On what is money being spent locally?
Highlights of our weekly reporting plus bonus content.
Clearly the money sloshing around in these parts isn’t going towards the Community Assistance Center, in photo above.
If you read between the lines of recent City Council meetings, it seems highly likely the City of Reno now wants to sell this quickly going downhill compound it built just over 15 years ago for a reported $15 million, perhaps for parking for the Greater Nevada Field (which you can see in the background of above photo).
Advocates would like to see the City of Reno pay to get it back in shape so that it can be used as additional emergency and family shelter, with other nearby shelters often full and many other locals clearly unhoused, sleeping in encampments, hidden spots or vehicles, at the imminent risk of freezing to death. But it’s clear that after the Cares Campus was built with Covid money, Reno wanted to hand over homelessness related matters fully over to the County.
There’s only so much councilwoman Jenny Brekhus (who is seeking to have the future of the CAC discussed in detail in a future agenda item) can do with just one voice and one vote, with occasional help from Meghan Ebert, and sporadic support from Naomi Duerr, while the rest of the City Council is usually stacked up against her concerns.
Meanwhile, casino and development magnates keep making headlines with huge project ideas to create self-enclosed or tightly-delineated “entertainment districts,” with lots of money invested up front for hoped for future returns.
Rather than small is beautiful, scrappy local stores such as the Midtown experiment, which has had lots of turnover, and of late boujee fare and higher and higher prices, a trend for these newly invested Reno moguls is going back to catering to tourists, older residents, new residents and nearby visitors with money to spend, with gaudy, faux, inauthentic luxury to lure them in.
As for our existing Virginia street downtown corridor, City money is now being offered to match for any privately-funded facade improvements, while many properties sit vacant, but with a few new businesses trying to extend the Midtown vibe north of the Truckee river.
Our Reporting Highlights This Week
What's That Construction Project? Vintage at Washington Station
Reno Locals Dobby Sock Em's, Rolene Among Those Enjoying Roller Derby Post-Covid
Bonds Brought Together Through Dance at Art in Motion
