With the Vegas Golden Knights’s crushing victory in the Stanley Cup Finals, it’s already been a big week for hometown pride in Las Vegas. Celebrations have been taking place from T-Mobile Arena on the Strip to the farthest corners of the Silver State.
With much fanfare and no small amount of controversy, the Oakland A’s on Wednesday landed legislative approval for $380 in public financing for their $1.5 billion baseball stadium proposal on the site of the Tropicana. Despite plenty of detractors, the team’s vision for a future in Las Vegas is being widely heralded in the casino and tourism communities.
With all that merrymaking, it’s possible that the last thing most people want to pause to think about are the dark events of Oct. 1, 2017. But how we memorialize that infamous night and its aftermath should also be a source of deep community pride.
The great Las Vegas Strip tourism machine, an endless circus that never leaves town, hasn’t forgotten those killed and wounded on 1 October. Thanks to a dedicated group of residents, we continue, however methodically, to move forward toward creating a fitting memorial to the dead and the living more than six years after the largest mass shooting in modern American history.
On Wednesday afternoon in the Clark County Commission chambers, the public was invited to learn more about the five remaining memorial concepts under consideration. Each team was scheduled to take up to 40 minutes to share its design concept. The presentation was set to go as late as 9 p.m. and was available on Clark County Television (CCTV) and online on youtube.com.
Information about the design concepts is available on the 1 October Memorial Committee’s website. Those interested in viewing the design models up close will find them on display at the Clark County Government Center Rotunda Gallery.
County Commission Chairman Jim Gibbons, whose district includes the shooting site, observed in a statement, “As you look at the designs, it’s clear that each team worked very hard to incorporate ideas and input received from our community as a result of all the groundwork that our 1 October Memorial Committee has led over the last few years. The presentation event is an opportunity for the public to hear more details directly from the teams about their vision behind the models and storyboards on display.”
County Commissioner Marilyn Kirkpatrick added, “Our community can be assured that no matter which project gets recommended as the memorial, it will be something we can be proud of.”
Members of the 1 October Memorial Committee represent several areas of the southern Nevada community, ranging from survivor and vice chairwoman Karessa Royce and Mynda Smith, whose sister Neysa Tonks was killed in the mass shooting, to retired Metro Deputy Chief Kelly McMahill and longtime architect Robert Fielden. Add City of Las Vegas art project manager Rebecca Holden and local artist Harold Bradford and you have a collection of citizens who are doing Las Vegas a great service by shepherding this important memorial into existence.
In between cheering for the home champions, and perhaps another home team, try to check out the proposed memorials. You can even take a survey and express your opinion of your personal favorite.
The proposals will be ranked later this summer with a final recommendation from the committee scheduled to reach the county commission in September.
MGM Resorts International in August 2021 donated two acres for the memorial.
Sports seasons come and go and winning and losing are part of the games people play. But that site of ultimate heartache should always be treated as hallowed ground.
