CACDown at the Reno City Council
A recap of our recent articles plus bonus content.
There was repeated talk of “political theater” at the most recent City Council meeting during heated discussions about the future of the former shelter on Record St. known as the CAC, and an abrupt city staff recommendation to sell it to Bash Capital LLC for a new housing project.
There was plenty of political theater but also a significant tilt in business not being conducted as usual.
It seems the accumulation of public comments at meetings and on social media and media reports, including from “pseudo journalists,” a term used by Devon Reese, is getting to the powers that be.
It’s also the beginning of the end for the Doug Thornley era, with his final months in the city manager’s job now counting down.
Others like Mayor Hillary Schieve are perhaps starting to think more clearly of their own local legacies.
Interactions between Schieve and Jenny Brekhus were polite, even though Reese went in attack mode against Brekhus without naming her.
Notwithstanding the Reese comments, interrupted by City Attorney Karl Hall for being off base, there was talk of how Reno’s standard operating procedure is being perceived, and, if you listened between the lines, growing discomfort as to how this City Council is seen by the community at large.
It came down to the wire though, with repeated pushing by the selected council member Kathleen Taylor to turn over the former Record Street shelter to Bash Capital.
An initial motion by Duerr to override staff city plans was initially defeated though, leading to audible gasps. Then one by Taylor to go along with the agenda item, as is usually the case, was surprisingly also defeated.
It took Miguel Martinez, another selected and never elected council member, to reword and simplify Duerr’s motion to get to a yes.
Instead of accepting one of the Bash offers, Reno will now appraise the value of the decrepit former Community Assistance Center shelter and its 2-acre property and draft a Request for Proposal (RFP), allowing “any developer or group to submit proposals for the site, including Bash Capital,” according to the city’s wording.
The Bash duo Troy Keeney and Brianna Bullentini immediately expressed their displeasure. Their body language and the sighs from other developers who had come to speak on their behalf was telling that this was a council defeat they were not expecting.
Keeney is a recent 2018 UNR graduate with experience in commercial real estate, while Bullentini has been behind such local ventures as The Basement, Rawbry and West Elm, which lasted six years in downtown Reno’s former U.S. Post Office building.
Many of the developers and other 4th street business representatives spoke of the “problem” of having many unhoused in the area where they conduct their lines of work. That’s no fault of the CAC which is shut down and locked off now.
The unhoused are our neighbors as well, and many of them circulate between the Reno-Sparks Gospel Mission,St Vincent’s, the bus station and the Cares Campus, making this their principal part of town.
The cycle of gentrification often puts shelters in less than desirable locations, bringing prices down, and then having new and old business owners wanting them further away again when there’s a general economic upturn.
We emailed the Reno-Sparks Gospel Mission about their own thoughts on the future of the CAC but have not heard back.
Our Reporting This Week
Tara Webster, Running for Ward 5 and Seeking a "Transformative Community"
Future of Former Record Street Shelter Is Back on City's Agenda
Places of Reno: Peaceful Living in Spanish Springs
