Adieu, Bourbon Street

Kitty-korner from Bally’s Las Vegas is the former site of Bourbon Street, long since imploded by Harrah’s Entertainment and not the least bit missed. It had a skanky reputation and the tightest slots you ever did play. After it was demolished on Feb. 14, 2006 (left), it became Wino Corner, with the empty bottles piled so high and wide that it took some media chastisement to get Harrah’s to literally clean up its act.

During the years that Bourbon Street has been parking lot for construction trailers, one remnant of its former self remained: a series of giant medallions embedded in the sidewalk. They bore the names of Al Hirt, Pete Fountain and other New Orleans jazz greats. They also made a nice trivia question or conversation starter. Until somebody decided to gouge them out of the pavement, that is. At first, the job was sloppily done, which much of surrounding brick left in place and asphalt slopped into the newly cratered “pedestrian realm.” Scratch one more vestige of Las Vegas’ relatively brief history.

Having just ridden by the former Bourbon Street site today, I am pleased to report that Harrah’s has gone back and completely effaced the eyesore it created. The whole stretch has been newly paved, with a fresh driveway entry (Hmmmm …) in the middle. Still, what harm would it have done to have left the medallions in place? Why is the prevalent impulse toward our scant heritage to destroy, not preserve?

As for that new driveway: Any sign of positive movement on Harrah’s idle acreage is a cause of great interest. The single most obvious consequence of the semi-paralysis that inevitably, predictably afflicted the company after its frivolous LBO was the creation of a vast, dark post-apocalyptic wasteland, stretching from the Monorail back to Koval Lane. The presence of a few slum-like apartment buildings owned by Oscar Nunez (who had his chance to sell to Harrah’s for beaucoup bucks and blew it) only adds to the prevailing wretchedness. If CEO Gary Loveman doesn’t hang on long enough to redevelop his grab-bag of East Strip property, he can point to that black void and honestly say he’s left his mark upon Las Vegas.

Fun fact: Bourbon Street began life 30 years ago as The Shenandoah, under an ownership group that included the suddenly ubiquitous Wayne Newton. The Wayner is omnipresent this week.