LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Mayor Carolyn Goodman is in office through the 2024 election. That means she and her husband and former mayor, Oscar Goodman, will have served as mayors of Las Vegas for a total of 25 years.
It's a quarter-century that's been full of ups and downs — and in an exclusive interview at the Smith Center for the Performing Arts, the mayors tell Channel 13 they've loved every minute.
WATCH 'THE GOODMAN YEARS' HERE
"I figure you only have so much time on this good Earth, and you may as well do it the way you think is best," Oscar Goodman said.
There's no doubt he always does things his way, and he's unapologetic. Goodman served as the mayor of Las Vegas from June 1999 to July 2011, and says he knew exactly what we wanted to do from day one.
"I said, 'I want to make this into a world-class city,'" Goodman said.
He started laying the groundwork for attracting a major league sports team and revitalizing downtown Las Vegas. But it quickly proved to be a tough battle. The no. 1 issue facing Las Vegas, he says, was a lack of land.
"And then all of a sudden, the light went on! There was a piece of land right in the middle of the city, right in the heart of the city, the Union Pacific Railroad site," Goodman said.
"And I got on the phone — and Carolyn always says, 'It's always I, I, me, me,' — but it was me! And I called up the CEO of the Union Pacific and I said, 'Sir, I'm Oscar Goodman, the mayor of Las Vegas, and I'd like to buy that piece of land," he added.
Goodman eventually made a deal that gave the city 63 acres of available land in the heart of downtown.
"And look what we have here. And I'm not saying I did this. I did it with people," Goodman said. "We did it with all these various wonderful things. The public screamed at me, 'He's spending taxpayer money doing this!' I'm saying to myself, 'What's the money supposed to be used for? It's supposed to make it into a better town,'" Goodman said.
Goodman's dream included a professional sports team. But In 2004, the Montreal Expos would decide to move to Washington, D.C. instead of Las Vegas. Goodman's meetings with the Florida Marlins and Chicago White Sox would also fail to bring a team here.
Then, there were talks with the NFL's San Diego Chargers, but they eventually landed in Los Angeles.
But there was some good news. In 2004, Goodman announced plans for Symphony Park. A year later, he saw the opening of the World Market Center and, in 2010, the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health.
But a lot of Goodman's ideas would take many more years to come to fruition. Facing term limits, there were fears a new mayor might squash his plans.
"And that's when the four children came to me and said, 'Mom you have to run,'" Carolyn Goodman said. "I said no. And they said, 'Well, all these people have wonderful egos and they're going to take dad's name down from everything. They may not complete some of the things he's planned. You have to run.'"
That's exactly what she did. Carolyn ran and won, eventually taking office as mayor of Las Vegas in July 2011.
Goodman admits, she's had the privilege of seeing many of her husband's plans come to fruition during her tenure as mayor.
"Oscar did an awful lot of visionary effort, and I got to open everything," Goodman said.
One of those visions, the Smith Center for the Performing Arts, opened in 2012.
"I was here for the opening, and the people who were screaming and yelling and asked for my demise were the same ones who came up to me then, and they say, 'Mayor, thank you for having this built,'" Oscar Goodman said.
That same year, Carolyn opened the Mob Museum and the new Las Vegas City Hall. A year after that, she opened the DISCOVERY Children's Museum.
Then there's the other major turn of events, a sports team in Las Vegas. After years of Oscar laying the groundwork and Carolyn carrying on the effort, fortunes eventually turned in 2017 with the NHL's expansion team, the Golden Knights.
The following year came the WNBA Aces and the Las Vegas Lights Football Club. Then, in 2020, The NFL's Raiders moved to town, along with the NBA's G League.
Oscar says he's thrilled to see all the teams now calling Las Vegas home and couldn't help but rub it in a little, for all those people who had their doubts.
"I'm glad about having this interview, because I forgot what I thought of these people. They are misanthropic. They wake up in the morning and they hate. They can't wait to hate something," he said.
"And all I hope for — I pray for it — I hope that the misanthrope who's hating here is married to the misanthrope who is hating here, and the two of them are hating each other every single minute," Goodman added. "So, thank you for having me on."
Channel 13's exclusive interview and televised special, The Goodman Years, aired Tuesday, March 25. Find more exclusive interviews and insight into how the Goodmans have shaped Las Vegas at ktnv.com/goodmanyears.
