Political Theory and Electric Cars

Qiong Liu’s office—located on the top floor of the North Las Vegas city hall—is bright and comfortably neat, scattered with rocks gathered from hikes in the nearby RedRock Mountains and pictures of her friends and family. We begin to talk almost immediately. Liu is friendly and efficient, not the type to beat around the bush. She fits her job: North Las Vegas is a city of transplants, and as a both a Chinese native and an engineer-turnedpolicymaker, their city manager is one as well.

As a small community growing out of the side of the much larger and more infamous Las Vegas, North Las Vegas (NLV) may hardly seem a likely setting for political drama. Yet, the city is a verified underdog. Particularly hit hard in the 2008 recession—during which it went from the second fastest growing city in the country to one with the highest foreclosure rate—NLV is doing its best to get back on its feet. Chief amongst the priorities of its leadership is developing vacant land for commercial use in order to generate revenue and spur city growth. Out of the half-dozen districts targeted, one in particular—which NLV officials have deemed APEX Industrial Park—is fraught with political tension. The territory was annexed from the surrounding county seven years ago, a transfer of land indicative of NLV’s expansion at the time and the simultaneous decrease in the county’s power.

Attracting investors to the APEX region and returning hope to North Las Vegas was extraordinarily difficult. When local businesses and landowners were told about NLV’s hopes for APEX, Liu said, “Most people were excited that the city had a vision [for the area], but they were skeptical.” She paused and smiled sheepishly. “Even we were unsure of what we could make out of this [land], but we knew we had to try. We had to make an effort, or else nothing would improve.”

Thus, in 2010, North Las Vegas began courting companies to develop in APEX. The majority of companies that invested came and went; Liu humorously recounts an attempt at establishing a jumbo shrimp farm in the middle of the Mojave Desert. But there were a few lasting progresses—the most notable of which was the UNEV pipeline, a 400-mile long oil pipeline crossing through Utah and Nevada. Despite earlier wins, however, the first really big opportunity for success came in 2015 with a Chinese electric car company, Faraday Future, hoping to build and manufacture an electric car that would rival tesla’s Model S. the potential benefit that could be brought by Faraday was significant; in addition to the revenue, it was also an investment that could diversify the economy of the entire state.

The process of attracting the attention of a company like Faraday was long and arduous, especially for a city like North Las Vegas. NLV leadership was first made aware of the company through a newly acquired acquaintance of the mayor, who, by chance, mentioned he knew a Chinese company looking for a place to establish a manufacturing plant. NLV leaders jumped at this opportunity, and Liu set to work translating the APEX brochure into Mandarin. When the mayor’s acquaintance returned to Beijing the next week, he would present the brochure to the company NLV leaders would later discover was Faraday.

When asked to recall the beginning of the courting process, Liu grimaces a little. “It was pretty slow,” she says, with a wry laugh. The already difficult process of attracting such an investor was made even more difficult because NLV entered at such a late stage in the game. By the time NLV began contact with Faraday, the company had already narrowed the 200 some sites they had originally targeted to a short list of about a dozen—and North Las Vegas was nowhere near the list.

But the city is nothing if not persistent, and they kept pursuing Faraday—sending updates about the events and projects in Nevada, as well as detailing the strengths of the state. These strengths included tourism, the collaborative nature of local governments, and the state’s customer service emphasis. Finally, NLV officials took a trip to Faraday’s research and development facility in California where they were scheduled to speak with Faraday for ten minutes. “they weren’t prepared for a group so passionate about our dream and the potential they could have in APEX,” Liu said, a quiet shine of pride in her eyes. “We ended up talking to them for two hours.”

When Faraday announced that they were choosing to develop in North Las Vegas in December 2015, it seemed state leadership was at last recognizing the city for its worth. But NLV was not yet at the finish line, and without legislative approval of the company’s tax abatements, the deal with Faraday would not be finalized. Going into the special legislative session in mid-December, NLV leaders were anxious but excited, optimistic but understandably afraid that the project they had put so much work into would not turn out.

Ironically, though NLV spoke at length to Faraday about the collaborative nature of their state’s government, the conclusion reached by state legislators and manufactured by multiple groups vying for attention in Nevada politics, undercut NLV’s efforts. After unsuccessfully reclaiming land already annexed by the city, the county worked to prevent more of their land from being annexed. Thus, the county allied with labor unions, which greatly influence the outcome of state elections, in order to persuade legislators to allow the county to take over construction and operation of the water pipeline necessary for operation of the Faraday factory. This move greatly hinders the further growth of the city, as the pipeline will supply water for not only APEX but for surrounding regions as well; and, if these surrounding plots of land utilized city water from a NLV controlled pipeline, they would be annexed. Beyond city growth, the revenue and jobs generated from the maintenance of the pipeline—the benefits of the deal NLV worked so hard to make— would go not to the city, but to the county.

North Las Vegas sees this as a poaching of their deal and as one action in a trend of unfair treatment. When I spoke both to Liu and City Councilman Isaac Barron, both mentioned the city receiving a disproportionately small portion of the consolidated tax (c-tax) compared to other municipalities in the valley, and having few outside allies to fight for NLV. “Other municipalities have even said that they know we are getting shortchanged on the amount of c-tax [we should be receiving],” Barron said, shaking his head. “But when it comes to fighting for North Las Vegas, we don’t really have anyone.

With 31.2 percent of its population identifying as non-Hispanic whites, NLV’s status as a minority-majority city, Barron argued, is one of the reasons the city is unfairly treated. “We’ve had to battle this negative view of our city all the time,” Barron said. “If something [bad] happens in North Las Vegas, right away, you’ll hear the racial comments. [People] will contribute it [sic] to blacks or Hispanics, when frankly North Las Vegas crime is not much different than the rest of the valley.”

For Barron, the ruling was an insult—a statement that others did not believe NLV could handle the construction of the pipeline despite its capability. It also cemented his perception of the power structures existing in Nevada government. “I think [our status as a minoritymajority city] is one reason we don’t have the same clout as other jurisdictions in the valley,” he said. “they still see us as ‘that part of town you don’t want to get caught in late at night.’” the democratic, pluralist nature of our government makes mini-dramas like these common; local political battles are won and lost every day. Though this makes change slow and clunky, there is a balance in this process—pluralism is fair because it’s unfair to everyone. With more than one body vying to assert their agenda, citizens are insulated from tyranny; the outcome of each conflict is far less dramatic for the people than it is for the politicians. Speaking specifically, the residents of NLV may have to pay higher taxes for the construction of this pipeline, but the unionized workers employed by the county will be better paid and will come from around the Vegas Valley. The complexities of the conflict—the county’s fight against annexation and the city’s struggle against what seems like all the odds— remain hidden from the average voter’s view.

The frequency of these battles requires policymakers to swallow the disappointment and frustration of defeat and move onto the next one. According to their city attorneys, North Las Vegas has grounds to sue, but the chances that they will do so are slim, considering the time, energy, and money that goes into a lawsuit—and the ongoing projects, including the construction of the Faraday factory, they must oversee. This means the deep injustice they believe has been committed will never be righted. “It almost [feels] like it’s us against the rest of the world,” Barron said. “But the people here are tough; they’re resilient. They always find a way to make it happen.”

This resiliency is perhaps most apparent in a brief exchange I had with Liu.

“Our finance director wanted to quit after the ruling,” Liu said, near the end of our interview. “He said he ‘totally lost faith in government.’”

“Did he end up quitting?

“No. I told him he couldn’t. We still have work to do.”