Reactions from visitors run gamut
From presumption of innocence to petition to rename boulevard
Steve Wynn’s alleged sexual misconduct will keep some from staying at his hotels. For others, it won’t make any difference at all.
Rosemary Long, visiting from England with her husband, told the Las Vegas Review-journal on Wednesday that she would never stay in a hotel owned by someone with a history of sexual misconduct, even if the the property changed hands or were renamed.
“If I knew, I would still not choose it,” Long said.
The Wall Street Journal on Jan. 26 published explicit accounts of Wynn demanding sexual favors from female employees, and the Las Vegas Review-journal on Monday published allegations that he pressured a waitress into sex about 30 years ago, allegedly telling his employee he had “never had a grandmother before” and wanted “to see how it feels,” according to a court document and interviews with multiple sources.
Wynn stepped down as CEO and chairman of Wynn Resorts on Tuesday.
Mixed reaction
Some visitors, like Akeem Washington and Ronnie Harris, said the accusations wouldn’t affect their decision to stay at a Wynn-affiliated hotel.
“We know it’s been happening across the world and across the country,” said Washington, who is visiting from Washington, D.C. “There’s a lot of things happening behind the scenes, and we all know it.”
Harris, visiting from Mississippi, said it wouldn’t affect his decision to stay at a Wynn property, either.
“When you start going back 20 years on people … you can’t kill a man if someone said something years ago,” Harris said. “There’s not a woman in America that hasn’t been harassed in some way. Sure, we’ve got to do better at it, I guess, but I just don’t get going back so many years.”
Jamison Williams, a regular at the Wynn properties, said he’s had mixed feelings since the accusations came out.
“Obviously, if he’s stepping down it means he committed something or it’s in his best interest,” Williams said. “What he did was wrong if he did do that. But there would be no Vegas without Steve Wynn.”
For Sara Jackson, who is currently a guest at the Wynn Las Vegas, Wynn’s alleged misconduct is just that — alleged.
Everyone is innocent until proven guilty, she said.
A petition
Alison Perris, an employee with online petition platform Care2, began a petition Wednesday morning to change the name of Wynn Boulevard. The petition had garnered over 500 signatures by Wednesday afternoon. The petition asks for action to be taken by the city of Las Vegas, but Wynn Boulevard is in the jurisdiction of Clark County.
Perris wrote in the petition that she would like the street named after “the silence breakers who have been brave enough to speak out against him.”
“Why should Las Vegas honor a man who is a serial misogynist with multiple accusers and more coming every day by continuing to have a street named after him?” Perris wrote.
County code states that a street name change must be initiated by the County Commission, the zoning administrator or the owner of a property abutting the street. The adjacent properties are owned by the Wynn Las Vegas and Wynn Golf.
Contact Madelyn Reese at mreese@viewnews.com or 702-383-0497. Follow @ Madelyngreese on Twitter. There should be zero tolerance for sexual harassment in the workplace, no matter how powerful you are. I believe the women who had the courage to share their appalling accounts of Mr. Wynn’s behavior. Steve Wynn’s resignation proves once again that powerful figures, whether they are in Las Vegas, Hollywood or Washington, cannot escape the repercussions stemming from sexual harassment abuses.