Oscar Goodman Discusses Impeachment, The Homeless Ordinance & Gun Control w/TVT

A hot topic issue in Las Vegas now, is the recent ordinance passed by Goodman’s wife, mayor Carolyn. Common understanding of the ordinance is that homeless will be charged a $1,000 fine and up to 6 months in jail for sleeping on public streets. Goodman says this is not entirely the case. “What they’re trying to do is they’re trying to tell these folks if first of all, if there isn’t a place for them to go, then it’s a time out. There’s a moratorium. Nothing will take place as far as an arrest or a misdemeanor or anything like that, given there are adequate facilities. They’ll be asked by a member of law enforcement to use that facility rather than to lie on some businesses doorstep, perhaps in their own defecation and their own urination” said Goodman.

Goodman describes the unsanitary conditions in San Diego’s downtown district, which has since been revitalized. He had to battle his way through little bugs caused by homeless. “In a tourist hospitality community had better be very careful as to what kind of experiences people have when they just try to utilize our streets to get from one venue to another, because that’s what makes us to the a great place to live with the tax dollars that are raised as a result of these visitors coming here. So, Carolyn reached out and this is the beginning, the first step really of hopefully a program that no one mainly will get these homeless people some help.”

Goodman says that the problem won’t be solved overnight; however, in the first week it’s in effect, he believes there will be a marked difference.

Another top issue TVT wanted Goodman’s perspective on is the impeachment inquiry. “There’s two different types of Republicans,” says Shapiro. “There are the Republicans that are reasonable that say while this might not reach to impeachment, but it’s certainly inappropriate, and then there’s other Republicans that are calling this a circus a charade. What do you see?”

“I don’t see it as a charade. I’m glad that it’s public. I really unless it’s for security reasons, I can’t see why the depositions, as they call them, would be held privately. But it wasn’t as though the Republicans were being barred from attending. They just chose not to attend and many of them during the deposition period.”

Goodman continues and reflects on a United States Senate impeachment hearing from a couple decades ago. “I think it was the first impeachment hearing of the century as far as the judge was concerned. And it was an awesome experience, of course, being in that spot. Some of the senators took it very, very seriously and others were pretty cavalier about it. It ended up it was very disappointing to me in the sense that I was making the closing argument before the entire Senate and I would look around at some of them had never broken the spine, so to speak, of these books. And I knew they hadn’t read it and they treated it like it wasn’t an important matter. To me, the testimony of all the parties, whether they’re pro the president and the president. I see it as riveting.”

Gun control seems to be another controversial topic in Las Vegas especially, given the October 1^st shootings. Recently, MGM Properties has decided to turn the parking lot where the shooting with Route 91 festival happened into a pay to park for the Raiders stadium. Shapiro’s take is that MGM should instead have put together some sort of memorial first. “Do you agree” asks Shaprio of Goodman.

“I think it was remarkable that the little remembrance park in the downtown was actually constructed virtually overnight with the blood and sweat of the locals who cared about these people being slaughtered by a maniac. They had no defense in that the public actually built this little park. I think that’s sufficient, to be quite frank with you.”

When asked why these sorts of catastrophes were less common when Goodman was young, he explained that “Moms would cook dinner for the kids, and everybody would sit around a table. There’d be an intelligent discussion amongst the family members as to what happened that day. We grew up with the mindset of not embarrassing our parents. I don’t find any semblance of that kind of meaningful relations between parents and children today. That would engender a certain degree of morality as what’s right, what’s wrong. And I think these kids are just taken with the the internet, with Facebook, with their thumb, doing all of their thinking for them rather than their brain and their art.”

On a less serious note, Shapiro asks if Goodman has seen the movie The Irishmen yet, considering he had a cameo in another Scorsese movie, Casino. Goodman explains that he doesn’t go to the movies, nor does he use his television often.