What would people do if they had control over the old bus station (or for that matter the Lear Theater)?

A recap of our recent reporting plus bonus content.

Mar 28, 2025

All around activist and former Ward 1 candidate Lily Baran recently had an Instagram poll asking people ideas they would have for the old Citifare bus station space at Fourth and Center/University Way, where outside of it, nearly ten years ago, people used to hang out, meet up or sit for a chat, until the City decided to remove benches and placed spikes, jutting metal pieces and boulders inside planters, the very definition of hostile architecture.

Right now part of that structure currently has tacky winter Christmas type visuals painted on its windows, even though it’s nearly April.

A 2025 proposed City of Reno Property Plan has that address at 40 East Fourth Street in the hold category, with in its description “leased bond funded Downtown Reno Partnership Tenant Lease, expiring on June 2025.” A fact sheet from the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection said it was initially acquired as part of the ReTRAC project and sought for redevelopment as part of the ReImagine Reno Master Plan.

What if it was people on an Instagram poll imagining how it could be repurposed?

Answers were brilliant: an entertainment venue with local productions, a spot for exchanging tools or offering clothes and hygiene supplies, a small pay what you can grocery store, a city owned coop, an indoor playground, local artist studios, even a maker space for whips, which if you know you know.

To us, these great ideas could be applicable to the unused Lear Theater as well, even as future revival plans for that historic building are slowly being plotted.

Our previous proposals to speed up reusing that space as a community gathering spot were soundly repudiated by councilwoman Naomi Duerr, who basically called us simple minded.

Sure the city’s now proposed “high road” path takes time (it’s only been 20 years of disuse so why rush now?), requires paying different consultants huge sums, while promising a grandiose future, which would now cost an estimated $15 million minimum. An uncertain legislative funding effort is currently underway, but we aren’t holding our breath anymore.

Someone who was born in Reno, now in their adult years, has basically never gotten to experience its inside, just its majestic slowly tilting outside.

We still believe we could have a basic, quaint upkeep to make it a people’s gathering place for kids school shows or local comedy and theater.

Instead, our current city leadership seems to always strive for the expensive option that takes forever, geared for bougie, trend following, downtown fearing types, to whom most of these local city reactivation plans seem to be meant for, rather than for homegrown artists, musicians, skateboarders, performers, intellectuals, downtown residents, workers and dreamers who have given so much to this city, and who already inhabit neighboring spaces.

They seem to be increasingly priced out, while our elected officials do the bidding of developers who bankroll their campaigns while building bland apartments with luxury prices. It remains to be seen if those will fill. We’re also still waiting from the City to find out how much the Western Lights festival cost and who was paid for what and if it was really worth it for just a few days, rather than finding ways to always have more options to make downtown an accessible, communal attraction for and by locals who care for each other, rather than trying to further divide economic lines.