On Wednesday, Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman called the shutdown of the Nevada economy “total insanity,” noting that the “nonessential” business designation “makes no sense,” and that the state “must open” now.
“This shutdown has become one of total insanity,” Mayor Goodman said a city council meeting Wednesday, according to Fox 5 Vegas. “For there is no backup of data as to why we are shutdown from the start. No plan in place how to move through the shutdown or how to even come out of it.”
The mayor claimed experts have told her the novel coronavirus, or COVID-19, which triggered the intentional economic shutdown, is not going away, thus rendering the crippled economy a consequence of an unnecessary delay.
“It’s not going to be going away this month, next month, and much like the flu and other viruses that have impacted populations around the world, this virus, or a derivative there of, will be part of what we work through going forward,” she said.
“Tragically, we have already lost, to this virus, 128 individuals in Nevada,” Goodman said, offering her sympathies and condolences to the friends and families of the taken. “But let me tell you, with a population of 3.2 million living in Nevada, those whom we have lost represent less than a half of one percent of our population, which has caused us to shut down our entire state and everything that makes Nevada unique.”
The mayor then emphasized the economic toll on the community due to the lockdown measures, which translates into despair. “These are families that no longer have the ability to buy food for their children and other loved ones,” she said. “Pay their bills. Pay their rent. Pay their mortgage. Pay their car payment. Or enjoy the life that they had prior to this shut down.”
“Small businesses and those on week-to-week paychecks have been forced to close. Entire savings that were invested in these small businesses are being lost or are have already been lost. Hotels and restaurants, our entire tourism and convention industry business, has been shut down,” Goodman continued. “It makes no sense. It makes no sense.”
“From my perspective, we must open our city,” the mayor said. “We must open Southern Nevada, and we must open the state of Nevada. We can not live, going forward, with the medical and health industry telling us that this virus is going to be around longer than a month or two, maybe even a year.”
“We cannot keep our heads in the sand and think it’s going to go away. We are adults with brains, who can know what to do, to wash our hands, to take all precautions not to spread this disease. But we cannot put our heads in the sand and think it’s going to go away,” added Goodman. “From my perspective, I am asking, open the city, open Clark County, open the state. For heaven’s sake, for being closed is killing us already and killing Las Vegas, our industry, our convention and tourism business that we have all worked so hard to build. The longer we wait to do this, the more impossible it will be to recover and return to the home we all know and love.”
WATCH:
Las Vegas mayor on coronavirus shutdown:
“It makes no sense.”
She calls for Vegas and all of Nevada to reopen. pic.twitter.com/uf5Wf3g2Wn
— Andy Slater (@AndySlater) April 16, 2020
H/t Fox 5 Vegas