As part of Las Vegas' push to resurrect its historic downtown, I led the charge on a community storytelling campaign to give voice to local experiences of the city that have been buried under dominant versions of its history and identity.
Sizzle Reel - 2:33
Role Director of Media & Community Storytelling
For The City of Las Vegas
Date 2018 - 2020
Type strategy, research, engagement, content, campaign
How do you create places for locals in a city built for tourists?
After slicing open a coat of fading paint on the side of an abandoned motel on East Fremont Street, my colleagues show me layer after layer of eccentric colors: Robin’s Egg Blue, Sea-foam Green, Pontiac Red. The layers read like tree rings chronicling the rise and fall of Downtown Las Vegas, a story echoed in the skeletons of what were once brilliant neon signs that beckoned motorists to pull in and stay.
We’re standing in the courtyard of just one of dozens of fading midcentury relics in the shadow of downtown’s Casino Center, and a far cry from the places that regularly appear in tourism campaigns or bachelor party stories. But unlike much of the rest of the valley, this area still maintains much of its historic character.
Local Rebirth
We wouldn’t be here, researching how to bring these motels back to life, if not for Las Vegans’ collective response to the horrific massacre at the Route 91 music festival on October 1, 2017. Invigorated by a newfound sense of civic identity, in 2018 the city launched Project Enchilada, a holistic effort to revitalize its downtown to reflect the local experience of the city—largely centered on the midcentury roadside character of East Fremont Street.
As part of this effort, my studio was recruited to develop “21st Century” methods of media and engagement that could attract people to visit, move to, or invest in downtown.
“What am I here for, what am I supposed to do? Do you just have an idea and sit on it? Do you just have a town you care about and do nothing to make it better?”
“It’s about knowing things that are true in this city that seem to be overlooked”
“I remember I had a choice: I could be this wild child, or I could be somebody. And I chose to be somebody.”
Beyond Paradise Lost
After rounds of interviews with the who’s who of downtown, extensive archival research, and several days of shooting footage on East Fremont, my team and I realized that we needed a radical way to go beyond the typical “Paradise Lost” story about downtown’s history based on the way that native Las Vegans remember it, and to stimulate a sense of local ownership in the project that would allow our work to transcend a mere one-directional marketing campaign.
Inspired by the story of the Las Vegas Healing Garden and several participatory documentary projects around the world, we proposed the creation of a community storytelling platform and a series of short documentary films that would not only capture hidden local perspectives and experiences of downtown, but that also empower Las Vegans of diverse backgrounds to craft a collective story about who they are and who they want to be.
Community Storytelling concepts
Documentary Short Films concepts
Story as Catalyst for Change
While The Real Las Vegas came to a screeching halt along with the rest of the world at beginning of the Pandemic, our work was nevertheless instrumental for the city to form key community alliances and bolster support around Project Enchilada, which has transformed ten blocks of East Fremont Street into a more pedestrian-friendly environment.
Visiting the street again in 2022, it was pretty incredible to see the fruits of our labor: all seven motels and their neon signs restored to their former glory—at least aesthetically—and a whole host of other modifications we’d helped to bring about, like installation of deciduous shade trees and 1920s streetlights, both of which reflect moments of cosmopolitan aspiration throughout the city’s history.
City Attorney Brad Jerbic explaining Project Enchilada to the City Council - Oct. 2019
Credits
Creative Producer Annika Iltis
Creative Director, Interactive Maya Santos
Partners Susan Snyder, George Thomas, Alan Hess, Midge McCauley, Kelly Kost, Downtown Project, UNLV Special Collections