25 Gifts Reno Could Give Itself Now to Become a More Caring Biggest Little City

#1 Giving people with current or recent lived local experience a regular seat on the Community Homelessness Advisory Board

#2 Having the former Record street shelter operate as a warming center and an emergency spot for women and families in addition to Our Place 

#3 Keep listening to consultant Jon DeCarmine to make the Washoe County Cares Campus and safe camp better places, or better yet give the contracts to operate these to his teams

#4 Lining Truckee River paths with public trash cans, 24/7 toilets and showers

#5 Opening up more safe camps with pallet shelters 

#6 Starting a safe parking program with multiple safe locations

#7 Starting more programs to pay the unsheltered with day contracts paid in cash to create art in different parts of town and to clean up river paths and downtown areas 

#8 Allowing granny pods in backyards

#9 Incentivizing micro housing initiatives but not of the luxury kind

#10 Ending sweetheart deals for big developers

#11 Fighting to save our alleys and public spaces 

#12 Beginning a guerrilla garden uprising in all the empty lots 

#13 Mapping public produce 

#14 Getting campaign finance reform in local elections 

#15 Incentivizing more local farms, backyard gardening projects and farmer’s markets

#16 Shutting down parts of downtown for bikes and pedestrians on all weekends

#17 Adding bike parking areas as well as bike and scooter lanes across Reno

#18 Incentivizing the building and opening up of cheap hostels

#19 Helping existing motel owners improve conditions

#20 Funding, training and giving jobs to peer recovery specialists, social workers, mental health advocates, drug counselors and outreach specialists

#21 Removing hostile architecture and replacing it with green spaces and comfortable benches 

#22 Allowing chair bombing to add comfortable street furniture in convenient spots

#23 Turning overpasses into wifi connected co-working community spaces 

#24 Turning empty downtown storefronts into public art spaces 

#25 Setting up tables in different parts of town for community conversations 

Agree? Disagree? Any you would add or subtract? Let us know in the comments.

Our reporting this week highlighted the new Family Soup Mutual Aid Tuesday night outreach gathering, and local up and coming comedian Sara Rooker. We also started a new series on students dealing with the many headaches of not being able to find suitable or affordable housing during their studies.

Our weekly podcast was another student in her own voice expressing her fears of soon being displaced in the Jacobs Entertainment buyout spree and not knowing where to turn for her own future.