Martha Johnsen sounded puzzled; her boss at KFUN radio, Joseph Baca, seemed perturbed; Las Vegas Ron Wooten-Green expressed it well. The three were quite vocal regarding our town’s being ignored in a publication of wide circulation.
So what’s the issue? The matter is that the Summer Guide, bundled with Sunday’s Albuquerque Journal, acted as if Las Vegas doesn’t even exist, despite two half-page ads touting the Meadow City. Does paid advertising guarantee some kind of mention in the Journal’s 64-page booklet?
Here’s the sequence:
Wooten-Green notified KFUN and others about the Journal’s egregious omission of our town. Martha Johnsen, the early-morning radio announcer, appeared to wonder why we were omitted. Soon, Baca devoted several minutes of air time attempting to contact the Summer Guide staff for an explanation of the omission. Meanwhile, others on Wooten-Green’s email list must have become involved.
City Manager Elmer Martinez exchanged emails with Wooten-Green, and soon phone calls and other forms of correspondence followed.
It took on the appearance of New Mexico Magazine’s feature, “One of Our 50 is Missing,” in which people write in to the magazine to discuss others’ failure to recognize New Mexico as a state. Most of the submissions to the magazine cover some outsider’s assumption that we use only pesos in the Land of Enchantment or that travelers need visas to enter.
How about “One of Our 200 is Missing”? That could be the case of the slight Las Vegans received from the Journal.
Assuming there are some 200 incorporated communities here, it would seem illogical to exclude Las Vegas.
Imagine driving from Santa Fe to Colorado’s southern border. Think of a gaping hole about 150 miles long by 150 miles wide — where there’s nothing. Las Vegas, host city to dozens and dozens of movies (some current ones as well), doesn’t get a mention. Smaller communities like Wagon Mound and Springer also were snubbed. Wooten-Green said it best: “On the New Mexico map at page 6, Las Vegas is missing, gone, non-existent. As far as The Journal is concerned nothing exists along I-25 between Santa Fe and Raton.”
To be fair, the 6×6-inch map in the Journal’s Summer Guide highlights some of the places people may wish to visit in New Mexico: Chaco Canyon, the Bisti Badlands, Sky City, Bosque del Apache, Carlsbad Caverns, White Sands, the Billy the Kid grave, various pueblos, Capulin Volcano, Rio Grande Gorge and the Roswell UFO Museum. But where are the sites in northern New Mexico that draw thousands of visitors?
There’s no mention of Fort Union, Storrie Lake, Starvation Peak, Hermit’s Peak, El Porvenir or even the three colleges Las Vegas is proud of, in this educational hub.
Two cities, Grants and Portales, with populations near 10,000, fail to appear on the map. And Portales is home to Eastern New Mexico University, which is bigger than our Highlands.
Elmer Martinez reports that he’s been in contact with Journal personnel who “are getting plenty of calls on their oversight which they admitted to.” Martinez notes that the Journal has “agreed to provide press on the numerous summer/fall events coming up in Las Vegas.” Still in production and due for release later this month is the Optic’s own 64-page Visitors’ Guide which provides a detailed calendar of events in Las Vegas. The guide includes maps as well — guaranteed to mention Las Vegas. Also mentioned will be the usual events such as car shows, The People’s Faire, Heritage Week, Places With a Past, The CCHP Historic Homes Tour, the 4th of July Fiestas and the Cowboys Reunion-Rodeo.
In cases like this, where the omission of all things Meadow City seems egregious, is it possible we Las Vegans are making a Hermit’s Peak out of a molehill, or a Starvation Peak out of a sand dune?
Obviously, based on the reaction of some people, we care about this town and believe it should receive due credit, inasmuch as summer and fall seasons provide a wealth of activities for people of all ages.
Consider:
- For a long time, Las Vegas was regarded as the “City of Blanket Nights.” Presumably people needed to cover up at night even during the hottest months.
- Las Vegas once went with the slogan: “A breath of fresh air.”
- A Chamber-related slogan that appeared on many bumper stickers read: “Smiling faces, enchanted places . . . and the rest is history.”
- Another slogan tossed around for a while was “Where the Great Plains Meet the Rockies.”
- The latest brand, of which the city manager is particularly proud, is: “New Adventures Down Old Trails.”
Lest we forget, Las Vegas figures prominently in New Mexico history, as a commercial hub, a key city in the state’s early days and as an educational center for northern New Mexico and beyond.
We’re strong enough to withstand the (unintentional) snub by the state’s largest newspaper.
Las Vegas will survive.
But it’s also nice to receive proper recognition for our efforts and accomplishments.
• • •
Hmmm.
Tom Brady, quarterback for the Super Bowl champions, the New England Patriots, will warm the bench for the first four games of the 2015-16 NFL season. He’s been suspended — without pay for his part in “deflategate,” the routine of letting air out of the team’s footballs, to make them easier to throw and catch.
Because Brady was “generally aware” of that bit of gridiron cheatery, he’ll be minus around $2 million out of his $8 million base salary. With only $6M remaining for a year’s pay, we wonder how in the world that pauper will survive.
Lest we forget, the Patriots were fined and deprived of a first-round draft pick in 2007 for illegally videotaping defensive signals being used by the New York Jets’ defensive coaches.