Name: Jude Stanion
Hometown: Durham, NC
University: University of North Carolina ’12
Urban Connectivity, Downtown Project Las Vegas
What initially attracted you to Venture for America?
It was encouraging to see that someone else saw opportunity in cities that most have forgotten. Before joining Venture For America, I’d lived in both Detroit and New Orleans. VFA’s commitment to these cities sparked my commitment to the fellowship.
What is the best part of being a VFA Fellow?
VFA has changed the way I see the world. I realized the importance of taking an active and applied role in the world around me. I also began to appreciate the opportunity I (and every other VFA fellow) have to build and create great change. Having 40 super cool friends is nice too.
What does Downtown Project do?
The Downtown Project is trying to revitalize Downtown Vegas. Instead of betting everything on a ‘silver bullet’ project to fix the city in one fell swoop, we’re investing in community, starting small and then scaling up. We’re trying to think of the city as a start up. This kind of approach has never been tried before, which is exactly why it just might work.
What do you do on a typical day at work?
I’m focusing on Urban Connectivity: everything from walking, biking, buses, and carsharing, basically creating mobility options and a lifestyle that isn’t dependent on automobiles. Day to day this might be working with start-ups who are developing innovative bikeshare systems, discussing locations for new express bus lines with the City, or figuring out how Nevada state laws are inhibiting urban innovators, and lobbying for change.
What’s your favorite thing about Las Vegas?:
Another Fellow and I found a miniature horse racing game in one of the old casinos Downtown. You you bet a quarter on a pair of little metal horses as they circulate the track. It probably has some of the lowest odds in the whole casino, but it just seems more real than everything else. There’s the excitement of watching your little horses and pulling for them as they fall behind, the crush of defeat when neither of your horses win, and the exhilaration when you win and the quarter you put in is now fifty cents.
What do you hope to accomplish in your time with VFA?
I really don’t see ‘my time with VFA’ as just the two year fellowship. In someways, the whole of my career will be ‘my time with VFA’. I want to look back on these first few years in Las Vegas and know that I built something and created opportunity. I walked into a sparse and struggling town, and want to someday walk away from a vibrant and bountiful community.