A Resident's Plea for Help for a Local Game Business Facing Imminent Extinction

I'm contacting you on behalf of a local small business, called Ironwood Games in Sparks. I do not own nor represent this business, but it has become a community hub for many people in the city. While it isn't exactly in Reno, what's happening to them is probably happening to many other properties and small businesses within the whole of the Reno/Sparks area-- and people who do live in Reno frequent it.

I have so far contacted my local assemblyman, and spoke over the phone to State Senator Julia Ratti. She suggested I file a complaint with the Reno/Sparks Chamber of Commerce, which I have (and received a form letter response already) and file a formal complaint with the State Attorney General Aaron Ford, which I have also done (no response on that front yet, but that's to be expected). One of our other community members has been continuing to reach out through their own contacts and your group came up, so I am reaching out to you while he is reaching out to local news stations and the [Reno] Gazette-Journal.

A screengrab from the Ironwood Games Facebook page.

Ironwood Games is a small business at 671 North McCarran, in Sparks, in the Iron Horse Shopping Center. They sell board games, card games, and supplies related to such. They also have an open play area where people can come in and just play games and socialize. They hold regular weekly events and are coming up on their third year of business. Their proprietor, Andrew Schaefer has been working there and as a substitute teacher with the Washoe County School district, sometimes, just to keep the business afloat. He was finally starting to turn a profit when the quarantine hit, along with the mandatory shutdown of non-essential businesses.

Now, his business is in jeopardy, as I imagine many others are, because of the practices of Colliers International of Reno. [Our Town Reno reached out to Colliers International of Reno to get their response about this situation, but did not hear back.]

Early in May, around the 3rd or 4th, he received a notice of default regarding his rent. Calling the manager on it, he was informed that Colliers wanted their money, in full. Pandemic or no pandemic. Open or not open. Directives or no directives. Of course, due to the Governor's Directive, [Note: Gov. Steve Sisolak has announced a moratorium on evictions for both residential and commercial tenants for the duration of the ongoing state of emergency] they can't presently, at least legally, file a notice of eviction or seize his business and assets, but it's clear that's what they intend to do as soon as they are able. As far as I know, those directives are likely to expire on May 12th unless otherwise extended. While I have talked, as I said, to local officials, and they were quick to say 'there are people working on problems like this' there were no specifics given.

A favorable Yelp review.

While that may work for some businesses, those like Andrew's are still very much in danger. He's already two months in debt, and while he is now allowed to open for curbside or delivery, he now has to come up with two months of expenses, as well as the one going forward-- for a total of three, just to stay in business. Without any assistance, it looks to him like it will be better for him financially to close the business and cut his losses now before he's on the hook for more.

He has tried to contact his insurance company-- but they have basically told him that they're not paying out for closures due to quarantine, and will not unless a state or federal agency forces them to.

”He has tried to get money through the CARES Act-- but while his application was processed, we know those funds are dry and it is uncertain as to whether or not there will be any sort of replenishment. It doesn't look like it…”

The reality is, reopening under the current strictures might alleviate some of his costs, but they won't come near covering them all. It doesn't make sense except maybe to pay down a little of the debt already owed and get out.

This is especially tragic because those of us who have frequented the store over the last two years have become much more than his customers. We are also his friends, and we are a community built by playing games and enjoying each other's company in a world where video games and distance had become a norm (now necessary, but not forever).

Colliers International has not tried to work any sort of plan together going forward with Andrew in order to keep him in business, and this seems especially short-sighted. If they are forcing these renters out, essentially, their own income will suffer long-term as the post-pandemic economy is not likely to be one that is kind to the prospect of opening up a new small business, especially not when the possibility of another shutdown still looms and a proven vaccine is not available. It seems to me, though in terms of business I am very much a member of the laity, that having some sort of income coming in from renters would be ideal, as opposed to empty storefronts generating no revenue at all.

I'm not sure what can be done, if anything. I'm not sure if your group has any sort of further agency in this regard aside from what I've already done myself. But I would ask, if not for the sake of Ironwood Games specifically, but for all businesses struggling under the weight of decisions like the one Andrew faces, if you can, to lend your support against lessors with practices like Colliers International of Reno. Perhaps lend your voice as an organization to the same agencies I have contacted.

In any respect, I thank you for your time and your consideration.

Signed, Morgan Faulkner

Letter Written in May 2020 and shared with Our Town Reno

A Reporter's Audio Diary on a New Deck of Cards for Reno

What’s the Real Story in Reno?

My name is Luke Keck, and for the last few months I’ve worked as a reporter for Our Town Reno.  I moved to Reno when I was 17 and fresh out of high school.  I’m 24 now, and I’m getting ready to finish grad school in the next few weeks.  I’ve spent seven years in the city, most of them around the University where I went to school, nestled in the suburban neighborhoods around Kings Row.  In summer 2019, I moved downtown, and the experience shocked me a little bit because I started to see how many people we’ve left behind as Reno grows and moves forward.

Everybody who lives in Reno knows the city is evolving, we’ve heard the speeches from politicians and developers about the new Reno we’re looking to build, and we’ve heard the talking points about housing inequality and homelessness and how it’s a problem that needs to be fixed.

And that’s the story we hear, but it’s not the real story.   The real stories aren’t told by numbers and statistics, they’re told by the people left without shelter in the shadows of luxury apartment buildings and giant offices, the people who can’t afford rent, the people who were put out on the street after the motel they lived in was torn down.

This photo was included as part of a series by Luke Keck on an empty Reno due to the COVID-19 shutdown.

How do We See the World Around Us?

The first story I wrote was about a homeless couple named Bill and Jaime.  They live in a tent by the railroad tracks, but they spend most of their time playing cards under the BELIEVE statue on the Truckee River.  

Jaime can’t work due to a disability, but Bill has a job. He makes just enough to make sure the two of them can eat and buy a few essentials, but he doesn’t make enough to afford an apartment in the city.  They’ve been on a list for a low-income apartment for over a year, he tells me, but every time they’ve asked about their status they’ve been told they’re nowhere near the top.

Working for Our Town Reno and meeting people like Bill and Jaime made me confront some harsh truths about my own way of seeing the world.  The more people I talked to on the streets, the more I saw how many of us are just one layoff or medical emergency away from being homeless ourselves.  I think it’s easy to put communities that are facing homelessness or poverty into a box, to say “Well if they just ‘Fill in the blank’ they wouldn’t be in this situation.”  It’s harder to realize that those people on the street corner or in a tent by the railroad tracks could very well be us.  I didn’t really realize that until I started working with Our Town Reno.

Reporting on Reno’s most vulnerable populations was tough at times, because I saw just how many people were stuck where they were, how many people were looking for ways to get back to work or find an apartment or even just find a meal for the day.  But what I also saw was how many people are helping, not because they’re paid to or because they think it makes them better people, but just because they care about their community.

Another story Luke Keck did was about community meals continuing despite the pandemic, which can be found here: http://www.ourtownreno.com/our-stories-1/2020/3/31/rise-still-helping-others-together-during-coronavirus-but-with-added-precautions

Staying Positive and Helping Out

For my final story, I interviewed Tabu McKnight, the owner of Tabu’s of Reno Barber Lounge.  With his shop shut down from the coronavirus pandemic, McKnight has no other option but to wait it out until things calm down and take on debt to stay afloat.  He was open with me about the anxiety and stress he was feeling, but what struck me was his positivity in light of all the challenges he was facing.

To me, people with attitudes like Tabu define Reno.  There’s no doubt the city has its struggles, but it’s a place full of people who keep pushing forward no matter what life throws at them.

I didn’t expect to write for Our Town Reno.  I didn’t plan to spend what will likely be my final months in Reno interviewing people without shelter, or small business owners who were struggling because the coronavirus closed their shops, or volunteers who made sure those in need could eat.  But I’m grateful that I did.

Reno’s most vulnerable people are just as much a part of this city as I am, and their voices deserve to be heard like everybody else.  Telling their stories was a privilege, and I would have never had the opportunity without Our Town Reno.

These last few months showed me how far our city still has to go when it comes to caring for our at-risk communities, but it also gave me the opportunity to see that despite how many problems Reno has, there are always people working to make it better.

Audio Diary by Luke Keck shared with Our Town Reno

Open or Closed? Mask or No Mask? Essential or Not Essential?

Just have some questions:

1. Last Sunday I was able to buy doughnuts by walking into the doughnut shop, with no mask.
a. I do not understand how doughnuts are essential, nor why I am allowed to walk in, mingle six feet from other customers, and not be wearing a mask. Isn't this putting elderly people at risk?

2. On 4/20 I was able to buy 10 tacos from a drive thru store.
a. I do not understand how tacos are essentials. Also, by not being at home wasn't I putting high risk people at a greater risk?

3. Yesterday, on my way to [a] home improvement store, I drove by [a] pet supplies store and saw full parking lot and people coming in and going out.
a. I do not understand why pet supplies are essential, nor why people could walk into the store. As I am often lectured to that we all need to stay at home so people do not die, are we not risking lives so animals can be saved at the expense of a child losing his father due to COVID-19?
b. Also do not understand why [a] large furniture store next to pet supply store was closed as it is non-essential. Don't I need furniture to live? Around the corner a electronic supply store was open, with curb pick up. Could I not pick up my furniture from the curb?

4. At the home improvement store, there were at least 100 persons in [the] store, with [a] line outside for more to get in. I saw people buying lots of lawn supplies, gardening tools, just as I was.
a. I do not understand how lawn and gardening supplies are essential and more important than the mother of five who has COVID-19 and in hospital.

5. Driving to and from my shopping trips, I observed that the car traffic on a Tuesday seemed to be more like a weekend. There were also mothers taking their babies for a stroll and lots of bike riders. Surely not all those drivers, mothers and bikers were going only to essential stores, getting what they needed and immediately going back home to self isolate.
a. I do not understand how so many people were out and about, with no spike in cases or deaths seem to occur with all this outside human activity.

6. I am now on my fourth day of being furloughed, and yesterday heard from our Governor that we are in "phase zero" of re-opening NV. For some reason that was not encouraging nor gave me a look at the path to recovery. I heard on radio that mayor of Elko wrote the Governor asking why his city can't be re-opened. The mayor made the point that hospitals in Elko are doing fine, not overwhelmed
a. I do not understand why the Gov. has such an all or nothing approach to the lockdown.
b. Is it too obvious to me that our Gov. should be aggressively looking at the parts of NV that can be opened up, such as Elko? Why is it all or nothing?

Our state leadership is failing us and is way over their heads in how to handle this pandemic. Do we really think these same elected officials who put us in this position will be able to see the economy through the near future? Will these officials be taking pay cuts or furloughs? They need to give us the information and let us, the citizens of Nevada make decisions about working and living our lives. Open up NV now!

Op-Ed by D. King shared via our Your Voice website form

Accountability and Homelessness, by Joyce Cowdin

Accountability, and does it have a place in the homeless conversation?

 During the last few weeks I have been reading quite a few posts centering around our homeless crisis, whether on Facebook or responding to stories by our local news affiliates.

 So far most of it has been pointing fingers, demonizing the opposition and of course blaming political parties.

 The one thing that no one seems to want to address is do we hold people accountable for their situation, or blame it all on a broken system.

 We all need to be held accountable for our actions, willing to at least in part accept responsibility for whatever choices we made that may have led us down that path.

What about Accountability and Safe Camping?

The other hot topic debated online has been safe camping spots. A great idea in theory, but a logistical nightmare to actually implement, with the lack of available land, funding and no definitive plan on how it would be structured.

Sure there are models that have been successful in other cities, but because of our unique demographics, [these] would not translate well here. As an example:The safe spots that were implemented in Eugene.

Even though they had the support of regional governments, including City and County, they lacked proper supervision, leaving control in the hands of the people using the properties. There were no outside agencies making sure that people were adhering to the rules and being held accountable for working towards more permanent housing, causing them to be shut down due to safety issues. 

Which poses the question of who if anybody would be overseeing the possible safe spots here.

Most agencies are already stretched thin as is from lack of funding. 

Attend Meetings, Find out about Existing Programs and Listen

 Finally, my advice to all interested parties is to start attending the Homeless Advisory Board meetings which have grown in attendance in the last few months.

It's a place to hear from those on the board as to what is being considered as well as a chance to offer solutions and be heard.

Also reach out to social service agencies and see how they are addressing the issue, such as the St. Vincent's Motel to Homes Program or the Salvation Army's sober living program.

 And keep having those conversations, but make sure you have all of the facts and remember the goal isn't to be the loudest voice in the room or you may just miss something important.

Citizen’s Forum Essay by Joyce Cowdin shared with Our Town Reno.

Who Does the City Council Work For? A Council Member Responds

Mr. Allen’s recent Op-Ed “Who Does the City Council Work For?” raises important points but oversimplifies the nature of both the problem and the solution.

I write in response as one member of the City Council and my views are purely my own. One of the things I have learned in the last year is that being on a deliberative body of people who have different ideas requires me to listen more and talk less. In addition, even though I want certain policies and ideas to come to fruition, I know that to make change we have to build coalitions. No one can solve these complex issues alone or in a vacuum.

Broadly, Mr. Allen has asked me to answer who I work for? Let me be abundantly clear, I work for the citizens of Reno -- all of them. I work for the ones who disagree with me. I work for people without regard to their economic situation, their religion, their sexuality, their gender identity, their immigration status, their party affiliation, race or ethnic identity. I work for residents, the unsheltered, and for developers. The subtext of Mr. Allen’s article is overly divisive and I don’t subscribe to that. Demonizing builders and developers will not improve our housing stock or stop people from wanting to move here. People who live and work here need places to live, eat, shop and recreate.

I observe also, that the Council can’t tell builders what to build (with very limited exceptions that are beyond my response) and what to charge. At best, in our current legal environment, we can encourage certain types of development – but we can’t make someone build if they don’t want to. Jacob’s Entertainment is investing 100’s of millions of dollars in Reno and I believe affordable housing is on the horizon from this group.

The Mayor’s 1000 homes in 120 days is not a “bust” for the folks who will be living in the 2500+ units that will be built! It is frustrating for folks to claim we “need to do something” but when we “do something” we aren’t doing what they think is the best solution.

Whether you believe it or not, national housing experts universally say that one of the solutions for our housing crisis is more housing starts. We should build more housing of every type. I hope (and I am working to make sure) that we attract builders who want to create affordable, low-income, mixed income projects. And, in fairness to the great work that has been done, we have much to be proud of including but not limited to Hope Springs Tiny Village, The Village on Sage Street, Willie J. Wynn Senior Affordable Housing Project, two Green Street projects in South and NW Reno, the Eddy House, NYEP, and Opportunity Village. There are more projects to be proud of and some that are not hyper-visible / tangible (i.e., rapid re-housing money, standing up a Tenants’ Advisory Board, funding legal clinics for tenants). We are working even if you don’t see it on a daily basis.

Safe Campground? I am all for it. But there are some who are opposed. We are working with regional stakeholders to see if this is a viable option. It probably won’t happen this winter. Nothing can be fast enough for unsheltered folks. Governments move tediously slow and I am frustrated by the pace; however, to find long term solutions we must build coalitions and involve all stakeholders.

Wages are admittedly stagnant nationally but there are limited things cities can do to address this critical issue. Our community was decimated during the last recession. Joblessness and foreclosures reached all-time highs.

Mr. Allen suggests that the City has sought to attract companies to Reno without adequately dealing with the indirect costs (housing, services, stagnant wages). This is really [a] State of Nevada issue. Reno has not “brought in big companies” as Mr. Allen’s piece suggests. The City indirectly supports companies who bring higher wages to Reno thru EDAWN but we have a very limited role in this type of economic development strategy. I understand from publicly available documents that the targeted average wage of new companies relocating to the area is approximately $26 an hour.

Response by Council Member Devon Reese Shared with Our Town Reno

Who Does the City Council Work For? An Op-Ed by Resident Mike Allen

(Note: The Opinions expressed in this op-ed are those of the writer, Reno resident Mike Allen, pictured in bottom right of the photo montage above. If you’d like to be featured in our Citizen’s Forum, please contact us via Facebook or our website Contact form.)

For Residents or Developers?

Does the city council work for those living and working in Reno or developers? Recently in the news we have heard of the hotel project at the former Park Lane Mall (https://www.parklanelife.com/), as well as a new project Westlook Resort Living Apartments (in west Reno) where there use to be an artist community.

This project will include: swimming pool and clubhouse with a communal kitchen area, leasing offices, pet spa, conference room, yoga room and fitness center. Most assuredly it will be unaffordable to many who work in or near the new apartments.

We also learned of a non gaming, non smoking hotel next to a church in downtown Reno. An out of state company came in and has been tearing down motels and houses to make room for sculptures, a parking lot, and possibly a neon district? The University is buying land and houses to expand, while the cost of an education is rising.

A recent protest on the streets of Reno, denouncing runaway rents.

Where is the New Affordable Housing and Safe Camping Ground?

The Mayor’s 1000 homes in 120 days is a bust. “Only one of the housing projects being proposed is truly affordable — all the others will be market rate,” city Revitalization Manager Aric Jensen was quoted as saying in an AP article in January. A hotel gets remodelled into an overpriced motel charging up to $1,000 or more for a 250 square foot studio. We have seen an apartment go from renting studios for about $600 to now costing $1,195 for a 301 square foot studio.

All across the city, rents are rising. One recent story online had this information: “A recent study by the National Low Income Housing Coalition says you'd need to make $18.26 an hour in Nevada to afford a two bedroom unit. You would have to work 89 hours a week making minimum wage.”

We have a city that is tearing down homeless camps for safety, yet they do not offer a safe camping zone. Members of our community have brought up the idea of safe camping zones for the homeless. Homeless, for a small fee, could legally camp and have services centrally located to help, but instead the city tears down camps leaving people without their few possessions or any shelter.

The city has brought in some big companies, but doesn’t make those same big companies build affordable housing for their employees. The city has also approved some new housing communities, but not everyone working in Reno can afford 300-thousand dollars or more for a house. They city has also refused to allow people to build in-law units that could be rented out.

So, I will ask again who does the city council work for? Do they work for people living and working in Reno, or do they work for companies moving here to take advantage of our tax laws?

Op-Ed by Mike Allen Shared with the Our Town Reno Citizen’s Forum

Chris Seaborn, From Portland to Hollywood to Reno, Hoping to Finish His Novel

A Supportive Mother and Unpredictable Father Led Him To Theater

Christian Seaborn leans back with a contemplative smile on his face. His winter overcoat is draped over the back of his chair while an Irish cap rests gently atop his head. A man of short stature, he never let that stop him from becoming a Hollywood actor, writer, and producer. 

But that’s not to say his life hasn’t come without hardship. In fact, Seaborn understands all too well the struggles of those that find themselves in a financial crisis, compounded by the lack of affordable housing in many cities across the country. He has felt first-hand the meaning of the word “betrayal,” particularly when it comes from the ones you love most.

Yet with a twinkle in his eye, he reminisces about how his love for acting got started when he was young.

Like many mothers, his was supportive of his passion for theater and the arts. Growing up in a house of looming conflict due to what he describes as his father’s unpredictable and violent mental illness, psychomotor epilepsy, Nora Seaborn recognized theater not only as Seaborn’s coping mechanism, but his escape as well.

“I started doing theater for a couple of reasons,” Seaborn said. “Looking back on it now, it was a way to be out of the house and away from that situation.”

One song in particular, Seaborn recalls, was his absolute favorite to sing and dance around the house as a child. “Hello, Dolly,” by Louis Armstrong, with its cheerful melody, rhythmic string sound, and its brass chorus never failed to lift his spirits. That goes without mentioning the distinct and authoritative voice of Louis Armstrong himself. Even today, Seaborn’s love for that song permeates with nothing but fond memories.

Growing up in Portland and Singing with Louis Armstrong

Growing up in Portland, Oregon, his family didn’t necessarily have much. Yet, that didn’t stop his mother from orchestrating opportunities for Seaborn to feed his budding passion for the arts. When Seaborn was eight years old in July of 1965, Louis Armstrong came to Portland for a free concert. Recognizing an opportunity, Nora took the young Seaborn to see Armstrong perform.

As any eight year old confronted by their idol would, Seaborn was bubbling with excitement at the opportunity to witness Armstrong play. The day of the show was a blistering 98 degrees and despite the heat at this point in Armstrong’s aging life, the famed musician played all of his popular hits throughout the show. When his performance concluded the crowd erupted in approval; that is, everyone except the eight year old Seaborn. Armstrong had teased “Hello, Dolly” at the start of the performance, but never played the song in its entirety. 

Seaborn’s disappointment, however, was short-lived as Armstrong soon came back on stage to perform “Hello, Dolly” as his encore. Seaborn was ecstatic.

Satisfied with the encore performance, the young Seaborn and his mother prepared to leave. But suddenly, Nora stopped and beckoned him to wait. She walked over and spoke to a young security guard near the backstage curtain, who then disappeared backstage. 

“I have no idea what cockamamie story she told him,” Seaborn laughs. “But [the security guard] comes back out two minutes later and motions me to come in. So pulling those curtains aside, there were these stairs in the back of the stage and here's Louis Armstrong sitting on the steps, still holding his trumpet from the show.” 

Louis Armstrong offered to play “Hello, Dolly” for the starstruck young Seaborn, but only on one condition: if Seaborn would sing the lyrics himself. Despite singing and dancing to the song for months at a time, Seaborn became tongue-tied and was unable to sing for Armstrong as he played the song for him. Even Armstrong’s banjo player soon joined in, playing his part to prod young Seaborn to sing. Yet, it wasn’t until about a third of the way through the song that Seaborn finally mustered his strength and started singing with his idol, forever solidifying his love for “Hello, Dolly.”

Another Hello Dolly Encounter

Although that wasn’t the end of the story for Seaborn and “Hello, Dolly.”

Two years later at ten years old, Seaborn learned of a Broadway Musical called Hello, Dolly, starring Ginger Rogers. It was coming to Portland and like any wishful young child, Seaborn begged his mother to take him. But due to their financial circumstances, his mother simply couldn’t afford tickets, leaving Seaborn dejected.

“So about a week passes and I get home from school and [my mother] goes, ‘There's something on your bed,’” Seaborn explained. “There was an envelope with a single ticket for the matinee performance.”

Once again, his mother had taken matters into her own hands to feed her son’s growing passions. The ticket didn’t come without stipulations, however, as Nora was still cautious of her son being downtown by himself at such a young age. So she gave Seaborn his ticket with explicit instructions: under no circumstances is he to talk to or follow any strangers anywhere, whatsoever. Seaborn agreed, not wanting to disappoint his mother.

On the day of the show, he was giddy with excitement as he took his seat beside the aisle. Before the performance started, however, something unusual happened. An usher approached Seaborn and invited him backstage to meet Ginger Rogers at the intermission, per Rogers’ request. Not intending to disobey his mother’s strict instructions not to talk to or follow any strangers, Seaborn declined. The same usher then returned at the intermission, giving Seaborn a handwritten from Rogers wishing him well.

“Now obviously my mother has set all this up,” Seaborn reflected, a lighthearted smile on his face. “So when I got home after the show she goes, ‘Well, how was the show? Anything special happen?’”

“I told her, ‘No, not really.’” Seaborn said. “‘But an usher asked me to go back and meet Ginger Rogers. But I told him my mother said don't go anywhere with any strangers.’ She was like, ‘Oh God, I'm never telling you anything again for the rest of your life!’”

Seaborn soon got involved in theater himself, acting and performing in professional plays in Portland. Acting had not only become his passion, but continued to foster his escape from a troubled life at home. By the time he graduated high school, he had a resume of nearly 25 productions. Then after a brief stint at the University of Portland, he decided it was time to move to Los Angeles to try and make a name for himself there. 

Getting a Shot with Rhoda

Yet soon after arriving, he realized that any young actor trying to make it in Hollywood needs two things: a Screen Actors Guild Membership and an agent. Seaborn consequently found himself in the office of Freida Granite, who at that point had been an agent in Hollywood for nearly 50 years. Upon entering the room, however, Granite immediately dismissed Seaborn as unsuitable for an acting career. 

“And I said ‘Excuse me,’” Seaborn explained. “‘You don’t even know anything about me or anything I've ever done.’ She listened to my spiel for about two minutes and then goes, ‘Damn, you've got gumption. Okay, I'll sign you.’”

Just like that, Seaborn had an agent in Hollywood. Granite got him a job delivering resumes and casting submissions to all the directors in town. It was a way for him to meet all the prominent directors without being too forward. The first delivery he made was to Lori Openden, who at the time was a casting director with Mary Tyler Moore Entertainment’s (MTM), show Rhoda. 

“[Openden] tells me, “You have a really unique look about you,’” Seaborn said. “A lot of people have told me because of my size I’m very unique or memorable. But I never considered myself [unique] in that way.”

So Seaborn sought additional means to ensure all the casting directors he was meeting would remember him. As an avid Charlie Brown fan, he started sending Peanuts-themed Hallmark cards to casting directors at every holiday. Then in early January of 1977, he received a call from Openden, the first casting director he had met. 

“She called me and goes, ‘Are you interested in being on an episode of Rhoda? It's what we call a featured part so there's no dialogue, but it will get you a Screen Actors Guild Card.’” Seaborn explained. “I agreed and then she says, ‘There is a hitch: Do not ever send me any more Peanuts cards for any more holidays.’”

The Peanuts holiday card strategy had finally served its purpose, so Seaborn scratched Openden’s name off his card list. 

The scene Seaborn was to be featured for was as the main character Rhoda’s prom date. Valerie Harper, the actress who played the role of Rhoda, was significantly taller than Seaborn dressed in his 1950s-era cumberbun and tuxedo costume. Yet, they filmed a dancing scene together, the contrast in height providing a moment of comic relief for everyone at the shoot. A technician at the scene was particularly amused, grabbing a Polaroid camera to document the two of them in-costume together after the shoot. When Seaborn finished his scene, he simply got out of costume and returned home. The scene aired in an episode a month later and that was it for Seaborn, or so he thought.

Getting a Break with WKRP Show but Setbacks Begin

By now Openden had taken a particular interest in finding Seaborn work as an actor, forming a professional relationship that isn’t necessarily commonplace in Hollywood. She offered him a role as a rehearsal “stand-in” for a ten-year-old character on the show WKRP, a popular sit-com on CBS from 1978-82. Initially Seaborn was reluctant to take it, recognizing that people of his short stature can get pigeon-hold solely into stand-in roles. But Openden encouraged him to take the role seriously, as the stand-in role was an opportunity for him to showcase to the directors his ability to act.

So that’s what he did. As Seaborn performed his stand-in role throughout the rehearsals, it didn’t take long for people to take notice. Fellow actors on the show began approaching him, telling him that Hugh Wilson, creator and executive producer of the WKRP series, had even taken notice of Seaborn’s ability. As the shoot for the final episodes of the 1978 season wrapped, Wilson himself finally approached Seaborn, offering to write-in a full-time role for him as a character in the series. Seaborn agreed immediately.

A few months later when it was announced that WKRP was picked up for another season on CBS, Seaborn sent a note to Wilson both congratulating him. The note also, however, was meant to serve as a subtle reminder of Wilson’s offer at the end of the last season. Three weeks later Seaborn was called in to provide input for the character they were writing into the show for him, a rare opportunity in Hollywood.

Then at the script-reading a few weeks later, something unusual happened. In the middle of the script-reading, a technician called out from the rafters of the studio, interrupting the reading when he saw Seaborn. Rushing down the rafters to the table, he presented Seaborn the Polaroid picture of him and Valerie Harper from the set on Rhoda a few years prior. 

Looking back now, Seaborn isn’t surprised something like that would happen at Mary Tyler Moore Entertainment. 

“Pretty much anybody who was on MTM shows or was connected with that company was really special,” Seaborn said. “Because Mary Tyler Moore and her then-husband Grant Tinker set that bar of hiring people they wanted around. They wanted it to be a family atmosphere and they strove to make that happen.”

Things were going well for Seaborn up until that point when in 1981, disaster first struck. His paternal grandmother had passed away. Seaborn wasn’t necessarily close with his grandmother, but in passing she had left an estate and trust fund designated in name to Seaborn’s mother, Nora, due to the unpredictable nature of his father’s illness. As part of the trust bestowed to his family were four valuable rings, three of which that had been appraised at $1500. Yet the bank was reluctant to give up the rings despite his family’s entitlement to it.

Coincidentally, at the same time the Screen Actors’ Guild strike and Emmy-award boycott started. When the strike first started, executive producer of WKRP Hugh Wilson had contacted Seaborn (despite union strike restrictions) to tell him that once the strike was over, they would be continuing his character’s role in the series. 

But finding himself unemployed in the meantime, Seaborn was in desperate need of money. So he threatened the bank with a lawsuit to exercise his right to entitlement of the rings. 

Family Inheritance Problems and Going MIA

It was also at this time Seaborn was first confronted with the publicity of being a Hollywood actor. Before the beginning of the trial, the judge addressed Seaborn directly, “Before we get started, I just want to make it clear that I thought you were very good on television last night.”

Eventually, the bank finally conceded at the trial, requesting that all the beneficiaries of the trust to come to Seattle where the rings were being held so they could close the trust and receive the rings. So Seaborn, his brother Charles, his mother, and father went to Seattle to finalize the deal. But due to his father’s psychomotor epilepsy, it was understood within the Seaborn family that his mother Nora would speak for his father on official matters, particularly given her additional background as a lawyer. 

Seaborn had spent the last of his money getting up to Seattle from LA for the deal. Before arriving, he had come to a mutual agreement with his mother and brother that they would divide the rings evenly among themselves. Seaborn intended to appraise and sell his ring to a dealer in Seattle, so he could have enough money to get back to LA and survive until the end of the strike until WKRP could start up again. But after the trust was closed and his brother Charles took possession of the rings, the family deal was suddenly off. Unbeknownst to Seaborn, his mother had instructed Charles not to give Seaborn his ring to ensure that under no circumstances the rings would be sold.

“I had a nervous breakdown,” Seaborn said of the betrayal. “I just never saw that coming from these two people that I survived my dad's illness and attacks with. I trusted them.”

Consequently, Seaborn returned to Portland with his family and became stuck there, unable to get back to LA. He got a job working for a local cable company, writing and producing commercials for them. It wasn’t until three years later, in 1984, that he had finally saved up enough money to make it back to LA. When he arrived, he found out that his apartment and everything in it had been sold at a Sheriff’s auction in the years he had been away. 

Luckily, though, he still had a phone book with the names and numbers of the people he had worked with at WKRP, even though the show had by then gone off the air. So he called up one of the show’s writers, Dan Guntzelman, to meet him for a cup of coffee. 

“[Guntzelman] goes to me, ‘Where the hell have you been?’” Seaborn explained. “‘In October and November of 1981 we spent weeks looking for you. We had six more episodes written for [your] character and nobody had any idea where you were.”

Having a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity squandered, Seaborn became further devastated by his family’s betrayal over the rings. For while he was stranded in Portland for all those years, he missed WKRP’s return to production after the strike ended.

To make matters worse, by then Mary Tyler Moore Entertainment shut down and shuttered its doors, coinciding with the divorce of Mary Tyler Moore and Grant Tinker. Tinker went on to become Chairman and CEO of NBC Entertainment, taking Seaborn’s agent Lori Openden with him as the Senior Vice President of Talent, a position she would hold for the next 17 years. 

“I think it's a good prospect that based on the personal interest [Openden] had taken in my career, that I probably would have had some work on a few NBC shows during that period,” Seaborn reflected. 

Moving to Reno in the Late 1980s

By Thanksgiving week in 1987, Seaborn had moved to Reno, Nevada. He was working as a banquet set person at The Nugget and battling bouts of depression, stemming from his family’s betrayal and the subsequent missed opportunities in Hollywood. Eventually, his fight with depression ended him up in Nevada Mental Health Institute.

“Are you familiar with the movie One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest?” Seaborn asked. “This facility looked very much like something right out of that. I had never been around a mental health facility before, but this was not a good introduction to those.”

In order to get released from Nevada Mental Health, however, a patient must receive clearance from the facility’s only doctor. But to exacerbate the situation, when Seaborn went to the doctor’s office, he found half-filled cardboard boxes stacked and scattered across the floor. The facility’s only doctor had just resigned; and Seaborn was told it may take well into the following year before they get another one.

“I'm not crazy, I was just depressed,” Seaborn explained. “So I got on the phone with my mother and said, ‘You caused this problem in 1981, you’re a lawyer so figure a way to get me out of here.’”

When Nora utilized her law connections, Seaborn’s circumstances made it all the way to the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Nevada, who in turn contacted the director of Nevada Mental Health. They agreed to release Seaborn, but only if a family member would pick him up. His brother Charles, in New Mexico for the holiday, then came to pick him up on Thanksgiving Day, a holiday that Seaborn consequently has never enjoyed since.

It was at this point, however, that Seaborn’s relationship with the city of Reno really began. In particular, a local psychologist named Martha Nims took a measured interest in Seaborn’s well-being. Although she was in her seventies and semi-retired at the time, she agreed to continue meeting with Seaborn even after his medical insurance no longer covered it. She became someone Seaborn could rely on when he needed her, no matter the time of day or night. 

Back to Acting in the Theater and Commercials

Throughout the 1990s, Seaborn began his return to theater. The Reno Little Theater at the time was putting on a production called Wild Oats. Although he was initially seeking only to volunteer with the production staff, Seaborn ended up having a part in the performance itself. Nims also made a particular effort to support Seaborn’s return to acting, encouraging him to apply for paid positions. Encouraged, Seaborn landed a job with Channel Two’s morning show, a job he held for the next six months. 

“In Martha's head, all of it was [about] rebuilding my confidence,” Seaborn said. “I didn't really see it [that way] at the time, but I can see it now looking back because I then decided I was going to go back to LA.”

When he eventually moved back to LA in the early 2000s, Seaborn came in contact with an agent that found a potential acting gig for him in a commercial series. Recognizing the financial benefits of a commercial series, Seaborn jumped at the opportunity. The audition for the role came with one stipulation, however, in that Seaborn needed to have a passport. Although he didn’t one at the time, he knew that when an opportunity in this industry presents itself you must do whatever you can to make it happen. So when he received a call-back days after the audition, he found out he was selected for the part and was needed in London, England by the following week to shoot.  

“When they say series of commercials, that immediately means lots of money because it's paid on residuals of how many times [the commercial] airs,” Seaborn explained. “But the timing of all this was like right after 9-11, so I had to go down to the federal building [to get a passport] where they were on a high state of alert for everybody.”

Despite the challenges, Seaborn managed to get a passport and made it to London in time to shoot four commercials selling a frozen pizza product as a waiter. The directors were pleased with how it went and wanted Seaborn to return a few months later to be photographed for billboard advertisements for the product, as well as shoot thirteen additional commercials that had already been written. Unfortunately for Seaborn, however, politics soon got in the way.

“[The directors] told me that America was not very popular in Britain at that point because President Bush was trying to wrap Britain up into sending troops to the Middle East,” Seaborn said. “And they said, ‘We just don't want an American promoting a product right now.’”

Since then, Seaborn has continued his involvement with acting, even being featured in a Super Bowl commercial for Subway a couple of years ago. Every few months, he has served as a writer for the United States Bowling Congress, a job that recently sent him to Wichita, Kansas and may send him to Las Vegas sometime this year. Currently, Seaborn is contemplating a return to Hollywood after he completes a novel he is working on. But he’s not in a particular rush to get there, understanding the difficulty of making it big in Hollywood. 

“Forty percent of being a successful actor is based on talent,” Seaborn said. “Another forty percent is based on who you know and the final twenty percent is just based on dumb luck of being in the right place at the right time. So if one really wants to go [to Hollywood] for the big time, then one should have no delusions about how it works.”

So what ever happened to the rings his mother kept from him?

In 1982, Nora Seaborn fell ill with emphysema and meningitis, an illness she battled for the next ten years. When she checked into the hospital for what would be the final time, in 1992, she had made clear to everyone on the hospital staff that she wanted to see Seaborn. After some prodding from his father and brother, Seaborn decided to visit her on her 76th birthday. While on her deathbed, she apologized for not giving Seaborn his ring like they had originally agreed, confessing she didn’t know what made her do it. At the time, Seaborn didn’t have any ideas either why she would’ve kept a ring from him. But looking back now, the best he can do is speculate. 

“My mother was a teenager during the Great Depression,” Seaborn explained. “There was a Recession going on in 1981 [at the same time they closed the trust and received the rings], so I think she was afraid that having experienced the Great Depression that when we have things of value we need to hold on to them.”

Seaborn knew, however, that his mother’s death would not mend the broken relationship between him and his brother, Charles. In his mind, there was no way that he was going to put himself in a situation where he has to deal with his brother over the ownership of the four rings.

“So I stormed into [my mother’s] house and went up the stairs with one mission: find the rings and take all four of them,” Seaborn said. “She would not tell me [where the rings were]. So I literally tore the room apart, pulling out drawers and dumping contents on the floor. Finally, I found them in a little brown jewelry bag, scotch-taped to the back of the drawer.”

Seaborn then sold all four rings for a fraction of what they were worth. The way he saw it, it was too late to save his life with the money to be made from them, so his only real goal was that his brother would never have any of them. 

https://www.montereyherald.com/2013/05/07/convicted-felon-charles-seaborn-now-a-fugitive-reportedly-seen-in-monterey/

A Brother’s Downfall and Dealing with his own Housing Problems

A successful marine biologist and underwater photographer in his own right, Charles had felt that since their mother protected him and Seaborn from their father’s violence all those years they were growing up, that if Nora wanted to keep the rings, she deserved to. So at the time of the initial jewelry exchange, he had defended his mother’s decision to withhold a ring from Seaborn. 

Yet as time went on and despite all his career success, Charles became a closet alcoholic. In 2007, he was convicted and imprisoned for vehicular manslaughter after striking and killing a bicyclist while driving drunk. Sentenced to five years, he served 27 months before being released on parole in 2011. Then on New Years Eve of 2012, he was pulled over on suspicion of drunk-driving and since he violated his parole, was charged with felonious drunk-driving. When he failed to appear at court, a search warrant went out for his arrest. 

Around this time Seaborn, after a brief stint of homelessness, had found a place living at Carvel Park Apartments in Reno. When the Reno Police came knocking on his door, guns drawn searching for his fugitive brother, Seaborn didn’t appreciate the intrusion. A few weeks later, he received a call from the California bondsman working on his brother’s case. They had found Charles’s cell phone next to body parts in the water in San Francisco and asked if Seaborn was willing to do a DNA test to confirm the body was Charles’s.

“I said ‘No,’” Seaborn said. “Because my brother died for me in 1981.”

It was assumed and thus declared that the body parts found with the cell phone were Charles’s, but to this day no one knows for sure.

Sitting where he is in Reno today, despite the difficulties and struggles his own life has brought him, Seaborn understands the plight of the area’s homeless. Growing up in a household with a violent father, young Seaborn would escape his father’s violent episodes with his mother and brother by staying in area motels. When he struggled to find housing in Reno ten years ago, he used to be able to find a hotel for $80-$90 a night. Today, to exacerbate the fact that many of Reno’s motels are being knocked down, many of the same ones he used to stay at are now going for at least $300 a night. If his family had to escape his father’s violence today, staying at motels likely would not have been a possibility.

“This is what really saddens me because I know firsthand that when my brother and I were children, we spent time living out of motels while we ran away from him to survive,” Seaborn said. “So I understand the mother who's trying to make ends meet, living in a motel with her two kids or whatever, but there's got to be a way to make situations better for those people because kids should not be brought up living in and out of motels.”

Seaborn is confident, however, that Reno Mayor Hillary Schieve has the city’s best intentions at heart. 

Working on His Novel Believe

In the meantime, he’s focusing on his current goal of writing his fiction novel, Believe. The story is about a boy’s internal struggles with survivor’s guilt after he and his father are involved in a car accident, during which the father is killed saving his son’s life. The story is set in Reno, Nevada, a city that now holds a special place in Seaborn’s heart.

“I appreciate Reno because it turned out to be a really good, supportive community for me,” Seaborn said. “So that’s why I decided to set this story in Reno. I know it well.”

So today you may find Seaborn in the Downtown Reno Public Library working on his novel. It’s a story he hopes will inspire others going through difficult times, much like the ones he had to endure himself. 

“[It might] sound really egotistical that I'm hoping to inspire somebody else, but that’s the goal,” Seaborn said. “Theoretically, it's supposed to be inspiring that this kid figures out a way to survive after this tragedy that he blames himself for. So I hope it will be an inspiring story.”

Seaborn’s inspiration for the novel was to find a way to give back to the city that has given him so much, particularly at some of the most difficult times of his life. The way he sees it, it’s the least he can do.

He hopes to have the novel finished by the end of this year. 

Share Your Story reporting by Scott King for Our Town Reno

Missing Documents and a House's Resistance in Question

The Little House that Could or Couldn’t Anymore?

At one point, while we looked into the media and City Council fawned over Jacobs Entertainment expansion in downtown Reno, we noticed an Instagram post heralding the continued existence of a little house, in the middle of now bulldozed motels turned into parking lots or staging grounds for possibly out of place Burning Man art.

“Giant shout out to the owner of this cute Lil gal, one of the last remaining actual houses in downtown. 7 motels torn down around it. It now stands completely alone,” the Instagram post cheered on to the resistance. “The owner is asking 5 million, refuses to negotiate, the demolition guy working next door said. Pretty hilarious stuff. It's for lease, too. If I had a shotgun and a rocking chair i'd take it. Stay off my lawn, Jacobs Bullshit Gentrification Co….” it went on, none of which we could verify ourselves.

With the help of an in town activist who knows his way around public information websites, a few months ago, though, we saw that there was an official letter with an option to sell the “cute lil’ gal” to a Jacobs Entertainment related company called Reno Property Manager LLC. Several days ago, wanting to reinvestigate the matter, we found the document listing the option to sell was no longer on the Washoe County Assessor’s Office website.

We called someone in the office who said it’s unheard of for a document to be on the website and then removed. There are mysteries from time to time. What is this one about?

Our Town Reno gets criticized for our style of reporting which includes citizen’s contributions, giving voice to just one person who is struggling as the basis of a micro story, pointing to signs or trends we find worrisome, or taking a picture and asking people what they think of it. This is also crowdsourcing, as people collectively usually know much more than any single reporter would. It’s also raising potential problems in our community, and sometimes not knowing the answer, but at least indicating to others something fishy might be taking place.

Comment collected from Instagram with original photography and research by the Our Town Reno reporting team

Landlords, This is What Happens When the Rent is Too High

Let’s Do the Math

Landlords, this is what happens when rent is too high. This could happen to anyone, and it could very well be the homeowners’ greediness that causes all this havoc.

Okay, let’s set the scene. You’re a single parent with a child. You work full time for $14 [an hour]. You bring home roughly $800 per paycheck. Your bills: $1000 rent, $150 water/sewer, $250 car payment, $150 car insurance.

So let’s do the math. You bring home about $1600 a month and your bills average about $1550, give or take. You’re making it, but barely. (This doesn't even include groceries, internet, cable, cell phone, etc; nor does it include child support).

Now, it’s a really cold December and you get a power bill for $600. (* because you, Slum Lord, will not winterize this house*) How do you pay that? To put it simply, you don’t. Because you can’t. So your power gets shut off. But you know what your lease says? It says you get evicted if your utilities are terminated. So now you’re in court, crying to a judge who doesn’t care, and you have 10 days to get out.

Well, you’re in luck! Because you found somewhere with three days to spare and it’s only $650 a month! But to get in, you have to pass a background and credit check. Which you can’t, because you just got evicted. You’ve never been a criminal, but even if you could pass it, you’re looking at $2300 to move in, after paying the deposit and first month’s rent.

Illustration of a recent Our Town Reno photo in downtown Reno.

Living in Your Car and then Losing Your Child and Your Job

Time’s up! Landlord shows up at 7 am with the police and changed your locks. So now you’re living in your car with your seven year old daughter and everything you need to get by. You tried to get a storage unit, but you don’t have a billing address so they won’t sell one to you, so you could only take what would fit in your backseat.

You pay to shower at local truck stops and eat whatever can be cooked in a gas station microwave. Someone sees you and your daughter living like this and calls CPS; guess what happens next? They remove your child from your care. As if this isn’t devastating enough, you lose your job too, because “an employee losing their child reflects poorly on this company.”

So now, you apply for an apartment with the region, where the waiting list is three to seven years. Then you go into Walmart to put in an application. When you get back to your car, you see that your back window has been smashed and someone helped themselves to your belongings. Remember that it is December, and really cold, and now you have damage to your only shelter. You call your car insurance, who says your deductible is $1,000 AND they’re going to increase your monthly rate since you’re now “high risk.” You call the homeless shelter as a last resort.....and all their beds are full.

An illustration of an Our Town Reno photo from 4th street.

Do you get the point?

I’ll stop here, because I think you get the point. The people we work with everyday are these people. WE ARE THESE PEOPLE. We are all so close to homelessness and don’t even realize it. All it takes is one unexpected bill, one fender bender, one lay-off, one house fire, etc.

Instead of talking trash about people who are poor or homeless or need assistance, why don’t you try being thankful that you’re not in their shoes... yet.

This is about staying humble and being kind. BE THANKFUL FOR WHAT YOU HAVE❤

Essay by Monica Mo Plummer shared via Facebook

Why I Wrestle to Help Fight Local Hunger, by Christopher Torres

Following My Own Dreams But Knowing Sadly Others Can’t

My name is Christopher Torres. I am a professional wrestler who made their debut in April of 2019. In juggling training and finding shows that will graciously book me, I’m also a student at the University of Nevada, Reno studying philosophy and journalism.

As we all prepare for the upcoming year of 2020, we’re left to consider what the next step for ourselves are. These are the goals we’ll hopefully achieve, what merits will be met and other imaginations of what could be. For myself, it’s completing my degree, continuing within academia for a second degree all the while attempting to fulfill a dream of titling myself as a successful independent professional wrestler.

The luxury of following a dream, meeting goals and aiming for higher are not shared by all. Cannot be.

In a report conducted by the Department of Housing and Urban Development for 2018, 7,544 individuals reported experiencing homelessness. 2,000 youth in Washoe County reported having experienced homelessness.

Worse yet, Nevada ranks first in the nation for unaccompanied homeless youth. Youth and the houseless community not only within Nevada, but across the United States aren’t given the chance to dream for the faraway future when their concern is finding somewhere to sleep for the night.

Truckee Meadows Tomorrow, a non-profit organization that tracks the quality of life across the Truckee Meadows found that in 2019, 12% of the Washoe County population is in food insecurity. Food insecurity is defined as the inability to feed oneself and/or not knowing when your next meal will be. The Food Bank of Northern Nevada aids in remedying the situation of food insecurity, feeding more than 91,000 people in Northern Nevada, according to their website.

Christopher Torres puts Bruno Baretta in a kneeling key lock submission hold with a crowd watching. Bruno’s tag team partner, Thick Martel, watches from opposing corner. On Nov. 23, Torres will be putting his wrestling skills to benefit helping those in need. Photo courtesy of Victor Jones.

It Takes a Community to Survive

The Food Bank doesn’t operate alone. It takes in donations – money and food are both accepted – as well as accepting help in the forms of volunteering, becoming a partner of the Food Bank and hosting your own event to raise awareness, money and collect food.

That brings the focus then to Headlock on Hunger. Now in its fourth year, Headlock on Hunger is a yearly campaign effort during the months of September to December to not only raise awareness of the issues of homelessness and food insecurity within Washoe County, but to also make efforts to change the situation. 

On Nov. 23, Headlock on Hunger will reach its apex moment for 2019 with an all-ages professional wrestling event to make one large last push for ticket sales, where all proceeds go towards the Food Bank of Northern Nevada.

I have been privileged to not have experienced homelessness or food insecurity in its most extreme form. But the means to achieve this end were reached through hardship no individual or family should be forced to endure, even on a small scale. 

The total amount of barrels that were sent to the Food Bank of Northern Nevada at the conclusion of the 2016 Headlock on Hunger campaign — 48 barrels in total. Photo courtesy of Cory Dayton.

My Own Family Getting Support from the Food Bank

My mother works two full-time jobs. I work a part-time job, but must soon transition to a full-time position. Not to support only myself and lofty dreams, but a household in an area that is continuously facing the continuing trend of gentrification that forces individuals and families to make the decision between buying groceries or paying an ever-rising rent.

My family, immediate and extended, have gone to the Food Bank of Northern Nevada for support. While being privileged enough to not require their support as often as others, they were there when the forces of economic disparity coerced my family to make the choice between rent and food.

The average rent in Reno/Sparks is above $1300 for apartments.

According to a November salary report, “ZipRecruiter is seeing annual salaries as high as $124,001 and as low as $19,479, the majority of salaries within the Average jobs category currently range between $48,460 (25th percentile) to $70,789 (75th percentile) in Reno, NV.”

There exists a large disconnect of what statistics will say of Reno’s economic boom and what the reality is for citizens throughout the overall Northern Nevada area.

The reason I take part in Headlock on Hunger is not for the sake of being on a show to bolster my hopeful career as a professional wrestler, but to do my part in combatting nationwide hunger, starting at home in Reno.

First Person Essay by Christopher Torres shared with Our Town Reno

What's a Poor Boy To Do? An Essay on the Extinction of Weeklies

Driving By Motels and Empty Lots

Motels in Reno, also known as “weeklies,” are going away. Many have already left. They are being replaced by one thing or another, and sometimes little or nothing.

They have been drive-bys for many for such a long time now, for those who drive, have cars,  and places to go. The assumptions and assertions abound. “Blight,” demonized managers, recalcitrant owners, the unhoused who ‘just won’t get busy making their lives and ours better.’ Eyesores all; ‘good riddance,’ we say. We keep driving by on our ways home.

But we are noticing now, if not the weeklies’ declining presence then their eventual gaping absence. What’s happening, we wonder; is something new coming, someone investing, something changing?. We can take solace in imagining something new, clean, glimmering in the sun light of bright Nevada skies. And the ‘happy, shiny people’ who will be there. But for those who depend on the weeklies for a few days of indoor living, a shower, a real bed, until the money runs out again, the options just get fewer and farther away. And as long as the thinking is us/them, these trends will continue.

A Last Step or First Step out of Homelessness?

Last summer, I got to hear an Our Town Reno coordinator talk about housing in and around Reno. He told us that, even while most think of the weeklies as a last step before homelessness, few recognize that they are also often a first step out of it. I have been wrestling with a too strong sense of privileged dualistic thinking. The city and its representatives pose on backhoes and bulldozers while inspectors and ambassadors actuate our collective disdain for disrepair and those who inhabit the weeklies. Tax dollars have gone to build and maintain a number of resources designed to aid, support, and improve the lives of the unhoused and the minimally-housed. We have to face the reality that the problem isn’t those places or those people. It’s that the weeklies remind us, I hope, of how vulnerable we all can be, of how good so many of us have it. The weeklies aren’t the problem; it’s what they remind us of. The unhoused aren’t them. They’re us. Dualisms.

Do Our Weeklies Have Value?

The Nevada Museum of Art gift shop is a favorite stop for me. Among the wonderful, beautiful things they have, I was taken deep into nostalgia by a wooden toy station wagon, reminding me of our three family vacations, my having “the way-back” all to myself, and the exhaust fumes that made me car sick each trip.

As I reminisced, I noticed another option among the toys: the “Lone Cactus Motel.” Just as I was reminiscing about the station wagons, the Lone Cactus reminded me of a motor court we stayed in on one vacation trip. I suspect that my dad liked to leave home at about bedtime because it would ensure that no time was wasted and, more importantly, increase the chances of quiet. Only once did we stop at night, to stay at a motor court like the Lone Cactus.

I experienced then and understand better now the symbiotic relationship between the station wagons, vacations, and roadside motels. At a recent Nevada Museum of Art/Reno MOMO lecture, an architect reminded us of the historical value of so many of our motels, naming architects and movements and eras and design epics. There seems to be real value in the weeklies, not just from the past as reminiscences or for the future as where something new will be.

They are valuable in and of themselves, right now, as examples of midcentury modern design and Reno, proper. Can their physical existence and conceptual richness serve our fellow community members?

What are Our Options Besides NIMBYism?

What’s a poor boy to do? Be happy that something better will replace the weeklies? Be frustrated that those in need are being pushed away? Revel in nostalgia? Preserve for austerity? I saw a proposal not long ago that suggested we give the unhoused a bunch of campers and trailers that need repair, ship them all out into the desert somewhere, and let the unhoused work their newfound mobility into shape. Hyper-bootstraps! Maybe it’s a Cliven Bundy move—put them on BLM land and argue that its “our land” even while we want to put “them” on it, probably for free. Reno Quality of Life planned a citizen’s arrest event to remove anyone looking homeless from a local park. The police beat them to it. ‘Not in my backyard’ or, it seems, the park nearby that belongs to all of us. 

We have options. We can care about these places and, more importantly, about our unhoused and minimally-housed community members. We might be able to rescue weeklies through historic and architectural preservation.

We can celebrate the role of the weekly, the motel, the divorce cottage as essential parts of Reno identity and history. We can do more for the unhoused who have inhabited those weeklies, who are deserving of our compassion and generosity simply because they are human beings and part of our community.

We can make addressing these concerns a matter of public pride rather than problem-solving, of community identity and priority, even marketable identification and commerce.

“Housing is a challenge for many communities. I imagine reading in the paper and seeing on the news that a group of leaders from  . . . looked at what Reno did, and are using Reno’s approach to housing and architectural preservation to . . . ” What I don’t want to imagine is a Reno that keeps driving by. Noticing from the safety of our cars, in the gap between locations and meetings and shopping and . . . requires nothing of us, but neither does it do a thing for any of us. 

Maybe a first step is considering other perspectives. From the other side of those tattered curtains, from beneath the wooden staircases and between the buildings, from a seat on the sidewalk, the perspective is very different. Do we have to get there ourselves before we can care?

Essay and Photos by William J. Macauley, Jr. shared with Our Town Reno

Mimi Geren, Trying to Avoid Choosing Between Shelter and Losing Her Kids

Evicted and Dealing with Child Protective Services

In messages sent to Our Town Reno, Mimi Geren says she was recently evicted, receiving very short notice, saying she had not been properly warned.

“And so were running through the apartment trying to gather as much of our stuff as we can,” she writes. “We have four children that live in our home as well. We couldn't get a U-Haul the next morning. Of course the apartment was very messy when they came to lock us out as we were trying to gather what we could.”

She says police and staff at her former apartment complex called Child Protective Services, who she says indicated they didn’t feel comfortable letting her and her fiance take the children to a motel. She says CPS temporarily placed her kids with friends and one with grandparents.

“They originally told us if we didnt have a place by the 25th they would go legal to take custody,” she wrote Our Town Reno in her messages. “We found a place but can not move in until the 16th of November. CPS has agreed to extend the date and not go legal with our kids providing we move in. We both work and since this has all started we have spent over 1500 dollars on supporting the kids in different houses, motel rent, application fees, food (motel we are in has no microwave ), so if we want hot food we must eat out.”

Without stable shelter daily life can become much more expensive than with.

“Our issue isn’t the extremely high rent but the security deposit.” Green writes, saying her savings are depleted. “We need help and all the agencies I have called ha(ve) told me there are no funds. I even emailed our congressman but have not received a response. I need $1614 to keep my children. Help.”

If you’d like to contact Mimi Geren, please find her on Facebook and message her there. Note, this story is part of Our Citizen’s Forum, and Our Town Reno could not independently verify all the information.

Is the Era of Big Shelters Over and is Reno behind the Curve for New Ideas?

Is the era of big dormitory style shelters over? Is Reno behind or ahead of the curve in reducing the importance of having one big government paid for shelter? Why aren’t we making camping legal in certain spots, with so many empty lots, some of them city owned?

The Big Shelter Model: Not Enough Beds and Too Expensive

Mini tent cities, derided by many, provide a sense of community which doesn’t exist in hierarchy, rule driven shelters. We’ve made the case for them here before. There are other options. Rather than demolishing motels, shouldn’t we turn them into temporary shelter space? What are we doing with those empty lots anyway? Jacobs Entertainment likes to get good press, make splashy donations, but what about using some of the motels they buy into new room by room shelter space rather than creating new parking lots and putting up Burner art?

Don’t people in power understand there can never be enough beds? At the Community Assistance Center on Record street, according to the city’s website, there’s room for 158 men at night, 21 families, six women who are pregnant or with infant and fifty women. However you look at the very imprecise yearly point in time count numbers, that’s just not enough beds.

Shelters are also very expensive to set up. New York City is spending over $2 billion a year on shelters, but that’s not working either.  Los Angeles with its warm weather and deep California pockets also can’t keep up, however hard it tries.

Locally, look at the Eddy House and its years long, very commendable but arduous, effort to get a 24/7 facility for youth living on the streets.   

Numbers for those living without shelter are notoriously imprecise and fluid. One thing is certain costs to keep up with shelter beds are just never met.

What’s the Accountability and Success of Shelters Anyway?

Another obvious question: why aren’t people without shelter more often at the table for helping shape future decisions over programs which impact them? 

How do we test if shelters are good at doing their job, with their affiliated case managers and wraparound services?  What’s the success rate of people staying at the CAC and then getting into permanent housing? Are these numbers kept by anyone, and if so, what are they?

Reno is also notorious for having great ideas and new projects, but very slow follow through. We’ve asked this before and we will ask again. What’s the update to the 2018 plan to move women, families and youth out of the downtown shelter onto part of the Northern Nevada Adult Mental Health Services campus in Sparks for more supportive services?

A screengrab from a video Our Town Reno made of spending a night at the Record street shelter.: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkXoL-vXH9o&t=61s

Should We Imitate Some of Sacramento’s New Approaches or Try Our Own?

Not far away from us, Sacramento is opening two new 100 bed shelters, to be located in more residential areas. Is this something Reno should try as well? We couldn’t even get granny pods approved because of a prevailing NIMBY attitude, so odds might be long.

Dozens of people living without shelter are also being sheltered in a historic hotel in Sacramento, where they have their own rooms. 

What about Jacobs Entertainment not razing so many motels, and offering that option as part of a city or county run program? With all their connections, it seems it would be a breeze for them to set that up.  Save a motel you bought, rather than razing it down, and use the rooms as a shelter option.  

What about making tent cities legal and safe? The City of Reno is setting up a new spot for volunteer meals. Why not set up a new spot for camping with showers and bathrooms and some security? People we’ve interviewed said they would pay five dollars a night for that. However you would run it, it would probably be much cheaper than the downtown shelter.

Another screengrab from our video of a night at the main downtown shelter. Not being able to bring all possessions inside is what makes many hesitant of using the shelter.

Why People Avoid Shelters

During our reporting with Our Town Reno, we have heard many reasons why people might avoid the downtown shelter.  The top reason given by most is that their pets aren’t allowed. Their pets are their most trusted friend, so going to the shelter means not having a pet and a friend anymore. 

Couples aren’t allowed. The amount of possessions one can bring is very limited, so if you don’t have storage, you have to hide your stuff, and there’s no guarantees it will be there in the morning.

Inside the shelter, people often complain they can get some of the possessions they bring in stolen, like a good pair of shoes.  They may have a fear of crowds, social anxieties, claustrophobia which will make them want to avoid a big shelter as well. 

Once inside, it can feel like prison.  For people who have lost so much in their lives, they might want some control over their daily and nightly rituals, which a shelter will not allow, given all the rules including very early wake ups. Shelters also often look and feel drab and austere.  Where are all the colors and comforts? 

Teens and young adults on the streets, especially LGBTQ, feel discriminated against.  They also feel unsafe at shelters.

Many avoid shelters because of fights, the cursing, the cliques, the loud noises, the sometimes angry staff, and also the consistent fear of contracting bed bugs, lice, or scabies.  There’s also people coughing, and risks of catching tuberculosis, the flu or other diseases from others nearby.

Some were victims of rape or assault at a shelter once and never want to experience a shelter ever again, no matter how difficult the conditions outside.  They also want to avoid people who may not be sober. Victims of domestic abuse are afraid their abuser might be at the shelter.

So when those living on the streets are pointed toward the shelter, is that really always a good idea? Shouldn’t we look at other options for those who have run out of options? Shouldn’t we try harder to help the most vulnerable in our community? Shouldn’t we stop criminalizing poverty and try to help rather than sweep and cite those living outside?

Our Town Reno Oped, September 2019

Any Good Ideas at the Federal Level to Address the Affordable Housing Crisis?

State and Local Failures to Act Structurally

While the Nevada legislature failed to pass  Senate Bill 398, which would have reinforced the rights of local governments to come up with their own solutions to the ongoing affordability crisis, and local authorities keep pushing small projects rather than structural changes, such as rent control to name just one possibility, should we turn to federal solutions for the future?

The White House itself recently said it would look to federal programs to have local governments modify rules currently slowing down new construction. This comes as there is a massive housing shortage across the country from starter homes to rental apartments. There is also a lack of available construction workers in certain regions, including Reno, which has had a mostly prudent market since the Great Recession.

A recent study from Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies says last year there was a deficit of a quarter million new homes. Meanwhile, almost half of all renters nationally now have to spend more than 30% of their incomes on housing. More than 10 million households spend more than half their incomes on rent, a problem increasingly moving from poor families to the middle class. This explains why, even if the topic was not directly addressed during the recent Democratic Party debates to kick off the 2020 election cycle, housing policy is still a major concern.

A recent announcement from the White House website is a response to zoning and land-use regulations which have dramatically increased over the past 40 years. According to the press release: “Costly regulations have contributed to a shortage of affordable homes.” But is the easing of barriers to private construction the key solution?

Diagonal Lines Between the White House, YIMBYS, NIMBYS and Democratic Candidates

On the issue of creating more affordability, it seems, the differences are more nuanced and more diagonal than along habitually engulfed party lines.

The recent White House statement concludes with a commitment to improve “access to sustainable home mortgages,” enabling access to federal housing programs to finance first home purchases and underlining a program started last year to “encourage more landlords to participate in the Housing Voucher Program, the country’s largest rental subsidy program.”

Is this a YIMBY / upzoning proposal (Yes In My Backyard) as opposed to NIMBY (Not in My Backyard) such as Reno’s failed attempt to allow granny pods because of opposition from homeowners in affluent neighborhoods?

Some cities such as Minneapolis are trying this route by eliminating single-family zoning within city limits, while Seattle changed zoning codes in several neighborhoods to allow denser housing.

There are fears the White House will want to defund much used Community Block Development Grants from areas resisting deregulation.

Democratic 2020 frontrunners such as Kamala Harris and Elizabeth Warren have both suggested similar ideas, even though often more nuanced and attached to other proposals. More progressive platforms tend to favor public housing and community land trusts over new market-rate solutions.

Brooke Noble has become a leading activist in Reno on the affordable housing crisis issue. She recently spoke at a downtown Reno Bernie Sanders rally, and then appeared in a video for his campaign: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBQ4al_Z9oQ

Pressure, Talking Points and Precise Plans

The White House approach seems to rely on pressure for local and state authorities to move on deregulation, a process which has so far failed at the legislative level in California, dividing the Democratic party there. California State Senator Scott Wiener’s SB 50 bill would have modified single-family zoning codes, but it has been delayed amid concerns from poorer neighborhoods it would bring about more gentrification, rent hikes and displacement and also opposition from rich neighborhoods not wanting extra density.

A popular refrain is that housing should be a human right, and why not? but how do we turn that slogan into a reality rather than just an aspiration?

Bernie Sanders it seems has focused more on the problem than the minutia of possible solutions. "It is not acceptable that, in communities throughout the country, wealthy developers are gentrifying neighborhoods and forcing working families out of the homes and apartments where they have lived their entire lives," he wrote recently in the Las Vegas Sun.

Julian Castro, who impressed in the first Democratic debate in Miami June 26th, and with experience as a Secretary of Housing and Urban Development during the Obama administration, says he would increase the number of housing vouchers as well as spending on affordable housing, while also providing a refundable tax credit to renters who spend more than 30% of their incomes on housing. Senator Kamala Harris, the winner in many accounts of the second debate June 27th, wants a renters' tax credit of up to $6,000 for families making $100,000 or less.

Senator Elizabeth Warren who has been gaining ground on Bernie Sanders has even more pinpoint ideas, such as a $10 billion grant program that would fund parks, roads or schools in return for land-use reform, followed by $500 billion in spending on affordable housing.

There was disappointment from some quarters affordable housing wasn’t discussed directly during the Democratic debates. There was discussion though of income inequality and the need for higher wages. But where is the emergency, and why isn’t this an absolute priority for the White House or a question being directly asked during election debates?

Oped by Our Town Reno, June 30, 2019

Becoming Friends with James McGeein, a Drifter Handyman and Master Splinter

A First Exchange on a Cold Day

James McGeein, a 50 year old Southern California native who has been in Reno for the past 20 years, is quick to share a smile and a few words of wisdom if you met him. The first time I met James I was working at a bar in downtown Reno. It was the middle of winter and if anyone knows Reno it’s a haven for barreling winds and severe weather patterns that make you feel as if you were in the Arctic.

Assuming that this raggedy looking man was getting out of the cold for a second I prepared to ask him to leave, as my company has a no loitering policy. He walked through the front door with a snow shovel and about three layers of clothing that looked as if they hadn’t ever been washed, and my first thought was, “damn, how am I going to kick this guy out when it’s freezing outside?”.

He walked up to my counter, but instead of asking for money or food, he asked me if we needed help removing the snow from our sidewalk out front. Not knowing what to do I texted my boss asking if this was something he was interested in or something that we could even do. As I waited for the response James indulged me with his cunning speech, “I travel around downtown from bars to restaurants asking employees and managers if there is any work I can do for a little spare change or some extra food lying around.”

I have heard the story a million times before. A lot of people will share a compelling story to get you to give them money; however, in James’s eyes he saw a trade opportunity. He told me he does oddball stuff for businesses around town, and in return they offered him some cash or some extra food from excess fries to extra pizza. I told him if he wanted to do the job I could work something out in his favor and without skipping a beat he shook my hand and walked outside to clear the sidewalk.

It has now been a few months since I met James and he still makes his runs from business to business, but at my bar we don’t mind if he sits around and entertains us with funny jokes and unbelievable stories that make you wonder what this guy has been through... “It’s been as exciting as a rollercoaster and as disastrous as a dirty needle,” he once told us. He’s quite blunt with his words, but in the way a boisterous relative would give you advice at a family barbecue. It seems he’s a realist, and doesn’t shy from saying what’s on his mind which from his past you might understand why.

The Life Story of James McGeein

Being a journalist I was very intrigued by him, and asked him for the chance to sit down and dive into how he survives day-to-day. Over a beer and some good food he told me stories, jokes, and how it is to be in his shoes. I, as the writer of this piece, am simply a vehicle for the incredible life story of James McGeein.

Growing up his family was split, his mother staying back in Southern California, while his dad moved up to the Lake Tahoe area. As a kid he spent weekends with his dad and on weekdays he made long eight hour bus rides back to his mom. He went to school, but said he never did well and was more focused on working to help his family out. He said he liked coming to Tahoe because it was a chance to feel free from obligation. He and his dad would go skiing and snowboarding every Friday and Saturday, then would head to the South Shore part of Tahoe to do some gambling and sit at a local hole in the wall restaurant.

Life changed very quickly for James though. He moved to Reno in his early twenties to pursue a decent job where he could provide for himself while taking care of his dad. Finding a job wasn’t hard he said, but finding a job with his background meant minimum wage and maximum hours to survive. He’s worked at almost every casino, he’s been a busboy at local eateries, and even a maintenance worker at some motels in town. He’s never made enough to live on his own so he couch surfed from house to house paying people $50-$100 to crash on their couch for a few days. Sometimes he said he’d come back to the house he was staying at and his things would be tossed outside with a note reading you owe me an extra $100 to stay another night. He simply picked his things up and moved on to the next opportunity.

Things weren’t going great for James, but he was making ends meet and was happy to have some sort of roof over his head. However, in 2011 things took a turn in the worst way. James was feeling sick and losing a lot of weight that he attributed to lack of food and the way he lived.

He checked himself into the hospital after he had enough of feeling sluggish all the time, and received news more devastating than any person in his situation should. The doctors said he maybe had one year to live, and the reason he was so skinny was the cancer spreading through his liver to his colon. Being in his 40s he said “I was terrified at first... when doctors tell you you’re going to die you kind of just believe it”.

James quit his job resulting in him being booted out of the house he was staying in and he began the search again. Between treatments at the hospital and falling asleep in alleys James was living a life that some might just give up on, but he knew he had to keep his head straight to battle this situation. He told me the last thing he wanted was for his parents to watch their son die before their eyes.

Not Giving Up after Being Given a Diagnosis of Death

“If you think this sh*ts gonna’ stop me... you don’t know what I have been through,” he said. James wasn’t going to give up because he was sick, the news in a way made him stronger and (made him) learn a lot about who was there for him and who was just looking to take advantage.

He got himself mixed up in some drug situations while dealing with disease and ended making a lot of “regrettable” decisions, but he never gave up. One year after doctors told him the cancer was terminal he walked out of the hospital with a foot long scar on his stomach and cancer free. To commemorate the awful situation he faced, he had ‘WTF’ tattooed under his scar... and yes he said it means What The F*ck.

A man that has been battle tested and couldn’t be broken, James is one hell of a guy that knows how to get work done. My hunch of a deeper story was right, James had ten times the life experience that anyone might have in Reno and it made him savvy.

Not having a stable income or even a bed to sleep in, he went right back to being what I like to call a drifting handyman. The man does everything from selling seasonal items that get donated to him to fixing the plumbing in your store for a much cheaper price than a licensed plumber. “Most people tell me no to fixing things in their stores because insurance reasons, but I try to tell them I’m not there to screw them over.” James said money has been hard to come by, and he’s not interested in getting a house or a car because it’s easier to move around town where he doesn’t have to pay rent.

For thousands of people across Nevada a consistent bed, stable job, and a good meal everyday is unfortunately not a reality. The Reno Area Alliance for the Homeless combined with the Las Vegas Rescue Mission reports that there are more than 6,500 people motel surfing or sleeping out in the city streets between the two cities with 24,900 expected to be homeless at some point in 2019.

Dangerous, Tedious and Helpful Jobs to Survive

For every soul stuck outside there’s a story; some struggling with substance abuse after losing everything, and others curling up at night freezing cold because they didn’t have money for rent. The homeless rehabilitation center in Las Vegas, The Las Vegas Rescue Mission, reports that 1 in 30 American children will experience homelessness and that 51 percent of those kids are under age five. It’s a grim situation that city officials and small volunteer groups around town have tried to address, but maybe not enough.

For many people in a financial dark time banks, loan agencies, and other services that end up charging high interest rates are an easy option. When you don’t have a credit card, any proof of a steady income, or other collateral where do you turn? “There’s money waiting around every corner you look... you just have to know what corners to look around”

When James said this it made me think about the kind of lengths he is willing to go to get a little extra cash in his pocket. He laughed when I asked, and wondered if I was asking about “explicit activities”. I turned very red and stuttered my words trying to track back my question, but before I could say anything he said he was joking and to my relief said he’s never stolen, robbed, or sold himself for money.

To his account the craziest thing he has had to do was standing on a slick snow covered roof in the middle of a storm to clear a gutter that was causing a leak in a building. James said the company gave him a long stick and snow shovel and said have fun. As he reached the part of the roof where the gutter was located he slipped on some ice that was covered by snow and began sliding towards a 30 foot drop off.

Just before sliding off, his foot hit a pipe protruding from the roof and stopped him from falling to an uncertain fate. Dangerous jobs like that were uncommon he said, jobs mostly included cleaning hotel lots, shoveling snow, or the occasional fixer-up kind of job where he would help contractors with various construction jobs.

The most money he’s made in a day was from an older lady who was being forced out of her apartment. Seeing the woman struggle to carry some of the heavier things he gladly walked over and asked if she would like some help getting the items in her van. At first he said she refused and told him to “fuck off”, but he insisted that he helped and said he didn’t want any money. The woman reluctantly saying yes, they both got to work. “It took about an hour of back breaking work to lift all of it into the van,” James said, and after they had finished the woman came up to James and handed him a folded up bill. It was the first of the new blue 100 dollar bills that he’s ever held. With tears in his eyes he embraced the woman for what she didn’t have to do.

Everyday that I have spent with or seen James it’s always a very similar greeting... “I’m doing good, I woke up so that’s a positive” he says, or “God’s great, and beer is good, and I’m still here”.

Using a popular Dierks Bentley song quote and joking all the time it was hard not to see the good man he was. He keeps high spirits while making his way around town which he says makes it easier to ask people for jobs.

He told me he became good friends with a girl that worked at a local pizza shop. He would sit in the restaurant on late night weekends when the woman would work alone and act as security to make sure she could get home safe. “There was the occasional problem, but I think she just liked the stories we’d share all night”.

Being Compared to the Master Splinter

James isn’t necessarily the security type standing at 5’7, 140 pounds with balding gray hair. His most notorious feature, his beard, was a long gray splattered one that split off his chain with two long strands almost reaching his belt line. Before the woman at the pizza joint quit her job she worked one last shift with James watching the door.

Later that night when she was closing up she asked James over to the kitchen and handed him an entire large pizza for the road. She looked at him and said thank you for being my Master Splinter. For those of you who don’t know, Splinter is the character who watches over the Ninja Turtles and teaches them with wise words and karate.

Not quite the same relationship between James and the pizza worker, but she said he looked like the character with the way his beard was and it stuck with James. Now, when I ask around town about James I oftentimes have to refer to him as ‘Splinter’ for people to recognize him. Truthfully, a fitting nickname to the father-like, caring character that he is.

There is a perception of homeless people not only in the Reno area, but worldwide that they are mentally unstable, not willing to work, or people that you should avoid. This couldn’t be further from the truth for millions of people left homeless.

I am not saying that all people in this situation are hard working and or are able to work like James is, but it is sad to see society categorize this group as such. Not all is lost however. Groups like Our Town Reno and the Salvation Army have taken it upon themselves to go out into the community to learn about the situations some of these people go through and help in any way they can. James agreed with me when I said the way to help is to recognize what they can do instead of focusing on what they can’t.

While finishing up the last of three interviews I had with James “Splinter” McGeein I asked him if there was one thing he would like people to know. He left me with a quote that, although may seem like the cliche of don’t judge a book by its cover, really hit hard;

“Just because I wear the same clothes everyday, my hair is tattered, and my hands are worn don’t look at me like I can’t do anything because I fight everyday to turn my flaws into my strengths”.

You can find James walking around the Truckee river in downtown Reno from sunup to sundown and if you happen to pass him give him a hello and I am sure you’ll get a story worth your time.

Story by Tyler Williams shared with Our Town Reno

At the Edge of Prose: A Look Inside Donald Griffin’s Genre-Bending Work

The Reno Matrix

Donald Griffin speaks like he writes. He weaves through images and ideas, the last word of every phrase seeming to trigger a parallel line of thought. He can theorize about unseen dimensions and institutional corruption in the same sentence. Before you know it he’s talking about Sci-fi movies and the descriptive acuity of Stephen King, and after awhile you get the sense that it all relates to each other.

Griffin is a big The Walking Dead fan, and though no actual zombies appear in his writing, the motif of human brains hijacked by forces beyond their comprehension recurs throughout his body of work.

As he puts it, “That’s what we are in a way. Walking around not knowing shit.” In his work, Griffin calls this phenomenon “The Reno Matrix,” an invisible veil hiding what really controls the day to day reality of a changing city. He represents the unseen influence of media with the ubiquity of devices:

Trust issues with computers, disconnecting TV’s, and threw away a hundred phones.

These cuts and bruises prove I learn from hands on.

Without choice of red or blue pill,

I suddenly woke up in the Reno Matrix.

For Griffin, there’s more to life in Reno than what its citizens perceive with their senses. What we see only tells part of the story. This perspective is especially important considering Reno’s evolving climate.

Corporate influences like Amazon and Tesla are changing the city along every dimension. The population is growing. Areas like Midtown and downtown are being gentrified, housing is suddenly inordinately expensive.

A city formerly characterized by low cost of living, dive bars, and casinos is becoming what locals are calling “Mini Portland.” Staple bars like Shea’s Tavern are now bordered by gastropubs and German beerhauses. Midtown’s hip influence extends north toward downtown. The university expands south across the freeway, leveling motels and brick houses.

For many residents, the changes are welcome. But for a significant population of Reno citizens, there’s a steadily shrinking amount of space to exist in.

Who Does the City Belong To?

The city is redefining what kind of place it wants to be, what sort of person it’s supposed to be for. Griffin’s piece, “Who Does the City Belong to?,” (part of which is in video above) questions whether he has a place within the redefined Reno.

For Griffin, there’s a disconnect between the the growth narrative told by developers, hipsters, young professionals and the lived experience of many of its citizens. The narrator states, “The world has an order held in place and designed to keep you in a governmental haze. Hibernating in a lack of knowledge.”

Griffin’s writing punctures the illusion suggested by Reno’s recent development. He comes from a place outside of the mainstream narrative, and it's his experience that allows him to see institutional corruption in a way that’s distinct from Reno citizens happy about the city’s recent changes.

This is part of what attracted Griffin to writing. He writes, as he puts it, for “the people still trapped inside the boxes I used to be trapped in.”

One such box, for Griffin, was addiction. “I was drinking and drugging for 23 years,” he says. He’s been homeless and has had people close to him die of overdose, what he calls the “street form of suicide.”

When he got sober, Griffin felt that he had “woken up” from the Reno matrix. He’s been fortunate to find “the keys” to the life he wants to lead, and he hopes to be a positive influence on the community in the same way that his own influences led him to consider writing in the first place.

Poetry written and read by Donald Griffin is on the Our Town Reno podcast here: https://ourtownreno.simplecast.fm/a7e4a84f

Different Realities

Griffin thinks of reality as being different for everyone. For him, writing is the bridge between different people’s perception of reality, allowing him to show where different perspectives diverge and overlap: “You don’t know my world, but I can try to take my world and blend it in with your world.” Writing allows Griffin to talk to himself on paper, and it’s his hope that these conversations will be beneficial not only to those currently suffering from addiction and “living street,” but also to those who might not be aware of the challenges faced by Reno’s homeless and housing insecure citizens.

This type of perspective is becoming more and more crucial as the divide between the Midtown crowd and those checking into shelters and weekly motels grows wider. It’s easy to assume that Reno’s changing landscape is a natural progression, that gentrification is a normal consequence of economic growth. But what makes space for one person can push someone else to the margin, and Griffin’s writing attempts to amplify the perspective of people whose experience contradicts the mainstream narrative. “Normal is a speed on the dial of a washing machine,” Griffin writes, and pieces like Reno Matrix and Who Does the City Belong to? question the assumptions behind mainstream ideas of normalcy.

As a writer, poet and activist, Griffin looks back on his own childhood which went errant and says he wants to focus his attention on giving youths more options to thrive.

When Bad Habits of Youth “Become You”

From Griffin’s perspective, some significant factors leading to homelessness in Reno are also overlooked by conventional understanding. A big part of the problem, he says, has to do with Reno’s more notorious industries.

The city’s bars and casinos offer a fairly lively party scene, but for young adults between 16 and 20, Griffin says there’s “nothing to do.” While The Holland Project (Reno’s only dedicated all ages show space) offers about three to four events every week, the lack of structure for young people’s lives, coupled with the town’s party culture, is tailor made for underage drinking and drug use. Experimentation turns to habit fairly quickly, Griffin says, and before you know it, what was your habit “becomes you.” Griffin believes that underage drinking and drug use leads to teenage pregnancy and youth addiction, both of which he sees as significant factors leading to youth and continued homelessness.

The solution for Griffin needs to come at both the personal and institutional levels. “Not everyone is gonna go to college,” he says, and high schools need to offer trade alternatives to the traditional high school to UNR to office job track that isn’t feasible for some Reno students. The educational institutions also need to inspire students to pursue their interests rather than simply shuffling them out into a world as potential employees. Griffin says: “Ask the kids, ‘what’s your dream,’ not ‘who do you wanna work for?’” Offering engaging alternatives and encouraging kids to pursue their passions will, Griffin believes, remedy the feeling of aimlessness and hopelessness that inspires kids to start using in the first place.

All-Out Activism and Engagement

In addition to his writing, Griffin strives to enact change in any way he can : “I got my life back, and I wanna do the same for somebody else.” He’s worked with New Generation Dare (video trailer above), Our Town Reno, The Holland Project, and he is a regular member of the Speaker’s Bureau at ACTIONN (Acting in Community Together in Northern Nevada), whose recent lobbying efforts were instrumental in the advancement of the Washoe County Affordable Housing Trust Fund. His schedule is constantly full, but Griffin says his newfound ambition is not an attempt to “fix the past.” He instead looks to the future, constantly in pursuit of “the outcome” of his actions and efforts. Writing and community activism have enhanced his life, and he wants to spread that sense of power to those that need it most.

Griffin calls this desire the “poet’s curse,” the ability to speak for “the ones who aren’t able to” on their own behalf. His writing attempts to break people out of their day to day assumptions, and Griffin uses digressions, cryptic images, and symbolism to represent how tied up people are within their assumptions.

Griffin takes some pleasure in making his readers work: “I don’t want to give ‘em too much. I want to put it in words they can understand, but I want to lose them a little bit. I wanna give them just enough detail and bring it back and give them the reality in 3D.”

Griffin is a fan of Quentin Tarantino movies, and the non-linear structure made famous in films like Pulp Fiction has clearly influenced his style. It’s precisely this disjointed approach, the type of structure that encourages readers to discover meaning rather than accepting easy interpretations, that a changing city like Reno needs right now.

Shortened Version of an Essay Written by Drew Willis shared with Our Town Reno

"You Just Gave me 28 Days of Smiles," Reaching out to a Family in a Motel

A Box of Cookies

Yesterday, I came across several people in need of a voice. I recently started organizing donations for families in motels in downtown Sparks. I am heartbroken for these families.

They are working full time jobs. They do not have substance abuse problems. They drive cars that are nicer than mine and make their payments on time for them.

They are in great credit standing with the motel. They pay at minimum one thousand dollars a month for their room and they are raising their children there.

I am just a community donor. I network and buy food and items in bulk to provide extra support for these families.

Yesterday I was contacted by a family that had no food. They commute by bus. They work and are raising a child in this motel. I immediately went to the grocery store and purchased one hundred dollars in food. They only can cook with a microwave and a mini fridge.

When I arrived and met the little girl I must say I was blown away. She was so grateful and so hungry and looking at her face when she saw the food is imprinted in my mind.

I bought a 28 count box of chips and she said, "You just gave me 28 days of smiles." She is 8!

Joining the Fight

I need our community to join the fight.

We have honest, hardworking families, living in unfair conditions. These landlords who are saying you must make four times the rent in order to qualify to live here should be held in moral contempt. These folks work, make their car payments, or their bus fair. They never miss the rent at the motel and they have good hygiene and attend church services.

Yet they have to live this way due to rental communities unwilling to ungrinch themselves.

These are Our children, Our neighbors, Our community.

I am only one person but I make a difference everyday in anyway I can. The taxpayers really need to look at them and then look at our city leaders. I am not an anarchist. I pay my taxes.

And in turn I see art being leased. I see housing that starts between $500,000 - $750,000 being built. I see these council members approving irresponsible business ventures like an AXE bar.

We need a change. These children growing up in motels will eventually become the next economy. Are we giving them due diligence? I think not. We need their generation to thrive and laugh and learn.

Washoe County is failing its citizens and a major change must be made NOW! We must do better! Thank you for letting me share my story.

1st Person Essay by Elizabeth Monick shared with Our Town Reno

Changing Places

Good-bye to this craftsman style, Chinese influenced, UNR gateway area house, neatly set up to move to another neighborhood, Reno’s Old Southwest.  The university is putting a massive new Business Building in its place.

Porthole windows and Chinese detail grace the building.  But a piece is missing!

In pieces, the house will be able to get around town.

Once, the house was part of a whole neighborhood of such houses leading up to the university’s entrance.  Then, when the freeway was put in in order to take visitors right to the casinos’ doors, the house faced right onto the freeway.  Prior to the houses, Native Americans from the Washoe tribe lived there.

 Soon, not craft but business will welcome visitors to the university.  Traces of the past will be hard to find.

Photos and Essay by Deborah Achtenberg shared with Our Town Reno

Change, Rolling Around Town

It looks lonely.  What used to be on the other side of the fence?  What conversations might have taken place?  Who fell in love there, or played on the lawn?  What did they see in their future?  How might it have informed ours?

At some point, I imagine, new neighbors came in–in more impersonal buildings, with gambling tables and slot machines inside.  Who lived in the old building then?  Owners?  Dealers?  Waitresses?

"Then another group of new neighbors came in, temporary visitors staying in motels featuring appealing design and easy access–or so I imagine.

Behind them, today, are new buildings, signaling changes to come.  We don’t know what the changes will be–since the new owners have not told us–but we have allowed their unnamed futures to push out our connections to the past.

Change is the life of cities, of course–but who owns it?  Who controls it?  Who has a right to the city?

Good-bye, old friend.  In your new spot–if you’re going to one–who will be able to see your past, the connections that made you what you were, the milieu that might suggest a new one to us?  Instead, our reaction to you will be an abstract nostalgia–uninformed and unconnected.

Writing and Photography by Deborah Achtenberg shared with Our Town Reno

In Local Solidarity of Unist'ot'en Camp

At Our Town Reno we salute #heroesofreno who help each other as well as #activistsofreno who support and fight for important causes worth fighting for. We must also always remember Reno is itself on land taken over from the Washoe people. Below is an account of a recent protest at the Believe statue in support of the Unist’ot’en clan which stands in the way of oil and gas pipelines. What makes their ongoing action unique is that the territory they are trying to protect within northern British Columbia in Canada has never been given up by treaty.  They say they are fighting to preserve rivers and creeks from contamination for future generations.

"Xótchítl gave a speech about the horrors of the militarized police attacking innocent land protectors, and the importance of protecting every bit of clean water we have left,” participant Tara Tran said of the event. Photo provided to Our Town Reno by Louis Magriel.

An Intensifying Movement

The Unist’ot’en clan, part of the Wet'suwet'en nation in the occupied territories of British Columbia, Canada, have been protesting the planning of several large pipelines which would run through their traditional territories. Conflicts with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) over the Indigenous presence on their own traditional land, which they still retain unceded original title over, have intensified in the past few weeks.

Solidarity events have popped up in several places in North America to protest the intrusion of the corporate energy industry and police into Unist'ot'en territory, and to affirm the power and legitimacy of the Indigenous camp.

In Reno, the solidarity took to the streets as Unist'ot'en supporters marched from the Believe sign to the Reno Arch, took pictures under the Arch, and marched back to the Believe sign, chanting "No Pipelines!" and "What do we do when our children are under attack? Stand up, Fight back!"

“What happens upstream comes downstream,” supporters said. Photo provided to Our Town Reno by Louis Magriel.

A Place for Healing

As much as the gathering was a call to action, it was also a place for healing, and a reminder that in the face of generations of trauma and the evils of today, the Indigenous peoples will not be silenced and won’t stop fighting. In that same spirit, Xótchítl reminded the supporters present that "UNISTOTEN HEALS." Supporters also affirmed plans to do a fundraiser for Unist'ot'en Camp in the coming weeks.  More info here: http://unistoten.camp/

Reporting by Louis Magriel provided to the Our Town Reno Citizen’s Forum