25 Gifts Reno Could Give Itself Now to Become a More Caring Biggest Little City

#1 Giving people with current or recent lived local experience a seat on the Community Homelessness Advisory Board

#2 Having the Record street shelter operate as a warming center and an emergency spot for women and families in addition to Our Place 

#3 Keep Listening to Jon DeCarmine to make the Washoe County Cares Campus and safe camp better places, or better yet give the contracts to his teams to operate these

#4 Lining Truckee River paths with public trash cans, 24/7 toilets and showers

#5 Opening up more safe camps with pallet shelters 

#6 Starting a safe parking program with multiple, safe locations

#7 Starting more programs to pay the unsheltered with day contracts paid in cash to create art in different parts of town and to clean up riverways and downtown areas 

#8 Allowing granny pods in backyards

#9 Incentivizing micro housing initiatives and not of the luxury kind

#10 Ending sweetheart deals for big developers

#11 Fighting to save our alleys and public spaces 

#12 Beginning a guerrilla garden uprising in all the empty lots 

#13 Mapping public produce 

#14 Getting campaign finance reform in local elections 

#15 Incentivizing more local farms, backyard gardening projects and farmer’s markets.

#16 Shutting down parts of downtown for bikes and pedestrians on all weekends

#17 Adding bike parking areas as well as bike and scooter lanes across Reno

#18 Incentivizing the building and opening up of cheap hostels

#19 Helping existing motel owners improve conditions

#20 Funding, training and giving jobs to peer recovery specialists, social workers, drug counselors, mental health advocates and outreach specialists

#21 Removing hostile architecture and replacing it with green spaces and comfortable benches 

#22 Going chair bombing to add comfortable street furniture 

#23 Turning overpasses into wifi connected co-working community spaces 

#24 Turning empty downtown storefronts into public art spaces 

#25 Setting up tables in different parts of town for community conversations 

Our Town Reno Listicle, December 2021

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