{"id":283899,"date":"2019-08-08T16:33:00","date_gmt":"2019-08-08T20:33:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.google.com\/articles\/CBMiTWh0dHBzOi8vbGFzdmVnYXNzdW4uY29tL3Bob3Rvcy9nYWxsZXJpZXMvMjAxOS9hdWcvMTIvMDgwNl9zdW5fTGl0dGxlRXRoaW9waWEv0gEA?oc=5"},"modified":"2026-10-17T11:36:57","modified_gmt":"2026-10-17T15:36:57","slug":"little-ethiopia-las-vegas-clark-county-cultural-district","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/283899","title":{"rendered":"Ethiopian business owners in Las Vegas backed a \u2018Little Ethiopia\u2019 designation that Clark County approved in 2023"},"content":{"rendered":"

Clark County commissioners in Nevada began work in August 2019 on designating a stretch of Decatur Boulevard in Las Vegas as \u201cLittle Ethiopia,\u201d home to dozens of Ethiopian-owned businesses, the Las Vegas Sun reported.<\/p>\n

\"Injera<\/figure>\n

Injera served with eight kinds of stew, photographed on April 23, 2023. (Artem.G \/ Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0) [file photo]<\/em><\/p>\n

At their Aug. 6, 2019, meeting, at the request of Commissioner Justin Jones, commissioners directed county staff to draw up a policy for cultural district designations, the first of its kind in the county, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal and county records.<\/p>\n

Nevada Assemblyman Alexander Assefa, believed to be the first Ethiopian-American elected to public office in the United States, was a driving force behind the effort, the Sun said. \u201c(The designation) means recognizing that the community is part of the fabric of Las Vegas,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The area runs along Decatur Boulevard between Tropicana Avenue and Spring Mountain Road. At Melkam Market, manager Salem Tigabu said customers paid $18 for a package of Tomoca coffee because it reminded them of home. Fitsumberhan Mehari, co-owner of Lucy Ethiopian Restaurant on West Flamingo Road, said he came to Las Vegas as a refugee in 2008, a common story among Ethiopian-born residents of southern Nevada.<\/p>\n

Mini Yohannes, co-owner of NU Ethiopian Kitchen, said she wanted to introduce newcomers to Ethiopian cuisine, including eating with injera or by hand, though she also offered forks and knives.<\/p>\n

The commission approved its first cultural district policy on Sept. 17, 2019. After pandemic-related delays, commissioners adopted a resolution on June 20, 2023, making Little Ethiopia Clark County's first cultural district, the Review-Journal reported.<\/p>\n

Sources:<\/strong> Las Vegas Sun<\/a>, Las Vegas Sun photo gallery<\/a>, Las Vegas Review-Journal (2019)<\/a>, Las Vegas Review-Journal (2023)<\/a>, Clark County resolution establishing Little Ethiopia (PDF)<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Clark County commissioners in Nevada began work in August 2019 on designating a stretch of Decatur Boulevard in Las Vegas as \u201cLittle Ethiopia,\u201d home to dozens of Ethiopian-owned businesses, the Las Vegas Sun reported.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":837914,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-283899","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ethiopian-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/injera-with-eight-kinds-of-stew.jpg?fit=1280%2C1254&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9NivD-1bR1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283899","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=283899"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283899\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":837922,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283899\/revisions\/837922"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/837914"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=283899"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=283899"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=283899"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}