I was reading Marc Cooper's LA Times article on the resurgence of downtown Las Vegas, when I came across this:

[Mayor Oscar] Goodman, meanwhile, is pushing ahead with another of his brainchildren aimed at saving downtown. He's persuaded the city to raise $30 million in bonds funding to convert the historic Post Office and Federal Court House into what's commonly being called the "Mob Museum" — a possible rival to the Liberace Museum and Elvis-a-Rama, both of which prosper closer to the Strip.

Goodman is bickering with critics over how much of the new museum's focus should be, precisely, on mobsters and how much on the broader history. I think I'm with the mayor on this one. Make it about the mob — something you can't get elsewhere — and give people one more reason to come downtown and keep this treasured and threatened corner of Americana alive.

I'm with the Mayor and Marc. Make it about the mob. I love Las Vegas, both the faux luxe of the Strip and the faux seediness of downtown. But Oscar is Oscar, and any city that elects a Mayor that used to be a criminal defense lawyer, and then makes him a hero, should at least share the glitter with some of those who made his reign possible: his clients. There's only one Oscar, only one Las Vegas and both owe a debt, if only in a fantasy world, to the so-called "Mob."

Bring on the Mob Museum. I'll be there with my kid...just like I took him to Alcatraz in San Francisco. Fun is fun, and Las Vegas is, after all, the queen city of fun.