It’s a miracle!

Riv stripYou’re looking at a photo that was imbedded in a new Riviera press release and — praise be! — Fontainebleau has disappeared. Yes, vanished, gone as though it were never there: like it was all a bad dream. Yes, yes, that’s what it must have been … a dream.

What’s that you say? It’s still there, more pockmarked by the day? [sigh] Too true. Riv President William Westerman is no sorcerer, alas, although some of his employees can obviously work wonders with Photoshop. How we wish he could wave a wand and actually cause F-bleau to dry up and blow away in the desert winds. The megaresort that was to have been a lifeline to the Riviera, Sahara and Circus Circus is now but the carcass of a sinking ship, dragging the first two properties down in its deadly undertow.

Still, you have to give Westerman credit for — even if by necessity — operating “in the now,” dealing for untold years with the economy as it actually exists. History will remember F-bleau overlords Jeffrey Soffer and Glenn Schaffer as being among those who operated in some mad, fantasy-fueled economy that never existed except on over-optimistic spread sheets. Local luminaries say, by gosh, we sure have learned our lesson this time. To those predicting a chastened future, I would reply with the old adage that history repeats itself, first as tragedy and then as farce … or does Vegas have it the other way ’round?

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