Keep it Moving: Proposed Clark County Ordinance Would Ban Stopping, Standing on Strip Pedestrian Bridges

LAS VEGAS, Nev. (FOX5) – “This is where you get your best shots, like for Instagram”, a Las Vegas tourist told FOX5. Clark county is looking to keep it moving on pedestrian bridges around the strip with a proposed ordinance that would create ‘pedestrian flow zones on the walkways’ and within 20 feet of elevators, escalators and stairways.

That means no stopping, standing, or engaging in any activity that would make anyone else stop.

One of the targets of the proposed rule: people who perform on the bridges for money. Some Vegas visitors FOX5 spoke to Friday were skeptical about the idea.

“If we’re in Vegas and we’re here to sightsee and to have a good vacation I wouldn’t not stop, and I don’t know how they would necessarily mandate that we would have to stop.”

“That’s the main reason for pedestrian walks, you can stop and watch and not being able to stop is kind of crazy.”

But the ACLU told FOX5 this year the ordinance would go too far and take away people’s right to earn a living.

Athar Haseebullah, ACLU of Southern Nevada said, “The notion that we just want to figure out ways to get rid of certain people in certain areas, it is antithetical to our society and it undercuts individuals peoples basic first amendment rights to engage in expressive activity.”

The rights advocacy group recommends Clark County put in signs telling people to keep moving.

The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department released a video this year saying the bridges are a hot spot for crime.

But Metro said last year that enforcing an ordinance to keep everyone moving poses a challenge.

“Officers, we operate most of the time at grade. That means at the street level, we are on the sidewalk, it is hard for us to see the actual activities that are taking place when we are down there on the street and somebody might be stationary, sitting, sleeping or carrying out any kind of activity on that bridge.”

But not everyone is against the idea. Saying what happens in Vegas…

“If it’s a law it’s not my town it’s your guys’ town.”

The Clark County Commission has scheduled a public hearing on the ordinance for Tuesday, December 5, at 10 a.m.

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