Reno Cracking Down
Our top commented reporting across our channels this week was about Reno’s current police effort to make whips illegal to even possess in public. It seems some form of their proposal will be a certainty at some point, unless the social media backlash against it picks up. One commenter noted this was Last Week Tonight with John Oliver worthy. While questioned, the police representative at this week’s City Council marathon session did acknowledge that if anyone injured someone else with a whip battery charges could already apply. Don’t we also already have noise rules? We found this item within the"Nuisance Ordinance of the City of Reno": …Unreasonably creating, allowing, or engaging in any activity, conduct, or use of property that subjects a person or neighborhood to noise which is likely to disturb the peace of persons of reasonable and ordinary sensibilities …
Sure the whip cracking does startle. But so do seemingly much louder motorcycles, low riders and high riders. Are we specifically targeting them next? Highly unlikely. So why do we need a new ordinance? Some commenters suggested it would target just a dozen or so people in the entire city, most of them unhoused. A quick search doesn’t indicate any other whip bans in public spaces in any other municipality of the continental United States. There are lots of articles on banning whips during horse races. No horses are being injured in Reno though that we know of. In fact, has anyone ever been hospitalized due to a downtown whip person? Also, in terms of decibels, how do whips compare? The police representative dodged a question about comparing levels for different noises city residents are subjected to, going back to his talking point of “when the tip breaks the speed of sound.”
Sticking to the theme of gentrifying forces, our podcast episode this week continues our ongoing conversation about art and public spaces. Local author and intellectual Anthony Shafton says there’s always a risk art is being used to brand, market and homogenize downtowns to the benefit of developers, corporations and politicians election bankrolled by them and trying to lure more of them in. It’s a potentially dangerous dynamic worth thinking about.
As part of our #keeprenorad reporting, reporter Jayme Souza featured both one of the best nights in Reno, the now last of the month Wednesday night free communal bike ride, as well as plans for a rogue burn on the playa despite warnings from law enforcement, not to mention the still raging pandemic and terrible air quality. If it’s going to be rogue anyway, we say: be rogue!