Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman, who has criticized Nevada’s coronavirus lockdown as “total insanity,” is calling for her city’s hotels and casinos to reopen now, but workers are speaking out and demanding a safety plan, which the mayor said is not her responsibility.
"That's up to them to figure out. I don't own a casino," Goodman said in a Wednesday interview with CNN's Anderson Cooper when asked how she would prioritize the safety of employees and implement social distancing at the establishments.
Goodman, an independent, does not have authority over the casinos on the Vegas Strip, but admitted that she had not implemented any safety measures in her call to reopen business in the city while the virus is spreading.
“I’d love everything open because I think we’ve had viruses for years that have been here,” she said to Cooper, who appeared flummoxed at the mayor’s comments. “I’m not a private owner of a hotel. I wish I were. And I would have the cleanest hotel with 6 feet figured out for every human being that comes in there.”
Burning reactions
Reactions to the mayor’s comments burned up social media Wednesday and caused ripples across the nation’s bruised hospitality industry.
One local official called her comments “reckless and dangerous” and another described them as an “embarrassment.”
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Casino and hotel workers overwhelmingly said they were uncomfortable about reopening unless there were strict safety measures in place, including social distancing, personal protective equipment, thorough cleaning of facilities, temperature checks of patrons, diagnostic testing and contact tracing.
D. Taylor, the president of UNITE Here, a union that represents more than 300,000 hospitality workers across the country, called Goodman's comments "one of the worst things I've heard," according to NBC News.
“Nobody wants people to go back more than I do, but everyone wants to go back to a safe and secure workplace and not be an experiment in a petri dish,” Taylor said.
In the interview, Goodman called Cooper “alarmist” as he continued to press her about the hazards of casino patrons breathing in circulated air, sharing spaces in close proximity and touching slot machines.
“I’ve lived a long life,” she said. “I grew up in the heart of Manhattan. I knew what it’s like to be with subways and crammed into elevators.”
Goodman for weeks has called for Vegas casinos to reopen in opposition to the governor’s order to keep non-essential businesses shuttered. On Tuesday in an interview with MSNBC, she said she assumed 100% of the population already carried the virus asymptomatically and that casinos could simply close down quickly in the event of an outbreak.
“Assume everybody is a carrier,” the mayor said to MSNBC's Katy Tur on Tuesday. “And then you start from an even slate. And tell the people what to do. And let the businesses open and competition will destroy that business if, in fact, they become evident that they have disease, they're closed down. It’s that simple.”
Worker concerns
But most, if not all, of the workers who spoke to the media didn’t see it that way and continued to express deep uncertainty about returning to the job.
They said many of their questions remained unanswered, such as will dealers wear masks and gloves? Will dice and cards be regularly cleaned? Will foot traffic be limited at gaming tables, bars and in elevators? How will workers know who is asymptomatic or not?
“There’s no proper protocols in place anywhere,” said Dee Kenny, 64, who works security at casinos on the Strip, according to NBC. “I’m not going to go back until I’m not at risk.”
Alexander Acosta, a banquet bartender with the Caesar Forum Conference Center, said the mayor’s comments “struck a nerve,” NBC reported.
“We’re not test subjects. We’re people. We are employees,” Acosta said to NBC. "We try to live every day as we can. We shouldn't be test subjects.”
The Culinary Union, which represents the largest contingent of workers on the Vegas Strip, said 11 of its members had already died from the virus.
“Workers will be the reason we get through this pandemic and workers have to be protected. We demand it,” the group tweeted.
Wynn Resorts on Sunday released a detailed plan to reopen the Strip with safety measures including thermal cameras and social distancing, according to NBC.
A contentious interview
When Cooper asked why the mayor opposed similar guidelines, Goodman accused the host of “putting words in my mouth.”
She then reiterated the argument she made to MSNBC a day earlier about her city’s population acting as a “control group” for social distancing.
“Excuse me. What I said was, I offered to be a controlled group, and what I was told by our state is, you can’t do that because people all from all parts of southern Nevada come in to work in the city,” she said. “And I said, ‘Oh, that’s too bad because when you have a disease you have a placebo that gets the water and the sugar and those that actually get the shot.’ We would love to be that placebo side so you have something to measure against.”
When Cooper asked Goodman if she would actually go to the casinos if they are reopened, she said, “First of all, I have a family. ... I don’t gamble. I used to gamble when we first came to town. I don’t have the time. I work seven days a week. I have so many things that I have to attend to. I can’t sit on a casino floor.”
‘When the time is right’
Democratic Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak tweeted Wednesday that Las Vegas would reopen “when the time is right.”
“And we are working around the clock to ensure we are not only the most fun destination in the world, but the safest,” he said.
Las Vegas City Councilman Brian Knudsen said Goodman “does not speak for all of us,” and reopening now “is reckless and completely contrary to the overwhelming consensus of medical experts.”
U.S. Rep. Dina Titus, a Democrat who represents the Las Vegas Strip, said Goodman doesn’t represent the area “literally or figuratively" and the advice of scientists telling people to stay home should be heeded.
Justin Jones, a Democrat who sits on the Clark County Commission that oversees the Strip, called the mayor “an embarrassment.” His commission colleague Michael Naft called the mayor’s remarks “reckless and dangerous” and said lifting restrictions too soon would be a slap in the face of those who sacrificed.
— Information provided by The Associated Press was used to supplement this report.
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