An interview with Tom Skanke, president of a govt. public affairs company, about how he got involved in transportation issues and the unique challenges of moving people around in Las Vegas.
"Q. What do you consider to be the biggest transportation issue facing Southern Nevada and how do you think it should be solved?
A. Two things. One is workforce mobility. Moving, by the year 2018, which is just 10 years from now, the numbers vary, but some are between a half million and 600,000 employees, on and off Las Vegas Boulevard with the growth of the projects. You know, everybody likes to point to gaming and say it's the problem, but the last time I checked, this is a community - not a gaming community, but a community as a whole - and we all benefit from that growth. But I think if we don't institute some type of major transit component in the construct of our transportation solutions, we're going to have a huge workforce mobility problem. Nationally, it's goods movement and ports. From an economic development perspective, our commission's report says we need to build a Seattle port every year for the next 25 years to keep up with the demand of the goods that are being imported into our nation."
Read the full story: In Business Q and A: Tom Skancke
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