The Naked City in the Heart of Las Vegas
A view of the Naked City from Sahara Avenue. (Photo by Anthony T. Smith)
The Naked City - the neighborhood bordered by Sahara Avenue, Las Vegas Boulevard, Industrial Road, and Wyoming Avenue - has for decades been known as one of the highest-crime neighborhoods in Las Vegas. But the neighborhood, with some homes dating back to the 1930’s, was known as a convenient location for employees of the Strip to take up residence back in the 1950’s and 60’s - the prices were affordable and work was only a short drive away.
By the 1970’s, the character of the neighborhood began to steadily decline as the Strip employees earned enough to buy up the cheap homes sprouting across the Las Vegas Valley. During the 1980’s, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department believed an influx of “Marielitos” - the approximately 125,000 people that fled Fidel Castro’s dictatorship from the Cuban port of Mariel in 1980 - were responsible for an uptick in crime in the Naked City. As a result, between 1983 and 1987, Metro formed a Marielito Task Force that focused patrols along the Tam Drive area. Officers with the Task Force attributed 29 murders to Marielitos between 1982-83. However, the Task Force’s heavy-handed tactics damaged relationships with law abiding members of the Cuban immigrant community in the area. Later data showed that only about 15% of the Marielito immigrants fell into a criminal lifestyle, with the remainder of the Marielitos integrating into American society.
The Las Vegas press covered the detrimental impact Metro’s crackdown on “Marielitos” in the Naked City area had on businesses owned by members of the local Cuban immigrant community. (Las Vegas-Clark County Library District)
One of the most tragic crimes in modern Las Vegas occurred in the Naked City on April 15, 1985. On that afternoon 3-year-old Arthur Williams, Jr. was playing with his 5-year-old sister in the front yard of his apartment complex located at 213 West New York Avenue. An unknown man described as 5’8 with a slim build and light brown hair was sitting on a nearby concrete wall as the siblings played. For reasons that remain mysterious, the unknown man walked up to the children and stabbed Arthur Williams, Jr. with a folding knife and then darted down an alleyway. The child succumbed to his wounds after being rushed to the hospital. No suspects have ever been identified in the murder of Williams, Jr.
The unsolved 1985 murder of 3-year-old Arthur Williams, Jr. in the front yard of his Naked City apartment complex shook the Las Vegas community. The local press extensively covered the crime and efforts to locate a suspect. This article on the murder was authored by well-known Nevada journalist Jon Ralston. (Las Vegas-Clark County Library District)
Residents of the Naked City hoped the neighborhood’s fortunes would change with the construction of the Stratosphere in the mid-90’s. But the company that developed the Stratosphere had no interest in improving the residential areas surrounding the property. And while employees of the Stratosphere have volunteered their time over the years to work with Naked City residents to clean up the neighborhood by painting over graffiti and clearing alleyways of litter, these community service efforts have had little long-term impact on reducing criminal activity in the area.
Local press covered the failure of business and political leaders to carry through on promises to revitalize the Naked City neighborhood in this 1996 article. (Las Vegas-Clark County Library District)