Seth Dines and the New UrbVan Dwelling Movement in Reno

"An old van is my new best friend, my dwelling or someone else's," Seth explains, as he has embarked on renovating old vans for others to use while sleeping in one himself.

On a rare muggy morning in Reno, Seth Dines, 32, looks over his recently $1,000 purchased 1995 GMC Rally STX 3500, a 15-passenger van with a “super strong engine”, which he hopes to soon give away to someone who wants to live in it.

Van renovations are on his mind, which he also uses for branding, marketing, making music, as well as web and experiential designing among other freelance and personal pursuits.

Money Problems in a New Reno

“I took the front seat out and I’m going to make it a cook area, so I can cook outside if I want to,” he says as he gives a tour of the van, which he will be trying out as well. At the time of interview, the van was parked outside a house in southwest Reno where he was renting a small basement room. “I want to create a tray that pivots outward, so I can have a space here. I thought about maybe storing the battery compartment for the eventual solar that I’ll have.”

His overall goal? “I want to show you can live in a micro home which is transportable within city limits."

Seth says his bills have been piling up just to keep his cell phone, wifi and power going. “I freelance, so it’s not a paycheck every two weeks, you get a chunk of change at a time, you have to be thrifty. I am on Social Security disability so that helps. I can’t really do physical labor, so I have to use my brain.”

There's plenty to fix on this van, but Seth is optimistic he can make it livable and rideable for just a few extra thousand dollars.

Making it Livable and Affordable

"The inside is going to be livable, and it’ll get around the city. You won’t be able to go cross country but the idea is to live in a dwelling that’s yours, that you own 100 percent. You’re not paying rent. I’ll save money on utility bills. I’ll save money on rent. I am currently paying $400 a month on a bedroom. I tried to get housing help because I’m on disability. But I’ve been on a wait list forever. While living in a van, I’ll be able to work harder on better, more personal projects because my expenses will be down. I love Reno. I want to live in the city. I want to live downtown but it’s expensive down there. With Tesla, that’s making house prices and rents go up. I am trying to get ahead of the curve and try do something now, before we get tens of thousands of new people here. ”

"I think this van came from Mexico, 'Hecho in Mexico', it says right there on the hubs."

A New Movement Called Urbvan Dwelling

Seth wants to create a “new movement, an alternate lifestyle,” which others can emulate through his example. The project already existing on the web and different social media platforms is called “Urbvan Dwelling”. Other people are helping him and he wants to help others as well.

He also recently purchased a 1993 Ford E-150 Tierra van, for a little over $2,000, and has slept in it a few nights already on a full mattress he bought on Craigslist, both downtown and on the outskirts of Reno.

“It’s a lot more comfortable and safer than I thought, and I felt pretty comfortable about it before anyway. When I was downtown, there were some people having a good time nearby, but it was ok. Being stealth, no one knows you are in there. Just because other people are around and I know they are doesn’t mean they know I’m there. Now I’m starting to spot vans where people might be living everywhere.”

On social media, Seth has started documenting his experiences renovating and sleeping in vans in Reno.

Social Media Presence

“I want to break the stereotypes about people who choose to have a transportable home as their primary dwelling,” he writes on his webpage. “Our world is changing, societal ways of living are changing and I want to be a part of that and show other people, normal people, it’s ok to live in a transportable house,” he explains in our interview.

Part of Seth’s experiment will be to document and broadcast on social media his life adventure living in a van inside a city. He also wants to show it can be a green way to live.

“I want to be able to use as little amount of water as possible, get all my electricity from the sun, as it will be in the sun all the time. That’s the best way I can see of having a small footprint without being in a house.”

"The steering on this one is super loose it needs some adjustments."

Tailoring and Fixing a Van

His main challenges now are funding materials for floors, walls, insulation, and getting the soon to be donated van to be mechanically sound enough to go around town. He is thinking of an upcoming Indiegogo campaign to help with the costs of renovations and repairs.

“Everyone’s needs are different. I wanted a longer van. Some people might want a nice shorty to keep things tight. Some people choose a Sprinter which is very tall, no windows, very clean on the inside. I’m looking to spend no less than an extra thousand dollars to put it all together, to get started. Later I might add solar panels, and a fan for the vent on the roof. To get insulation, the subfloor, some walls up, get it to a basic living space, buy a battery, and an alternator battery isolator, so it will charge your battery when you’re alternator is running, that's the idea. That’s a very basic minimal set up, for probably $1,000. You can use any bed. A van is big. You can fit at least a queen.”

Seth says he is getting other people in the community behind his project, to really turn it into a movement.

A Community Project

He’s already gotten help on figuring out some of the problems, and mistakes he has already made.

“I took it to these guys at CoAuto who I am partnering with. They’re trying to get a community garage together. It’s perfect for me since I don’t have the money to get the tools I’ll need, but I have some knowhow. But I should have taken it to them before I bought the van. They do free vehicle inspections before you want to purchase a used vehicle, but I didn’t know that. Over there, I found all the seals of this van are leaking.”

Seth says he feels this van project is liberating him.  "I feel free now. I have all these crazy options to look forward to that I didn’t have before.  I love branding and design and technology. To be able to do all that for my own project… — Seth says he feels this van project is liberating him. "I feel free now. I have all these crazy options to look forward to that I didn’t have before. I love branding and design and technology. To be able to do all that for my own project has been awesome. I’m going to be as self-sufficient as I possibly can. I want to get off the grid.”

Simplicity and Minimalism

Seth says he’s tried the marriage thing and the regular company job, but that it just didn't work for him. Simplicity and minimalism are new buzzwords he adheres to.

“I’ve tried to go mainstream, but it’s really difficult for me, so I’ve got to try something different, I’ve got to switch my life up, and this is the way I can foresee doing that. Older people are buying RVs and traveling. So why don’t I do that now but stay in the city? It doesn’t even cost that much money. I love what I do. I don’t have retirement plans. I just want to live. This provides a way to live with not very much money. I’ve been minimalizing lately. I live in a tiny one bedroom, so I'm basically living in a van. Just in a bedroom in a house. I wear plain clothing. Going minimal is my path now even with my designs. I think our world is so complicated with technology that these analog things, let’s just make them more simple. Why not? Let’s keep life here simple, because it’s just going to get more complicated.”

Seth is giving up the closet and one bedroom lifestyle, but he says he won't miss it.

Giving Back

Once he’s done with this current van, he hopes to build up another one, so he can start a chain process of giving liveable vans.

“I’ve always been helped out in many ways by either a community, a social service, so I feel this is my way to be able to give back. There’s a lot of displaced people in our area who could be helped with this project, if other people helped out with it. Not everyone chooses to be homeless. Most people, they just need a tiny kick. Just a little bit, just to help them. Of course, some people mess it up when they get help. If they smell awful people will say they’re the dregs. No, they’re a person. I’ve watched displacement happen here in Reno. It might not be the best solution and it might bring another bunch of stuff, but we have to try something.”

What about laws preventing people from sleeping in vans?

Breaking the Law?

“I don’t even know what the laws are. But that’s part of the adventure, figuring it all out. What I’ve gathered is you just have to be smart. Don’t be conspicuous. That’s why I’m also building in a van. A van fits in with other cars. It’s when you get a motorhome, it’s a little bit bigger. In a van it’s easier to keep a low profile.”

Seth has experience building up a project others thought was crazy. While in high school, with his family, he helped build a skatepark in his hometown in Loyalton, California, which is sometimes called the loneliest town in America. “We had to deal with the city, parks system to get it done because they didn’t want to get sued. I have other ideas. This might be super radical but why not have one park in the area where heroin is legal or drugs are legal but monitored. Why can’t we do that here? This is Reno. We do things different here. Why don’t we just try that? If it doesn’t work, we shut it down, and we go back to the way it was.”

When he's not around a van, Seth can often be found at The Basement, an underground incubator space in downtown Reno with vendors.  “The Basement down here has become this hub where people are meeting at these tables, with people who are trying… — When he's not around a van, Seth can often be found at The Basement, an underground incubator space in downtown Reno with vendors. “The Basement down here has become this hub where people are meeting at these tables, with people who are trying to come up with their own ideas and build new connections. Anyone can come do homework, have an important meeting, have a party, have some sort of event."

Any final words of wisdom for other Renoites?

“I implore our community to just ‘give a shit’. Quote me on that. Care about people. Why not? Even if you don’t want to talk to them or look at them or smell them give them money and say you’re welcome. Try something different. Be nice. Dude, be nice. Hashtag #dudebenice. Let’s just help each other out. Some people think it’s real hippie. But if we could all help each other. We all have things we can offer to other people. Even if we don’t think so. We all have something we know how to do which is of value to someone else. So why not help them out? Go out on a limb. You might get burned but that’s how you grow as a human being. I just want to try the urban van life out and show it can be done. I feel comfortable. I’m going to choose this. The home is where you make it. My home is wherever I’m at and feeling comfortable. I actually already spend a ton of time in my car, a Honda Element. I sit in there, watch movies, hang out, listen to music, everyone does, we all do. Cars are a big deal. Why not just stay in one which you make your home?”

DIRECT LINKS TO URBVAN DWELLING

Here are some of the websites where you can follow Seth and his Urbvan Dwelling movement ...

urbvandwelling.com

https://www.instagram.com/urbvandwelling/

urbvandwelling.tumblr.com

https://www.facebook.com/urbvandwelling

And today he started a YouTube channel with his first video here and above:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecEZ-q4NZuw

Wendy Wiglesworth, A Salty Saint Along the Truckee River

Wendy Wiglesworth has a distinct aura about her as she presses out her wet, wavy hair by a small campfire on a recent morning, next to the Truckee River near the Sparks/Reno line, across from the Grand Sierra Resort in the middle of a tent city mostly hidden by thick trees and foliage.

Moods lift, and ears perk up as Wendy’s musical, raspy voice fills the crackling air with salty empathy and critiques of the world around her.

If she could, Wendy says, she would start “a transitional house for all the forgotten, all the misfits, who don’t fall into the grooves of the housing programs and the resource center here in Reno.” She says she would have fewer rules, and do withou… — If she could, Wendy says, she would start “a transitional house for all the forgotten, all the misfits, who don’t fall into the grooves of the housing programs and the resource center here in Reno.” She says she would have fewer rules, and do without drug testing. “I don’t care what you do in your personal time if you can function when you have to,” she explains.

Wendy, a Washoe High School graduate from the 1990s, and a former salon owner, now 42 and living in a tent along the river, says she helps “lost boys of all ages, old and young,” cope with life on the “outside” as she calls it. “Everybody is somebody, everybody came from somewhere,” she says, a warm oatmeal bowl by her side.

Wendy, who has severe arthritis in her hands, preventing her from doing extensive manual work, lives off of food stamps, even if it gets more and more difficult as the month goes by. She’s also a dumpster diver.  “We are doing the actual reduce… — Wendy, who has severe arthritis in her hands, preventing her from doing extensive manual work, lives off of food stamps, even if it gets more and more difficult as the month goes by. She’s also a dumpster diver. “We are doing the actual reduce, reuse, recycle. We find everything. Sometimes we find steak. Sometimes we find packing material we use for bed rolls. You can find so much for free.”

On The Other Side

“I used to donate haircuts when I owned a salon, now I’m on the other side but I prefer it this way. There’s actually less drama. Out here, you appreciate everything. I can probably sleep better than a lot of people doing the 9 to 5. At the end of the day, I am ok with everything. I’m not trying to be something that someone else wants me to be. I’m not working so I can just keep up with bills, and not have time to enjoy life because I am working so much. We stay busy just keeping camp, figuring out our next meals, and fixing the tent. There’s bad days just like inside. We also have to keep an eye out for vigilantes who sometimes go through our belongings and bust everything up. We don’t know how long we will be allowed to stay. But I still like it better here.”

This sign on an overpass to the river path makes people camping there, out of necessity, fear every day they might be kicked out.

Why Not Have Inner City Camping?

Wendy would like the city of Reno to allow inner city camping. “It should be just like an RV park with tents allowed. If you have just a few rules, there’s no reason it couldn’t work.”

But right now, she says, tent cities keep getting pushed further and further away from Reno. “Is today the day we’re going to have to pack up everything and move?” she wonders. “Where are we going to move? How are we going to move all our stuff?”

Her Current Spot

“It’s nice here. You can leave your stuff inside or next to your tent. There’s people around, it’s not far to go to the GSR to charge your phone, or Walmart, or Quik Stop. Sometimes if I have a dollar, I’ll go gamble, sometimes I’ll win five, cash it out and go buy cigarettes. It’s a tradeoff being further from downtown Reno but there are advantages as well.”

One neighbor, who goes by Tarzan, has set up a bike shop for the homeless and cyclists coming down the riverside path. Another neighbor, a woman helps other campers use lavender to deal with bugs. “There are also a lot of spiritual and metaphysical people,” she says.

Cleaning up the camping site is part of Wendy's daily routine.

Camping Neighbors

Others from the tent city work day labor jobs. They keep each other company when they’re back together by the river.

“People don’t pretend they’re something they’re not here. As campers, my neighbors are great here. They’re being who they are. They’re not lying. Some people do leave all their stuff or trash behind and that’s not good, but most people here are good people. We’re normal people.”

Outside her tent, a dream catcher. "Everybody has bad dreams. This will catch them."

Visits from Police

Wendy says there’s no telling how long this camping situation will last. They get regular visits from police and city workers recommending different services, offering water and sometimes help with trash, but the underlying message is that they shouldn’t be there.

“They keep wanting to push us further away from Reno into Sparks. They say if we go by the Alamo casino they won’t bug us. Since they keep pushing us away from Reno, it sends people hiding in residential areas in Reno, like behind schools. That could freak some parents out, if they see a homeless person in the morning on their way to school, but remember it could be someone’s dad or brother pushing that cart. They’re just trying to live too.”

Wendy says she loves it by the river, but is uncertain how long she will be allowed to stay.

Pushed Further and Further from Reno's Downtown

Wendy once started building a brick entranceway with steps in another spot she previously kept underneath a bridge on Sutro street, but got booted out from there. Most recently, she was camping on what she though was someone’s private property, who said he didn’t mind, but it turned out to be airport property, so she was forced out from there as well.

“Sometimes, I really don’t get it. I’s not like we are terrorists, planning a homeless takeover. We’re still a part of Reno. Don’t be embarrassed by us. We’re not going to go away. A lot of us don’t want to live on the inside. A lot of us love it out here,” she says.

"I will not push a cart.  And I’m not going to have a shopping cart. But I will pull a wagon because it’s cute.  I love it." — "I will not push a cart. And I’m not going to have a shopping cart. But I will pull a wagon because it’s cute. I love it."

Frustrations With Services

“When the cops come out with Catholic Charities and the Volunteers of America, they say, well you should really check out the resources. But then when you start going, a lot of them want you to get hooked up with Northern Nevada Adult Mental Health Services, and take the brain meds. If you don’t need them, or you don’t want them, then you’re not sure what to do. There’s other problems with the help. People with animals can’t go into shelters or even the overflow. They say the SPCA is offering a program to help board their animals until after they get on their feet. But I’ve heard the SPCA is going to give you a bill for boarding. And anyway, pets is what keeps a lot of people going, so why would I separate from my pet and have to pay for that? Couples you can’t go together. If you’re not a vet or go to Mental Health Services, you wonder will I really get housing through their resources?”

There is persistent frustration in Wendy’s voice about how the programs are designed, how they make most people scared, and how most of the housing options in Reno are worse than living outside.

When interviewed about services, many homeless living along the path, say they are more often more headaches than actual help.

Avoiding Roach Coach

“If you’re inside the shelter with one of their programs, you can only have limited visitors, there’s checks on them, you can’t have overnight guests, the rules just can be too much. Everybody that’s out here is so used to being around others, and a group mentality. Now you’re inside, lonely, and bored, so you go back outside, and then mess up the whole process to get housing. Inside and alone can be much worse than outside and with people. And then, some of the cheaper housing options in town, the motels and weeklies are really roach coach. I’d rather stay outside and be irritated by spiders, than inside and be worrying about bed bugs and cockroaches. It’s foul in some of those places. I understand people want people to be inside, but putting them with roaches and cockroaches is not ok.”

Wendy prefers to control her environment outside, than being at the mercy of unsavory conditions inside.

Stay Humble Reno

She says current changes in Reno keep her on edge.

“I don’t know if I'm scared or excited. Artown Reno is making it more art focused instead of the gambling and hookers, that’s cool. Small business owners look different, they are fully tatted now, that’s awesome too. But I don’t want Reno to get carried away with itself either thinking that it’s too cool for this or that. Or that Reno is embarrassed by people like us. I used to make jewelry. There’s people down here that make a lot of cool things. One girl here was painting rocks. People do rock art. You also have to watch out if we all start getting priced out. I love local businesses that have made it. But stay humble.”

"The skulls make it cool.  I cut up an old shirt and cut it cast length with thumb holes.  Maybe I could go into business to make these." — "The skulls make it cool. I cut up an old shirt and cut it cast length with thumb holes. Maybe I could go into business to make these."

Challenges and Donations

Even though she likes living by the river, Wendy faces plenty of challenges. She recently broke her wrist and arm falling on some bike parts, requiring “needles, screws, and stuff”. She was due to start therapy, so she was looking for ways to get bus passes to get there.

Food and survival items are not always easy to obtain, so she says donations from those who care about her plight are always appreciated.

Wendy says she doesn't understand those who leave stuff behind, which makes others who clean up look bad.

Very Grateful for Help

“The other day, these ladies gave us tarps, which was awesome. There was a couple that gave us fried chicken once. Downtown it is easier to get food than here. Amber (Dobson) always gives out food downtown. I love Amber. She’s awesome. If anyone wants to come by and say hi, and donate, ice is always good during the summer, so is coffee, or dog food and pet leashes, bike locks, and clean blankets. We can always use old tents too. We really are very grateful to those who help.“

She says batteries are always needed as well, AA and AAA, and bug spray, especially when it’s been raining like the past few days. After the interview, a neighbor passed around chocolate for everyone to share. After the interview, a neighbor passed around chocolate for everyone to share.

Interview and Photos for Our Town Reno, August 2016, along the Truckee River, near the Reno/Sparks line.

Grackle, Making People Smile (On the Way to a Pot Farm)

On a recent weekday in Reno, Grackle, who got his name from the small black bird while tree sitting to protect redwoods from logging companies in California, was holding a jokes for money sign under the arches.

“One of my favorite signs I make is two sided. One side just has a giant smiley face and says smile. The other side has “You’re Beautiful” and it has a bunch of hearts and peace signs and stuff.  That one makes people’s day. When I get done fly… — “One of my favorite signs I make is two sided. One side just has a giant smiley face and says smile. The other side has “You’re Beautiful” and it has a bunch of hearts and peace signs and stuff. That one makes people’s day. When I get done flying that sign my face hurts because people smile at me and I smile back at them. It’s contagious.”

Dirty Jokes, Clean Jokes, Hippy Jokes

A man, dressed like a tourist just leaving a casino, approaches him and asks ‘do you really tell jokes?’, tossing him a quarter.

Grackle, 29, offers three, non of them printable, for the price of one, eliciting chuckles.

“I have lots of dirty jokes,” he explains after the tourist leaves, “but I also have clean jokes and hippy jokes. Here’s a clean, hippy joke …. ‘Do you know why the lifeguard couldn’t save the hippie? He’s too far out man.’”

Grackle's goal when asking for money is to make people smile, even if it doesn't always work.

Figuring out Reno's Police

Grackle, who says he is just passing through Reno, is starting to figure out the biggest little city, after earlier difficulties with police.

“I got harassed by the police here by the arches. I like to do things with a sense of humor. When I ask for money, I try to have signs which make people laugh, smile or spreads good vibes. I don’t want to be winey, or to illicit sympathy. I prefer humor and joy. So I was flying a sign which said “Smile if you Masturbate, Give me a Dollar if You Enjoy It.”

That didn’t go over too well.

“The cops came up and were like, that sign is inappropriate. But they also said, ‘technically it’s your First Amendment right and we can’t really say anything. But it offends us. And it probably offends a lot of these people’. They kept coming back and checking on me, so I’ve decided to use other signs.”

Grackle's pants are made up of different souvenirs and patches, including this one. “This one shows a cop on a leash being walked by a fancy bastard in a top hat. “

Don't Sit on a Sidewalk

Grackle has also figured out how to sit in Reno while displaying his signs without also drawing more police attention.

“The first time I was sitting on the sidewalk which I guess is illegal here. So I asked them a lot of questions about the local laws, every town has their own thing, where you can sit. Here, you can sit on something raised, like these raised circular mounds which look like gambling chips. But sitting on the sidewalk, I think first time it’s a warning and after that they either write you a ticket or take you to jail.”

Grackle recently lost stuff and was down to blankets, a sleeping bag, a tobacco can without much tobacco left, food stamps, a flask and a lunch sack.

On the Streets Since 15

Grackle says he’s been living on the streets since he was 15. He was a “headstone teenager”, going to a “prestigious inner city prep school” in Seattle, where he says he fit in better with the bums selling pot on school grounds than with students. One day, he pretended he was sick, packed up, and went to live with the weed-selling bums who were sleeping on loading docks.

He eventually went to college, and got “half a degree” in renewable energy, and still hopes to one day become a solar panel installer. For now though, he describes himself as a “traveling hippie gypsy”, a rough lifestyle full of twists and turns and never a dull day.

Rainbow Gatherings

Most recently, he took part in the latest “Rainbow Gathering” in Vermont, a pro-peace and pro-nature congregation of different groups who gather in remote forests to eat, sleep and live together for one or several weeks at a time.

“One of the biggest things of Rainbow is everyone will shout on three from wherever in the forest, ‘We Love You’. There are lots of people from different walks of life. There are rainbow kids who are full-time travelers and train hoppers and what not, and there’s also people who work on a farm and come to a few gatherings every year. Alcohol is highly frowned upon in the woods. So all the drinking takes place at the front gate or in the parking lot which kind of acts as a filter. Once you get in the woods, it’s more hippy-dippy.”

There are national gatherings, and more localized ones, each with its distinct traits. One of Grackle’s favorites is the so-called Katuah gathering in North Carolina.

“They do a thing called the angel path. Basically, there’s two lines of people facing each other, usually a couple hundred people. And the people at the end of the line walk through with their eyes closed and then everybody kind of guides you along, and stops you to give you hugs and compliments. Most people end up crying by the end of it.”

His last road trip was when friends alerted to his misfortunes in Illinois through Facebook, but already in the area, went to pick him up and then dropped him off in Reno.

A Rough Trip West

After his last Rainbow gathering in Vermont, he did cleanup with the “Fat Kids Kitchen crew”, one of the many collective groups who take part in the gatherings, picking up trash, “renaturalizing” areas, spreading new seeds. Driving back west with his new girlfriend though didn’t turn out so well. She was arrested on an old warrant in Illinois. Everything he owned was in her rental truck, which was impounded.

Friends who were alerted by a Facebook message picked him up on their way west in their RV and dropped him off in Reno. So now, he’s got even less stuff than usual. At first, he was staying in Reno with a friend in a weekly motel, but the landlord there said he would have to start paying extra money to stay there.

In Reno, Grackle was staying with a friend in a weekly, but then was told he needed to pay, so he was going to look for a place to sleep outside.

Sleeping Outside in Reno for the 1st Time

“I’ll just have to find a place to sleep outside tonight,” he explains. “Since I’ve been on the streets, I’ve never slept in a homeless shelter. There are too many rules there.”

He takes a swig from an alcohol flask hiding himself behind his sign.

“I like to drink a little. If you live outside, with open container laws in many places, like here in Reno, there’s no non-public place where you can stop and enjoy a drink.”

His next road trip should be shorter and will hopefully lead to seasonal work in a pot farm near Garberville, CA.

Next Stop, A Pot Farm near Garberville

Once Grackle has enough money to travel, his next destination will be a pot farm, near Garberville, in Humboldt County, California.

He will trim weed there, alongside other travelers, including some from other countries.

“I think it’s kind of a grey area legally,” he says. “But I really like my job. I just listen to music and I make about 200 dollars a day. I get to talk to people from all over the world. At night, we pitch our tents and sleep outside.”

There are hundreds and hundreds of pot farms in northern California. People who work on them are often called "trimmigrants."

200 Dollars Per Pound of Trimming

He usually trims marijuana plants up to 12 hours a day in an outbuilding with bright fluorescent lights, putting buds in plastic baskets and leaves into bags.

“We get paid by weight. 200 dollars a pound of buds. One friend from New Zealand once trimmed four pounds in a day. I usually average about one pound a day.”

He also has a rainbow gathering on his radar in his home state of Washington in September.

Grackle says good shoes are very important for the traveling lifestyle.  He said the ones he had on now were too big, so he needed to find new ones. — Grackle says good shoes are very important for the traveling lifestyle. He said the ones he had on now were too big, so he needed to find new ones.

Tips for Young Runaways and Fellow Travelers

As we leave him, we ask him if he is any advice for young runaways or kids living out in the open.

“Avoid hard drugs, a lot of people get caught up in meth or heroin. It can really mess you up if you develop habits,” he says. “Also don’t use needles, that’s when it gets really bad. I’ve had a few friends hospitalized or even killed by hard drugs and needles. “

Any positive insights to finish the interview? “Yeah, if a kid is on the streets, and lonely, they should come to a rainbow gathering. They can get started at www.welcomehome.org.”

Photos and Interviews for Our Town Reno in downtown Reno, August, 2016

Pan Pantoja, Leading the Path of Reno’s Potential

“To create, you must explore all of the disciplines of art. Whatever you make, you make," Pan explains during an introspective moment.

The Potentialist

If there’s a place where Reno’s full potential takes on bigger and better dimensions, with mind expanding creations by artists reclaiming their hold on how to live in our biggest little city, it could well be in a gritty, paint splattered street level space filled with works both in progress and completed, a trippy, clean, gallery, a topsy-turvy sculpture yard, a velvety theater, a music jammed basement, and a smashed front window turned into art with murals outside all around.

That would be one way to describe the Potentialist Workshop on 836 E. 2nd street.

“I’ve never named a spot the Potentialist before, and that’s what I am,” art director Pan Pantoja explains in between feeding a bottle to his infant son and adding items to an already busy fall calendar. “This is where I create my work. And sometimes my works involve a lot of people. 257 people are using this space almost daily. In some form or another we collaborate on greater projects. We encourage our people here to be multi-disciplinary and to have multi-potentialities.”

A space baby mural by Pan. "We needed to cover poorly done graffiti that was done on the side of the building. My boy was just born when I did this. "

Pan often recites his foundational spoken word poem when asked what exactly a potentialist can be. It begins like this: “I am a Potentialist and I want to take it too far. I want to leap off the edge of the energy I put out…”

Turning Buildings Into Art Spaces

A Butte, Montana, native, who sold his first painting when he was 6, Pan has had a habit of turning buildings into collective art spaces or what he calls his sculptures. Rising rents and new projects have kept him moving, including in Reno, but he seems set on continuing this project, at least right now. Shoes he used in previous work are part of an art piece he keeps near the front door.

“This one is called Golden Carrot. It’s made of all of my work shoes for five years and rollers for the murals I did for three years. I purposefully bought the same cheap style of shoe knowing I was going to turn them into this.”

From Criminology to Puppeteering

Pan has degrees in criminology, sociology and counseling. He’s a teacher, filmmaker, monument maker, muralist, student project leader, sculptor, actor, playwright, puppeteer, author, painter, poet, the list goes on. He also gets invited to “Reimagine Reno” type get-togethers.

Shmork, who “steals money from the average, but gets away with it” is part of a current puppet show going on until August 14th called Power .

Our Town Reno wanted to get insight about where the city might be headed generally and in terms of art as nowhere it seems are the #keeprenorad, #keeprenoartsy, #keeprenoweird hashtags we use on our Instagram feed, more put forward than in this Potentialist space.

“This is acrylic on brick. The cash cow’s got our building on his back, with a little bird of hope at the top.”

Our Interview

What do you tell people who have thought of becoming an artist?

“You’ll probably barely get by. You’re either an artist or you’re not. You’re either bat shit insane or you’re not. Everyone can do art and it’s good for everyone. But artists they cannot do anything else. I’ve been doing this my whole life… But I’ll say this …. what the world needs is more healers, and more artists, and more creators and a lot less billionaires. Trump, Kardashian, get real. That needs to end now. That needs to be the most uncool thing, not the most cool thing.”

The gallery space currently showcases the work of Guy Gilmore. This piece is called “Pennyroyal Tea”. “It looks to be a crazy broken doll holding a dead bird. You would put the water in the head and it comes out of the bird’s mouth. Enjoy your tea.”

It seems something exciting might be happening in Reno right now though, in terms of arts and artists. Do you agree?

“This is the wild west. Here, anything you can dream of, you can do. If you have the drive, you can do it. It’s getting set, don’t get me wrong, but there is not a set way here yet. To some of us, that’s very exciting. I think eventually, they’ll write about Reno like they did about Seattle in the 1990s. I think what we’re doing now, when America looks at us, I think we’ll change America. Me and my friends are taking over whole city blocks growing food, living off the grid, putting up our own solar panels. Those things they say are impossible, we’re doing it and have been doing for years. We can point to it. We don’t need to do things a certain way.”

“Some cats threw a rock through our window and so I just put the rock back in the window and turned it into this stain glass. That’s an example of you’re never wrong, learning to love anything, and creating from garbage.”

On the flip side, while there is talk about a Reno rebrand, or a reimagining of Reno, it seems we are seeing people displaced, empty lots, old motels to be demolished and not replaced, a lack of affordable spaces. Is that a concern for the future?

“As an artist, I get invited, for whatever reason, to these meetings with these suits. I can only assume it’s because they have no imagination. The way they do things, I can’t even see, it makes no sense to me whatsoever. Sometimes we yell at each other, but they keep inviting me back. We need to punish those who would let a place rot in order to make money. They shouldn’t be getting a break and get more money. They should be punished. They need to be taxed. And that tax money can go to beautification until they fill those buildings. For a company to let blight sit there is ridiculous. I’ve already been run off two streets that I helped fix in this city. It’s getting more and more gentrified.”

Weighing some of this, should more people join the art world then?

“They’ve made it so it’s the same risk. All of you might as well go be artists. Quit your jobs. Quit helping these people. Let them tank and do your own thing. I can’t stress that to everyone enough.”

A painting someone made of Pan’s Potentialist poem is near the front door.

Art shows are held evenings at the Potentialist in the four pm to midnight range Thursdays to Sundays, with at least one never before seen production a month, with additional participatory art throughout the week, including spoken word and improv comedy. There’s also a full recording studio in the basement, a band practice room, artist studio spaces, and a sculpture yard for those interested in making their own creations.

Interview and photos at the Potentialist Workshop, August 2016. Note: Some of the questions were rearranged and answers trimmed for clarity.

Hagen Sandoval, Documenting the Rise and Fall of the Mapes Hotel

The “Believe”-adorned plaza in downtown Reno, where once stood the Mapes Hotel in all its glory and demise, or “The Queen of Virginia Street” as Hagen Sandoval calls it, is empty on a recent Sunday morning.

Hagen holds the Reno Gazette-Journal covering the Jan 30, 2000, demolition, which took just a few seconds and 75 pounds of dynamite to wipe out more than 50 years of history.

Remembering the Demolition

“I was 4 years old when it was torn down. I briefly remember watching a building come down on television but at the time I didn’t know anything about it. And then in high school I really got into it. I love history. I love anything about Reno. But all the history we have in this town just slowly seems to disappear. Back then, buildings were built to stay. You look at the post office. It wasn’t as temporary as buildings seem to be these days.”

“The plans were made in the 1930s and it was built in the 1940s. It was very modern but at the same time very classic. Compared to today’s hotels it was tiny. 300 rooms is nothing.”

Digging Through the Days When Reno was The Mapes

Sandoval, a sixth-generation Renoite still striving for a journalism degree after several attempts, works in the mortgage lending business by day, and then spends his spare time on a documentary film project about the Mapes.

“I’d rather read through newspaper clippings than go out,” he says.

Hagen shows an old photo of the Mapes provided by Neal Cobb, a local photo collector. “This is Reno, probably 1947 or 48. That’s the entire town, and there’s this structure standing tall and that’s the Mapes. The place had class.  Everybody wen… — Hagen shows an old photo of the Mapes provided by Neal Cobb, a local photo collector. “This is Reno, probably 1947 or 48. That’s the entire town, and there’s this structure standing tall and that’s the Mapes. The place had class. Everybody went there. If you wanted to meet someone, or if you wanted to be seen in town, you went to the Mapes. I think Reno lacks that. ”

Personal Connections and Celebrities

His own great-grandfather who worked over three decades for the Reno fire department once met John Wayne at the Mapes.

“It was a celebrity town back then. You also didn’t have to have backstage passes. People mingled at the Mapes. It was a more social town.”

Clark Gable, Gloria Mapes, Marilyn Monroe and Charlie Mapes at the Mapes during the early 1960s. “Those names do resonate because they are classics. Our generation is still motivated toward retro. Marilyn Monroe is still a huge icon. But people don’… — Clark Gable, Gloria Mapes, Marilyn Monroe and Charlie Mapes at the Mapes during the early 1960s. “Those names do resonate because they are classics. Our generation is still motivated toward retro. Marilyn Monroe is still a huge icon. But people don’t know the history of the Mapes.” The last film for both Gable and Monroe was the Misfits in 1961 and they were brought to the Mapes during its filming.

High School Projects

Hagen’s own passion for the Mapes dates back to high school projects.

“The more research I did, the more I found out about this place, it was something special. The more people I met who knew about the Mapes, they showed their passion and their love for such a place. This was just a hotel but to many people it was a place where they had some of their most important memories, their high school prom. My great-grandmother who actually got me interested in the Mapes had her 21st birthday in the Sky Room (the nightclub at the Mapes). Her mother worked in the coffee shop as a waitress. It was a big employer in this town. Those personal connections give me the drive to keep going. This place meant something to people.”

A Flyer for the Mapes from the 1970s. “Towards the end it started to class down. It was a cheaper hotel towards the end. Big name entertainment there ended around the late 1960s. But even when it was closed people would come downtown and say wow tha… — A Flyer for the Mapes from the 1970s. “Towards the end it started to class down. It was a cheaper hotel towards the end. Big name entertainment there ended around the late 1960s. But even when it was closed people would come downtown and say wow that’s a pretty building and wonder why is it closed? It was still magnificent but it was neglected.”

The 'Interview of the Century'

One of his first interviews was with Gloria Mapes Walker. She co-owned The Mapes Hotel and Casino, with her brother Charles, before competition from other casinos, the recession and the failure of another casino they opened, The Money Tree, forced them to close their Art Deco structure in 1982, 35 years after its opening.

“I was so excited. For me, this was like the interview of the century. To me, she was such a celebrity. She was living in south Reno. And I guarantee you if you ask someone my age, they would have no idea who Gloria Mapes was. She was very closed up, extremely closed up. I also had no tape, I just had my notes. She’s since passed (in 2014). I’ve had a lot of conversations and interviews and notes, but I need more on camera interviews. A lot of people know about the fall of the Mapes, but much less about the Mapes itself.”

“When you watch footage from the demolition, you hear some people cheering, but then you hear some people crying. This was the end of a time period for them. This was where their memories were. I think their memories are still there and that’s what … — “When you watch footage from the demolition, you hear some people cheering, but then you hear some people crying. This was the end of a time period for them. This was where their memories were. I think their memories are still there and that’s what I would like to preserve. People should know about the Mapes. It’s scary how quickly many people can forget something which played such a vital role in our community. “

Unanswered Questions

Hagen still doesn’t understand why the Mapes wasn’t saved. It was last owned by the Reno Redevelopment Agency, the city’s economic development arm. Unanswered questions are part of his documentary’s quest.

“They had six proposals to renovate the Mapes when they voted to demolish the hotel in 1999. They rejected all of them. What I want to know is why was the city so quick to tear down a place to have a city plaza. I have a lot of questions which I’m looking to answer. We also need to talk about its legacy. It was the first place to have entertainment and gaming and lodging all under one roof. For ten years, it was the tallest building in the entire state, twelve stories."

An article from San Francisco from right before the demolition was titled: "Lady Luck Jilts the Mapes. Reno landmark casino has one last chance before being blown up."

Why was the city of Reno so quick to tear it down?

"It was built so you could add another wing. It could still be here, but it sat vacant for 20 years and no one did anything with it besides stripping all of the hotel of its hardware, locks, everything. It just fell into disrepair. When the city got it, they just saw it as an eyesore. But they were too quick to tear it down. Why were they so quick to tear it down? Why couldn’t the Mapes be saved? Was the construction really faulty as some people say? You hear both sides. But the Mapes was very modern, as far as architecture. A lot of what they attribute to tearing it down was that the rooms were too small. But any building can be saved. It just takes a matter of motivation.”

“This article is so passive aggressive.  It says Reno the Biggest Little City in the World is apparently not big enough for the Mapes hotel.” — “This article is so passive aggressive. It says Reno the Biggest Little City in the World is apparently not big enough for the Mapes hotel.”

Outside Coverage

The content of a New York Times article written after the demolition is now shocking to Hagen, as is the eerie emptiness of where the Mapes once stood.

“Jeff Griffin who was the mayor then said, we are building a new Reno. They said this is where Reno is heading. What we are going to put here is going to be extremely important. I don’t know that this is extremely important. It’s a beautiful plaza and it’s finally getting some art but is it the same thing with other properties we are going to tear down? I’m not saying motels we are tearing down have as much significance as I think the Mapes does but I think too often we’re too quick to dismiss history and move forward. What’s the new Reno now? Is it the same Reno they dreamed of in 2000?”

Hagen stands next to a small tribute to old buildings on West Street, which includes a broken terra cotta tile salvaged from the Mapes.  “I think it’s awesome. I wish it was closer. It would have been cool if they would have incorporated this i… — Hagen stands next to a small tribute to old buildings on West Street, which includes a broken terra cotta tile salvaged from the Mapes. “I think it’s awesome. I wish it was closer. It would have been cool if they would have incorporated this into the new downtown plaza where the Mapes used to be."

Believing in Awareness for the Past and Revitalization

Hagen, who sees himself as a future preservationist now building awareness, and saving stories from the past, is also a strong believer in revitalization for old structures still standing.

“I’m extremely impressed with what they’ve done with the post office building. That’s what we need more of. It saddens me to think there was a point in our city’s history they weren’t focussed on preserving the past. The only way you can move forward is to learn from what you did in the past and from what your strengths were.”

For any tips, suggestions, help, or comments, Hagen can be reached by email at mapeshotel@gmail.com or via his film’s Facebook page “Reno’s Mapes Hotel: The Queen of Virginia Street”.

Hagen is now trying to collect as many historical videos and pictures as he can, in addition to on-camera interviews. He welcomes any help or suggestions for his documentary project. Photos and interview for Our Town Reno on July 31, 2016.

Christian, Playing the Didgeridoo On the Streets

Christian Montgomery, 40, gently asks for some money in downtown Reno on a hot, dry morning, trying to get money to buy some coffee. He’s going through a rough patch, having had lots of his possessions recently stolen from his shopping cart.

"I’m just holding on to my life,” Christian says of recently being robbed of many of his possessions after getting some money from a passerby to get some coffee.

“There’s a group of people in Reno that goes around stealing people’s stuff. I was one of the unlucky people who got robbed. I’m down to nothing almost. At least they didn’t steal my Didgeridoo. My girlfriend is holding on to my cell phone so that doesn’t disappear."

What's Left In the Cart

“I’ve got rugs in there to lay down on the ground, a blow torch and a Didgeridoo.”

Playing, Selling and Teaching the Didgeridoo

The Didgeridoo is a wind instrument developed by Indigenous Australians. Christian plays the instrument, usually by the arches in downtown Reno. “It sounds like a low growl, with some barking in it. You do the circular breathing thing. It’s entrancing. I discovered it at a hippie shop as a kid, and liked it ever since.”

So-called first amendment artisans are not required to obtain a business license, but Christian says some officers think you need to get a sound permit. “That’s $35 but they’ll usually leave me alone. It’s up to them to decide if you’re a douchebag, or if they want to mess with you really.”

Christian usually plays the instrument for money by the arches in downtown Reno. He also sells them custom-made for about $100. “I cut them out of conduit, hammer out a mouthpiece and fan one side out. I can bend it a little or keep it straight depe… — Christian usually plays the instrument for money by the arches in downtown Reno. He also sells them custom-made for about $100. “I cut them out of conduit, hammer out a mouthpiece and fan one side out. I can bend it a little or keep it straight depending on the sound you want out of it.”

Back in His Hometown

He says he’s been living on the streets for about 10 years, previously in San Diego, the Bay Area and Portland and back in Reno for the past three years, where he was born and raised.

“Reno has everything other places on the West Coast have and more. I came to realize my hometown is probably one of the coolest places on the West Coast. There’s a ton of good people in Reno. There’s enough good people in Reno to help you get up and moving if you need help.”

He says he has some money saved, but doesn’t like renting out apartments or staying at the shelter, even though he says he’s been arrested a few times because of his situation.

Christian says he's also available for lessons if you can find him.

Dreams of His Own Place

He says he’d like to buy his own lot or his own place if he finds something he can afford. In the meantime, he doesn’t understand why police don’t let him be at spots he finds usually not far from the Truckee river.

“You have people who don’t have homes, but they need to sleep too. You need a place to prepare your food. If you’re poor, you shouldn’t have to live like an animal. You should be able to sleep and be left alone, without being bothered. Usually anywhere you go, you eventually get bothered and run off.”

He understands though that when too many homeless congregate in one area, it doesn’t always work out well.

“You can’t just pee all over the place, and dump your garbage all over the place and expect it to look and smell nice and for people to be ok with that.”

Stephanie, Once Homeless While Pregnant, Now ‘Thriving’

Stephanie Taitano remembers all too vividly the harrowing days in Reno eight years ago when she was more than eight months pregnant, separated from her boyfriend, and without the money she needed to make rent.

Looking back through a box of mementos, Stephanie says becoming homeless while pregnant helped turn her life around.

“The recession was happening. It was happening everywhere. I was working at Atlantis in the buffet and they kept cutting my hours further and further, and I just couldn’t afford my rent anymore. I was supposed to stay with another friend, but that fell through. I hit rock bottom. For me, it was the scariest thing. My Dad even offered me to go back to Seattle, but I just couldn’t see myself living with my parents again.”

The Family Shelter to the Rescue

Luckily, she says, the Volunteers of America Family Shelter in downtown Reno, which had just opened a maternity ward, saved her. “It was the best thing that ever happened to me,” she remembers, even if it took some major adjustments.

“There’s always someone out there. There are resources. You just have to meet the right people who can help you. If you truly want help for yourself, if you truly are scared, you shouldn’t be afraid of others, including the city of Reno, which helps… — “There’s always someone out there. There are resources. You just have to meet the right people who can help you. If you truly want help for yourself, if you truly are scared, you shouldn’t be afraid of others, including the city of Reno, which helps those in dire need with children. Good things do line up if you go and look for them, if you seek help. You won’t regret it.”

“I was freaked out. I was so scared. I didn’t talk to anyone in the shelter for two weeks. I didn’t know who these people were. I was so afraid. But there were some good people there. You are going to find those who can’t learn a lesson. They are going through a spiral and they may not learn from it. Their poor children are being dragged through it. But there are also people who are going through hard times, and things happen, and there’s help. The shelter may be a first stepping stone. That’s what happened for me.”

A New Life

She got help to apply for Medicaid. Her son was delivered at Renown on Jan, 20, 2009, just as President Obama was being inaugurated so Stephanie gave him Barack as a middle name. Becoming a mother also changed her life.

Stephanie says in her previous life, she partied too much, drank too much and looked for love in the wrong places.

“Before I had my child, I was living a very partying type lifestyle. I worked in casinos where alcohol was available at all times with bartenders who would hook you up."

Climbing Upward

Stephanie stayed six months at the shelter. A social worker signed her up for food stamps and helped get her own subsidized place in an apartment building she still lives in. She got help with child care and decided to go back to school.

“Everything was realigned. I started from scratch. Because of the shelter I ended up in college. I didn’t want my son to see homelessness ever again or the fear of not having food or shelter. I purposefully chose to do something for him.”

"My son is an angel.  He’s here so that I can learn how to love and see someone else grow and not think about myself so much. That’s why I’m thriving right now because of him. I am trying to create a world he’s going to live in, and before I di… — "My son is an angel. He’s here so that I can learn how to love and see someone else grow and not think about myself so much. That’s why I’m thriving right now because of him. I am trying to create a world he’s going to live in, and before I didn’t really care much.”

Child Advocacy

Stephanie has decided her long term goal is to become an advocate for children, especially those in poverty or from abusive households.

“The shelter made me realize what poverty can do to a kid. When you’re in the shelter I would say keep it light if you can for young children. Let them know it’s not forever, it’s not the end, but just part of the adventure. Kids don’t need to know all the facts of what’s going on. They are in a different way of thinking."

Advice: "I know it’s hard for homeless parents, and it’s ok to cry, it’s ok to be scared. The shelter is a hard place to be but you can explain to your kids that things will change.”

A Difficult Journey

Stephanie’s own childhood and early adulthood were mired in constant difficulties.

“I didn’t come from the best home. I lived in foster care for a while, with three different foster homes. They kicked me out when I was 18. My childhood was very disruptive. When you have lost trust in adults, it’s especially hard. I went through that and tried to find love in the wrong places because I was confused.”

She now teaches physical education in the local school system, making $10 an hour, and works summers in activity camps with the City of Reno.

Stephanie has keys to her own place, her car and her work, but still relies on government help she's very grateful for.

Even though she gets government help and works, she sometimes seeks extra help in charity food lines.

“I’m not embarrassed to say it, but it’s a little humbling, Food prices have gone up. Everything is going up. Fruit has gone up a lot. Fruit is so sky high it’s easier to buy boxed food and they are wondering why we are having an obesity epidemic. I myself am always fighting my weight. I know it’s easier to buy the things that last. With everything going up, it’s keeping people poor. I get help for my rent. If I didn’t have that, I don’t know if I’d be able to stay in school.”

Help Don't Judge

She doesn’t understand why some people look down on people in our community who beg for money.

“We’re seeing a lot of people out on the streets asking for money. Some of them are doing it because they really need it. Some of them are doing it because we are giving it to them. I say we can’t judge. You never know until you’re in their shoes, what’s going on in that person’s life. I know because I’ve been there. I was homeless. I was scared. I had no one. You can’t judge the homeless. You can’t judge a family with a whole bunch of kids. We need to pay attention to how we can help people and less about judging them.”

“Whatever the challenges, I feel like I’ve made it.  The homeless shelter showed me what can happen, good or bad." — “Whatever the challenges, I feel like I’ve made it. The homeless shelter showed me what can happen, good or bad."

Stephanie is scheduled to graduate next Spring with a UNR bachelor’s in human development and family studies. She hopes to go to graduate school next.

"Fear still comes into my life once in a while but I don’t let it thrive. I know where I am going, so I strive because of that.”

Bean, Giving Back in Memory and Mourning of Her Homeless Father

There’s a just started crossword puzzle with neat writing. There’s a book with a page marker in the middle. There’s a dirty shirt inside a plastic bag. There’s a fateful bus ticket marked January 27, 2006.

Bean holds dear the bags her homeless Dad kept at a shelter, which were sent to her after his killing.

These are items Bean keeps with her to this day in her bedroom in two bags which belonged to her homeless dad. Thomas Leech was killed getting off that bus in the rain in a hit and run car crash when he was 52.

“It always feels like yesterday,” Bean remembers on a sunny day at a bakery in Reno. “When you know your dad is on the streets, you figure you are going to get a call from the cops one day that something horrible happened, and I got that call one day.”

Bean was her father's only child.  He no longer lived with her though by the time she was one. — Bean was her father's only child. He no longer lived with her though by the time she was one.

Prized Possessions

The shelter he was staying at sent her the two bags. They are still neatly organized as they were when she received them with a towel, an old cap. cutlery, pens, newspapers, foot powder and many other useful items for a man who lived on the streets.

”I only take his stuff out when I feel like crying. It’s rough,” Bean says. “It’s like a historical moment in time. These bags have found a home with me. I was his only kid.”

The stay at home mom, who is also a Girl Scout troop leader, keeps everything in her bedroom closet, with picture books she’s made from old photographs sent by relatives, and even her Dad’s ponytail he had once sent to her. “Why would I throw it away?” she asks.

An avid reader, this was the last unfinished book Bean's father was reading.

Helping the Homeless and Vagrants

In her Dad’s memory, Bean also helps the homeless everywhere she finds them. She says she sees her father in every drifter in a park, in food lines, in a parking lot, along the river, on a sidewalk.

“When I was a teenager I started volunteering because I was trying to find my Dad. I knew he was on the streets and he would go to soup kitchens, so I started volunteering at the Detroit Rescue Mission and I would help with holiday meals and serve there. I’ve always felt connected to that community because of my Dad. I would start seeing him in every guy, but I never found him there. I kind of feel like every guy with a backpack walking around downtown is my Dad. And so I want to help them in any way that I can.”

This is one of the hygiene kits Bean has assembled to leave behind in a restroom as a surprise gift to someone like her Dad who could use it.

Bean leaves winter hats she makes on tables at the downtown library during cold months. She donates money and helpful items to the shelters her Dad used to stay in. She started a sock donation drive for the homeless in Reno. She has Girl Scouts leave hygiene kits behind in bathrooms as a surprise gift for whoever might need one.

A Daughter’s Advice

Does Bean have any advice for anyone who has a homeless relative, or anyone who cares about the homeless?

“Just give more. It helps you feel better. It helps you know you are making a difference even if it’s not directly your own family member’s life, it can be in someone else’s life, because we all did start out as someone’s beloved little baby. My Dad was his mom’s favorite. She loved him to death. When he died, I sent his ashes back to be with his mother’s ashes which an uncle took care of. She died a year before he did, and he didn’t even know she was dead. Everybody should smile more, especially to people they meet on the streets. So many people feel invisible. Eye contact and a smile can really mean a lot. If you don’t have anything else to give, give that.”

A tattoo in honor of her Dad.  He "was homeless because he wanted life to be as uncomplicated and free from obligation as possible," she was quoted as saying in an article shortly after his death. — A tattoo in honor of her Dad. He "was homeless because he wanted life to be as uncomplicated and free from obligation as possible," she was quoted as saying in an article shortly after his death.

Another Car Crash Scarred Her Dad

“When he was a teenager he got in a car accident with his friends and he was dragged on the street and he was in a coma for a while and had to relearn how to walk and talk. I think because of that brain injury he’d been in a downward spiral all his life. He was just never the same after that.”

A picture Bean keeps of her Dad of when he was in the service before being medically discharged.

He enlisted, but got a medical discharge in 1974. Despite his mental health issues, Bean’s mom thought he was hot. She loved his thick mustache and wavy hair. But he was out of Bean’s life before she was one.

“I loved him to death and he loved me too. Above all else, I always knew that. I talked to him on my birthday every year when I was a kid. I saw him once when I was a kid at an aunt’s house. He was pretty cool. He loved the Beatles and Grace Slick. He followed her around the country one summer.”

Bean treasures the craft books she has made with mementos and pictures of her Dad's past.

Life on the Road

Her Dad moved to Oklahoma in the early 1980s, and then moved to even warmer weather which he liked in Texas, where he would travel between San Antonio and Forth Worth, and work day labor jobs when he could find them.

Father and daughter would call each other from time to time. She’d get news from people working at the shelter where he stayed. He told her he loved Thanksgiving and Christmas. “He loved feasting, who doesn’t?”

A picture Bean keeps on her phone is from the last time she was with her Dad.

A Visit Cut Short

When she was 18 or 19 and living in Tahoe in the late 1990s, she can’t remember the year exactly, her Dad came to visit, but his stay was cut short.

“His brother gave him money for a Greyhound bus ticket out here, and he stayed for a few weeks. We got along well but he didn’t like it that it was cold. And then he got arrested for vagrancy in Reno and he was given a bus ticket back to Texas by a sheriff bus ticket program and so he went back to Texas. It was part of his release that they gave him a bus ticket out of town.”

Some of the items her Dad always had with him: tobacco, foot powder, caps and newspapers he loved to read. — Some of the items her Dad always had with him: tobacco, foot powder, caps and newspapers he loved to read.

It was the last time she would see him.

“He called me back in Texas. He was embarrassed. He didn’t want me to take care of him. I think he was happy I had a good life and he got to see it. And then it was back to the same old, same old. He didn’t want to live in my house and mooch off me.”

After his death in Fort Worth, Texas, in 2006, a reporter did an investigation and was able to interview Bean and other relatives. The article led to the driver coming forward and eventually serving time. He died of cancer five years after getting out.

Discrimination

Bean first got in contact with Our Town Reno angered by an anti-homeless discriminatory sign outside a McDonald’s on Keystone Ave.

"It’s obvious discrimination. I know if I went there as a middle aged white mom with two plastic bags that I wouldn’t get kicked out of that McDonald’s. I wouldn’t because I don’t look like I’m homeless. But my Dad was. Sometimes I take guys to that McDonald’s and I’ve gone in there and bought guys lunch. They don’t get kicked out when they are with me, but otherwise they would. A guy I met a couple of months ago was really nervous going in. That’s just not right. The discrimination is deep.”

“Why do we judge people because they’re broke? It made me really mad," Bean says — “Why do we judge people because they’re broke? It made me really mad," Bean says

Improving the Plight of Homeless in Reno

"Showers would be cool or if places which had showers would give out tickets for specific times.”

Does Bean have any overall advice for Reno/Sparks politicians to improve the plight of the homeless here?

“I would say let people sleep in parks. I don’t see what the problem is with letting people sleep in public parks. Don’t our property taxes pay for their maintenance? I wish that park bathrooms were open 24 hours. I wish that there was access to clean water for 24 hours, a pump, a spigot or something to fill up water jugs. "

Is there anything that hasn’t been done here which also seems doable now to help the homeless?

“We should have some kind of boarding house. You could even just pay one dollar for one night and get a decent breakfast. I would love to open one of those, but I don’t have the money, which is always a barrier for every good project. A hostel with a shared kitchen wouldn’t that be great? We don’t have any kind of hostels here, or a public campground, that’s cheap, with running water, a bathroom and a pay shower. How easy would that be? There are so many empty gravel lots you could build on. You could have a tiny house village, rather than having piles of gravel. There are several big abandoned motel lots which are also near all the services for the homeless which could be used for that.”

The unfinished crossword puzzle with the neat handwriting went back in her Dad's old bags, as we finished the interview.

Bean then puts all the pictures away, zips up the two bags, and holds them close to her heart, her eyes moist, before lugging everything of her Dad’s she holds so dear back to her home.

Niesha, Guerrilla Gardening and Activist Camping Along the River

While glowing media reports about police outreach were quickly followed by citations to homeless living along the Truckee River in Sparks, activists with the local Food Not Bombs chapter decided to increase their presence there.

Niesha Jones (center) goes up and down the path along the Truckee River with other activists to help the homeless living there.

This past Monday, in addition to holding their weekly evening food and water distribution at Fisherman’s Park, activists also pitched a tent within other tents further along the river path to have a permanent, around the clock place for monitoring and support teams.

Setting up the Tent: Niesha and other activists found a flat spot with enough shadow where they could have an on the ground base of operations to help others.

The activists also started guerrilla gardening cucumbers and tomato vines.

Our Town Reno interviewed Niesha, who also works in Reno with Resource Action Programs, building kits to teach children how to save energy and water.

The activists with Food Not Bombs try to establish pesticide free, public gardens wherever they can.

What was your reaction to last week’s positive media reports about police outreach within the encampments?

The media portrays the police as trustworthy so of course no one is going to question it. Second, the police are trying to be looked at in a better light because of everything that’s happening in America right now. Anytime they have a good story they put it out there.

Niesha (r) takes part in healthy food distribution for the homeless at Fisherman's Park every Monday evening.

How do you think most people view the homeless among us?

Everywhere in America right now people are thinking of homeless people not as people but just as a thing, a homeless, not what their name is. When they do see the homeless they usually don’t know how much they are in need. They don’t bother to find out. Most of Reno doesn’t know about the situation here.

The activist camp is set up with a cardboard message for police. Photo provided by Food Not Bombs.

Why is it important to help the homeless?

We all have our time when we are down and out. We all need help, whether we want to ask for it or not. Homeless people need that same help. Even just talking to them. If you don’t have time to come join us on Monday evenings, you can still come here and pass out your own water bottles and sandwiches.

More plants for the homeless, who said they appreciated the help and healthy food.

Photos and Interview by Our Town Reno, July 2016, along the Truckee River in Sparks

City Council OKs Motel Demolition Despite Vocal Opposition

Inside Reno City Council Chambers, July 6, 2016

The mayor's 'favorite artist' Rich VanGogh was disappointed by Hillary Schieve and the three other council members who were present on July 6, 2016, after they approved city funds to demolish two downtown Virginia street motels. The properties the motels now occupy will remain in the ownership of the mysterious group called the Northern Nevada Urban Development company.

In the rear view mirror: Despite opposition from vocal activists that Reno was putting profits over people, City Council approved the use of blight funds to demolish these two motels on Virginia Street, even though they will remain in the property o… — In the rear view mirror: Despite opposition from vocal activists that Reno was putting profits over people, City Council approved the use of blight funds to demolish these two motels on Virginia Street, even though they will remain in the property of a group of developers who have refused recent offers to sell their downtown lots. The Mayor said the demolition would give the city more leverage on the razed areas, as developers would eventually need to pay back the demolition cost.

The demolition approval, which took just seconds after more than 90 minutes of public comment, gave those against, including VanGogh, a heightened sense of loss and misguided priorities.

"They're going to use $230-thousand dollars. I am still totally opposed to it. I would much rather see that money go to ending blight in another way, not by tearing something down but by fixing something up."

VanGogh, who unsuccessfully ran for the Ward 1 council seat in the most recent primary, brought some of his views to City Council on July 6, 2016

VanGogh gave the example of the Art Deco historic district in Miami as an example to think about, with its saved 1920s, 30s and 40s structures .

"I know we can't compare these two things but if you look at all the mom and pop hotels on 4th street and you rehab them all as a set, that's a weird funky kind of architecture that we're known for, that's part of our shtick so I think they should fix them up and put that money to some other use," he said.

City Council members were shown photos of the motel structures they decided to demolish as part of a "fight on blight" and remaking downtown.

Councilman Oscar Delgado used the word "slumlords" to describe the developers, who are usually only identified as a group of 62 investors who bought several downtown properties and lots pre-recession. Real estate developer Ken Krater called them "mom and pop investors". Delgado said he would have saved other motels, but that these were on Virginia Street, which he called the main corridor essential to Reno.

Media reports usually indicate the group had plans to build a large mixed-use development, but it never happened. Their website has contact information and a tagline that reads "The Reno Renaissance".

Before the vote, activists spoke about keeping all opportunities for affordable housing intact and not helping developers with city money. Representatives of business interests and city staff spoke in favor of the demolition.

Fuzz, Looking Out for Homeless Friends and Wary of Police

Along the Truckee River near the Sparks/Reno Line, July 4, 2016

Kenneth Norton, better known as Fuzz, says homeless here just want to be left alone, but that they face constant police harassment. July 4, 2016

Visiting Friends on Independence Day

It’s July 4th, 2016, and Kenneth Norton, better known as “Fuzz”, is visiting homeless friends living in tents and sleeping bags along the Truckee River bank opposite the Grand Sierra Resort, making sure everyone is ok on Independence Day. For these area residents permanently living in the outdoors, though, the long weekend did not get off to a good start.

One day after positive media reports came out about police, homeless residents here say they were issued citations for illegal camping. July 4, 2016

Calling Police 'Help' Into Question

Last Friday, one day after media in Reno released glowing reports about Sparks and Reno police doing outreach here coinciding with the opening of a new overflow shelter, he says many received citations for illegal camping. Most, he says, ripped up the citations, even though they are due to appear in court later this month.

“They started ticketing us for being out here, for being around the river, for camping, for being homeless. They are telling us to move on out of town.”

As homeless camping areas have increasingly been fenced off or disbanded in Reno, many tents are now on the Sparks side of the Truckee river bank. July 4, 2016

Staying Away from Shelters, But Having to Deal with Police

Norton, like most others here, doesn’t want to stay in a shelter, where pets, like the two dogs he has as companions, aren’t allowed. He also say the shelters are dirty with lots of stealing going on.

Despite the recent media reports, Norton says police haven’t been friendly at all.

“They’ve been harassing us really early in the morning, often before five in the morning, honking their horns. They don’t come out to check if we are ok. They just want us to leave.”

Norton has been living here over a year, and he says there have been several unpleasant interactions with police.

“If we don’t fit in their society and their standards, we’re nothing to them, we’re just considered pests. Last year, two police officers started ripping up tents one morning, until someone said something and we asked for their sergeant’s badge number. They didn’t give it to us. They just left.”

Many homeless here say they rip up the citations they receive.  They say they keep the area clean, and want to be left alone. July 4, 2016 — Many homeless here say they rip up the citations they receive. They say they keep the area clean, and want to be left alone. July 4, 2016

Out of Prison, Into the Wild

Norton says he makes some money recycling cans, but since being released from a more than six-year prison stint in 2006, and losing access to his children, this is the lifestyle he prefers. Several times a month, he will pool resources with other friends here to get a motel room, take showers and clean up before returning to the river's bank.

In addition to police, Norton says there’s also a “homeless vigilante” from the nearby trailer park, who once shot his brother, wounding him seriously, and who keeps waking people up with a gun in their face telling them to get off the river.

Fuzz returns to his own spot along the river after checking up on his friends. July 4, 2016

Feeling Scorn

Fuzz also feels scorn from people who aren’t homeless walking down the river path.

“People from the quote unquote normal society, they’ve got jobs, they ride their bikes up and down the path. Everybody’s polite to them, but it seems they just don’t like the sight of us.”

What’s his message to police and local politicians?

“Leave us alone out here. We’re not doing anything wrong. Sometimes there’s a fight. Someone will get drunk and fight. But we’re not killing each other out here.”

What about a message for regular citizens on this 4th of July?

“Say hi instead of ‘oh gosh’ or say ‘how are you doing today?’ That’s about it. We’re misfits but we’re not bad people. Some of us bite but not all of us.”

Interview and pictures for Our Town Reno, July 4, 2016

Chad Galloway, A Painter in a Motel Room

During the recent Nada Dada, a yearly Reno tradition when local artists rent out motel rooms to display their art from there, painter Chad Galloway was in familiar surroundings: a cramped room of the Town House Motor Lodge on W. 2nd street where he’s been living for the past five years.

Chad poses in front of a work in progress painting possibly called “My Shadow”. “My paintings just come out and end up looking like they do," he said during a recent visit.  This photo was taken during Nada Dada 2016. — Chad poses in front of a work in progress painting possibly called “My Shadow”. “My paintings just come out and end up looking like they do," he said during a recent visit. This photo was taken during Nada Dada 2016.

A Nadaist

For Chad, it makes sense to be a “Nadaist”, even if some years bring more visitors and more sales than others.

“It’s a pretty good idea,” Chad said on a recent morning from inside his motel room, shades drawn, his paintings intricately filling up entire walls. “It’s real good for those of us who aren’t in gallery spaces to show what we can do.”

A detail of his motel room, where Chad's been living for about five years.

A Broken Car

Chad, an Indianapolis native, was driving through Reno in 2007 when his car broke down. He’s been living in the Biggest Little City ever since, and never got another car. He walks to work -- a nearby maintenance engineering job on the graveyard shift, to do his laundry, and up to a mile to go grocery shopping. “It’s good for my health to walk around,” he says.

After deciding to stay in Reno, Chad became an avid photographer taking city shots, before turning to painting two summers ago. “I was going to art galleries, and I saw a lot of other people’s stuff and I was like I can do that.”

His first painting on cardboard was based on an inside joke.

A Self-Taught Painter

His first painting was on cardboard. He watched YouTube tutorials to get tips. “It’s cheaper than going to classes,” he says.

Working with acrylics, oil, spray paint and enamel, he says “it’s fun creatively. I’m just getting started. It’s also a good stress reliever. It relaxes me”

He especially likes to paint mornings after his shift is over, or late at night and into early morning hours when he’s off. To get in the painting groove, he puts on his headphones and listens to “anything but hip-hop. I block out the world,” he says.

The church across the street should be safe if big development comes, but not the motel where Chad lives.

An Uncertain Living Space

Chad's current living arrangement may soon come crashing down though.

If plans to rebuild the entire West Second Street District were to go ahead, Chad says the motel he’s living in could be the first structure to be demolished.

“This would be where it starts at. They can’t tear down the El Cortez (across the way) and they can’t tear down the church (across the street) because those are both historical. It would be starting from this way out. The Greyhound bus station right by would also go.”

Chad says he understands all cities need to grow, but he still has some concerns.

“Some of the abandoned motels need to go. But for the ones still operating it’s going to be hard on the people living there, like the elderly, and your fixed-income people and your druggies.”

Cleaning day at the Motor Lodge. Photo taken in June 2016.

Not an Empty Space

Chad doesn’t like the term ‘empty space’ which is sometimes used to describe his neighborhood.

“It’s not empty space,” he says. “There are people living here, and you’ve got small businesses. I just don’t like that term.”

He knows there are problems though. One Nada Dada artist who stayed at the Motor Lodge for the first time in June complained of waking up with his arm full of bites.

Cheap, convenient and easy to access are some of the reasons many motel rooms fill up in Reno, and serve as housing for Reno's low-income population.

Police and Crazies

“There’s problems here,” Chad says. “If we don’t see the police, it’s not an ordinary day. Police are here a lot. We have a lot of crazies here.”

Chad says most people stay here because it’s fairly affordable and convenient. He says most long term residents pay between $500 and $600 a month. He prefers to pay his sum on a weekly basis, because "if you get kicked out, they don't pay you back for your month."

A detail of some of the paintings covering up Chad's motel room. He says he wouldn't mind becoming a full-time painter if he could sell more of his work.

'Flinging Paint'

Chad says he may ride it out though, and stay in his motel room until he’s forced to go. He says he also plans to keep “on flinging paint. It gives me something to do, and keeps me out of trouble.” But he says he needs to sell more of his paintings or else he might run out of space to put them up in his motel room.

You can follow or contact Chad Galloway here https://www.facebook.com/chad.galloway.9

Interviews and Photos for Our Town Reno, June 2016.

Aria Overli, an Anthropologist Working for a Better 'University Town'

Reno, in the Displacement Block, June 2016

The dilapidated homes are boarded up haphazardly, sidewalks are cracked more than ever, residents are nowhere in sight — but UNR student, “public anthropologist” and activist Aria Overli remains upbeat and clear-minded. She has come along for a few pictures a few days before the landlord's June 30th deadline of turning this entire downtown block into a demolition zone to give way for high end student housing.

Aria Overli is a UNR student who has concerns about how the university and its elected student leaders claim the mantle of speaking on behalf of the entire student body.

Before we leave, mumbling workers spit words in our direction. An agitated woman follows us in her car photographing us.

Many Questions In Search of Better Answers

How did this overall situation come to be? How could Reno be a better university town? What is public anthropology? What was the reaction to Aria's recent Reno Gazette-Journal op-ed titled: “City Council Should Have Prioritized Residents Over Sidewalks”? (Not much actually). Where does Aria's courage to speak out come from? Our Town Reno wanted to find out.

Why do sidewalks usually only get fixed when wealthier individuals come into a long overlooked area?

Rattling Business as Usual in Reno and UNR

Aria, a fast-talking, full of ideas native of Carson City, with a Bachelor’s from UCLA, says she got angry when the Iraq War started back when she was a teenager. She hasn’t looked back since on being a progressive. Aria became involved in the homeless issue in Reno when a group got kicked out from under the Wells Avenue bridge last year.

She also gets angry when elected student leaders and university officials say they speak on behalf of the entire student body. She says Reno and UNR don’t have much of an organizing culture but she wants to help change that and throttle the powers that be to put pressure so there can be more affordable housing and wider access to education.

Homes where ex-convicts and participants in rehab programs could easily get cheap rooms for rent in a convenient downtown area are now all boarded up.

Here are excerpts of a recent Q and A from the safer confines of the off-campus Bibo coffee shop.

What is a public anthropologist?

It’s about going out into the community and effecting change. It’s not just publishing in journals and hoping ideas trickle down to the masses. It’s about trying to be a positive force and providing solutions. (Aria is currently in UNR’s cultural anthropology master’s program). We take people’s words and people’s lives and we try to contextualize these realities within larger systems such as neo-liberalism or capitalism. I work side by side with research participants. They serve as co-authors.

Just walking around and taking pictures from the sidewalk, we were made to feel unwelcome by people working on boarding up homes on the displacement block.

The current displacement on the downtown block has been presented as one part of expanding Reno into a so-called “university town”. What are your current thoughts about this situation?

I don’t oppose the idea of a university town but I see community development as being most productive when all people are included, rather than trying to force people out. This is also a student welfare issue because with rising prices of rent, with a lack of access to high paying jobs, with high amounts of student debt, many students who are graduating are going to be pushed out of living in Reno because they just can’t afford it.

Low-income students were among those living on this soon to be demolished block, where few belongings remain.

How can we make it a better university town then?

I think it’s expanding the idea of education to the community as a whole. We say that education is the key and it is, but when so many people are pushed out of education, then it’s only a key to maintaining the system that exists for the most wealthy and for the most privileged at the moment. When you have a university town, I think it should mean providing university to everyone, regardless of your income, and not just pushing it out so only people who currently have access continue to have access to it, and don’t have to see the people who don’t have access to it, which is basically the tack they are taking now. There should be programs and resources available to the entire community if we are going to make it a university town.

No longer wanted here: Residents on the block are being moved, so the old homes can be demolished and the block can be sold to an out of state developer to build high-end student housing.

How crucial is the issue of affordable housing, including for UNR students?

Students have just as much trouble finding affordable housing. They’ve largely been ignored too. They say this new housing on this block we are talking about will be for students, but at $800 a unit a month, that’s not feasible for most students. The graduate student housing on campus is $1,000 a month usually and so most graduate students can’t afford that when we are being paid $700 a month to teach classes. We need affordable housing downtown.

Time to pack up: City council members have said they are leading a fight on blight, and making Reno into a university town, but some activists worry there is collateral damage, including displacement, and making life more difficult for lower income … — Time to pack up: City council members have said they are leading a fight on blight, and making Reno into a university town, but some activists worry there is collateral damage, including displacement, and making life more difficult for lower income individuals.

What about Reno’s fight on blight?

The city of Reno never saw improving this neighborhood, these sidewalks, these roads as necessary or important for the disabled, the elderly, the low-income students now living here and walking to school until all of a sudden the idea that wealthy students were going to be living here and then all of a sudden it became a priority for them.

We’re concerned with the idea the city only became interested in improving areas when there are going to be wealthy individuals living there and not caring for the communities that need the support. We’re not opposed to the idea of improving communities. We need to be doing this equitably and for all communities and not just for ones we see as bringing in the most wealth into the community.

The sidewalk and everything in it will also soon be gone, as this part of Reno gets glitzier.  But will it lose some of its biggest little city quaint character? — The sidewalk and everything in it will also soon be gone, as this part of Reno gets glitzier. But will it lose some of its biggest little city quaint character?

Is it difficult to be an effective activist in Reno?

Reno is so used to not be challenged on things. There is a lack of an organizing culture here. If we can bring things to the table, people can be thrown off. If we show up at a council meeting, if we can keep this momentum, we can push things at least in a better direction than they’re going.

Interview and pictures for Our Town Reno in June 2016.

Erik Holland, The Nada Dada Mayor of Endangered Motels

Erik Holland wears many hats, including inexhaustible in the field painter of Reno landscapes and landmarks, high school art teacher, hyperlocal political cartoonist, and repeated anti-sprawl mayoral candidate

On this day, Holland is wearing the Nada Dada mayor’s hat and showing off his own art in his “Muses and Music” room on the second floor of the Town House Motor Lodge.

Erik Holland, with one of his works in progress, the sign of the Castaway Inn motel, which faces possible demolition as part of a huge project to redevelop downtown Reno.

Several of his paintings depict signs of old motels which will could soon be demolished, as rapid development takes over the Biggest Little City.

“I love architecture. I enjoy the old architecture, and the stories from inside those buildings,” he explained as the last hours of this Nada Dada concluded.

Details of the Town House Motor Lodge have their own intrinsic vintage art, which could soon all be gone.

Buildings With Stories

One of his works in progress is of the Castaway Inn, where he says one of his friends was once dropped off by his mother at the age of 18, with $300 as a parting gift into the world of drifters, roaming artists, hard luck gamblers and other characters who make up a Reno motel’s long term population. His friend ended up with lots of street savvy and later two master’s degrees.

Bright Lights: Holland, being interviewed by KOLO 8 News Now on Sunday June 19, 2016, has been a constant advocate for the arts and outdoors in Reno.

One of the founders of Nada Dada, which recently concluded its 10th anniversary, Holland was again appointed as “Dada Mayor d’Esprawlius”.

He was energized by the 15 or so new artists who joined veteran "Nadistas" showcasing art in rented out motel rooms and collective art spaces spread around downtown Reno.

Positives and Negatives

“The most positive aspect this year is the number of new artists and for them a chance to see what it’s like to show their art,” he said, in between a tv interview and a visit from potential buyers.

But he was downbeat about how some of the buildings and motels he paints could soon be on the cutting block. “So much is going on, you have to pick and choose your battles. I’d be really upset if the El Cortez Hotel went down,” he said.

Painting the El Cortez Hotel across the street while hoping it doesn't go down. Photo from June 19, 2016, as Nada Dada concluded its 10th edition.

Responsibilities

Holland is also worried about those about to be displaced, including artists. “I’m not against development but I’m very sensitive to the plight of the dislocated. We have to help them and they have to help themselves. One of my main priorities now is also not to let Nada Dada down,” he concluded.

While it got lots of media attention, Nada Dada also had a lot of competition this year in an increasingly crowded mid-June cultural calendar.

When Holland ran unsuccessfully for mayor in 2006 and 2014, he envisioned an accessible artistic city with enhanced public transit connecting residents to each other and to the great outdoors. His art and the art of Nada Dada are a testament to a perpetually reborn and rebranded city, but one which could now price out the artists and vintage buildings which give it so much of its unique character.

Jounda Strong: The Time and Courage to Create Daisies

When Jounda Strong finds out art she’s been preparing for an upcoming invitational show needs to be about “Panic!”, a directive theme she forgot about, she knows how to rebound.

She’s been through much more difficult personal straits.

Most recently, last December, the 49-year-old found out she was being “downsized” from her 9 to 5 job, after working in customer service, retail and IT marketing.

“It was frightening,” Jounda remembers of the recent time after she just lost her salaried job.  “My household income was cut in half.  I went out to look for work and I was told I needed to dumb down my resume. I was told I wasn’t going t… — “It was frightening,” Jounda remembers of the recent time after she just lost her salaried job. “My household income was cut in half. I went out to look for work and I was told I needed to dumb down my resume. I was told I wasn’t going to make what I’ve been used to making. I was told I needed to take my (ear) gages out, I couldn’t wear rings. But I’m 49 years old. I don’t want to play that game anymore.” She is now a resident artist at Reno Art Works.

Breaking Free

Jounda decided to “break free of the chains” and also “shatter the myth of the starving artist.”

In addition to selling an early painting before “the paint was even dry”, Strong also now has time to reinvigorate other passions.

Work in Progress: “These are my stories, my perspective of how I see life, how I see the journey.  So today it might be dark but by the end of the day it has that happy place.  I know there’s hope somewhere. There’s light.” — Work in Progress: “These are my stories, my perspective of how I see life, how I see the journey. So today it might be dark but by the end of the day it has that happy place. I know there’s hope somewhere. There’s light.”

Teaching Meditation, Self-Expression and Helping the Homeless

If she’s not at the Reno Art Works compound on Dickerson Avenue, you can sometimes find Jounda leading meditation sessions with young women at the Nevada Youth Empowerment Project home, giving tours at the new LGBTQA Our Center, or feeding the homeless on a Saturday afternoon with the Reno Initiative for Shelter and Equality.

Helping Hands: “There’s a lot of people in the community who are hungry. Going out on Saturdays and helping with the free store (of donated clothes and other items), and feeding the people, it’s remarkable.  There are some amazing people you ge… — Helping Hands: “There’s a lot of people in the community who are hungry. Going out on Saturdays and helping with the free store (of donated clothes and other items), and feeding the people, it’s remarkable. There are some amazing people you get to know every week. They become your friends.”

Being Present in the Moment, Whatever the Chaos

Jounda started the meditation classes this Spring to keep young women, some of them who have been living on the streets, “present in the moment, away from chaos and drama.”

“The drive comes from having been a single mom, and having raised two girls, and seeing what they went through,” she explains. “My house was the place everybody went to. I was always working with young people who were in crisis or their parents just weren’t present. It’s a passion for the youth, to show them they matter, that their ideas are important and have value. it doesn’t matter what the noise is. They can be present and ground themselves.”

“Miss M.” is Jounda’s muse. She represents a friend who was forced into prostitution when she was 8, and became homeless.

She hopes to soon begin a “Painting Through Recovery” workshop at the Our Center, to help people overcome their own traumas, or traumas of loved ones, by telling their evolving stories through art.

Another work in progress: “I have an idea here with charcoal ash, I want to create smog. But then down here, I want to create some daisies. It doesn’t matter how dark, or gloomy or smoggy it is; there’s a light, there’s hope, there’s a ray of … — Another work in progress: “I have an idea here with charcoal ash, I want to create smog. But then down here, I want to create some daisies. It doesn’t matter how dark, or gloomy or smoggy it is; there’s a light, there’s hope, there’s a ray of sunshine.”

Hopes and Concerns for Reno

Jounda, a native Midwesterner who has been in Reno for four years, worries about some of the current trends in the biggest little city, including the displacement of low-income residents from downtown areas.

“There has to be a solution. They have to go somewhere. Displacing them to the river or the streets it’s not acceptable. There are some solutions on the table. I hope there will be solutions for elderly people and others and they won’t end up being homeless, that they will have a place to go. There’s conversations being had, so I have hope.”

Signature art.  Jounda's work can be found here http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/jounda-strong.html — Signature art. Jounda's work can be found here http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/jounda-strong.html

The Role of Artists in Reno

But she appreciates the current surge of art and artists here.

“It’s a way for people to express themselves, to tell their stories and it starts conversations. That’s what we need. We have not had those conversations, We’re often afraid to have them. Art starts those.”

Despite gloomy realities, Jounda refuses to be a pessimist.

Here's an additional Q and A Our Town Reno did this month with Jounda Strong at her communal studio space.

Can art be too loaded in its messaging?

“I don’t think anything is too loaded. More and more people are waking up. Let people say what they need to say and sometimes than can only be said in a picture, and then let’s stand around and have a conversation about it.”

Do artists play a role in Reno’s uncertain future?

“We all play a part, be it small or be it large, whatever that role is. When we know better, we do better. We can’t put our heads in the sand anymore. We have our work to do. Whether it’s feeding the homeless or painting a picture, or teaching, or holding a workshop, or painting with kids, whatever it is you are called to do, do it and do it with everything you have."

Do you miss anything from your pre-artist life?

“I didn’t have a choice. The company I worked for took my position away, but it was the best thing that ever happened to me. I have the time time to volunteer and I have the time to create. My wife is incredibly supportive. I couldn’t do it without her. I tell people if you have the urge, do it, the 9 to 5 can kill you.”

Note: Questions and answers from the June 2016 in person interview were trimmed and rearranged for clarity.

A Block's Countdown to Demolition and Final Displacement

The displacement block in downtown Reno between 6th and 7th streets and Center and Lake has turned into a ghost town on this sunny, dry 1st of June. By the end of the month, residents won’t be allowed here anymore, their rents terminated, opening the way for the entire block to be sold to an out of state developer and eventually bulldozed away.

Residents on the block have one month to leave.  Rents here are among the most affordable in downtown Reno. June 1, 2016 — Residents on the block have one month to leave. Rents here are among the most affordable in downtown Reno. June 1, 2016

There’s a bra strewn in the middle of the block’s main alley, which will soon be gone to give way for a high rise student compound. A wooden fence has collapsed into a walkway. Overgrown trees benefited from a wet winter and spring but will soon also be chopped down.

These overgrown trees will soon be chopped down as well. June 1, 2016

There’s new graffiti and wooden planks dotting the old disheveled homes, which for years have served as affordable housing, even if infested by cockroaches, for those who can’t afford anything else, and want to be close to their casino jobs or within walking distance of the main bus terminal and many of the city’s services for Reno’s neediest, ex-convicts, and wayward addicts.

Repairs no longer needed here apparently. June 1, 2016

Mike Thornton, from the ACTIONN advocacy group, says he believes many recent residents have already left. He has gone around the block a few times with other volunteers, canvassing, and putting residents in contact with Washoe Legal Services. Thornton says even if they have already moved, the most recent residents here may still be eligible for relocation assistance.

A recent screengrab from ACTIONN's Facebook page.

ACTIONN has also started organizing Renoites who live in the many downtown weeklies, many of them low-income residents, seniors, and disabled.

“We’re at the front end of a potential tsunami of redevelopment here in Reno. Let’s be smart. Let’s not do savage gentrification. Let’s be smart and do socially equitable development. Let’s do the smart things because this is our town. We want it to be a place where all of our residents are treated with dignity and respect,” Thornton said.

A collage of photos from the displacement block in downtown Reno. June 1, 2016. Thornton says many weeklies in which many seniors, low-income residents and the disabled now live will soon be demolished as well.

The anti-gentrification proponent says it’s time to start pressuring Reno’s City Council for long term affordable housing solutions.

“We really are hoping to get the citizens of Reno, and City Council, and developers to understand that you can do socially equitable development and do that in a way that’s forward-looking, so the city can be redeveloped but at the same time that redevelopment includes stable permanent housing, that people can move into.”

Interview and photos for Our Town Reno from June 1, 2016

Jenny Brekhus and Reno's Future: "Being in Charge of Our Own Destiny"

Jenny Brekhus is running for re-election for the Ward 1 seat on Reno’s city council (with a looming primary on June 14). Brekhus believes that as city centers become attractive again, we need to “start envisioning the next generation of housing”, while also “reimagining urban investment” and effectively helping retailers with a rapidly changing landscape.

Brekhus, this week in the middle of a morning dog walk, believes among other things in artists, walkable downtown areas, effective planning, affordable housing, and her own re-election.

As this development boom began later in Reno than elsewhere, Brekhus says the city is in a good position to make sure affordable options still exist for the less affluent among us, including those barely making ends meet and for the city’s creative, artistic class. She also views this situation in the bigger context of stagnating incomes.

Brekhus recently wrote an opinion article about how “urban vibrancy doesn’t happen by accident.” She’s viewed by some anti-gentrification activists as the lone progressive voice on council. Our Town Reno wanted to find out more.

A sign for another competitor in the Ward 1 race, Victor Salcido. He recently announced on his Facebook page an endorsement from the Retail Association of Nevada.

Big developments are being talked about around Reno, and there are many concerns about affordability issues going forward. What is your sense on the current specifics?

This being Nevada, boom and bust is in our DNA. We’re back on a familiar trajectory. But this development cycle is different for a number of reasons. One in particular is all the energy and interest across cities is currently more urban. There are demographic trends going on in terms of aging baby boomers, more millennials, which is promoting different housing and service needs. Post-recession, it’s almost like Reno’s axis has somewhat tilted toward the northern California economy and that’s exciting too.

This so-called Tesla effect brings in the growth we are seeing, and also challenges and opportunities. The challenges are how to stem the tide of suburban sprawl development and maintaining your housing affordability edge which is really why we are seeing investment come from northern California.

The opportunity is that it’s a once in a lifetime generational chance to diversify our economy once and for all, so we’re resilient, people don’t have to leave our community in the next downturn, and kids who graduate from our universities have opportunities for jobs here.

One of the old homes on the cutting block in downtown Reno which will soon be replaced by high-end student housing. Where will current residents go?

What about the old motels, cheaper residential units and old homes which seem to be on the cutting block and which do offer more accessible housing options for many?

Housing affordability at all levels is a huge concern. Lots of people look at downtown housing and they think well that’s affordable housing. Those motels were a part of our dominant economy when it was about motorists coming to and through Reno. But as higher level towers and resorts got built those transitioned into housing. They are just a form of affordable housing that you see in our urban neighborhoods.

You’ll also see a lot of older houses that have been sliced into three or four boarding house units or back alley units. It’s a diverse and important housing stock which has created affordability to many working people.

It is a concern if we lose that because then you get issues of displacement, where are your lower income individuals, whether it’s service sector workers or people on Social Security, where are they going to live with their income levels? What is going to be replacing that? That is a real tough question I think we are really starting to ask and wonder about.

Finding housing for homeless youths and those aged out of the foster care system has been a concern for those working at the You in downtown Reno. Youths who are working but don't have a family support system often can't afford permanent housing.

Does the affordability issue go beyond city power?

I think the conversation about housing affordability is two-fold. It certainly is housing supply, displacement, gentrification, but I think also there’s this larger context that cities aren't necessarily a big part of, but they are trying to help with as well, and that is wage stagnation and income stagnation.

Large percentages of the workforce, and retired folks, when you drill down to those monthly incomes, don’t really have enough for housing costs, and there’s just not the right product for them. Is it a housing cost issue or is it an income issue?

Cities are at the forefront of the minimum wage movement, and are trying to address that, but it’s also a bigger conversation and I think that is something that can be better handled at other government levels.

More and more hearings are taking place at the city level to determine the future of lots, houses, buildings and entire neighborhoods.

Are you still optimistic for the future and can Reno avoid some of the pitfalls we’ve seen elsewhere during the current development boom?

I’m spending quite a bit of time thinking of that and thinking about how maybe our wide open western mountain spaces could provide us to be a template for urban living that you just haven’t seen in other environments.

Even a place like Austin, Texas, where there’s a sense there’s a lot of creativity there, they’ve done a disastrous job in their transportation planning and they’ve made a tangled mess of things.

I think the opportunity of booming later and getting hot later is that we can really be in charge of our own destiny. We are thankful about it, and know where we need to be, and we can take best examples from other places, and that’s the progression I’d like to move on in the next term.

Note: Questions have been rearranged and answers trimmed for clarity. The interview took place in person on May 25, 2016.

Ben Castro and RISE: Helping Volunteers Help the Houseless

This past Saturday, the sun broke through days of steady rain, as volunteers and organizations served healthy, home cooked food to hundreds of people in need in the Reno community at the downtown shelter location, while others put away hangers after another successful “free market” where donated clothes, toiletries and comfort items found a new home.

Do you have a title? "We don’t really like titles.  Officially, I’m the president and executive director but I wouldn’t recommend anyone take that too seriously.  It’s a team effort." — Do you have a title? "We don’t really like titles. Officially, I’m the president and executive director but I wouldn’t recommend anyone take that too seriously. It’s a team effort."

Families and children were there both helping and receiving help. People talked to each other and ate together at tables. It wasn’t always clear who had come to volunteer and who was being helped. Some were doing both.

This is how Ben Castro envisioned it when in 2012 he helped launch the nonprofit RISE, the Reno Initiative for Shelter and Equality, a local hands-on grassroots initiative, which according to its website seeks “to cultivate a greater sense of dignity and humility” as well as “create a stronger community through the use of shared resources and mutual aid.”

RISE-organized community potlucks are held every Saturday starting at 5 p.m., except for the second Saturday of every month, where another group manages food distribution.

Which such exemplary guiding principles, Our Town Reno wanted to find out more.

Where does the motivation come from?

It’s a bunch of people getting around a table and solving all the world’s problems. But when you get tired of petitioning, you get tired of voting, you get tired of writing letters, eventually with the limited effectiveness you get with that, you figure you know what, we’re just going to roll up our sleeves and do it ourselves.

Ultimately, some people call it a calling. I would just say it’s something that lives inside of you and that you can’t continue life without letting that out. We just have a desire to alleviate suffering and to bear witness to that.

"Anybody can serve," Castro says. "Anybody can volunteer. You have to let the volunteer do it the way they want to. The way we see it is that we just raised a flag. We're all good people here and then we wait for the good people to come join us."

How has RISE evolved over the years?

Making sure people get adequate and nutritious food is no longer our biggest obstacle. Now it’s about bringing awareness to the fact that we have a situation here and nobody really wants to tackle it. I think the whole strategy now is that ok there is really no one or perfect answer on how we deal with homelessness and extreme poverty. It’s a structural issue. It’s a systemic issue. But we believe that as long as more people are aware of the different factors that cause homelessness then together we might be able to start to alleviate that moving forward.

Another successful day for the "free market", at least the one RISE organizes.

Is a better job market helping?

OK people are starting to get employed but when you’re looking at part-time minimum wage jobs you still can’t afford housing, you still can’t afford basic medical care, basic necessities. The real root issues are livable wages and affordable housing. Until we tackle that, we’re always going to have homeless issues.

With all the changes happening in Reno right now, are there new concerns?

Reno is starting to expand really heavily. There’s a lot of outside influence and a lot of outside investments that are moving into this town. I think it’s important for our leaders to demand something for the people who are coming into this town. Yes, we want your business. We want you to come here and employ our people. But at the same time we’re not going to bend over backwards just so you are going to come in and take advantage of all the tax havens or the resources we have here. One of our biggest resources are the locals and the people who live here.

While Castro says the food situation is much better now in Reno, shelter for all is the new priority. "Shelter is what we really need now," he says. "I was at a meeting the other day and somebody asked me what is the biggest thing that the houseless… — While Castro says the food situation is much better now in Reno, shelter for all is the new priority. "Shelter is what we really need now," he says. "I was at a meeting the other day and somebody asked me what is the biggest thing that the houseless population needs. I said homes. So that’s what we’re pushing for."

Are there any big picture solutions out there?

Land trusts is something that’s coming up recently to where basically plots of land are reserved for a decent quality of life. There’s a lot of momentum behind tiny house villages which has a lot of potential as well if done right.

Really though, it’s a cultural problem. I think our society suffers from this very selfish drive. We shouldn’t be living in that civilization anymore. We’re more advanced than that now. I think our attitudes need to match our technology. There is no reason for there to be such deep poverty in this nation. There’s no justifiable reason for that.

"Sympathy and empathizing with other people is one of the biggest things we try to accomplish," Castro says.

Finally, what do you say to people who say the homeless are dirty, they’re addicts, they’re hurting tourism and new developments?

I wish people would imagine if they had to take everything they owned and walk around with that all day, and worry about where they are going to go to the bathroom or where they are going to sleep that night, not being harassed by other individuals or by law enforcement.

It gets really hard when you get down to that level. It’s really hard to get out of it, especially with this negative attitude that people have that somehow they deserve to be there and somehow they did this to themselves.

Most people understand how it could be them. Most people are living paycheck to paycheck. Most people are scared to death of being homeless. These people aren’t going out there robbing liquor stores. They’re not selling drugs. They’re not trying to break and enter into people’s houses. The people who are doing those crimes are the ones who are afraid to be homeless. Everybody down here would rather be homeless as opposed to hurt other people.

Note: Parts of the questions and answers for this interview were trimmed. The Interview was conducted in Reno in person on May 6, 2016.

Chris Wyatt Scott, An Artist Building Tiny Homes for the Homeless

An Artist on a Mission: Chris Wyatt Scott took part in last month's 4th street parade, and spent the rest of the day building a tiny home with discarded wood he found in the downtown Reno area.

During the recent 4th street parade, “all-around artist” Chris Wyatt Scott followed burners on stilts, floats and on motorized recliners, pushing a shopping cart filled with tools. His goal was to build a teeny house, which he completed by 7pm in an enclosure right by Reno’s main homeless shelter. He used discarded wood he found in the area, including a pile of redwood dumped in a parking lot behind a strip club, and wheels and screws found at the Generator maker space.

After the parade, Chris set out to build a "teeny house" right by the main homeless shelter in Reno.

Corner Craft

Chris has his own local business called “Corner Craft”. “I can build anything,” he said in between jobs and moving his trusted white van on a recent windswept Spring day in downtown Reno when he had more time to talk. “I’ve built standard houses, down to business card holders. Everything I do I try to push the envelope of my creativity and influence at the time.” A Rochester, NY, native, who has lived in North Carolina, Florida, southern California and Japan, Chris moved to Reno four years ago after spending a decade in Italy, working as a musician who also decorated storefronts.

As more and more people are priced out of Reno's housing market, Chris believes innovative solutions such as a plot of land with tiny homes could help.

Chris's first project in Reno was to build a tiny house. “I’ve researched every single aspect of a tiny house from what you start out with as a base to all the systems, electronical systems, solar, heating. I got all my knowledge base on all these details from that one initial project here,” he said.

Chris prepared the wood for his one-day project and eyeballed what he had to determine his course of building.

A Love of 4th street

Chris used to live on 4th street, so taking part in last month’s community event was particularly important for him. “I love 4th street. I love what it gives to Reno. It’s definitely iconic. My goal was to bring attention to the people already living there, not too say ‘look there’s this horrible thing going on’, but more to say ‘no there’s this thing going on and it’s going on already’ and that should be included in any outsider’s approach to 4th street… Outsiders meaning from a different neighborhood, or a different city.”

Chris found some wheels for underneath his teeny house, to make it "semi-mobile". "You should be able push it a couple of blocks without getting too tired," he said.

Different Perceptions of Homelessness

Chris believes more people should focus on helping the homeless and not on themselves when thinking of homelessness. “People talk about the homeless problem but I don’t like that because it implies it’s a problem for the city, or it’s a problem for the people witnessing it," he explained. "No, it’s a problem for the people who are living like that, not for everyone else. (The event) was an opportunity for everyone to show how much better things could be done. There’s always room for improvement.”

His main tools were a hammer, a screw gun, a chop saw and a table saw.

So what exactly did you go for in your own day of on the spot building?

“I didn’t make any drawings beforehand. I kind of just eyeballed the wood and gave an estimate in my head of what I thought it was going to look like. I decided to make a teeny house which was semi-mobile and also a summertime house. It’s not made to keep you super warm but it’s a lot warmer than sleeping on the ground."

“What I was going for based on the wood I had was a 'teeny house' that would be considered transitional housing for someone who is living on the streets in a tent, or sleeping on the ground."

Did You Have Any Interesting Interactions With the Community While You Were Building?

“A couple of people who work at the homeless shelter came over and they were very nice and interested and sort of encouraging. I would like to talk with them again and see if they want to brainstorm on further steps.”

One of the interactions Chris had while building his "teeny house" was with Rick Shepherd who is running for Congress.

Chris has also been taking pictures of the homeless who have been pushed down the river trail beyond the border with Sparks, adding captions with “RE” in red to “NO CAMPING”, which has been enforced on the Reno side.

Camping Should Be Allowed

“Pushing people away isn’t going to do anything. These people exist. If you just make a law that says it’s illegal for them to camp, you’re not changing anything. They’re still going to exist. They’re going to have to live and sleep and have their waking hours somewhere. There’s not enough space at the shelter for these people and there’s some people that wouldn’t even stay in the shelter if they could. I don’t think laws and criminalization is the way to approach it. It’s probably going to make it worse. There should be a way to integrate and help.”

Screengrabs from Chris's Facebook page. “Everywhere there’s concrete, NO CAMPING has been stenciled in.  You can put a “RE” in front of this and it becomes “RENO CAMPING” because that’s what’s going down by the river. This is Reno style.” — Screengrabs from Chris's Facebook page. “Everywhere there’s concrete, NO CAMPING has been stenciled in. You can put a “RE” in front of this and it becomes “RENO CAMPING” because that’s what’s going down by the river. This is Reno style.”

"In terms of the shape, I was inspired by an old GI Joe toy called the Bivouac and sunshade structures over picnic tables at Pyramid Lake."

Were You Pleased With the Result?

“Yes, very much. It doesn’t look like a shack. It’s just got a nice line to it. Things like this they don’t have to be like barracks or bunks or cubicles or capsules. They can be interesting and different and push the limits of material.”

Putting the finishing touches on what would be a 36 inches wide teeny house "so it can fit through an industrial sized door" and "eight feet long so it can fit a single mattress and have space for a storage box in the back", which he also built, wit… — Putting the finishing touches on what would be a 36 inches wide teeny house "so it can fit through an industrial sized door" and "eight feet long so it can fit a single mattress and have space for a storage box in the back", which he also built, with plenty of time to spare before sunset.

The Finished House and Thinking Beyond

"I also put a small box on the back that locks so someone can lock up something in there. With people in transition, they don’t usually have a place to securely keep their things. That is something that’s important and that needs to be part of the plan in any kind of shelter or transitional housing, a secure place to leave stuff locked.”

Chris was worn down, but thrilled with what he had done, and thinking ahead of how artists, builders and city officials could help the homeless.

The Dream: How can an artist and builder like yourself help the homeless in the longer term, in addition to offering possibilities and raising awareness?

“The dream would be to jump forward a few steps all at once. This city is growing fast. There are developers coming in, buying huge plots of land. I think there’s room to make even a tiny house village, a tiny house community or a lot that allows camping that makes it positive. Give people a place and give them the opportunity to learn how to build these things for themselves, to help other people build them. Quit pushing them to the outskirts. Quit pushing them to the edges, to the parts that are hidden. I’m looking to expand on this idea and find a space where the city will allow something to grow and engulf what people call a problem and turn it into something else.”

Chris Wyatt Scott can be reached at cornercraftreno@gmail.com.

Note: Parts of this interview were trimmed and rearranged.

Michael Thornton and ACTIONN, Helping the Soon to Be Displaced

As an end of June deadline looms for residents to vacate cheap rentals on the block in between Center/Lake streets and 6th and 7th streets in downtown Reno, the group Acting in Community Together in Organizing Northern Nevada (ACTIONN), held an onsite meeting last night to discuss their options. In addition to the forced displacement, dotted trees will be cut down, an alley will disappear and old large homes will also be demolished to give way for an out-of-state developer to build high-end university student housing.

Screengrab from Michael Thornton's LinkedIn.  Thornton has an extensive background in community organizing and dealing in issues of displacement. — Screengrab from Michael Thornton's LinkedIn. Thornton has an extensive background in community organizing and dealing in issues of displacement.

“Our Town Reno” caught up on the phone today with ACTIONN executive director Michael Thornton to find out more. The Reno-based ACTIONN group, a member of the PICO National Network, tagline: “unlocking the power of people”, deals with immigration, poverty, education, economic and social equity issues facing the poor, displaced and politically marginalized. Thornton has an extensive background as a community organizer, a radio newsman, and a manager in mental health and substance abuse programs.

Screengrab from ACTIONN's Facebook page concerning last night's meeting.

What happened last night?

We have been canvassing the neighborhood for quite some time talking with residents, working with residents to arrange the meeting which took place last night on Lake street. We gathered all the residents to ask them what they wanted to do. One of the things that’s really important for people to understand is that while ACTIONN wants to win the social equity issues because they’re important, we have as a co-equal value developing grassroots community leadership. We’re not coming in there to do things to the residents or do things for the residents or ride in on our white horse as saviors. We are there to work with the residents so they can be leaders in their own struggle for justice in this situation.

Words of wisdom on a whiteboard in the block about to be demolished to give way for high end student housing, in a photo taken earlier this year,

Does the situation look bleak or is there any hope for these residents?

I think it’s an uphill struggle. I don’t think anybody looking at it would be able to say anything other than that. It’s really important to point out that we have residents who are now organizing. We actually had representatives from Washoe Legal Services and Legal Services of Nevada out there last night to look at what some potential legal strategies may be. In many ways, the most important thing is for the people of Reno and our decision makers to really understand what’s going on. Reno city council members have been told ‘oh, these people they’re being displaced but they’re getting assistance and they’re getting help’ and that’s not really the case. I don’t know the exact numbers. There are a few who have case managers and they are getting some help. But a lot of the folks are not getting assistance.

In an interview with "Our Town Reno" earlier this year, one of the residents Gretchen put on a brave smile for a picture but said that due to her criminal record it would be very difficult for her to find a rental at the same price she now gets.

What are some of the short term challenges and goals for these soon to be displaced residents?

Some who are being told they are being helped are being given a stack of papers printed out from Craiglist showing them some places that you might be able to rent. But when you think about it to rent a place nowadays, you often have to have first month’s and last month’s security deposit, pet deposit, credit check, that all adds up... A lot of these folks just simply don’t have the ability to do that. They are being cast out and left to fend for themselves and so organizing and working with ACTIONN and working with Legal Services, we hope to do what we can to at least get them an opportunity to struggle for some justice and some relocation assistance.

This old home, conveniently located in downtown Reno, near the bus station and assistance services, is filled with cheap rooms.  But it will soon be demolished. Residents now living there are scrambling to figure out their future housing option… — This old home, conveniently located in downtown Reno, near the bus station and assistance services, is filled with cheap rooms. But it will soon be demolished. Residents now living there are scrambling to figure out their future housing options. Photo from earlier this year.

Since this wave of gentrification seems to be coming later to Reno than elsewhere, do you think the Biggest Little City will avoid mistakes made elsewhere?

We’ve seen the incredibly negative effects of gentrification in many cities across the country. But what is also well documented is that communities are engaging in smart planning and while people do wind up being displaced there are also lots of components being looked into, so there is affordable housing and appropriate services within development plans. I know there are developers, local developers. who are really paying attention to this and they want to work to revitalize some of the areas in Reno, which desperately need that. There’s no doubt it is needed. But they have to be cognizant of what can and what would likely happen if these areas are just redeveloped without thought of the people who live there now. It’s important to point out many of these people are working class, working families. They are also our most vulnerable friends, neighbors and residents. If we are not going to pay attention to their needs, I just think that’s a huge mistake, or it’s a mistake that unfortunately has been repeated in many areas of our country. Hopefully, it won’t be repeated here.

Thornton says he understands Reno needs to be revitalized in certain areas, but that this revitalization needs to be done with thought for the people now living there and smart planning.  This is part of the block which will soon be demolished.… — Thornton says he understands Reno needs to be revitalized in certain areas, but that this revitalization needs to be done with thought for the people now living there and smart planning. This is part of the block which will soon be demolished. Photo from earlier this year.

Is the current battle for social justice for residents on the Center / Lake block important in the big picture of Reno's future?

It’s not just what’s happening to them. There is a wave of development and redevelopment hitting Reno and the general area. There are lots and lots of folks who are living in similar situations who could be facing displacement as well. If we don’t focus on these issues now, we can wind up seeing this happen to thousands of people with nowhere to go. It’s bad planning. We shouldn’t be allowing that to happen. We should be looking at how to prevent this before we displace people.

Note: Some of the questions and answers were trimmed and edited for this report.