LAS VEGAS CITY COUNCILWOMAN MICHELE (Ward 6) FIORE'S NEWSLETTER 09/10/2018

!שנה טובה ומתוקה Wishing all of my family, friends, and those that celebrate a happy, sweet New Year filled with good health, joy, prosperity and love.

Meanwhile in San Antonio...

Dr. Lisa Morris Hibbler, Councilman Cedric Crear, Councilman Bob Coffin, our fabulous dedicated staff, and I, are currently visiting San Antonio's Haven for Hope. We're here getting ideas, looking to find practical and effective solutions to our homeless situation. Haven for Hope has had a lot of success, and we're seeing if there's anything we can take away from this, and bring home to our homeless.

This is Lisa. She was a Haven for Hope resident, and now she has a job at the hotel we stayed in. Fantastic!

Haven For Hope's Cat Room                    Councilman Cedric Crear

Dr. Lisa Morris Hibbler                         Councilman Bob Coffin

The End of Summer Brings More than Pumpkin Spice.

Per usual, there has been much going on in Ward 6 and around town. Recently in Centennial Hills Park, we had Tour the World and Movie in the Park. Tour the World was a fantastic LVMPD 1st Tuesday event, sponsored by Councilman Stavros Anthony, Commissioner Kirkpatrick, and myself. At this event, young dancers were showing off various customary dances from all over the world. There were 10 fantastic food trucks, jewelry, and art, and the atmosphere was full of excitement.

Movie in the Park was a tad more epic this month. We watched Star Wars: The Last Jedi, and the kids had their own lightsaber battles! The force was strong last Friday night!

At Mondays with Michele, I had the pleasure of hearing a proposal from a bright young lady named Melanie McNair. She's 11 and extremely intelligent, driven and compassionate. She came to me to share her big idea and stayed in my office for about an hour discussing it. She wants to see a universally accessible park built from the ground up in Las Vegas. By universally accessible, she means swings, slides, merry-go-rounds, bridges and more, that can be enjoyed by ALL children, including kids in wheelchairs. She wants a brand new park explicitly built, from top to bottom, with ALL children in mind, so that all kids can enjoy every activity in this park - creating a place where all kids will feel included. What was even more captivating than this conversation with a caring youth, was that this wasn't just an abstract idea; she came to me with research. She recently was ranked #6 for her age group in a nationwide scholarship contest called "Engineering Girl." She wrote an essay about other parks around America that have the accessible equipment she was proposing; it fully described everything that is currently available to put in a park like this. Her inspiration came through her own life experiences, being the daughter of teacher Brenda McNair, who now teaches children on the autism spectrum. Melanie came to Mondays with Michele accompanied by her mother, Brenda, and her Scholarship Coach, Rhea M. Watson from Scholarship Solutions. It was indeed a great afternoon, and I'm looking forward to seeing more of Melanie McNair in the future.

I rode the RTC Centennial Express, and it was great. This route has been going since 2010. I learned that about 1,000 people board it every day. You can take it to the strip or straight to UNLV. The bus comes every hour, and in the morning it arrives every 30 minutes. I must say, it is a great alternative and could definitely save a person money in many ways. It's only $65 a month for unlimited rides. You can purchase a single trip for $2 or get a day pass for $5. They offer student discounts per semester. Students get up to 60% off each semester, purchasing a 4-month pass for just over $100. This is a transportation system that is well worth the cost, by saving money on gas and parking fees. I look forward to riding the Centennial Express again sometime soon.

With Love and Liberty, Michele