"The Westside (of Las Vegas) as a Foreign Country": manuscript draft by Roosevelt Fitzgerald

THE WESTSIDE AS A FOREIGN COUNTRY
■America imports a great deal from foreign countries. This is especially true of automobiles and audio—visual equipment. The costs or tariffs, paid by producing nations, are passed on to the buying public. While the commodities are not costly, production wise, due to rhe use of gheap labor, the sticker price which is seen by the consumer is oftentimes less than comparable American trade products. Still, any economist will tell you—in no uncertain terms—that when imports exceed exports, a very unfavorable trade relationship exists. Such realities are beseiged by waste and waste is rarely good.
The residents of the westside find themselves in a very similar set of circumstances. Most of the consumer items are "imported" into the area .While they do not literally cane from overseas, they do cane from a distance away. The nearest major shopping complexes are those on the Rancho/Tonopah Road, Lake Mead or Las Vegas Blvd. North, The nearest of these are, at the very least, a minimum of eight miles, roundtrip by car, for most westside residents. For others, the distance is even greater. Since more than 40% of one's personal income is spent on groceries and because the basic components of diets, particularly with Black cultures, consist of perishables-- produce items, milk, bread, etc - most people are required to shop two to three times per week, at the very least. Taking the lesser of the two, twice per week, and for the lesser distance-- eight miles round trip and multiplying by two for sixteen (16) miles per week, we can see that as per city driving EPA estimates on mileage that a consumer will use a minimum of one gallon ($1.21 per gal.) per week for shopping purposes. If, even with the United States Census short figures of 40,000 (reality is 55 60,000 population) 20,000 vehicles are driven

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for such purposes per week, we are talking about 20,000 gallon of gasoline and $24,200,00 per month. Can you believe that? Ha. There's more to come. All of that translates to $1,258,400 per year and 1,040,000 gallons of gasoline for the same period of time. While these figures might be astounding, bear in mind that they are the "at the very least" figures. Reality is probably much greater.

The dollar figure is enough of an incentive to locate a shopping complex within the community. Those dollars could be better spent. In terms of the energy waste, especially now as energy sources are dwindling, all efforts should be made to reduce it to the bare minimum.

The Nucleus' endeavor will be a boon not only to the residents of the westside, but it will also alleviate some of the pressures placed on gasoline supplies which are always needed to insure ample quantities for the driving tourist who arrive here daily from surrounding states. 

Nucleus is interested in the community because it is a part of the community and because it is interested in the entire city. Everyone benefits from Nucleus-- especially the economy and the future of Nevada.