Lift Up Windsor Park Project Collection (MS-01140)

The neighborhood of Windsor Park in North Las Vegas, Nevada was developed in the early 1960s as one of the first all-Black communities in then-segregated Southern Nevada. Windsor Park was built on top of a receding aquifer and seismic faults, which over time has caused sinking homes due to reactivated faults and surface fissures which were caused by subsidence starting in the 1980s. The North Las Vegas City Council passed a resolution in 1991 to suspend permits for new buildings and additions to existing buildings. In 1997, Windsor Park residents were offered $50,000 to relocate to new homes in North Las Vegas. Although several dozen families accepted the offer, many other families, particularly elderly residents, remained in their homes as they felt that they could not buy a comparable home for the amount they were offered.

In 2019, the ciy of North Las Vegas moved toward approving a zoning change to build a warehousing facility on 86 acres of undeveloped land next to Windsor Park. Assemblywoman Dina Neal, whose district included Windsor Park, reached out to the UNLV Boyd School of Law for assistance to research the history of Windsor Park and raise advocacy for the community. The collaboration led to a partnership with UNLV's Department of Film in the College of Fine Arts to create Windsor Park: The Sinking Streets, a 14 minute documentary that tells the story of Windsor Park. The documentary, in turn, has raised awareness of the historic and ongoing structural issues in Windsor Park and has opened up opportunities and conversations between Neal, city of North Las Vegas officials, and developers.

Sources:

Prevatt, Mike. "New Documentary Tells the Tale of Sinking North Las Vegas Homes." KNPR, September 23, 2021. https://knpr.org/show/knprs-state-of-nevada/2021-09-23/new-documentary-tells-the-tale-of-sinking-north-las-vegas-homes.

Ross, Sebastian. "In Search of Robbed Time." RJ Magazine, September 18, 2022. https://www.reviewjournal.com/rj-magazine/in-search-of-robbed-time-the-long-hard-struggle-of-windsor-park-2626343/.

Weatherford, Mike. "The Windsor Park Story, Part 1: That Sinking Feeling." UNLV News Center, January 5, 2023. https://www.unlv.edu/news/article/windsor-park-sinking-feeling.