Reno officials are once again celebrating “public space activation” — a familiar phrase that has become City Hall shorthand for festivals, light installations, DJs, and pop-up events.
I wouldn’t say downtown’s pilot activation program failed, it brought over 90,000 people downtown in a single event season. And that doesn’t include legacy events like Artown or the Italian Festival etc. It helps retain downtown Reno residents, many of whom live downtown for very reason of being able to walk to events downtown. If you do some research on other redevelopment agencies across the country, placemaking is very much a portion of what they do.
It’s also important to know that the city council (When Jardon was on the council) tried twice to have the legislature pass a vacant land tax and vacant building tax only for it to be defeated by realtor lobbyists.
Most vacant downtown buildings ARE up to code, and the ones that aren’t are fined repeatedly, and they either just pay or ignore the fines. If they don’t pay the fines the City can put a lien on their property, but if they never intend on selling it, the liens are useless, and fall off after three years anyway.
The city can’t dictate what a downtown property owner does with their property. It can remain vacant for a decade and the city council is powerless to do anything except fine them if it isn’t up to code. The reno City attorney prevents council members from publicly calling out certain property owners about the state of their properties, which is why I am doing it on Downtownmakeover.
The same goes for vacant lots downtown.
There are some ideas circulating to increase those fines and change the definition of blight, but it still won’t change anything or force downtown property owners to split up the large spaces that no one wants to lease.
Also the whole point of expanding it is to allow MidTown and East 4th St to be able to gain access to assistance with events, which has nothing to do with downtown, which is why it’s called the DISTRICT pilot. Also did you go to any of the events? Because local businesses like Sierra Taphouse did indeed tell the city the events helped increase business for them. That was reported in our last RAAB meeting. Also if you went to Western Lights Festival then you know nearly every downtown restaurant and bar was packed with people.
Your critique has merit, Mike, but putting things into perspective, decimated city centers are a sad fact of life all over the USA, not just in Reno. Yes it's a damn shame, especially considering how beautiful (and fun) the downtown could be, considering the Riverwalk etc...The City Council aren't magicians and can't resuscitate the whole country single handedly.
In a perfect world, "someone" would create a vision, a map, an overall design, of what a revived city center would look/feel like and then (politely) strong arm a 1%-er to finance it. Taxpayers can't afford it. All of our attention has gone into technology and not infrastructure, and the tech bro's who so richly benefitted would be wise to step up, if only to mollify us unwashed rabble. This would require persistent persuasion, not protesting. Positive, not negative. Currently, for one example, China has sleek fast bullet trains galore (etc), while USA has decayed old clunkers. It would be shame to let Central Planning (CCP) represent what success looks like. Step up, tech bro's. If Guggenheims could do it so can you.
It is difficult to attract people to events taking place in an area of Reno that locals, by and large, view as being unpleasant to spend time in! This is incredibly-basic psychology, and it's urban planning 101, but the people who are in charge at City Hall do not live in the realm of reality: they live in a cocktail-hour lobbying universe, insulated from the unwashed masses, where all they ever hear are big promises by big fish with big checks to wave around if only you scratch their back first. Well, that and sycophantic flattery...
Past revitalization efforts have featured extensive analysis from outside urban planning firms who tried to tell City Hall in plain English that the problem Downtown Reno has is, first and foremost, one of image: dirty, unsafe, blight ridden, casinos on every other corner, poor walkability, crappy bike lanes, bad lighting, vacant buildings, low foot traffic except during weekend evenings, homelessness, trash not being picked up, people hammered or high in broad daylight, you name it.
Throw whatever events and hold whatever festivals you want, but none of that will change the fact that downtown has a perception problem that no amount of pop ups and gltizy PR is able to undo. You think the Abbi Agency hasn't tried? PR can't fix a city, but our politicians never got that memo. (Maybe it's because of all the time they spend socializing with people who make their living doing PR...)
All this hot air and all these hackneyed attempts at rehabilitating Downtown's image are just Council putting shade after shade of lipstick on a pig and then wondering why it never catches on.
They cannot accept that substantive, donor upsetting, era-upending changes to the fabric of our town are the only things that will lay the groundwork for the scale of revitalization they keep dreaming of (or, more accurately, being convinced of by those with something to gain).
I’ll add that as someone who lives close enough to walk to all of these events, it increased my quality of life significantly, and made downtown more enjoyable.
We really really need some state legislature changes for the local
Govt to really have some teeth. I’d like to see a modification of blight to include vacant buildings within a redevelopment district. Maybe it can be an overlay district with its own rules.
I’d love to see a vacant building tax AND a vacant land tax. Because when a property owner demolishes a building, they are rewarded by paying only the land property tax because they removed the ‘improvements’ to the property.
I'd like to see that land tax idea applied to the land that Jacobs is sitting on in West Reno. I pass by the vacant lots almost every day and keep waiting to see something constructed.
Amen to that. I recently did a video showcasing all of the vacant lots downtown and who owns them on my YouTube channel. There’s a lot of them! Pun intended
The City is simply controlled by developers, casinos and landlords.
On the one hand, when they WANT something - and what they WANT is millions and millions of TIF money, RDA favors, approvals for another fucking data center or monstrous mega-apartment complex - they roll out the glitzy Powerpoint presentations and carefully crafted PR statements. And of course, the campaign donations.
On the other hand, when the City says "clean up your shitty buildings" they roll out their phalanx of attorneys who say "you can't tell us what to do with our empty buildings. Fuck off."
The City of Reno doesn't have the balls to enforce action or compliance. Or the guts to say "NO! We're not doing shit for you any longer until you cease the lip service and put some of your millions into something that forces real, positive change in downtown."
I don't have "the solution." But the decades long status quo ain't it.....
I wouldn’t say downtown’s pilot activation program failed, it brought over 90,000 people downtown in a single event season. And that doesn’t include legacy events like Artown or the Italian Festival etc. It helps retain downtown Reno residents, many of whom live downtown for very reason of being able to walk to events downtown. If you do some research on other redevelopment agencies across the country, placemaking is very much a portion of what they do.
It’s also important to know that the city council (When Jardon was on the council) tried twice to have the legislature pass a vacant land tax and vacant building tax only for it to be defeated by realtor lobbyists.
Most vacant downtown buildings ARE up to code, and the ones that aren’t are fined repeatedly, and they either just pay or ignore the fines. If they don’t pay the fines the City can put a lien on their property, but if they never intend on selling it, the liens are useless, and fall off after three years anyway.
The city can’t dictate what a downtown property owner does with their property. It can remain vacant for a decade and the city council is powerless to do anything except fine them if it isn’t up to code. The reno City attorney prevents council members from publicly calling out certain property owners about the state of their properties, which is why I am doing it on Downtownmakeover.
The same goes for vacant lots downtown.
There are some ideas circulating to increase those fines and change the definition of blight, but it still won’t change anything or force downtown property owners to split up the large spaces that no one wants to lease.
Also the whole point of expanding it is to allow MidTown and East 4th St to be able to gain access to assistance with events, which has nothing to do with downtown, which is why it’s called the DISTRICT pilot. Also did you go to any of the events? Because local businesses like Sierra Taphouse did indeed tell the city the events helped increase business for them. That was reported in our last RAAB meeting. Also if you went to Western Lights Festival then you know nearly every downtown restaurant and bar was packed with people.
PS. Regetably, most of Reno's old buildings downtown probably need to be leveled.
Your critique has merit, Mike, but putting things into perspective, decimated city centers are a sad fact of life all over the USA, not just in Reno. Yes it's a damn shame, especially considering how beautiful (and fun) the downtown could be, considering the Riverwalk etc...The City Council aren't magicians and can't resuscitate the whole country single handedly.
In a perfect world, "someone" would create a vision, a map, an overall design, of what a revived city center would look/feel like and then (politely) strong arm a 1%-er to finance it. Taxpayers can't afford it. All of our attention has gone into technology and not infrastructure, and the tech bro's who so richly benefitted would be wise to step up, if only to mollify us unwashed rabble. This would require persistent persuasion, not protesting. Positive, not negative. Currently, for one example, China has sleek fast bullet trains galore (etc), while USA has decayed old clunkers. It would be shame to let Central Planning (CCP) represent what success looks like. Step up, tech bro's. If Guggenheims could do it so can you.
It is difficult to attract people to events taking place in an area of Reno that locals, by and large, view as being unpleasant to spend time in! This is incredibly-basic psychology, and it's urban planning 101, but the people who are in charge at City Hall do not live in the realm of reality: they live in a cocktail-hour lobbying universe, insulated from the unwashed masses, where all they ever hear are big promises by big fish with big checks to wave around if only you scratch their back first. Well, that and sycophantic flattery...
Past revitalization efforts have featured extensive analysis from outside urban planning firms who tried to tell City Hall in plain English that the problem Downtown Reno has is, first and foremost, one of image: dirty, unsafe, blight ridden, casinos on every other corner, poor walkability, crappy bike lanes, bad lighting, vacant buildings, low foot traffic except during weekend evenings, homelessness, trash not being picked up, people hammered or high in broad daylight, you name it.
Throw whatever events and hold whatever festivals you want, but none of that will change the fact that downtown has a perception problem that no amount of pop ups and gltizy PR is able to undo. You think the Abbi Agency hasn't tried? PR can't fix a city, but our politicians never got that memo. (Maybe it's because of all the time they spend socializing with people who make their living doing PR...)
All this hot air and all these hackneyed attempts at rehabilitating Downtown's image are just Council putting shade after shade of lipstick on a pig and then wondering why it never catches on.
They cannot accept that substantive, donor upsetting, era-upending changes to the fabric of our town are the only things that will lay the groundwork for the scale of revitalization they keep dreaming of (or, more accurately, being convinced of by those with something to gain).
I’ll add that as someone who lives close enough to walk to all of these events, it increased my quality of life significantly, and made downtown more enjoyable.
I live close enough as well. I've attended many of the events. They were fun. I'm not against the events. I'm trying to look at the bigger picture.
We really really need some state legislature changes for the local
Govt to really have some teeth. I’d like to see a modification of blight to include vacant buildings within a redevelopment district. Maybe it can be an overlay district with its own rules.
I’d love to see a vacant building tax AND a vacant land tax. Because when a property owner demolishes a building, they are rewarded by paying only the land property tax because they removed the ‘improvements’ to the property.
I'd like to see that land tax idea applied to the land that Jacobs is sitting on in West Reno. I pass by the vacant lots almost every day and keep waiting to see something constructed.
Amen to that. I recently did a video showcasing all of the vacant lots downtown and who owns them on my YouTube channel. There’s a lot of them! Pun intended
It's just exasperating.
The City is simply controlled by developers, casinos and landlords.
On the one hand, when they WANT something - and what they WANT is millions and millions of TIF money, RDA favors, approvals for another fucking data center or monstrous mega-apartment complex - they roll out the glitzy Powerpoint presentations and carefully crafted PR statements. And of course, the campaign donations.
On the other hand, when the City says "clean up your shitty buildings" they roll out their phalanx of attorneys who say "you can't tell us what to do with our empty buildings. Fuck off."
The City of Reno doesn't have the balls to enforce action or compliance. Or the guts to say "NO! We're not doing shit for you any longer until you cease the lip service and put some of your millions into something that forces real, positive change in downtown."
I don't have "the solution." But the decades long status quo ain't it.....