Mesquite's New Symbol: Spermatozoa

The modern-day petroglyphs of spermatozoa adorning the walls of the underpass at Exit 120 in Mesquite.

Traveling up and down the interstate, road engineers have been very creative in decorating bridges and overpasses.  In Las Vegas the overpasses are colorful, with various engravings like horses, bighorn sheep, and even fighter jets adorning the highway structures.

When you think about it, these are our modern day petroglyphs - permanent markings in "stone" that will be around for thousands of years, or until the Nevada Department of Transportation decides to replace those bridges.

The mustangs represent our state's proud tradition of wild horses roaming the millions of acres of BLM-owned land.  The desert bighorn sheep?  Nevada's official animal (not to be confused with Colorado's official animal, the Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep).  Even the jets have significance, since they are part of the overpass that leads to the Nellis Air Force Base.

About five years ago, Mesquite finally got its highway art.

As part of the Grapevine overpass which crosses the interstate to connect Pioneer Blvd. to Mesquite Blvd. mid-city, Mesquite requested and received a big yellow orb backing a flat tan mountain.  It was supposed to be the city's official logo of a large sun setting on Flat Top Mesa, the artwork which can be found on city vehicles and letterhead.

Instead, after some mischievous pranksters placed a small dot of black rocks inside the yellow circle, drivers up and down the interstate began asking themselves why Mesquite's insignia was a large PacMan eating a mountain range.

"Did we just pass PacMan City?" was probably a common question.

Fortunately, thanks to the intersection NDOT recently built at exit 120, we have a new symbol of civic pride: Spermatozoa.

Built into the walls underneath the bridge that crosses Falcon Ridge Parkway is a collection of what look like badly engraved sperm cells.  It's a certainty that government officials will insist that the designs are supposed to be some sort of decorative rock.  To be fair, the concrete surfaces above and below the line of spermatozoa are shaped and colored to look like boulders.  What Mesquite has to do with the Flintstones, I'll never know.  Maybe when combined with the PacMan symbol, our city can capitalize on a new tourist-friendly cartoon theme.  Since some in our city government believe the road to prosperity will be paved with out-of-state kids playing soccer in a $5 million tent, it's probably a valid move.

But spermatozoa between the boulders?

When you think about it, while the sperm cells swimming along the wall might be considered distasteful by some, the ejaculate is actually the most honest depiction any government has ever created.  It's the perfect symbol for that interchange.

For starters, NDOT basically date-raped the city by insisting that the new exit should include roundabouts, those insidious fender-benders that have damaged more cars in this country than hail, hurricanes, and Firestone tires.

Because of our city government's whorish nature in shamelessly pursuing state and federal grants (you know, "free money"), the 2010 city council prostituted itself by going against the wishes of local citizens who didn't want the roundabouts.  Those citizens got screwed.  Also, because the Regional Traffic Commission said they would pull a few million in state funding if we didn't include those ovary-shaped obscenities, our council happily bent over and grabbed their ankles in anticipation of the pile of money to be left on the nightstand.

Cementing the choice of spermatozoa on the walls as an apt symbol, all you have to do is look at an aerial shot of the new Exit 120 interchange.  When viewed from the correct angle, the interstate bisecting the two roundabouts looks a lot like a long, thin penis with two testicles.

So while it may be embarrassing for those of us who actually live here, the sperm cells on the underpass walls are probably the most honest roadside symbols in the entire state.  Maybe the whole country.

The next time you're negotiating the bumper car ride on the west end of town and you pass under the Spermatozoa Bridge, simply lean back in your seat, smile, and enjoy seeing your tax dollars at work.

Prepare For Rate Increase At Rec Center

Usually when people at the Mesquite Recreation Center are told to bend over and grab their ankles, it's part of a calisthenics program.

In the coming months, it will be for a different purpose.

The Rec Center patrons are about to get screwed.

Mark Twain once observed that "no man’s life, liberty, or property is safe while the legislature is in session."  That is doubly true when it's budget time at Mesquite's City Hall. 

While the city continues their endless folly over the "Tent That Would Not Die" at the sports complex, wasting more thousands of taxpayer dollars preparing RFP's and continuing to study this wooly mammoth of an idea, they simultaneously continue to search for new and creative ways to sneak a few new taxes into the mix.

The latest hot button idea is to raise fees at the Rec Center.

That's right, ladies and gentlemen, Mesquite is going to tax its way back to prosperity on the backs of children.  We should be so proud.

More than a decade ago, politicians all over the country began turning the latest campaign gibberish into a snazzy slogan, then into policy.

It started when people complained (as they have since George Washington was issued his first rubber stamp) that government should be more efficient, like a business.

In typical fashion, the Trough Suckers ignored the "more efficient" part of the plea and simply started shouting that government should be more like a business.  As in, various government agencies should start being used to turn a profit instead of surviving on taxes alone.

If you say it fast, and you're a recent lobotomy patient, that makes a lot of sense.

Why should these agencies be operating on taxes they receive from us citizens?

They should be able to survive on income and fees...they receive from us citizens.

The best example of this is the U.S. Postal Service.  Using the "let's make a profit with a government service" mantra, the feds have managed in less than 10 years to bring the post office to the brink of that most common and storied of business practices -- bankruptcy.

Typical government thinking, like Mesquite's reliance on all that "free" money they get from state and federal grants.

Governments should never be looking at profit margins; they should always be looking at expenses and asking "do we really need to spend this money?"

One of my favorite examples is all around us.

The federal government continues to waste billions of dollars each year on a long list of improvements and programs for BLM land.  We're talking about desert wasteland.  If there was ever a parcel of real estate in less need of maintenance money and government largesse, it's the vast emptiness of Nevada's scrub land.  Yet watch how much cash is going to get flushed down the composting toilet "protecting" places like Gold Butte.

To pretend that they're recouping some of this wasted loot, the government will turn around and charge outrageous admission fees for a handful of not-too-atrocious plots of land they've optimistically named "parks."

It's the same in Mesquite, where the city staff will recommend tearing up miles of attractive, wide sidewalks along Pioneer Blvd. so they can install nicer, wider sidewalks along Pioneer Blvd.  And it's okay, because they're mostly using "free" money. 

Or in this instance, the city will continue pushing full speed ahead on their dream-slash-nightmare of an opulent multi-million dollar soccer tent to benefit mythical out-of-town child athletes who will travel thousands of miles just to defy their mothers and kick a round ball inside the house.

And what better way to help pay for it than jacking up the rates at a current city facility that actually gets used by kids every day.  It's okay, these are just local kids.  They don't count.

The funniest thing is that this is exactly the kind of lame-brained thinking that doomed the city's Economic Development department.  I'm sure it's just a coincidence that the guy who drove that department into the ground is now the head of the parks and recreation department.

At this rate Mesquite city government's plan of profiteering with public properties will succeed in making the Rec Center (ironically, a highly visible edifice located right next to the interstate) just like some of the city's other landmark businesses.

Namely, the Oasis and the Mesquite Star.

Mesquite Should Embrace Golf Cart Traffic

The Mesquite Police Department sent out a press release a few weeks ago reminding citizens of the numerous limitations on "Low Speed Vehicles" (government-speak for "golf carts").  The article mentioned that golf carts couldn't be used on city streets unless they had headlights, tail lights, turn signals, rear-view mirrors, seatbelts, air bags, anti-lock brakes, and Global Positioning Satellite navigational systems.

Okay, the last three items on that long list are exaggerations...but not by much.

Most of these ridiculous requirements aren't MPD's idea.  They are borne of the crucible from whence most truly idiotic ideas spew -- the state legislature.

It reminds me of the cartoon about OSHA's version of the cowboy, complete with obnoxious safety features that render the species unrecognizable.

The same is true in this instance. 

At a time in history where the government has so miserably failed its citizenry in allowing oil companies to rape and pillage pockets with confiscatory pricing on gasoline, all lawmakers should hang their head in shame.  The last thing they should be doing is adding more restrictions as to which non-gas-guzzling machines are allowed to travel our city streets.

Electric golf carts are a spectacular answer to a variety of problems, beginning with the fact that they don't use gasoline, are quieter, and don't pollute.  (As an avowed anti-environmentalist, I usually don't give a whit about emissions or greenhouse gasses, but this is a win-win.)

They are also small, don't take up much room on the road, and can fit in small parking areas.

Due to the fact that they travel at about half the speed of smell, as Ron White would say, they are a much safer means of travel than most cars and all motorcycles.

Speaking of which the state, and thereby the city, have similar unwieldy restrictions on mopeds and scooters.  Those two-wheeled vehicles aren't as safe as golf carts, but are much more economical to operate than your average Harley, take up less of the road, and would contribute to lower emissions and lower consumption of fossil fuels.

Yet in both instances, our nanny-state overseers claim that all these rules and restrictions banning golf carts and scooters on the roads are for our own good, and in place to maintain safety.

Hogwash.

It's not about safety, it's about money.

These "low speed vehicles" don't sport license plates, which means the state hasn't had an opportunity to gouge their operators for the exorbitant fees they charge other motorists.

At some point, common sense must enter into the equation.

The city of Mesquite is stuck.  They could implement a new set of traffic laws within the city limits that would allow the use of golf carts, scooters, and other methods of convenient conveyance.  However, the feds and staties would cut off our road funding faster than a young Kennedy sporting a new tattoo.

Of course, if our local government had a little more spine and a smaller hand constantly outstretched in search of municipal welfare (grants and gifts from state and federal coffers), we could do whatever we wanted, since the main roads of Mesquite Blvd., Pioneer Blvd., Sandhill Blvd., and Falcon Ridge Parkway are all now city streets thanks to the deal we made with NDOT in 2005.  (Only Grapevine, Riverside Road, and possibly Hillside Drive are still state-owned.)

But our city government is never going to give up what they continue to call "free money," so we will continue to operate under the yoke of greedy and short-sighted state legislators.

The only other option would be for our police department to quietly let it be known that their enforcement policy would be to look the other way on LSV's.  Non-enforcement policies on various laws are common throughout the country (otherwise police would never have time to catch real criminals or solve real crimes).

Unfortunately, again, that would take some support and backing from a city government that quivers every time the word "lawsuit" is tossed in their direction (and with our current city attorney, who could blame them).

It's a shame.

To have a city where people could take their golf carts to the store or use it to visit friends in the next subdivision would be quaint and attractive.

It would also be extremely convenient, economical, and sensible for those who live here.

But governments long ago stopped caring what was best for their constituents, so this is a non-starter.

However, it's nice to dream.

Mountain Feud A Pain In The Butte

The battle over Gold Butte is shaping up to be Mesquite's version of the Hatfields and McCoys, a deeply seated mountain feud between two "clans" -- the cattlemen and the tree huggers.

The dispute revolves around the federal government's plan to designate the 300,000 acres of BLM land southwest of Mesquite as "National Conservation Area with Wilderness."

According to the 1964 Wilderness Act, the designation would declare Gold Butte as "an area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man."

Somehow, under the NCA plan, the dirt and dust would wind up untrammeled by cattle as well.

As for ATV use in the area?

Fuggedaboudit.

For the longest time, I could sum up my feelings in two words when asked about the issue:

Don't care.

"The cattle won't be allowed to graze on the land!"

Don't care.

"The desert tortoise is losing its habitat!"

Don't care.

"ATV's are destroying the landscape!"

Don't care.

Don't care.

Don't care.

The truth is, I don't go to Gold Butte.  Have no interest in going there.  As far as I'm concerned, they can have all of my part of it. 

When I head south on the interstate and look to my left, I don't see purple mountain majesties.  I see some of the ugliest terrain on earth.  God was definitely having an off day when He created that mess.  I have trouble believing that on the third day, He saw this piece of handiwork and declared that "it was good."

I often think "somebody ought to break out some bulldozers, paint brushes, and brooms and clean that up."

And I've frequently said out loud "what a waste of land."

The one thing I do find amusing is that we are here in the early 21st century still fighting a modern-day version of the late 19th century range wars that defined the Wild West.

For some reason, cattlemen are still cast as the villains.

The new entry into the fray is the variety of environmental radicals who continue to insist that critters like the desert tortoise are more important than human beings.  I've quit trying figure out lunatics like that.

Most of all, arguments about the best use of Gold Butte are as meaningless as bar fights over such dire questions as "which Gilligan's Island castaway would you rather date: Ginger or Mary Anne?"

The fact is that the feds are going to make this decision in Washington, D.C., which is about as far from Gold Butte as you can get without getting wet.  And if I know anything about Congress, it's that they don't give a whit about what the people think or want.  The only reason they haven't sewn this controversy up already is that there isn't any money in it.  The tree huggers are noisy and obnoxious, but for the most part they're broke.  The cattlemen have some cash, but there aren't a lot of them left, so it's not real money like in oil and pharmaceuticals where the big PAC paydays are found.  You want to see Washington change directions and slant in favor of the cattlemen and against the ecologists?  Let Uncle Jed find some bubblin' crude up there.

On a philosophical level, I'm opposed to most government actions, especially those that restrict citizens from being able to do whatever they want on their own land.  And contrary to what the Bureau of Land Management believes, this IS "our" land, not theirs.  I'm not fond of rules, so I don't like the idea of a whole new layer that bans ATV's and makes a lot of public land off-limits to the public.

Most of all, since living out west I've come to hate desert tortoises even more than my old nemesis, manatees, and for the same reason.  They are a species that have outlived their evolutionary usefulness.  If it wasn't for the $10,000 federal fine, I'd line them up and use them for batting practice.  And if the Arizona Lottery would cooperate, I'd be one winning ticket away from not even letting the fines stop me. 

Desert tortoises serve no real purpose, other than as a rallying caricature for the environmentalists to use for halting fun or barring construction of homes and roads (which I find hypocritical, since most environmental zealots I've met live in homes and drive on roads).

As for the cattlemen: I usually root against them in movies like "Gunfight At The O.K. Corral."  But I have to admit that I love steak and hamburgers.  Without some of the cattle grazing on that public land, I'd be forced to become an anorexic tofu-eating vegan filled with nothing but rage and bean gas.  Which, when I think about it, describes a lot of environmentalists I've met.

But overall, I just can't get my bile to rise over this issue.  My anger and rhetoric won't make a difference to the government, and picking sides in a quixotic battle has lost a lot of its appeal.  If I want to take my righteous indignation out for a Sunday drive there are plenty of other issues worth fighting over, like oil companies raping American citizens for fun and profit, or whether Lindsay Lohan should be allowed to portray Elizabeth Taylor in an upcoming made-for-TV movie.

And there's always that most deeply divisive of ongoing debates in America, a battle which has wrecked friendships and shattered families for decades.  Finally, here and now, I'm going to pick a side and take a stand, no matter how many friends it may cost me:

Mary Anne.

High Salaries In Mesquite May Be Justified

On Monday, Mesquite Citizen Journal offered a story which reported on the top salaries in the city.  [Click Here for that story]

Some of the numbers are startling, particularly the notion that the city paid more than $12 million in salaries, overtime, and benefits.  That number is actually higher, but the city continues to use rules and policies to hide the truth from its citizens by refusing to include former employee salaries in the list (and with the amount of attrition the city has experienced in the last year, you can bet that's a serious number).

Twelve million dollars.

That's a lot of money for any community (except maybe Bell, Calif.).

In a town of around 15,000 (not the 19,000 population number city staffers continue to lie about), that comes to $800 for every man, woman, and child in Mesquite.

There's no disputing that we pay a lot of money to our government employees.  But that may not be a bad thing.

When you strip out the multitude of benefits and get down to the actual base salaries, they aren't that far off.  The cost of benefits, especially health insurance, has silently been exploding over the last decade.  It's one of the most disturbing secrets that nobody wants to talk about.  And that's the cost right now, before any "Obamacare" measures, in that "open market" (insert sarcastic laugh here) politicians and Wall Street have convinced you is such a great deal for the American people.

Like it or not, we have to pay benefits.  If you want to get ticked off about it (and you should), direct your ire at the insurance companies and their protectors, the United States Congress.  It's not the fault of the Mesquite City Council or even those much-maligned "city staffers."  Otherwise, the top news story wouldn't be about high city salaries; it would be about city workers forced to stand in line at the free clinic to get treatment for their children.  That's definitely not the image we want to promote.

Also, there's a change in the government employee dynamic.

It used to be that government employees were paid less than their private sector counterparts because a city job was usually a lifetime appointment.  Not anymore.  If we're going to wantonly terminate underlings to protect the salaries of the top dogs, then those employees need to be paid like the employees at corporations who are subject to the same callous fate.

Then you have to take a look at the individual wages and the dreaded "top ten."

A lot of people have been outraged that six of the 10 highest salaries in Mesquite are paid to mere police officers.

Not me.

For a change, unlike most of this country, Mesquite has it right.

I've never understood why office dwellers who never lift a finger or break a sweat get paid so much more than men and women whose careers involve taking turns in the crosshairs of a terrorist sniper's rifle.  In my book, anyone willing to sacrifice their lives to protect a neighborhood or a nation deserves the highest pay.

That's our local police department, and they deserve to earn more than the guy whose job is to rubber stamp "denied" on building and business permits.

In one online comment, someone was astounded to find that several Mesquite police department members earn more than the city attorney. 

I'm not.

Forgetting for a moment the question of whether we have ever gotten our money's worth out of our current city attorney, all you really need to do is take a look at the two job descriptions.  A cop has to literally stare down the barrel of a loaded gun, make split-second decisions about saving or ending another human life, and physically put their hands on violent human scum during the hottest days and most frigid nights.  Attorneys sit in nice air-conditioned offices shuffling papers until it's time to go to court or attend a meeting and interrupt with "point of order" every time an elected official tries to actually talk to a member of the public.

Another thing I like about our "top ten" is that we're mostly talking about local folks, people who have lived here for a long time while serving their community.  If we're going to give away $150,000, let's give it to the guy who has been here for 10 or 20 years, not the carpetbagging bureaucrat who's simply found a comfy municipal perch to land on while collecting big seeds before flying off to North Las Vegas or some other bigger, better nest.

The truth is that most of the big dollar earners wound up on the top ten list because they've been here so long.  More than a few started with the city in the early days back when our rate of pay could be characterized in the "peanuts" strata.  By simply sticking with us, their embarrassingly small pay raises over a lot of years have finally elevated them to the higher levels.  And in America, that's the way it used to be -- you hang onto your job, work your way up the ladder, and the rewards should be waiting. 

The salaries that disturb me are the ones where we bring in gunslingers from out of town and pay them obscene amounts of cash because our collective self-esteem is so low we think nobody in our piddly little town is good enough or smart enough to do the job.  It's like the wealthy dweeb who hires high-priced prostitutes because he thinks he's too ugly for a woman to want him any other way.

A different question for another time is whether we're getting our money's worth.  When it comes to this police department, led by a real cop who isn't afraid to still get his hands dirty by working a case, I'd have to say yes.  The last three bank robbers sitting in their jail cells would probably agree, along with the murderers who got caught 10 years after the crime because our cops wouldn't give up.  With our police department's high solve rate, I'd say that's money well spent.

A lot of the same arguments could be made for our firefighters, a group that runs into burning buildings that other people are racing out of.  They risk their lives against threats more significant than a paper cut, so they deserve bigger bucks.  More importantly, unlike their crooked big city brethren in Vegas, our firefighters aren't gaming the system to squeeze even more money out of taxpayers.

As for Bill Tanner?  I saw that man stand atop a newly-created berm looking at the raging flood waters racing toward our homes in December of 2010.  You could almost see the wheels turning in his head as he figured ways to keep us safe.  A lot of it worked, as we saw less damage than we had seen from the floods of 2005.  He is also a tireless worker and quiet leader.  The only time he gets into trouble is when he gets sucked into politics, like helping push the government lie that we needed a bigger sewage treatment facility (we didn't) or that buying an expensive piece of downtown property for a mythical new library is a good idea.  Keep him out of the political side and he is one of the best city workers in the county.  Maybe even the state.  He's been here a long time, works hard, doesn't pump up his own ego, and quietly gets things done like the Hunter Park ballfields, the lights at the VVHS baseball field, and a dozen other city projects that came in on time and under budget during his watch.  He deserves whatever the city is paying him.

So is our payroll too high?  Probably.  Especially for a town this size.  Are there some cuts that could comfortably be made?  Absolutely, particularly in upper level management where a few bureaucrats have managed to prove just how overpaid they truly are.  I believe there's a job behind a McDonalds fry-o-lator with their plastic nametag on it. 

But for the most part, with those notable and way-too-powerful exceptions, our city employees are dedicated, hard-working individuals who deserve to be compensated.  We probably need to slow down the "raise" train and put the brakes on hiring, but the truth is we could fund a few more city positions just by dumping the overpaid consultants and lobbyists that are sucking us dry (another manifestation of the "we're too stupid to figure things out for ourselves" syndrome).  Our government is paying consultants (former government officials) to lobby...our government.  See anything odd about this picture?

Yes, our taxes are still too high and government spending in Mesquite could still do with another round of cuts.  But blaming salaries is such an easy target that it's unlikely to be the right one.

Speeding Tickets For Fun and Profit

I was driving to Las Vegas one night earlier this week to pick up my wife from the airport.

Before I get to today's actual piece, I just wanted to comment on the fact that government stupidity and incompetence have ruined two things I used to love.

The first is air travel.  I once loved the entire airline experience, from the greeting of enthusiastic skycaps when you pulled up in front of the airport to the excitement of showing the ticket agent your reservation for some exotic destination like Indianapolis.

Now, thanks to the government's inability to protect its people and refusal to apply a half-ounce of common sense in determining who might be a threat, the run-up (or more like "crawl-up" in one of those TSA lines) to flying on an airplane has become an excruciating endeavor that rivals a root canal for enjoyment.

The other is Las Vegas.

I once loved Las Vegas like no other city.  My wife and I got married there, long before we moved out west.  The lights, the neon, the impending excitement.

Now I would prefer a good rectal exam with knitting needles over venturing to that disaster zone of a city, due to the fact that practically every damn inch of asphalt in that zip code is under construction, recently finished with construction, or is about to undergo construction.

On the recent trip to the airport I mentioned, I endured the joy of sitting at a dead stop on I-215 at 11:30 at night on a Tuesday because the IIC (Idiots In Charge) decided to close four of the five lanes to do some sort of road maintenance.  I'm not sure what they were doing, but they had a couple of large pieces of equipment that resembled Imperial Walkers from the Star Wars movies creeping along the roadway.  They weren't paving or tearing up pavement.  It almost looked like they were simply cleaning the surface.  Four out of the five lanes.  What made it even more infuriating is that this piece of highway was built less than 10 years ago, and had just been repaved within the last 3 years (in keeping with the Las Vegas law that states "what happens in Vegas...must be repaved every fifth full moon).  Because of the constant traffic congestion and incessant road construction, I now hate Las Vegas and any cause that drags me there.

But back to the real thrust of this week's story.

While heading out of town Tuesday night, I noticed a Mesquite police car hiding in a median behind one of the mini-mountains on I-15 west of town.  It was obviously running a "traffic enforcement operation," which is cop-eze for what regular people refer to as a speed trap.

I've seen this a few times, and I always find it odd.  Why is a city police car doing traffic stops on the interstate?  Jurisdictionally, that's the province of the Nevada Highway Patrol.  Even the Las Vegas Metro Police Department (southern Nevada's version of the sheriff's department) shies away from handing out traffic tickets on the federal highways.

The obvious answer is: money.  Writing up speeders on their way to Dubuque can be a cash cow, especially since most out-of-staters receiving these unwelcome municipal greeting cards won't be coming back this way to dispute the charges.

Every once in a while we also get lucky and catch somebody moving a trunk full of crystal meth or other illicit substances, because we have one of the best and sharpest police departments in the west, with one of the highest "solve" rates in the country.  That's a good thing.

But make no mistake, the real impetus is fines and cash for city coffers.

And that begs the question: is it worth it?

Is hiding in the bushes with a radar gun like a big-bellied Jackie Gleason-type from Hickwater, Georgia really the image a tourist town like Mesquite wants to convey?  Do we really want the reputation of being nothing more than a money-grubbing speed trap aiming to fleece the last dime from broke gamblers leaving Las Vegas? 

It's a legitimate question with a very concrete divide. 

There is a definable financial cost to creating and maintaining an image.  It's why the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority spends millions of dollars each year on TV commercials around the country trying to show the shiny side of Sin City (while spending about $15 a year to mention its ugly step sister, Mesquite).  Tennessee has jumped on the same bandwagon, burning millions on television ads hyping the beauty of the state.  (The truth is that I've been to Tennessee, and Nashville is every bit as filthy as New York City's Bowery).  Even the perennially impoverished state of California finds a few million each year to lie to the rest of the country about why they should pack up and move to a place that obscenely overtaxes its citizens and overburdens its businesses with untenable fees and rules.

There is a cost to develop and maintain a friendly, welcoming image.

The question for Mesquite is: do we take in enough money from our interstate speed traps to offset the amount of marketing money we'll need to spend to lure in new visitors to replace the passersby we've alienated with traffic tickets?

For every $100 we collect in speeding fines, how many hundreds in image damage are we losing to the enraged insurance salesman who is telling all 200 of his Jackson Hole Kiwanis buddies about the "jerks in Mesquite who bushwhacked him."

Then you have the radio.

Truckers are eagle-eyed about spotting "bears with Kodaks" (CB talk for police running radar).  They're also notorious gossips, which means our unfriendly speed-trapping ways are being gabbed about from Tucson to Tucumcari.

Once again, it comes down to a lack of direction and leadership from City Hall, and the fact that we STILL don't know what we as a city want to be when we grow up.  Do we want to be a tourist destination, where people equate the word "Mesquite" with friendship, hospitality, and fun?  Or do we want to be a caricature in a road movie where our official slogan has changed from "Come for a day, stay for a lifetime" to "Y'all ain't from around here, are ya?"

I'm not sure which way is best.  I want to be from a town known for its golf, gaming, and good times.  But it might be more lucrative in these difficult economic days to collect speed trap tolls from passing motorists.

Who knows.  If we hand out enough $200 tickets, we might be able to one day afford our own national TV commercials touting Mesquite as the next incarnation of Oz, complete with the ending disclaimer "pay no attention to that man behind the bushes with the radar gun."

New Leader In Local News

MesquiteCitizen Tops Online Rankings

It looks like Mesquite has a new leader in news.

For print newspapers, the traditional benchmark is circulation, or the number of newspapers printed each day or week.  In the race between the Desert Valley Times and Mesquite Local News, the DVT wins that one hands down with a circulation of about 7,500 on Fridays, not to mention another 7,000 on Tuesdays, compared to MLN's stated circulation of around 6,000.  Of course, the argument when I was with the MLN was that the 7,500 number wasn't legitimate, since it didn't factor in "returns" the way an audited circulation number does at major newspapers.  Judging strictly by the fact that Mesquite Local News racks were always empty within a day or two all over town while DVT racks were filled with extra, untaken newspapers (and the enormous stack of advertising inserts people had pulled from the DVT's guts and thrown on the retailer's floor, shelves, and even our racks), I always believed the actual number was a lot closer.

But that's a quintessential discussion of rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.  Print newspapers are journalistic dinosaurs, destined for the tar pits of "remember when?"  Even hard core newsies are finally admitting that print is on its way out as a means of delivering news.

The final piece in the newspaper puzzle has fallen into place, ensuring that online news isn't just the future but is now the accepted and embraced norm.  When we started MLN as an online-only entity, we heard from so many people who wanted us to offer a print version of our successful news service.  The consistent complaint was that online news wasn't "portable" enough (meaning, you couldn't take your desktop computer into the bathroom with you). 

The final puzzle piece is today's proliferation of smart phones and tablets like the iPad.  These hi-tech devices deliver the old-fashioned convenience of being able to read the news while sitting on the toilet, which I learned years ago is a bigger deal than you might imagine.

The reality is that online news is far superior with its immediacy, its video and audio capability, and its capacity for interaction with and feedback from the readers.  Comments from readers have become part of the news itself. 

And did I mention the immediacy?  "News" in a weekly newspaper can be as much as 10 days old, while a car wreck or house fire that happens this morning can be online before firefighters have even left the scene.

Mesquite is extraordinary, unlike any other municipality of its size.  Because of mergers and usurpations by mega media giants, what were once small town newspapers have become regional rags.  Most small towns our size are lucky to have their own newspaper, online or otherwise.  It's unusual to have two.  In Mesquite, we have the unheard-of luxury of three different online newspapers: Desert Valley Times (dvtnv.com), Mesquite Local News (mesquitelocalnews.com), and the new upstart, Mesquite Citizen Journal (mesquitecitizen.com).

What might be even more surprising to the casual observer is that the new kid on the block is now ranked number one online.

When determining the most popular websites, a service called Alexa is acknowledged as the arbiter of web ranking.  Alexa.com, owned by Amazon.com, ranks the top 25 million websites in the world based on visitors, hits, and other criteria.  That includes all websites, not just news sites.

Over the last few weeks, Mesquite Citizen Journal has knocked Mesquite Local News from its perch atop the local Alexa rankings.

In 2007, MLN surpassed the Desert Valley Times online.  By early 2009, MLN was ranked in the top 500,000 in the entire world, an astounding accomplishment for a news site in a little town of 15,000.  Being ranked 500,000 doesn't sound very impressive, until you realize that out of 25 million websites, it means Mesquite's online paper was in the top 2% in the world.

While the numbers slipped after MLN was sold in 2009, it consistently remained in the top million. 

Today, the Mesquite Citizen Journal is ranked 1,118,155 in the world by Alexa.  Mesquite Local News is ranked 1,730,050.  (Remember, the higher the number, the worse the ranking).

The DVT, which has never had a strong online presence, isn't even in the top 25 million.  It is listed as "unranked" by Alexa.  Part of the reason might be because the DVT's news site is actually an adjunct to its parent newspaper, the St. George Spectrum, instead of its own stand-alone site.  The Spectrum itself has a mediocre Alexa ranking, coming in at 173,202.  That compares to the Las Vegas Review-Journal at 11,347.  Once in awhile the DVT numbers crack the top 25 million, but not often.

Mesquite Citizen Journal was founded by Barbara Ellestad, who used to be one of the hard-hitting investigative reporters for Mesquite Local News.  She has taken the spirit of the original Mesquite Local News, which was "to tell the truth no matter what the personal cost," along with an incredible talent for deep research and an indefatigable courage, to push her online newspaper into the top spot in Mesquite.  And she's done it in less than a year.

On a personal note, I'm proud to know Barb, and proud of her accomplishment.  Thanks to her brave and tireless efforts, Mesquite citizens aren't being treated like mushrooms (kept in the dark and fed a steady diet of BS).  She is making sure that the people are aware of the nonsense going on at City Hall and the water district.  Without her and her staff of writers like John Taylor, residents would know only the soft and fluffy side of Mesquite while the real news is swept under the carpet by corporate-owned news agencies more interested in advertisers and their dollars.  Ironically, if you look at MesquiteCitizen.com, you'll see they have way more advertisers than Mesquite Local and the DVT combined.  Well done, Barb!

Rounding out the lineup of local information websites is the new Discover Mesquite website, which is a tourism publication offered online and in print by my former partner at Mesquite Local News, Cindi Delaney.  In less than three months, DiscoverMesquiteNV.com is ranked 12,157,834, and has been climbing every week since it first appeared on Alexa on Jan. 29.

Like the DVT, Mesquite's other print publication has never had a strong online presence, as ViewOnMesquite.com has rarely made it into the top 25 million and is currently listed by Alexa as "unranked."

This website, MorrisWorkman.com, has had some success online, peaking in November of 2011 with an Alexa ranking of 6,254,245.  However, particularly after taking the last two months off, MorrisWorkman.com has fallen off the charts altogether and is now listed as "unranked."

The Alexa numbers aren't only for publications.  It ranks all websites, from the "big four" of Google, Facebook, YouTube, and Yahoo (ranked 1-2-3-4) all the way down to obscure blogs and family websites. 

In Mesquite, the #2 ranked website is CasaBlancaResort.com, which is listed at 1,461,229, followed by GolfWolfCreek.com at 1,480,098. 

The City of Mesquite and the Mesquite Chamber of Commerce both used to have excellent Alexa rankings over the years, but have fallen off dramatically.  In 2010, the city's MesquiteNV.com website was ranked as high as 2,228,505, but is now ranked around 4,355,001.  Mesquite-Chamber.com has fallen from a high of 2,762,764 in 2010 to today's rank of 8,391,302.

Over the next few weeks, we're going to introduce a new section which tracks the top 20 websites in Mesquite according to the Alexa rankings.  If you're aware of a website we're missing, please let us know and we'll check it out.

TOP 20 WEBSITES IN MESQUITE

1.  Mesquite Citizen Journal (mesquitecitizen.com)... 1,118,155

2.  CasaBlanca Resort (casablancaresort.com)... 1,461,229

3.  Wolf Creek (golfwolfcreek.com)... 1,480,098

4.  Mesquite Weather (mesquiteweather.com)... 1,580,807

5.  Mesquite Local News (mesquitelocalnews.com)... 1,730,050

6.  Virgin River Casino (virginriver.com) 1,927,658

7.  Golf Mesquite (golfmesquitenevada.com)... 2,098,877

8.  Eureka Resort (eurekamesquite.com)... 2,471,751

9.  LVCVA Visit Mesquite (visitmesquite.com)... 2,869,015

10.  Reliance Connects (relianceconnects.com)... 3,162,470

11.  City of Mesquite (mesquitenv.com)... 4,355,001

12.  Highland Estates Resort (highlandestatesresort.com).. 7,694,797

13.  Chamber of Commerce (mesquite-chamber.com).. 8,391,302

14.  Skydive Mesquite (skydivemesquite.com)... 12,133,773

15.  Discover Mesquite (discovermesquitenv.com)... 12,157,834

16.  Computer Help (compuhelpus.com)... 13,019,163

17.  Quality One Realty (mesquitenevada.com)... 14,743,000

18.  Mesquite Bus Company (mesquitebusco.com). 15,529,722

19.  Bowler Realty (mesquitegroup.com)... 16,108,329

20.  Chris Miller's Mesquite Market (mesquitemarket.com)... 16,134,291