Nick Christie is considered an older millennial. At this point of life, the 39-year-old said he thought he would be a homeowner.  

But a combination of factors, including private equity firms buying up properties, rising interest rates and high home and rent costs have put that dream out of reach. 

“My rent has almost doubled since 2019,” he said. “That's forced me to dip into savings that I was using to put down for a down payment on a house that I could no longer afford anyway.”

Christie was one of the attendees of the third listening session of the Nevada Democracy Project, a civic engagement initiative of The Nevada Independent and Vegas PBS. The June 20 event was held at the College of Southern Nevada’s Henderson campus. 

The event took place about a week after Nevada’s primary elections. Russel Kost said one of the issues that brought him out to the polls was the state of K-12 education in Southern Nevada, which has historically ranked low for school quality. 

Kost suggested one possible solution could be to break up the Clark County School District into smaller districts of 35,000 to 50,000 students, an effort that has previously not been able to get off the ground and has instead been converted into efforts such as a district reorganization. 

“Studies have indicated that that's the best size for responsiveness,” he said. 

Participants also expressed frustration with local transportation infrastructure, including what seems like never-ending road construction around the Las Vegas Valley. Christie jokingly called the bright orange traffic cones on the roads the state flower. 

Kevin O'Donnell spoke out against how much tax money was spent on bringing the Formula 1 race to Las Vegas. In March, a report found 89 percent of Clark County’s staff costs for the event, $4.3 million, were reimbursed through licenses, fees and permits, setting the county back by almost $500,000. 

Race organizers have previously asked the county to put in $40 million of the $80 million needed for repaving roads used during the Grand Prix, though Clark County Commission Chairman Tick Segerblom has said it’s now “off the table.”

“I think that Clark County should stop funding F1 and use the money from F1 and put it on the roads … all of the infrastructure could be taken care of if they stop spending money on F1 and they know it,” O'Donnell said. 

The report, produced by county agencies with support from Las Vegas advisory firm Applied Analysis, said the Las Vegas Grand Prix had a total economic impact of $884 million and generated $77 million in state and local taxes — the highest figure recorded for a single event. 

But business owners located on or near the racecourse have said the event resulted in millions of dollars in lost revenue because access to their businesses was impeded.

Watch the full listening session here: