A Case and Whips Withdrawn with COVID at the Top
Earlier this week, the City of Reno suddenly dropped its pending case against advocates who had spent a week and nights during a 24/7 style protest on a small patch of grass near the downtown Believe sign denouncing ongoing sweeps. They themselves had been charged with staying there during closed hours. The cleared defendants expressed relief, but wanted to put the attention not on themselves but on neighbors still being swept. The capacity of the Nevada Cares Campus is listed at 604 permanent beds, with 100 additional cots available, which gives authorities leeway, as technically, extra shelter space is there at the compound. The landmark Martin vs. Boise ruling and subsequent agreements ensure people experiencing homelessness in our region will not be cited or arrested for sleeping outdoors when no shelter is available.
In a quintessential Reno moment, it’s a near certainty whips will now soon be banned locally, for the first time ever it seems in the continental United States. From urban legend status on Reddit, to more practitioners, to consuming hours on the Reno City Council agenda, on social media any media whip story seems to attract comment after comment. One of the questions we ask is: isn’t there a better way to help those carrying and snapping whips rather than criminalizing them? Another in this situation: has anyone been hospitalized due to a whip?
COVID-19 and its Delta variant are still raging, with breakthrough cases rippling through the community, now sadly infecting our immunocompromised Mayor with a breakthrough case, several weeks after UNR President Brian Sandoval himself went into quarantine with his own infection. Washoe County has already topped 60,000 total cases and tragically more than 800 deaths. It seems the number of active cases may have peaked in mid September, and that the current wave is finally trending downward. The worst peak was around Thanksgiving last year, so let’s hope the downward trend persists. In all of Nevada, however, just over half of the population is fully vaccinated, lower than the 55% stated figure for the entire U.S. population, which is much lower than other countries such as Portugal at 84%, Singapore at 77% or Chile at 73%.
This week, as part of our reporting, we also looked into efforts by the Nevada Housing Coalition to create the conditions for more affordable housing, especially for those in lower income brackets. With prices rising but salaries not going up enough, and Social Security staying mostly stagnant, it’s very much a living income crisis we are going through. One of its local victims Robert explained to us his predicament, after losing several jobs. Our podcast was about a family attending a recent rally for relatives of those killed by police.