Boulder City: understanding the maverick
Since its beginning as a federal government town in the early 1930s when construction of Boulder Dam (today?s Hoover Dam) was begun, Boulder City has strived in many ways to be the antithesis of Las Vegas. Some call BC The Anti-Las Vegas.
Why? From the outset, Boulder City prohibited bars, prostitution, and casinos. For that, construction workers had to trek to Las Vegas to quench their various thirsts.
Today, BC is still at it's visibly the curmudgeon when it comes to city growth and gated communities. The City Council recently banned the establishment of gated communities, somewhat of a surprise for Las Vegas developers. The application for a gated community was intended to keep interlopers out of an RV park.
Boulder City also has a slow-growth policy on population expansion, limited by ordinance to three percent per year.
The best chronicle of Boulder City quirks we've ever seen came in a column in Sunday's Las Vegas Review-Journal by Geoff Schumacher, community publications director for Stephens Media Group. Schumacher, who on the side is researching and writing a biography of Howard Hughes, explains with great clarity what's going on with land, the BLM, builders and developers, and particularly what he terms "Rattner's get-rich-quick scheme." For an entertaining read, take a look at Schumacher?s commentary column on Sunday, April 23.
