J. Patrick Coolican
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Story Archive
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Business
Let's remember: Warren Buffett's power play is to make money
Wednesday, May 29, 2013 Shouts of joy rang out among Nevada’s political elite on the news that an entity owned by famed investor Warren Buffett is buying the state’s electric monopoly, NV Energy.
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Politics
The Steven Brooks saga points to much bigger problems
Wednesday, April 3, 2013 The unfortunate truth is that story of expelled Assemblyman Steven Brooks, sad as it is, could have been even more tragic.
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homelessness
Photographer documenting homeless families finds no place like Las Vegas
Monday, April 1, 2013 Craig Blankenhorn has spent most of his professional life on film and TV sets — “Sex in the City” and “The Sopranos” among them — shooting photos for the big advertising displays you see in newspapers and magazines. But now he’s also traveling the country, documenting the lives of homeless families. In Las Vegas he met Tom, Angela and little Kaleb, who is one of 1.6 million homeless kids in the United States, and he won't soon forget them.
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Downtown
In search of mysterious Downtown sign artist King Richard
Wednesday, March 13, 2013 King Richard’s realm is not a conventional one. It is the weathered sides of Downtown cinder block.
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Sports
Taking a real liking to a bunch of guys under the lights on Friday nights
Saturday, Dec. 15, 2012 On Friday, we posted a long piece that I wrote tracking Canyon Springs High School’s football season. Now comes this addendum, because I must share with you my personal feelings after having found myself becoming attached to the team.
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Development
Our Downtown columnist offers friendly advice for the area as he prepares to move on
Wednesday, Nov. 28, 2012 A last installment of Sun columnist J. Patrick Coolican's Neon Eden column.
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Entertainment
The battle for the Huntridge is waged in frustration and misunderstanding
Wednesday, Nov. 21, 2012 Will the wrecking ball arrive after all is said and done?
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As We See It
Does Las Vegas need its own Mayor Daley?
Tuesday, Nov. 13, 2012 Chicago's turnaround mayor is in Las Vegas this week for a Chamber of Commerce luncheon.
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Downtown
After a tough stretch, Downtown’s Juhl has seen its fortunes rise
Wednesday, Nov. 7, 2012 Some poor soul bought a two-bedroom, two-bath unit at the Juhl tower Downtown in 2009 for $465,804. The same unit sold earlier this year for $104,500. And yet, things are looking up at Juhl.
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As We See It
Las Vegas’ mid-mod homes don’t just look cool — they were built for the desert
Wednesday, Oct. 31, 2012 The retro homes were designed smarter than the track homes lining suburban streets.
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Business
Should we turn the old Ambassador Hotel site into a Middle Eastern market?
Wednesday, Oct. 24, 2012 The possibilities seem endless for the seven acre space.
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Development
Are Downtown landowners waiting for a Hsieh payday?
Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2012 Are owners in denial about the crash?
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Opinion
Is Downtown Las Vegas in danger of gentrification?
Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2012 Will wealthy yuppies and retail outlets like J. Crew soon dominate the area?
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Neon Eden
Keeping up with Downtown development can be exhausting
Wednesday, Oct. 3, 2012 There's no shortage of great projects going on Downtown. Check out our list.
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Neon Eden
J. Patrick Coolican comes out of party retirement at the new D
Wednesday, Sept. 26, 2012 It was time to come out of a six-month retirement from Downtown carousing and check in on the scene.
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homelessness
Can we solve the homeless situation by ... giving them a place to live?
Wednesday, Sept. 19, 2012 A prominent business person suggested to me that to solve the homeless problem Downtown, we should buy an empty subdivision in the suburbs and move everybody in. This person was joking, but there’s actually some validity to that idea. Why? Well, that’s what we’re already doing, and it’s working.
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Neon Eden
Downtown desperately needs more trails, but don't hold your breath
Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2012 There's a long-range plan for trails downtown, but where's the money going to come from?
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As We See It
Downtown desperately needs more parks. Who will step up?
Wednesday, Aug. 29, 2012 It's hard to imagine a great city without great parks.
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As We See It
Small businesses, big beginnings: Talking with Downtown Project's Don Welch
Wednesday, Aug. 22, 2012 The Downtown Project’s plan to open dozens of small businesses in the next few years after picking from hundreds of at-times highly creative submissions can seem rather freewheeling, like a certain locally famous online apparel retailer.
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Fashion
Las Vegas has the potential to be more of a fashion industry player
Wednesday, Aug. 15, 2012 Downtown's upcoming Fashion Lab just might help.
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Business
Dissecting the Downtown glut of bail bondsmen
Wednesday, Aug. 8, 2012 How bail bonds work, what the bondsmen do and more.
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Business
A food truck influx has Downtown restaurants—and local government—crying foul
Wednesday, Aug. 1, 2012 We often hear that businesses wish government would merely get out of the way. Just as often, however, I see businesses lobbying government to kill off the competition. In the latest example, the Las Vegas City Council is mulling protecting Downtown brick-and-mortar restaurants from their wily new competitors: food trucks. As my Las Vegas Sun colleague Joe Schoenmann reported recently, the owner of Uncle Joe’s Pizza on Fremont East was outraged that “there, in front of his pizza joint, was parked a food truck. And it was selling pizza, no less.”
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A&E
Downtown's dining options are about to explode. Hungry?
Wednesday, July 25, 2012 For years, Fremont East was a fun place to drink, especially if you were so committed to drinking (you know who you are) that you didn’t want food to get in the way. Now, however, a restaurant boomlet is coming Downtown. What had been slow and steady progress is quickening, with a pile of new spots opening, in construction or stewing in someone’s imagination.
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Downtown
Why an urban Downtown and lots of free parking spots are mutually exclusive
Wednesday, July 11, 2012 Strategic parking policies will be an important part of the Downtown renaissance.
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Community
Coolican measures how far downtown has to go, one step at a time
Wednesday, July 4, 2012 After watching the Las Vegas Philharmonic blow the doors off the Smith Center recently, my date and I wanted to have dinner downtown. We stood outside, looking toward the Golden Nugget, and pondered how we’d get there.
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J. Patrick Coolican
Towne Terrace and the apartment shortage of Downtown revitalization
Wednesday, June 27, 2012 Where's everyone going to live?
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A&E
Nancy Williams Baker has been bringing color to Downtown for decades
Wednesday, June 20, 2012 The costume shop owner intended to stay in town for two weeks — she stayed a lifetime.
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Business
Finally buying into the Zappos hype
Wednesday, June 20, 2012 As a journalist, my job is to be skeptical, and given the incessant flimflammery in Las Vegas, I think I was entitled to be extra wary of the Tony Hsieh-Zappos-downtown craze. My outlook is deeply influenced by the “Simpsons” episode when the charismatic charlatan Lyle Lanley sells Springfield a rickety monorail (sound familiar?), so I always try to question what’s in that delicious Kool-Aid. For years I’ve been reading glowing profiles of Hsieh, the prodigy founder of an Internet company he sold to Microsoft for millions before becoming CEO of online retailer Zappos.
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Health
Board member's resignation shines light on region's unhealthy habits
Sunday, June 17, 2012 Nancy Menzel, a professor of nursing at UNLV, is leaving the Southern Nevada District Board of Health in frustration after just one term. Menzel describes a dysfunctional board burdened by conflict with Clark County while public health problems fester. Menzel is supportive of the district but was scathing in her critique of its board.
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Downtown
Tony Hsieh’s vision for Downtown might be ambitious, but we need it to happen
Wednesday, June 13, 2012 "Not pursuing his brand of urbanism will doom us."
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Downtown
City Council's decision further brands Las Vegas as kid-unfriendly
Wednesday, June 13, 2012 Until they can score a fake ID, there’s not much for kids to do in this town. Las Vegas is like most American communities that way, but gambling and alcohol are central to life here, making the problem even worse.
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Henderson
Not so neighborly: Group essentially says, 'Schoolchildren: not in my backyard'
Friday, June 8, 2012 Sometimes it’s hard not to feel like we live in a ridiculous town. In the latest example, Clark County has put the squeeze on a Montessori school — a Montessori school! — to appease unhappy neighbors, so the school has decided to pack up and leave.
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As We See It
Frustration takes over in quest for local all-ages music venue
Wednesday, June 6, 2012 Unless it's a religious or educational institution, "it's basically impossible to open a venue for kids."
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Business
On the horizon: A quick look at projects poised to shape downtown
Monday, June 4, 2012 While development remains fairly moribund in the rest of the Las Vegas Valley, there’s suddenly a diverse array of projects in various states of planning and completion downtown.
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Las Vegas
Want a grocery store downtown? Change is in your hands
Thursday, May 31, 2012 My colleague recently moved into a cool place in Soho Lofts in the Arts District—would someone please change the name of this otherwise worthy building?—and is mostly happy with downtown living. But he’s also discovering its frustrations
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Community
TVs, home goods, Gatorade and wisdom — all 99 cents at Henderson store
Friday, May 25, 2012 Regina Burns got in line for Thursday’s grand opening of the 99¢ Only Store on Wednesday at 2:30 a.m. She spent 30 hours securing a spot as one of the first nine customers, each of whom had the chance to buy a 22-inch flat-screen TV for, yes, 99 cents.
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Community
Though religious group's efforts are noble, tackling issues won't come without making enemies
Thursday, May 24, 2012 As Cantor Mariana Gindlin sang “Eili, Eili,” the packed ballroom at UNLV hushed. Just moments before, they were boisterous and cheerful, singing “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands.” Now, though, the solemnity of the Hebrew song hit the crowd fiercely, and I felt a bit of a chill.
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Culture
Mind over muscle: Fitness coach Denise Dinger shapes the body and soul
Wednesday, May 23, 2012 High above Las Vegas, in a suite at the Palms, Denise Dinger is acting as matriarch of a trippy family whose obsession isn’t spelling bees or stringed instruments or dance. It’s human muscle and the display of it. Her charges — “my girls,” she calls them — are nervous and a little giggly, butterflies before they take the stage at the Palms for the Jay Cutler Desert Classic, an amateur bodybuilding event.
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As We See It
Downtown Bound: Column will focus on an evolving, exciting part of Las Vegas
Wednesday, May 16, 2012 This space is dedicated to one of the most important stories in the Valley.
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Sports
Building bodies (and minds) with Denise Dinger
Thursday, May 10, 2012 On the outer edge of human strength and effort, a fitness coach molds clients for competition—and life.
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Business
The Sahara's SLS renovation could mean big things for the north Strip
Wednesday, May 9, 2012 The hotel's redevelopment project will begin in September.
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Downtown
Build a Greener Block gives local businesses a look at what Downtown could become
Wednesday, May 2, 2012 A stretch of Main Street was turned into a vibrant urban experience last weekend.
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Culinary
Hunger strikes and happiness 'pickets': Two very different Vegas demonstrations
Wednesday, April 25, 2012 A staged event by Tony Hsieh's for-profit venture and a Culinary Union hunger strike.
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Breaking News
What can be done with the city’s half-built corporate eyesores?
Saturday, April 21, 2012 Imagine if the guy who owned the house next door tore it down and started building a cool new palace. Then imagine that a third of the way into construction, he stopped building, leaving a half-finished shell for you to see from your window.
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The Strip
Let the Clark County Commission make the Strip safer, but leave the entrepreneurs alone
Wednesday, April 11, 2012 Civil libertarians believe the "clean up" is an attempt in the county's battle against the First Amendment.
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As We See It
Two Sun City Anthem residents try to do the right thing—and get arrested
Wednesday, April 4, 2012 "Don’t question your homeowners association, because Henderson Police might arrest you."
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Politics
Why some elections should be taken out of the public's hands
Wednesday, March 28, 2012 If we don't know the candidates or what the position entails, how do we know who to vote for?
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As We See It
The spaces in between Downtown's landmarks—and why they matter so much
Wednesday, March 14, 2012 J. Patrick Coolican takes a tour with the experts.
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As We See It
What makes a CCSD five-star school?
Wednesday, March 7, 2012 "Hewetson wins big points for bringing students from illiteracy to proficiency."
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As We See It
The trippy high school reunion of the celebrity impersonator convention
Wednesday, Feb. 22, 2012 Sun columnist J. Patrick Coolican spends some time with Robert De Niro, Pee-wee Herman and more.