in real time and say, look, the genies out of the bottle, this technology is way too powerful. We don't know what we're dealing with. And it's not just capable of being misused. It's not just documented to be misused, but it is inherently going to be misused. So that's kind of the debate that comes down. No, definitely. And there are a couple of things that I really want to hit to and kind of drive this discussion

13:23here is the cameras that technology themselves and those guard rails. Let's start with the cameras. Laila, I'm curious what your thoughts are on what the real problem is because cameras aren't new. We've had those, but I guess the usage of them is a little different. And then there's also the AI factor. What do you think the biggest issue is for people? The AI factor of it or the cameras themselves? I don't think it's the cameras themselves because we've seen other countries, you know, there's CCTV. Licensed plate readers have been around for quite some time. There have been surveillance aspects of our community. It's not new. I do think flat cameras have this kind of private ownership reputation with it. Like, oh, this is someone, this is some billionaire that's funding this and giving this to our police force to track us. I think that is some aspect of it. I think AI, there's a big distrust in AI in our communities that using AI for-flot cameras,

14:27it does feel like there is a bit more surveillance of just like this camera is washing every move. This camera is flagging cars wrongfully for being stolen and people are getting pulled over and flagged for, oh, your car stolen. No, it's not. AI system has wrongfully flagged this. So I do think there's multiple issues. I don't think it is a general camera issue. I think it's the flock as a company. I think they have gotten a bad reputation and garnered a lot of distrust. I think AI being in there has garnered a lot of distrust in our country recently. Yeah. So it's a really convoluted issue, obviously. So David, I want to kick it back to you on the guard wills thing because that's obviously such a hot button issue with this realistically. What are some guardrails that could be put into place that would actually make sense and would stop the misuse of this stuff? Because we've seen in the past no matter what the quote unquote rules are, there's different

15:28forces that be taking advantage of things to maybe stock X's and stuff like that. What actual guardrails could be put in place that would have this stuff be used correctly, like not at 100% rate, but at much higher cost. And so that seems to be the low hanging through of the guardrail conversation is that only authorized users, only for specific and prescribed purposes can utilize this technology. I think that the proponents of flock, mostly on the law enforcement side, don't want to have it gone because it is obviously a very effective tool. And it's just one in a very large toolbox. And I want to talk about that really briefly as well. But the thing is that when you see the proponents coming out, they're saying, look, it helps us solve crimes. Don't we want to solve crimes? And that argument can be taken to an extreme. And perhaps flock is that extreme is that, yeah, if there was no privacy at all, if all of our cell phones, all the data in real time was watched by the police, they would solve

16:31all the crimes, right? And the question is, how far away is this flock tool? From that sort of giant surveillance nation where they're solving all the crimes, but really putting people's liberty and personal privacy out the window, right? So as I understand the way that flock works, and I've seen this kind of in application, not for the abuses that we've heard about, that's one thing. But in actual utilization by law enforcement, and my job is a criminal defense attorney, that flock is just one flow of data. Everyone's very upset about flock right now, but it's not the only thing that's feeding in to this sort of AI brain to help law enforcement track people. So I talk about it like an octopus. Every tentacle is a different source of data. It could be ring cameras. It could be flock cameras. It could be these license plate readers.

17:31It could be cell phone data, you know, pinging off of cell phone towers. Like there's all these tentacles, but it all goes into one specific brain. And the octopus is a very smart creature. And this is the AI brain. And in Las Vegas, from my understanding, and they've kind of publicized it, it's something called fusion watch. Now people can Google it. There are metro videos like bragging about how they have the best tool against terrorism ever in fusion watch. And as I understand what fusion watch is, and I'm still trying to figure it out, it's the AI brain that takes all the tentacles information, and then it just starts processing it where theoretically or even in practice, they can predict where people will be going. That's how much all that data would give you. That feels like minority report or something like that, right? That's exactly it. So you know, what people are really concerned about is like, let's say that there's a big protest against the government or a big protest against law enforcement, which we see

18:33in communities, including our own. You know, with facial recognition technology and another tentacle, they could start like tracking protesters that they don't like what they're saying, find out what car they go to, and then literally create a report of everywhere that that person has gone in the last 30 days or 60 days or however long flock's been operational. They could find out who they hang out with. They could then start tracking those people. I mean, it really is endless. And I think that people who want to ban flock also are very concerned of how, you know, the technology is so advanced that we can do things in the name of law enforcement and safety that really make us uneasy in a 2026 slash 1984 way. So again, there's a lot of factors to take into play with this one. And David just painted a scary, scary picture. So Leila, what should our lawmakers or the people that are running to be those folks really be concentrating on?

19:33I think it is going to be a big issue this election cycle and candidates need to take some kind of stance on flock. You know, what we're seeing now is data centers and flock cameras are two of the biggest issues this election season. We've heard both governor candidates have some kind of stance on that. And I think it's just going to get more and more important for candidates to take some kind of stance. I think it's going towards, you know, people are anti flock and anti data centers. So I think we'll see how that turns out in the midterms. Okay, we're wrapping up sports week guys with none other than the Las Vegas Raiders who kick off yet another season this Sunday at home against the Miami dolphins. Now, the low dawn on the Raiders, okay, they're coming off of a four win season. They have been bad, very bad since they arrived in Las Vegas for the first time.

20:37In a long time though, there's hope around this franchise because they just drafted Fernando Mendoza number one overall. They've got some pieces to build around. They've invested a lot in some young players on second contracts that they're hoping they can kind of help correct some of like issues that they've had in the NFL draft over the years in terms of guys that are no longer on this team that have essentially turned into busts or no longer in the league either. But the rug just got pulled out from under the Raiders because their best player Brock Bowers is now expected to miss at least one or two games, potentially more to start the season because he had a meniscus issue got that cleaned up. So now we're kind of waiting to see what happens there. So a little bit of like a gut punch there for a lot of fans as they enter the weekend. But again, they're moving the right direction because paired with all that newness and the new quarterback of the future, they do have a new head coach, which is also great. He's coming over from the Seattle sea locks who won the championship last year. So that's a big get for them. This is a guy that seems like is going to come in and build a foundation the right way. And we talk about that hope for the future with a quarterback in Fernando Mendoza.

21:37You're also going to have to wait because I really mean it when I say the future. He's not starting this season. Kurt Cousins actually is that young guy. He's a veteran that they signed that young guy who's got his whole life and fun as a football star. Exactly. They signed him to kind of be the guy like the intermediary to help bring Fernando Mendoza along, which I honestly think is the right move before this game. So is Fernando Mendoza playing Jesse? No, no, no, he's not going to play and likely won't for at the very least the first half of the season, first month, the season, potentially at all this season. If Fernando Mendoza doesn't see the field for the Raiders this year, that's actually a good thing because then that means that the team is outperforming what a lot of people think they're going to be able to do. And I think that's the team's hope is that Fernando doesn't play this year. They ride into it with Kurt Cousins. He helps them get a better read on the rest of the team and bring all of those guys along. And then next season, they can insert Fernando Mendoza as they're starting quarterback for the future and continue to build around him. But my guess is he probably plays around week eight or potentially week 12.

22:40Those are the areas where it might make sense to get Fernando out there. I have a question for both of you guys though, like because obviously like, look, the Raiders have come here. They have a fan base that is international, you know what I mean? Like they're one of the bigger brands in sports, particularly in the NFL. Again, the success hasn't really been there for them. So that's why I think they're viewed differently nationally. But here locally, it's different because like the Golden Knights, obviously it was like Kumbaya right from the get go in terms of the fan base and wrapping their arms around this team. The Aces, I think the city has done that. It's been a bit of a weird relationship. If we're being honest with the Raiders in Las Vegas, is they're trying to gain their footing here? What would it take for you guys to actually kind of become Raiders fans and embrace them as like the local team here in Las Vegas? I think for Fernando Mendoza is going to help that. He had a really great profile. And this is coming from someone who's kind of like an auxiliary sports fan. I'm on the fringes of sports news. And Fernando Mendoza was all over my feed when he was winning the, I think, high smithrofied

23:41Jesse. And he was being the all star. And so seeing him go to the Raiders as Las Vegas, I was like, oh my gosh, this is the moment where the team is going to turn around. And it's finally not going to be embarrassing to support the Raiders in Las Vegas. So I'm hoping that Fernando Mendoza kind of raises their profile. I also think all like just all and all the Raiders need a better marketing team because I don't think they talk about their positive impact in the community enough. I'm kind of a one note singer on this one. It's I appreciate that you perceive that the Raiders have done a lot for the community. I just feel like they could do so, so much more given their wealth and given their success look, Vegas turned out to be an amazing bet for the Raiders. They have increased in value, tenfold. They went from like when talks started about 1.5 billion and they're valued now somewhere around 13 billion because that brand is so internationally known, but also because like

24:47Vegas was the smart move for them. They, you know, now have all the 40 million tourists who come here, like have that as an option during football season to go do it. And then also the stadium itself because we didn't have a facility to do Beyoncé's and Chris Brown's and everybody else is making so much money and not only was that stadium built on like, you know, so much public funds, 650 million, but they just kind of went back and got more. And the thing is they don't need to. It's available. It's the way the law was set up. But we didn't do the profit sharing like you and I have talked about before with us. They're not sharing their profits to the extent that how much money that they've made. I get it. There are bits and pieces, some which are, you know, somewhat significant. But you know, when you have the owner of the team who also owns the Aces, you know, give $5 million to Trillens Hospital, of course that's great. But if you look at the, you know, how much the average Nevada makes, that's like a $70

25:48donation. I think I could be one over if they really start focusing on enduring themselves to the locals. I think that means maybe just giving us the billion dollars back, maybe moving forward with profit sharing or maybe, maybe just maybe giving out radiously low, low prices for us to go to home games, just like when I went to college, like at school, we would get virtually free tickets because we went to that school and we filled the stadium, you know, and or we had student tickets that were so much cheaper than people who wanted to just come and, you know, see the game. They don't do any of that and I get it. It's capitalism, you know, no one, they want to make their money. It's life in the NFL. I mean, to be honest, but we're different here on this just because they use, yeah, I got to use it because that's the cost of doing business for professional sports though, you know what I mean? Like there is not a single team in any league that would do that. Which is why it should be different here, you know, because we're different here because we're probably the only team in the country that has more visiting fans than local fans

26:52at a game. They need to change their approach when it comes to a place like Las Vegas. Yeah, I say like in LA, you have a similar thing as well. People want to go travel to go to those places, but it's also too very early and the Raiders haven't been here all that long. Six years when you really look in the great scheme of things, you know, yeah, but like it's a thing though for a team like the Raiders that are very polarizing, like if you're not a Raiders fan, chances are you probably hate them. So like it's going to take many years for them to really develop like, do you take it to the fandom and generation? Let's go. But I mean, you know, it's going to take generations of kids growing up with the Raiders to identify them as like their teams, essentially what I'm saying. Give it time. Give it time. And again, they're doing much more than a lot of other organizations are not only in football, but in sports. So I do think they need a little more credit than what I think you're giving them if I'm being honest. I think every, you know, when we look at every sports team in Las Vegas could probably be doing more for the local community. And I hear you sport. At any kind of city, you know, yeah. The valuation that Las Vegas has helped the Raiders with is something that's huge and

27:55outweigh like more than probably for the ACEs. Yeah. And well, I guess just the ACEs who else came here or when the ACE come here, we'll see how much they, how much value Las Vegas has to them. But I do think every sports team across the board could be doing more for the local community. And the Raiders, like I, I don't, I didn't even know that Mark Davis donated to the children's hospital. Like I don't hear anything good that they do for the community. So they're marketing it like I don't know. They need to start talking about that more and doing more as well. Yeah. Agreed. It is agree. I think they're going to be implanted if you completely honest, given, you know, when you look at the landscape around the leagues and different things like that. As one example before we close and move on to the members only bonus segment, I don't see the cowboys doing nearly as much as what the Raiders are doing in Dallas. And they are one of, if not the most profitable and, you know, look at teams as like big money, the Raiders do far more than they do in the community and even for their past athletes

28:55as well. So just want to throw that in there. Vegas isn't Dallas, Jesse. It's time now for our members only bonus segment. And today we're diving into what the revitalization efforts in naked city could mean for the future of the Gateway District. But you're only going to hear this member's only bonus segment if you're one of our city cast Las Vegas neighbors. So if you want to unlock today's discussion, gain access to each and every one of our weekly bonus segments and take advantage of all the other great perks of being one of our city cast Las Vegas neighbors, head to membership dot city cast dot FM slash Las Vegas to sign up now. Layla David, thank you so much. As always, a very spirited discussion and one that I had so much fun with. O Las Vegas, you never disappoint. It's my pleasure. Thanks, Jesse. Thanks, David. That's all for today here on city cast Las Vegas. Our executive producer is Layla Muhammad, our creative producers are Jacob Solis and Rob Catrice.

29:56We also get additional production support from Katie McMurrin and I'm your host Jesse Mary. Music is by OG Moose. Our ad music is by Sven Linvol and Sarah from Epidemic Sounds via Getty Images. We record this show on the traditional homelands of the new movie, The Southern Paiute People. And hey, if you enjoyed the show, why not tell a friend? Rate the show, leave us a review and subscribe to our free morning newsletter as well. And don't forget, you can support this show and get great perks by becoming the city cast Las Vegas neighbor at membership dot city cast dot FM slash Las Vegas. We'll be back on Monday morning with more news from around the city. Until then, though, take care and have a great weekend.