Caitlyn Evans and Taylor Leathers Offer Valuable Current Home Buying Tips for Young Locals

Even though median home prices in Reno just surpassed $600,000 and interest rates keep going up, to their highest levels in over 20 years, a local mortgage advisor with All Western Mortgage, Taylor Leathers, 32, and Caitlyn Evans, a realtor with Solid Source Realty, 24, say, despite appearances, it’s a good time to buy.

The cousins, both grads of McQueen High, say thinking of different locations, and looking at condos to start out could be good ideas. 

“Typically I see a lot of buyers wanting some land,” Evans said. “And I think that's where it gets tricky because most scenarios getting land and a house, you're going to be out in Sun Valley or Golden Valley because that’s where the big plots are. I've sold a couple homes in Sun Valley and it's just the cheapest place you can get a good chunk of land if you're looking for a quarter of an acre, it's probably your best bet as far as price.”

Evans is also seeing plenty of activity in the Cold Springs area. “They have started building houses out there that are on somewhat of a slope. So when you're in your backyard you really can't see into your neighbor’s house. So I think the builders are getting more sophisticated as far as, you know, having everybody have a great view and not on top of each other. It's nice to see the new development.”

Although out of reach homes are often what’s talked about (such as above in video) downplaying initial expectations, sometimes distorted by social media, can be a smart move, Leathers says. 

“I think that it is getting harder and the expectation of what you get for your first home is kind of blown out of proportion with social media because you see people post these houses that have horse land and you know, RV space and all of that, but you don't know what their circumstance is,” Leathers said. “Did they have a co-signer? Did they get a gift of funds? If you're doing this by yourself, you do need to really realize that this is a stepping stone. This is getting your foot in the door … and you're going to upgrade as you go. So it's more of changing your mindset on exactly what the big picture goal is rather than the small ‘Oh, I like the way this looks and how it sounds.’” 

The two also explained there is a misconception about the amount needed for down payments.

“Some people have this misconception that you need 20% down and that's just so far from the truth. I mean, we're seeing … even down to 3%,” Evans explained.

“This area has USDA loans in certain parts where you can even put 0% down,” Leathers said. “But really the first step is talk about money. Don't be afraid of it. And if you have even the slightest idea about it, talk to someone who does it for a living and get the right steps to get there. It’s okay to be vulnerable and talk about it,” she said.

Leathers says information can be confusing, and that she is always ready to explain in simple terms what her clients may benefit from.

The market being less busy now is actually good for nervous buyers, Evans said.  “People are scared of the interest rates,” she said. “But, you have to kind of think of it as if the interest rates are high, then you're going to get the house you want. You're not going to be competing with multiple offers. When the interest rates are low, it's just a rat race when everybody is trying to buy at the same time. And a lot of people don't know we have incentives for the sellers and the sellers can actually give you points and closing costs for your side. So if you're a buyer, you'd get a lot of money, straight from the seller because they're desperate to sell.”

When interest rates are high, it’s a good time for locals to buy as there’s also much less activity from investors and flippers, Evans said. 

Leathers says there have also been efforts to cut down on such activity. “When interest rates were low as an investor, money was virtually free. You could buy cash, turn around and get a loan after you bought it with cash and replenish your money. Now there's even more rules against that. Investors care about the numbers and that's why people get frustrated with flips because maybe they're not held to a higher construction quality either. But right now the numbers aren't making sense to them. We're not seeing as many investors. So when you buy a house right now, you will have a higher payment, but you are getting the house that you want because there aren't so many offers on the table. And when rates come down, you can apply to do a refinance and potentially lower your rate.”

Evans has her own website at https://www.caitlyn775homes.com/

Leathers says in Northern Nevada there is still a massive supply and demand imbalance, meaning if you can try to buy a house now you should, as she doesn’t see a pricing bubble pop anytime soon or enough construction going on.

“Even though we have slowed because buyers are worried about the affordability and comfortability of the payment with the higher interest rates, it doesn't change the fact that we don't have enough homes being built for the amount of household formations we have,” she said.  “So this morning the data I pulled and it shows that we have 7,400 household formations right now and we are only building just over 5,000 homes.”

Leathers recommends young adults try to become homeowners as soon as they are comfortable with a monthly payment. 

“I am never someone that will rent shame, because if that works for your lifestyle right now and what your goals are, then that's great,” she said. “But if you want to dip your foot in and learn how to build wealth, the wealthiest people are in real estate. So the sooner you can start and learn how to build those blocks up the better.”

Both started in their careers young and feel they are ideally positioned to help first-time buyers.  

“I got into real estate about three years ago,” Evans said, who added she realizes now there are no stupid questions. “I think I'm pretty good at running them through the process as crazy it is, it's just one day at a time. There's a lot of information to be learned and I think I'm pretty [good] at explaining it in detail and, and just kind of taking it slow. But I'm always ready to pick up the phone and get you the help you need at any time. I really enjoy this job and I think that's what it takes to be successful in this industry is you have to be on top of things.”  

She sees her follow up abilities and commitment as an important trait.  “A lot of realtors will contact you and never speak to you again or, they'll contact you in the next month or two. But it comes down to caring.”

She also has a sweet spot for working with veterans.  

Leathers concurs on her cousin’s follow up abilities. “She is constantly keeping you informed and touching base with you because there are times where there isn't really much going on because we're waiting for inspections or underwriting and things like that,” she said. “She's really good about checking in with you, making sure there aren't any lingering questions and she has that open line of communication, which is, I can't stress enough how important it is.”

Meanwhile, Evans said her cousin’s combined youth and experience is an obvious strength when helping first-time buyers. “I think a lot of the lenders out there are kind of past due on retiring and it's good to have a fresh face … for young adults to resonate with.” 

Leathers has been in mortgage about six years, and in finance over 10 years.  “I started in the banking world and moved my way up through finance and really saw a gap in the understanding of money and how to budget and really the shame around it,” she said. “People don't like to talk about money and I got into mortgage because that's really where a lot of people are vulnerable for the first time. And I noticed there was a gap of people who would take care of you and show you what to do rather than just be like, ‘Nope, you can't qualify.’ So I pride myself in my business to really educate and get you your long-term goals by taking the small steps now.” 

Working as a close tandem can lead to advantages for their clients as well.  “A lot of times when you're not working with local people who have a good relationship together, there is a gap and you may not be able to get ahold of your lender or your agent if you're working with an online agent. You know, it's just better to have a team that has your back and knows your goals because you're going to get what you want when you have that,” Leathers concluded.  

Our Town Reno reporting, July 2023

Despite Legislative Setbacks, The Fight is Still On for Reno-Based Tenant Advocate Ben Iness

It was a rough legislative session for the Nevada Housing Justice Alliance coalition of organizers and advocates who work with tenants on their rights and housing accessibility.

Reno-based coordinator Ben Iness scored it at zero wins, with Republican Governor Joe Lombardo in the way.

“Meaningful, lasting, material wins for tenants for struggling Nevadans, hardworking Nevadans and families, I would say none,” he said at the beginning of our interview. 

Many of the group’s priority bills did make it to the governor’s desk, but then he says “the hammer struck down, and there was no justice for tenants.”

The death of Assembly Bill 340 which would have revised provisions related to summary evictions was a particularly crushing blow to Iness.  

In Nevada, he says, summary evictions which can remove a person from a rental property without a full trial are “very swift.  It is punitive and it doesn’t make sense logically.”

Here, it is the tenant who must file a Tenant’s Affidavit in court to contest an eviction before the landlord files anything, making it uniquely unfavorable to tenants facing difficulties. Iness was hoping a more level playing field would finally be created in the Silver State.  

“Predatory landlords exist, they're not all of them, but they do exist. And we should put protections to make sure that that behavior is prevented,” Iness also said, lamenting failed efforts to limit rental application fees and recurring hidden fees, as well as a sputtered drive to maintain COVID-era eviction protections for tenants awaiting rental assistance.

“If we can just divert the course, and have a meaningful system that can proactively identify evictions before they happen, help those tenants in crisis or need and simultaneously keep landlords whole, then we can prevent them from ever happening,” Iness said of his organization’s ultimate goals.  

Iness understands it’s a long game though.

“Our goal is about education and empowerment … organizing with tenants so that they're part of this fight and this process. We aim to address the root causes of housing insecurity, as we make sure that every tenant has a place to call home. It goes without saying, sometimes, you know, you go blue in the face saying it so much, but that housing is a human right. That should be one of the first things that anyone has secured or guaranteed.”

In our interview to be featured in full in a future podcast episode, Iness called for more “boldness and braveness” in our leaders, at the state, county, city and local levels to help the cause of tenants, who make up more than 40% of the state’s population, rather than working in the interest of deep-pocketed developers and landlords. 

“Our [housing] crisis is only worsening,” he said. “Governor Lombardo failed Nevada tenants with those vetoes. Until we start doing something different, because it's not a matter of market sensibilities or supply and demand, until we start looking at housing differently and start protecting housing then we're just waiting until the next crisis. We need to stop treating the symptoms, rather than the disease, ” he concluded. 

Our Town Reno interview, July 2023

Annemarie Grant Turning Her Attention to Overcrowding at the Washoe County Jail, Gets Promises of Investigations

While looking into urgent concerns of overcrowding at the Washoe County Sheriff’s Office, shared with her by current inmates, emailing back and forth with local officials and making public records requests, activist Annemarie Grant was recently sent a packet which revealed in one message that “there is a need to get an accurate and authorized occupancy number for our detention facility.”

Grant’s brother died at the jail in 2015 after being hog tied and struggling with deputies.  Earlier, he had been found on the ground of the Peppermill Casino lying on the ground in the parking lot, handcuffed by security guards before police arrived.  

In 2018, Washoe County Commissioners approved a $100,000 settlement with Purdy’s family to resolve their wrongful death complaint, after they received $25,000 from the City of Reno and $50,000 from the Peppermill in two other settlements.

Since her brother’s death, Grant has been attending yearly protests with families of relatives killed by local law enforcement, while being active on many fronts trying to improve conditions at the Washoe County jail and the local conduct of law enforcement. 

The email from Robert Charles from June this year, then still the Fire Safety Officer at the Washoe County Sheriff’s Office, indicated “we would appreciate it if we could establish a date and time to come investigate the facility and make an accurate determination of what our total capacity is for the detention facility as well as individual cells that currently hold more than one detainee.”

The message, which was sent to Patty Blakely, in the first paragraph underlines that “we have obviously grown in inmate numbers exponentially over the years, with no end in sight.”

Blakely is listed as working for Fire Prevention for the City of Reno.  

The email points to more uncertainty, indicating “we want to observe the fire code & Fire Marshals established capacity numbers from the point of determining said numbers, as well as moving forward for growth or diversion of detainees when we are at capacity.”

Charles wrote the email as he was preparing to leave his position, effective July 14th.

Grant has raised related concerns, such as one inmate indicating three to four inmates are often crammed in a cell awaiting classification.

In other correspondence, Dale Way, the Deputy Fire Chief with Truckee Meadows and Rescue, explained to Grant that “the Washoe County Sheriff’s Office in its entirety at 911 Parr Blvd is under the jurisdiction of the City of Reno.”

City of Reno Fire Marshal Tray Palmer emailed Grant last week, ccing Captain Willie Seirer, with this wording: “An inspector has been assigned to investigate this, and has made contact with Sheriff's Department. The Occupant load was set at time of construction through our building department and utilized the code that was adopted at time of construction. We are attempting to pull these records to verify what code the cells were designed to.”

Grant then wrote about exposed electrical outlets and defective doors inside which could become a fire hazard in case of urgent exits for inmates.

Grant hopes the investigations do happen, but she is still concerned whether or not there will be meaningful change. In a follow up with Our Town Reno, she said: “I feel this is a very serious issue and needs the state Fire Marshal’s involvement to conduct a thorough investigation. And I’d like to remind the Washoe County Commissioners they have a duty under NRS 211.020 and are responsible for the inspecting of any county jail. As well as a duty to their community members.”

After not getting new responses and sending more emails, Palmer finally wrote back to her on July 17th: “This email is not a forum for opinion.” He asked Grant to make future requests through Reno Direct.

Grant wrote to us: “This email chain is when I began to attempt to report my concerns  about the overcrowding/occupancy limits at the WCSO. Given the WCSO denied my request for a copy of the occupancy certificate I wasn’t exactly sure where to turn.”

Our Town Reno reporting, July 2023  

Payton Talbott, Getting to the Next Level in MMA Fighting

Payton Talbott has always been sporty, playing football and wrestling competitively in high school. He got into mixed martial arts after high school when he was inspired by watching Conor McGregor's highlights on Youtube. “I used to think of MMA as a barbaric sport and a macho man sport I could never relate to, but when I saw McGregor and just how poetic he made his finishes look, I could relate to that,” says Talbott.

When he was 18, Talbott vividly remembers his first time at the Reno Academy of Combat. He felt all of his worries and stress melt away even though he was taking a pummeling. It made him fall in love with the sport, he says, because it was humbling.

Now Talbott is 24 and for him, it has always been important to find the right balance of femininity and masculinity. That’s why he’s even tried pole sport to strengthen his core and have an overall intense workout.

 “It’s another way to articulate your body in an appealing way and fighting is a version of that because you’re fighting to perform for others,” Talbott says. He has a deep respect for his female training partners. Talbott even recalls a time his nose was broken by one of his female training partners. “When you tap gloves in the training room and are lining up against them to go, they can feel if you’re holding back because of some kind of gender barrier in your head. In the fighting community we’re all just equal,” says Talbott. 

Currently, Talbott is undefeated. In all his competitions, he has a record of 10-0-0. His pro MMA record is a sparkling 5-0-0 with all fights decided before the closing bell.

In the beginning, it was difficult for Talbott to fight because, he remembers, he would go in with a lot of adrenaline and not incorporate his personality. Now that he's comfortable in the cage, Talbott says he can enjoy himself. “When I’m having fun … is when I shine and do better and you’ll get the best version of me,” says Talbott. 

Talbott attempts to escape the crucifix position his training partner has him trapped in. 

Next month in August Talbott, listed at 5’10” is gearing up for the Dana White contender series.

He is scheduled to fight August 8th in the Bantamweight division against Junior Cortez, a shorter fighter at 5’7’ from Arizona who has a record of 7-2. Cortez lost in a 2021 Contender Series matchup and is giving it another go.

If Talbott wins it is a possibility that he could earn a UFC (the Las Vegas-based Ultimate Fighting Championship major league MMA) contract and set up his career to start earning money. However for that to happen, there are a couple of different factors that are considered. A fighter needs to look interesting, the people have to like your personality, and a fighter has to win in a decisive manner. “It feels like a big job interview but I feel like I have a good resume and I’m set up for success,” Talbott says. 

However, Talbott is also staying grounded and has other things to look forward to outside of MMA. This isn’t his end goal as he says he has a ton of other “backup plans” and aspirations, if the UFC doesn’t come calling.

“A lot of people give their lives to this sport and when they have to exit it because they’re aging, it’s really hard for them to indoctrinate themselves back into society,” Talbott says.

 Regardless, he says, back when he was 18 he never would have imagined that he’d come this far.

“I definitely didn’t think that in six years I would be fighting in front of Dana White (the UFC president whose net worth is $500 million) but I always knew I had a strong gift and a different mindset than a lot of people. I figured that at some point I could share that with the world in some form in some medium. I didn’t expect it to be fighting,” says Talbott.

Reporting by Nancy Vazquez for Our Town Reno

Nick Josten, Unchained and Blossoming in Reno’s Theatre and Film Scene

“I think life is really great and fun when you don't have to worry about just a crappy day job,” Nick Josten says in way of advice to others who have that artistic sensibility in Reno. “And there's so many wonderful artists in this town and it's sad that they have to just keep clocking in and just do their art on the side. It'd be nice if there were more people in Reno who could just, you know, just do art and live.”

Local theatergoers have recently gotten to see Josten as both Bruce the shark in a parody of Jaws and a six-year-old boy who gets eaten by a shark, “so I kind of have to eat myself on stage.”

The show runs until the end of July at Good Luck Macbeth Theatre. 

Josten is also finishing up a novel, and working in the voice industry and with local films, especially in the horror genre.

Carp-e Diem in which Josten stars is available on Amazon and other platforms.

Josten credits this burst of creativity to quitting his nine to five and being in the right place at the right time. 

He remembers the day he quit his “regular” job at the local Patogonia precisely: March 17th, 2022.  He has no regrets.

“It’s a [three] billion dollar company, but everyone I worked with had to work two or three jobs to get by,” he said.  Now he’s happy to be his own boss for multiple pursuits. 

“I was just an extra in a friend's production,” he says of his film acting debut. “And the director of photography for that saw me kinda wandering around in the cowboy outfit. He's like, you know, that looks like a guy who can leap into somebody's house and kill all the occupants, but still seem likable. I want to see what he can do for this part that I want him in… I got the part, and it was a lead role in his feature film, his first feature film, which was absolutely terrifying. Like I'd never really been on film before, like just as an extra in the background. And they were trusting me with this huge part in their first feature. And it was just such an amazing experience that I wanted to learn whatever I could about filmmaking.”

The film which we reviewed on Our Town Reno was called Carp-e Diem with Mad Wife Productions. While acting, Josten also helped on set, up to now directing his own short film, and helping with screenwriting. 

“It feels like … actually getting paid to go to film school,” he said during our interview on a hot, searing day in the shade behind Good Luck Macbeth Theater.  “The entire Reno film scene's really starting to blossom and grow. There's so many amazing filmmakers around town.”

Josten has a quickly growing list of work on IMDb.

Josten calls his career progression “illogical.”  He went to undergrad in South Dakota to study literature and philosophy, moved to Japan to teach English for five years, and then went to grad school in Vancouver, Canada for a library program. 

Halfway through his master’s though, he realized it wasn’t for him. To find a new focus, he started doing standup comedy and getting work in the voiceover industry. 

“They had this program on campus the access and diversity program, where they had students read textbooks and case studies and things like that for students who were visually impaired students who couldn't actually read the text. So that's kind of how I got involved with voiceover, just volunteering to read, sociological essays and things like that. And the people working there recommended I try pursuing voiceover a little more seriously and so I took a workshop and got an agent and started doing some voiceover gigs up there and started getting more involved with standup.”

When his grandmother got sick, he decided to return to northern Nevada where he grew up.

“After my grandma died, I grew roots here and I just kind of stuck steady, stayed around here.”

“I provide voice overs for commercials, corporate narration, e-learning projects, and animation,” his Facebook voice over page reads.

Josten started doing standup in Reno, pre-pandemic, and won his first Wednesday night at the Third Street bar, with his “absurd, storytelling” style. “Now looking back on it, I don't know if I ever was really a standup comedian … I was more interested in sketch and just like doing random weird characters.” Now he feels film is a better outlet for him.  “I enjoy writing weird random characters and, you know, telling more of a story rather than just like doing jokes.”

His primary income is voiceover work from narration for local businesses to doing “monster voices” for mobile video games sold in South Korea.  He’s building his own sound booth to do more of this work from home. 

While putting it all together, he does regret Reno is getting more expensive, making it challenging for indie artists. 

“It just makes it harder and harder to work and, and live as an artist. And it seems like a lot of people don't really want to pay artists for what they do. But, yeah, just keeping your nose down and like most of my day is spent like auditioning, writing grants, trying to get money to do these sorts of things, [but] actually getting to do it is kind of like the dessert on top. I can't see myself going back to a nine to five,” he said.  

He recommends it to others. “Once I quit the day job and started being able to focus on just doing the artistic stuff, it seemed like everything started to blossom and I was just, I'm available to do things so people contact me to do things and I've just had so many fun opportunities since not having my leg chained to a desk.” 

He’s thought of moving to Los Angeles to pursue in person acting classes, but with the current writers’ strike he’s put that on hold. 

“I also have this good relationship with Mad Wife Productions, where it's kind of, they're already giving me opportunities to direct and get involved with the screenwriting and everything,” he said of local opportunities also keeping him here. “That's one of those things that I'd be moving down to LA to get involved with. And I already have it here in Reno. Right now, I'm definitely leaning towards sticking around for a while, but it is just kind of one of those things where you want to shoot your shot and see what happens in the big leagues. But I don't know if I even want to be in the big leagues. Like I'm having fun doing what I am doing right now, and I'm making ends meet. It seems kind of dumb to screw up a good thing. Like I might've landed in paradise and not even realize it until I leave, you know? So maybe at some point I'll leave, but for right now, I'm pretty happy where I am,” he concluded.  

Our Town Reno reporting, July 2023

National UPS Strike Looms with High Stakes Locally in northern Nevada

“I think it went really well,” Ross Kinson, a business agent with Teamsters Local 533, says of a recent practice protest outside the UPS Customer Center on Vista Blvd in Sparks, ahead of a threatened national strike Aug. 1st.

“We have about 1200 folks within this local that work at UPS, and there's over 340,000 workers nationwide. And of that group, most of them haven't been on a strike before. They haven't been on a picket. It’s not something that people just do every day, and we want to start to get these folks ready. Negotiations broke down, early on the fifth … and from there, there's been practice picketing happening across the nation. We want to make sure that here locally, our folks are ready to go. Now we have essentially three weeks left.”

The UPS Teamsters contract with the shipping giant is set to expire on July 31, and sticking points for a new agreement include better terms for its many part-time workers and getting AC into its trucks immediately. 

UPS recently released a statement saying the Teamsters "have stopped negotiating despite historic proposals that build on our industry-leading pay. We have not walked away, and the union has a responsibility to remain at the table.”

The Teamsters released their own statement saying: "Following marathon negotiations, UPS refused to give the Teamsters a last, best, and final offer, telling the union the company had nothing more to give.”

Kinson said competitors such as FedEx, Amazon and OnTrac all have air conditioning. “It's not something that is difficult for the company to do… With the way that temperatures are continuing to ramp up, we had multiple people last year who went down with heat related illness or injury… So heat related issues are going to become more and more prevalent, and finding an actual fix to them is important.” 

Another sticking point he says has to do with part-time wages, which became exacerbated during the pandemic, as work hours went up in the delivery sector. 

“We went into work, did all the same stuff, and it got steadily worse and worse and worse to the point where many of our employees are working 60 plus hours a week and are being forced in six days a week, almost every week in order to keep up with the demands that this pandemic has created. What we're looking for is, specifically with our part-timers, a lot of them are forced to live at home, with their parents or, you know, on subsidized housing, food stamps, things of that nature. And we want to make sure that those part-time wages are actually competitive.”

Nationally he said about 60% of the UPS workforce is part-time and 50-50 locally.

Kinson says he’s impressed by the willingness of the current workforce, both full-time and part-time “who are willing to stand up.”

He attributes it to a shift which happened during the pandemic. 

“I see more workers starting to get fed up with their working conditions and getting paid minimally for the essential work that they do. In the meantime, you have corporate Wall Street making money hand over fist... I do think strikes are becoming more prevalent. I do think they're becoming more effective. I see a lot more young people who are willing to … toss their hat in the ring and say, ‘let's take back something for ourselves.’”

Northern Nevada is a warehouse driven economy, so locally the stakes are high, according to Kinson.

“I mean, obviously we have have the casinos and everything like that, but our bread and butter is the major warehouses that we have in this area, warehouses like Tesla, Apple, Amazon, all of that. And UPS nationally ships 20 million parcels per day,” he said. “Our hub is an outbound hub. So all of these folks who are relying on getting shipments out to their customers, they truly rely on UPS to do that. So if a strike was to happen, there would be major effects to the supply chain and people getting their goods to them in a timely manner and that would stop, especially here in this area, because there are so many warehouses, and we do so much outbound shipping.” 

Kinson said the Teamsters are looking for local support.

“A strike isn't something that anyone wants. It's something that you save as a last resort,” he concluded.  “All of these folks who work at UPS …  they're also hopeful that UPS comes to its senses …  and get a deal done so that we can continue to take care of our customers and can continue to help take care of our community.  But we can't have our part-timers take a hit and continue to live in poverty. So sometimes you've got to stand up and fight.  So if the company isn't willing to do that, that's when we're going to go on strike. But it's not something that we're actively looking for because we live in this community too. We take care of our customers.  We love our customers, but we have to stand up and protect our people first.” 

Our Town Reno reporting, July 2023

John Iliescu and his Family Not Backing Down Against the RTC and the City of Reno, Despite Recent Setbacks

In his downtown apartment overlooking the Truckee River, John Iliescu, 96, a former cosmetic and reconstructive surgeon and World War Two veteran, who has invested extensively in local real estate, has a low table full of photos, maps and court documents.

These reflect a drawn out legal feud with the Regional Transportation Commission of Washoe County, after their construction of a new roundabout in Midtown led them to entirely eliminate a driveway from the front of one of his lots on Virginia Street.

In bold at the top of one document it reads “the ‘taking clause’ of the 5th Amendment to the United States Constitution says ‘Nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.’” Quoting lawyers representing the RTC it states: “it was not necessary to obtain an easement or exercise eminent domain to eliminate the driveway because the entrance to the driveway was already in the public right-of-way and plaintiffs had no ownership interest in it.”

A 2019 printed out email from Dane Anderson, with Woodburn and Wedge, includes: “I understand your frustration, but it is something that cannot be designed around at this point.” 

The current google image of the spot in question with a tree, a curved sidewalk and a pedestrian crosswalk, where there was once an exit point from the Iliescu-owned lot on Virginia Street.

“About four years ago … they said, we're going to take your whole front entrance to the lot that abuts the roundabout … because when the cars come up there, they may have to hesitate for a minute to get onto the roundabout,” Iliescu remembers, sitting by the window, with a Stars and Stripes cane by his side. 

After hoping for a compromise, such as RTC buying up his lot, which he says was worth $400,000 when it had the driveway, instead officials just went ahead and built a new curved sidewalk portion without any driveway left.  

“As a result the only way you'll be able to get in and out of the lot will be through the alley,” he says. “Well, when you look at the alley, it’s a nightmare, and we have pictures of it. Trucks block it because there's a couple of businesses right around it, and they have to have space to park their trucks while they're unloading.”

The added median in Midtown he says has just made it worse. “To get to the alley, assuming that it's not blocked by a delivery truck, you'd have to go all the way down here past this …” he explains as he shows one of his detailed maps.  

The lot which lost its driveway is highlighted on the left.

Iliescu says he’s invested a lot of money into properties across Reno, especially in Midtown and downtown, and that his tenants include corner store owners, a Mexican restaurant, pawn shops and loan centers.  

He says he feels his properties and tenants are being targeted for not fitting in with the current narrative of how some want to change downtown. 

“I used to go hunting with O’Callaghan (Donal Neil “Mike” O’Callaghan who served as the 23rd Governor of Nevada from 1971 to 1979). I knew most of the mayors, all nice people,” he remembers. “They were concerned about the community. And, in those days you could sit down and tell them, look, this doesn't make sense because people would have to go way out of the way.”

While he recounts his ordeals with RTC he mentions a period where there was a “temporary construction easement,” which was granted in exchange for a rental fee, but then it unraveled. 

“So now when they come back after three years, they're supposed to put everything back the way it was. Well, they plant a tree in front, they completely block it. A good portion of it. So we said to them, well why do all that? Why don't they just condemn us? Just condemn and pay us for what you're taking. Just do it the way you're supposed to do it. Because in condemnation, the way it works is if we want your property, we come and we get our appraisers to appraise it…and you come to some agreement.  I would've gone with that. I had no choice because they can do that. Okay, well, they decide they're not going do that. They're going to plant a tree there and they're not going to pay me anything more. They said, ‘well, we can do it because we have a public right of way.’”

So far his legal attempts to reverse the situation have been unsuccessful.

Other disputes Iliescu has had have taken him to City Council for public comment, including earlier this year to defend the Wrightway Market, his tenant at 330 Evans Ave. across from the main bus station.

Despite his pleas then, the City Council voted to revoke the store’s liquor license, blaming its alcohol sales for a high volume of police calls in the area.

“If I go to rent it now, I can't say to the guy, you can use it for this and this and that, because the city says, oh no, you are a bad boy,” he said during our interview.

Despite several City Council discussions, and meetings where arguments were made the store was a victim of its location when people call about problems in the area, a reversal hasn’t happened for that decision either.  

“You talk to any one of the city council people, I send out letters to the governor and people, you never hear from them,” Iliescu lamented. “You talk to the city council people and individually, they're all nice people, but nothing happens. Nobody seems to care.  We just want it to work.”

Other recent feuds have involved the old 1885 195 N Virginia Street commercial building which he owns.

“If the windows, somebody comes by and etches them or cracks them, I gotta repair it. And not only that, but they make it worse. They tell me if it's even got a little scratch, I gotta fix this and do that. But I don't see anybody helping me. Remember I love Reno and I want it to be good. But we got a lot of greed there. And you all wanna beat on me. You already have beat on me. What else are you gonna do to me?” he asks incredulously.

At this point of the interview, his grandson Chase McMullen, who wears many hats, including as a tech entrepreneur, editor of the Senior Spectrum,  and an organizer for skateboarders and seniors, explained the family decided to put plywood onto that property because they were tired of the broken windows.  

 “Code enforcement comes around and constantly wants to give you a bunch of violations for things that are excessive,” McMullen said. “We've had ten broken windows and they want to tell us to fix another one. And since we've received this violation notice that says fix the plywood in the window, we've had two more broken windows in just June. There's plywood on another door. So it's a merry-go-round where the people downtown are vandalizing the properties and then the city comes along and penalizes you for them vandalizing your building… We’re worried if we fix that glass window, it's going to get broken again. So the city says you can board up your windows and you can paint them or beautify them. That's not going to help us get a tenant in the building.”

McMullen says big companies like Bird, Jacobs Entertainment and the main casinos get their way with different projects and facilitation, while surveys conducted by out of towners lead to new decisions, but that smaller, local business owners feel constantly penalized, ignored and unwanted. 

“They take the advice of the money and the money doesn't understand Reno, which is why we have this problem downtown in the first place,” he said.  

McMullen sees the 2022 law to ban single-serve alcohol in containers less than 20 ounces in the downtown corridor (see above) in the same vein.  

“If you really think about what they passed a year ago, getting those little bottles of liquor out of those stores that caters to those casinos,” he said. “So we have tenants, you know, we work with small businesses, we work with the little guy. We don't have casinos across the entire country. My grandfather and my grandmother worked their entire life to get these buildings and put tenants in there… The city is so backhanded and heavy with their decision making, but so fluff and nice to you up front.”

McMullen is proud of his grandfather though for fighting back. “Somebody around here has to do it,” he said.

When asked to speak, Sonnia Iliescu, who deferred to her husband and grandson during the rest of the interview, pointed to the elimination of parking on Virginia Street as a pivotal moment to what she believes is its downward trend.  “You look at all the old pictures of historic Reno and it was thriving but now locals don't go downtown anymore very often,” she said.

“They don't want to go down there and park in a casino parking lot. And that was the agenda, was to get the people off the street and in the parking lots of the casinos. When we had a beautiful downtown, we had a lot of fun downtown. We've been here for over 50 years and it's changed incredibly and not for the better, I'm sorry to say, but my husband loves Reno. I love Reno, and we have invested our future in Reno. All of our investments have been in Reno, so we believed in it, and hopefully we will see things change for the better,” she concluded.  

Our Town Reno, July 2023 Reporting

Smashing Reno Punk Flea Market Becomes Non-Profit, Mid July Outdoor Event

When it comes to Reno punk, the next can’t miss event is just around the calendar corner. Co-founder Jessi Sprocket Janusee wants to make sure it’s understood the Reno Punk Rock Flea Market brings an inclusive concept of punk.

“You don't have to identify as punk to come and have a great time,” she explained during a recent interview with Our Town Reno. “Punk is more about an attitude, less about an aesthetic. And it's really for everybody and we encourage everyone to come. We get 65-year-old grandmas who come with their grandkids and have an awesome time.”

As Artown rolls around, a mid July special this year will be a new edition of the Reno Punk Rock Flea Market, the first one as a non profit and the first one in Reno, at Great Basin Brewing on Rock Blvd. July 15th and 16th.

Jessi is part of the team still hard at work with last minute logistics, adding a circus theme, with a carnival midway, mermaids, aerialists and clowns, as well as a skateboarding contest with the Bitchin Betties crew at adjacent Mira Loma Park in addition to vendors, live punk music, food trucks, kid crafts and the extremely popular car smash.

A promo video above for a previous edition.
Mutual aid groups are always involved as well with their own stands. 

“I think that the punk vibe is very DIY and it's also very community driven. Like the community takes care of each other and that's always been something,” Jessi explained during our recent interview. “Since the first flea we invited Food Not Bombs and all the other mutual aid groups out, to just give out information and get new volunteers and get themselves in front of new people. So that's always been something that we wanted to support.” 

This edition, a lot of volunteers are coming from Family Soup Mutual Aid and Trans Support Reno, and a new nonviolent deescalation coalition is helping with security. 

“We didn’t want to have to do a rent a cop situation, we just wanted to figure out something that was like the community supporting the community. And they showed up and it was like perfect timing. So now they're gonna do security for both day,” Jessi said.  

She is nervous about the weather being too hot, but still hopes to get the crowds in.  Previous fleas have attracted in the range of three to over five thousand attendees. 

“We’re a little bit worried about it, not going to lie because it's our first event that's more outdoors and also the weather in Reno is crazy, you know, it could be 110 degrees or it could be hailing,” she said of the upcoming event which will go for the two days from 10 to 6 pm, with ten to noon as quieter hours for families and near-divergent folks. Kids under 12 are free, while entry is $5 pre-sale and $7 at the door. 

Jessi said it’s important to keep prices affordable, while also trying to grow the flea market’s vision and possibilities for the future. 

“We want to grow as a non profit and our goal is to eventually have our own venue where we could be doing these community events and workshops and everything,  year round and also offer up our space for different mutual aid groups that just need a larger space to do things which are affordable. The goal is raise money towards that, but also we never want it to be that people can't afford to come to our events. So we try really hard to get that sweet spot, where we're making enough that we could start working towards our long-term goals, but also where it's accessible for everybody in the community.” 

Volunteers are always welcome, even at the last minute and online. 

“We always want more volunteers,” Jessi said.  “We have a volunteer sign up  in our link tree and on our website. And we also started doing monthly meetups now with our volunteers and we have a Discord channel. Because we want to foster this volunteer community year round.” 

Our Town Reno reporting, July 2023

Art for Recovery Releases 10-Year Commemoration Book

A new book to commemorate 10 years of the Art for Recovery initiative has just been completed and is now available for ordering as part of fundraising efforts for the local non profit Transforming Youth Recovery.

The non profit Art for Recovery has released the book of the same name which has as its subhead: A Decade of Creative Expression to Inspire Change in Treating Addiction.  It is a full-color, 300-page coffee-table book with prints of “260 artworks produced by artists recruited to create works depicting the darkness of addiction and brightness of recovery,” according to a press release shared with Our Town Reno.

“Addiction is blind to someone’s social standing, education, ethnicity, religion or region. It hits every group of people. And it will take all of us to turn back its rising tide,” Mathewson says, with a wrist tattoo honoring her son.

“Art for Recovery’s mission is as vital as ever,” says Art for Recovery founder, Stacie Mathewson — who herself lost her son to the opioid crisis, in 2013. “This book will be an enduring testament to the need for our nation to develop more accessible and effective education and treatment for substance abuse in our communities. This book — with its evocative artworks — is a reminder that the crisis is real, and healthcare solutions are urgently needed.”

Mathewson is also the executive director of the Stacie Mathewson Foundation in Reno, which according to her LinkedIn,  aims “to foster and support a family and youth recovery movement that produces monumental change in the way the nation views, supports and communicates about the disease of addiction.”

Art for Recovery: A Decade of Creative Expression to Inspire Change in Treating Addiction, is available in standard edition ($40 plus shipping and handling) and a deluxe, slipcase edition ($100 plus shipping and handling). Each edition is hardback with foil-stamped covers. Copies of the book can be ordered by emailing TYR@sbjreno.com

There will also be a big auction related to the book’s release on September 23 at the Nevada Museum of Art starting at 6 p.m. for which tickets are now being sold.  

Art for Recovery began in 2014, when the non-profit organization put out a call for local artists to decorate antique doors with themes related to addiction and recovery.

Thirty-eight doors were then displayed around town and auctioned off at the Nevada Museum of Art to benefit Transforming Youth Recovery, which according to its Facebook page “is leading the charge for children … with prevention, intervention, and recovery support services.” 

Over the years, 260 original artworks have been created as part of this initiative, with 160 artists taking part, including a few examples above. 

“Here in 2023, there’s a seemingly unending epidemic of catastrophic drug misuse and abuse threatening our nation’s youth, and our society as a whole,” Mathewson says in the press release for the new book. “While heroin, crack cocaine and methamphetamine have not gone away, recreational marijuana has not only become legal in many states, it is more potent than ever. What’s more, hardcore narcotics such as fentanyl have found their way not only onto the street but into schools and workplaces. The opioid crisis has upped the stakes on the perils of drug abuse. One casualty was my own son, Josh, whose accidental death proved fatal, making him one of the more than 560,000 Americans to perish from an opioid overdose in the past two decades.”

Our Town Reno reporting, July 2023

A Peek Inside the Eddy House

Compared to the sprawling Cares Campus shelter on Threlkel St., the Eddy House, for the 18-24 age group, on a corner of Willow Street is much cleaner inside, with more activities available, built-in resources and a more positive buzz.

The goal of the Eddy House is to bring sustainable independence to the youth they are helping, some fleeing abusive households, others aging out of the foster care system, many at risk of becoming or remaining unhoused. 

Housing instability can then be a cause of drug use, Ana Hurt, the marketing director explained during a recent tour, furthering a downward spiral.

“So a lot the times, if somebody is homeless, they didn’t use before but they’re out in the cold every night or they’re just struggling with the fact that they don’t have a home to go to and so they do start to use drugs,” Hurt said.  “A lot of the times, it’s the opposite way around,” she says of preconceived notions. “It’s not someone who uses drugs and becomes homeless.  It’s that someone becomes homeless, and then that’s how they cope with either just the physical factors of being homeless or the emotional and mental factors of being homeless.”

The Eddy House offers emergency and transitional shelter, with lockers outside, and meals, therapy, classes, and GED education inside.

Its website indicates that in 2021, it served 374 youths with over 12-thousand bed nights and 11-thousand meals.

Many members come to the Eddy House from minority groups and the LGBTQ+ community, as well as broken and toxic households.

“Through all the experiences and backgrounds a lot of times they’re just coming out to us with a lot of, you know, struggles and trauma, just associated with different situations,” Hurt said.” If somebody is LGBTQ+, and they come out to their family and get kicked out, you know, that’s very  traumatic to have that happen to them.  If they’ve been in the foster system and maybe not had the best experience, they got trauma with that so… I would say a lot of times it’s just a lot of inner work that they need to do and a lot of trauma that they need to work through to overcome.”

For some staff members, it isn’t an easy job. Several have come from UNR’s School of Social Work, and take on work at the Eddy House as their first opportunity in their studied field.

In previous interviews, several former employees spoke to Our Town Reno anonymously about difficult youths to deal with, from racist, hateful language to fights and safety concerns at check-in during late hours when there are fewer employees around.

“When it was just the graveyard person, they would have to be cleaning the facility while checking to see if the clients are okay, if they're still sleeping, if they need anything, and also potentially dealing with people who might come in from outside,” one former employee said.

“They don't have a lot of money … So it's people like me, it's people who can't deal with these like, violent situations or people with mental health problems,” she said of having worked part-time at the Eddy House while still a student at UNR.

While Our Town Reno used to be able to interview clients at the beginnings of the Eddy House, that access has been closed off due to privacy concerns. A recent Eddy House Instagram post had a photo of a young person smiling and holding a lamp in front of the Katie Grace Foundation next to two others holding cardboard boxes. The caption reads: “When an Eddy House client moves out into their own place, it should feel like home. 🏠💜 So we'd like to give special thanks to the Katie Grace Foundation for gifting this client new furniture and decor for their home!”

Hurt concluded the most recent tour saying every success story shows all the efforts are worth the difficulties.

“It’s kind of great to hear about somebody’s why like, you know, what happened and why are you working so hard now,” she said of former clients, now independently housed, studying for better futures or already working full time at rewarding jobs.

Tour photos and reporting by Eneida Castaneda Sanchez

Kootsoo, a 19-Year-Old Local with Her Own Tattoo Shop and Art Business

Nyelli Chacon, better known as Kootsoo on social media and in art circles, is a 19-year-old who says she didn’t really have a plan after high school and compared to some of her classmates that had plans like going to college, joining the army, or going into the workforce she felt disorganized. Kootsoo just had her dreams of doing art and followed them. 

Just a few years later, Kootsoo has had artistic success and was recently able to open her own tattoo studio on Wells Avenue. Nyelli is half Northern Pauite from Pyramid Lake on her mother’s side and half Chicana on her dad’s side. Kootsoo is a Northern Pauite word and it means cow which is Nyelli’s favorite animal. 

She was born and raised in Reno and lives in the Reno-Sparks Indian colony. Kootsoo graduated from Wooster High in 2022. She didn’t take art seriously until her senior year of high school when she first started using Procreate.

Kootsoo has been on the art scene professionally for two years and started by doing acrylic paintings for galleries and vending at local events. She would post her art online and a few of her pieces went viral. Kootsoo got invited to the Bay Area or local Reno places like Radical Cat and Holland because of this. 

“I’ve just been working from home since then doing commissions for local brands, I draw logos,” says Kootsoo. 

Kootsoo’s newly acquired tattoo studio is located on S Wells Ave. 

The transition to getting her own studio also went quickly. She had previously been apprenticing in the same building located at 1545 S Wells Ave across from the Marketon supermarket, but she decided to go professional and get her license as well as other documents and certifications she needed for her business. “I have so many friends that are barely coming of age to get tattoos, so I tattoo a lot of young people,” says Kootsoo. So far this year Kootsoo says she’s already tattooed over 30 people.  

Kootsoo’s parents worried about her at first. “They were afraid of me being financially stable going into this and just with my age, a lot of people in the art industry are older and have more experience. They were just worried about me but as of now I’ve proven to them what I can do and they’re really proud,” says Kootsoo. 

One of Kootsoo’s tattoo works. Follow her on Instagram @Koottsoo to see more of her art or to book for an appointment. 

Kootsoo finds her inspiration in her culture, car shows, growing up on the reservation, and anime or manga.

Currently, Kootsoo is focusing on making her space more homey and decorating it to make her clients more comfortable. In the future, Kootsoo says she hopes to be able to take on a bigger space.

She plans on staying in Reno though. “It’s my city, and it’s been so good to me. I love it. I want to bring a new vision to tattooing,” she says.

Our Town Reno reporting by Nancy Vazquez

Biggest Little Baby Ramps Up Support, Including Diaper Drives

Located On South Virginia Street there’s a unique store with classes called Biggest Little Baby which also calls itself “one of Reno's most loved sources of community support circles.”

The care center offers various resources for people in the community who are looking to be parents or are expecting. It can even help family members of those expecting. For one of the owners, Sarah Walton, it is important to serve the underprivileged community members in this stage of their lives as well.

“I want people to have an open mind that this time in our lives isn’t something that should be in a compartment of its own it needs to be something that is integrated into our lives and our communities and into how we show up for one another and that is everyone's responsibility not just people who are childbearing,” Walton said during a recent interview.

A section in the store filled with books is available for checkout to community members. 

Biggest Little Baby is a store that sells any sort of imaginable baby product from diapers to maternity clothes. They also have a few items that can be checked out such as books from a section that covers subjects from fertility to difficult toddlers.

Even if someone happens to not find what they're looking for Biggest Little Baby is equipped with tons of resources around the city. They are constantly growing and adding things to their organization such as in the future they hope to be a safe place drop off.

“I have never been in a space that had so much feminine drive and feminine energy,” Walton said. “It's not what I have been drawn to in the past and so it's been a cool place to see shift.”

The store open seven days a week also hosts fitness and support classes.

A whiteboard hung up in the store space of Biggest Little Baby detailing the various support circles and other activities happening there during the month. 

Biggest Little Baby is also always hosting a variety of events such as story time for children or a variety of circles for Moms. Some of the examples of circles they have are circles that provide support for young parents or parents who have lost a child. “A lot of people know that they're welcome whether there's a baby in their belly or not,” says Walton. These circles are led by people who have gone through these experiences.

They also sometimes have donation drives. One of their most recent ones, in collaboration with Black Wall Street Reno, was a community diaper drive.

Sarah Walton poses with diaper donations for the drive in collaboration with Black Wall Street Reno. 

Inside Biggest Little Baby is also Bright Heart Birth Services. They more specifically help with birth and postpartum. They have a few doulas and their services also extend to things such as placenta encapsulation or other keepsakes.

For all the staff alike it's always a pleasure to see people of all sorts come in, young, old, or queer, as well as sometimes get to watch the children of community members who frequent Biggest Little Baby, grow up.

“I really encourage people to come down here and get a little tour whether they are in a child bearing stage or not because there's a good chance that they know somebody who is,” Walton concluded at the end of our own tour.

Our Town Reno reporting by Nancy Vazquez

What do You Think of the Future of Casinos in Downtown Reno?

As local attention keeps being fixated on the rebranded Sands J Resort on Arlington Ave., we often wonder about our downtown Virginia street section, and what its still operational casinos and recently faltered ones mean to the present and future of Reno?

When there’s talk of revitalizing our downtown, or working on new bike lanes, the casinos are often the elephants in the room, sometimes overlooked, but when it comes down to it central to any decision and still all imposing. 

After several requests for comments via our multiple social media channels, the responses we received on our query about casinos and our downtown future were illuminating, with anecdotes which could fill a book. 

There were many proponents of casinos, who pointed to helpful tax dollars and to their key role in the city’s history, culture and identity, and the many jobs provided, but also many frustrated contributors who complained of the look and feel of our downtown on most days — the passed out and the end of their rope gamblers laid out in front of corner stores with kitschy offerings, pawn shops with the most random of items, and boarded up shops painted over with murals in yet another display of local “art washing.” 

“Tbh Reno should've followed Vegas in the 90s and demolished all these casinos and built better new and bigger tourists attractions. That's where they really dropped the ball. Downtown is just a sad depressing place to be now. Seems like 2011ish was the last great year Reno had,” Z.eros wrote.  Some would argue with the last glory year, but most commenters agreed that section of Reno is past its prime. “Might as well get rid of the few remaining, at this point, it's a dump downtown,” Tally Walz wrote on our Facebook. 

It’s a particular type of tourist, eater, concert goer, gala attendee and local gambler who still enters casino doors, while many other residents enjoy Virginia street only when there’s an outdoor event, with cars blocked out, and not having to enter the fluorescent caverns to be entertained.

With the population surge, and the success of each of these events, it seems there could be one for almost every weekend on the calendar. 

On our Instagram Roman de Salvo disagreed with the aforementioned Z.eros that bigger would have been better in changing our downtown. He lamented the lack of a pedestrian feel on non event days. 

“Time was, downtown was remarkably vital and vibrant, with lots of shopping in addition to the many small casinos that competed at street level for the abundant pedestrian traffic,” he wrote. “The hermetically sealed parking-hotel-restaurant-casino biospheres are an invasive species that has out-competed the smaller native species of a historically street oriented urban ecology. The mega-resorts have given us a blight that ultimately isn't good even for themselves. (Take Harrah's, for instance.)”

In some of the most pointed comments we received he explained why Virginia Street can be so desultory, by design. “They're a pernicious business that breeds payday lenders, pawnshops, addiction and blight,” he wrote of our downtown casinos.

“In the five years I have lived in Reno, I have only been inside a casino once, for a concert. While I appreciate Circus Circus letting UNR peeps park for free, it’s a really unpleasant place to be a pedestrian. Casinos seem like a relic from the past and slot machines make me sad,” wrote Andy Zuker, a student at UNR, hinting to a generational divide, even though many students themselves struggle with gambling addiction, or gamble as one of their choices of entertainment.

Some commenters contributed memories of how they used to try their luck at the local casinos but then stopped or at least eased up. “I gambled a paycheck when I was in my 20s,” Valerie Tilson wrote. “Since then I then had a friend who would give me 20 hold my purse/wallet and put a small clock in front. When after an hour the alarm went off and had to leave whether I was up or down if I was up it was then split upon exit. 3 years later I never gambled again nor gone inside of casino.”

Many expressed relief they weren’t themselves gambling addicts, but had difficult stories about friends and family to share. “Born and raised here...seen MANY people drop "Juniors" college fund or try and double the mortgage payment before heading out empty handed,” Jared Tyner wrote, with ALL CAPS to emphasize certain parts of his statement.  “I gamble MAYBE once a year to just mess around and drink for free.” “Have too many family members who sound cuckoo for thinking they have some sort of ritual for hitting the button "just right" to win etc…” Tab Isamzin wrote. 

“I grew up here,” Jessica Castro wrote.  “My father had a gambling addiction. I struggled with gambling for a long time in my early 20s. Casinos do not do enough for our community such as donating to local non profits or mutual aid groups.”

“Casino’s main purpose for existing is to rid people of their money, while offering a bit of entertainment between the entry and exit,” Lo Hoyman wrote in a matter of fact way.

Laura Furumoto wrote about her first husband who she said was a gambling addict. His life story she shared reads like a local Greek tragedy, with harsh words for the casino industry.

“His dad used to take him to Circus Circus to win animals at games when he was little,” she wrote. “Bet on sports next. Then worked at sports books as a side job. Then worked legit and had his own company for decades making six figures and took his high profile customers to casinos for dinners, shows, gambling. Hosted international convention parties by renting out tops of casinos… Then started gambling more heavily. He fell in love with the poker dealer at the Peppermill. Divorce. Bought a house in Somersett for her. Lost her after being engaged six months and she asked for a TRO. Gambled company away. Became a "Professional Gambler" going to play in World Series of Poker etc. Largest win recorded online for him was about $36k. Playing online poker more heavily. Lost his house. COVID killed travel to Vegas. Got a job at a big box warehouse store for minimum wage. Evicted from nice apartment in NW Reno. Now lives in low income/assisted pay apartments in a bad part of town. Not safe for our daughter with special needs. Gambling is evil. It ruins lives. Every single time. The house always wins - the price the gambler pays is their sanity, their money, their future, their souls… Casinos can absolutely go away. Only value [they] have is the entertainment but the Pioneer Center and other non-profits can provide that proficiently,” she concluded. 

“They are well designed by very intelligent people to extract as much money from vulnerable people as possible,” Xu Yun Xuan Tong wrote on Facebook, who had a more data based approach to our query.  “Only about 3-5% end up ahead over a year, and less and less the longer they go. 10% of gamblers throw away so much of their money that they account for 90% of a casino's profits. But telling addicts these things never sways them more than the psychological manipulation the casinos enact. At least it pays a lot of Nevada's taxes.”

We got testimonies from others who like to gamble but keep their gambling under control.

“I think it’s all about self control but people always think they can win and then lose,” Bailey Kay wrote. “I like going to the casino, not any downtown except maybe Cal Neva, and that’s to have a drink with friends and try a few slots.”

Others like “janeyahm” on Instagram saw change away from casinos as a negative. 
“Reno needs to embrace its history. The casinos were amazing, the western/ cowboy culture, souvenir stores that are actually cool, Reno tries so hard to be cool and in that attempt all the cool things about Reno seem to be getting lost.”

Echoing this sentiment, Debi Kessler wrote: “I wish we still had all of our old casinos in downtown.  At least it had character then!” Daniel Carroll added: “We should have the old school type casinos back. Or just more in general. Our downtown scene is sad and needs more action.”

“Casinos have supported and sustained this state. If you don’t like it, you can go somewhere where there are no casinos,” Joe Hoax wrote on our Facebook.  “Leave the casinos, strip bars, and tattoo shops alone. Don’t change this unique city. I gamble maybe $100 a year at the most as entertainment.”

“If government can operate a lottery, people should have the right to run a casino,” wrote Louis Santiago Dong III. “If you don't like something you don't ban it, you just don't partake. Don't like gay marriage, don't partake but don't ban it. If you're smart you'd put that $20 in video poker at the bar and with $10 beers at the ROW you break even after two beers.”

“If you get rid of gambling and casinos then you erase Reno all together,” Jennifer Burroughs wrote. “It’s the individual’s decision. Government is not here to tell adults what to do with their money.”

The definition of cool and what we need for the community seems to be in dispute though in terms of who you ask.

“Midtown and the river front are thriving,” a commenter who goes by Glynffinite wrote. “Reno would be so much cooler if most or all of the downtown casino zone was turned into mixed use.  The nicest casinos are all away from downtown anyway these days.”

“While I actually am nostalgic for the blingy vibrancy of the downtown clubs as they were in their heyday, before tribal casinos in other states, I don't see much of a future [for] most of them,” de Salvo concluded in his own comments. “You can pretty much smell which of them are going to fail next.”

“It seems like absolutely anyone near or younger than my age has zero interest in going to a casino where literally the only thing you can do is sit and lose money on slots or cards while getting second hand smoke forced down your throat,” a UNR student wrote.

Like the Jacobs expansion, or the destruction of motels, where to put bike lanes or the median in Midtown, the future value of our Virginia street casinos seems to represent one of those dividing lines in local social media discussions.  As long as there are casino goers though, it’s probably a safe bet some of these will remain for the time being and continue to dominate the center strip of our fast growing Biggest Little City.  

Photos in this article by Ariel Smith for Our Town Reno

Immigrants of Reno: Alex Perez, Going Back to Drawing Celebrities

Alex Perez first came here as immigrant from Nicaragua after the country was undergoing a civil war.

“It was extremely hard for me to fit into the American culture at the beginning I barely knew how to speak English,” he remembers.

But his passion for art was always there as even without supplies at first he painted on old pieces of wood and anything he could find.

Perez graduated from high school in Texas only a year after moving to the U.S. He knew he had to move to pursue a career in becoming an artist, his dream.

So he packed up his belongings and moved to Los Angeles.

“Most people are scared to move to somewhere like Los Angeles but I had nothing to lose so I applied and sent in my art work everywhere,” he said.

He eventually landed a job as a political cartoonist at the newspaper called “La Opinion” a Hispanic newspaper.

Photos from the past tell his story as a cartoonist.

Perez left “La Opinion” after two years but with an established portfolio he started to apply to bigger newspapers. And to his surprise his career took a new turn.

Instead of being a political cartoonist he was now drawing entertainment celebrities. His work was published in newspapers like the Los Angeles Times, the Hollywood Reporter and the Washington Post.

He was living the dream. Perez went from bagging groceries at a local grocery store to supplement his income to attending movie premieres, and starting to become recognized for his art by famous actors including Tom Cruise and Morgan Freeman.

“I was finally getting recognized for what I loved to do it was a surreal moment in my life,” he remembers of the mid 1980s and 1990s.

Over the years, Perez became syndicated and recognized by the Academy of Motion Pictures. Unfortunately, newspapers were slowly starting to fade in the 2000s and his career started to slow down.

Perez had worked on a few projects here and there but ultimately he decided to move to Reno, Nevada to start his family and work for a gaming company called IGT.

“Although I was still drawing, I was crushed inside because it wasn’t what I truly wanted to do and I finally had a taste of what my dreams were like because they had came true,” he said.

Back at it. “Almost 20 years passed I knew I couldn’t let my dreams die down so I picked up the pieces and started to create something new,” Perez said of starting drawing again during retirement.

Perez is now retired which has allowed him to start drawing again and resume work as an artist. He soon hopes to host an exhibition with all of his art in Los Angeles.

“To never give up on your dreams but most importantly to never give up on yourself in all my years of my career I had doubts but I picked myself back up and knew that I could make it,” he said.

Reporting by Daniela M Perez shared with Our Town Reno

Researching the Paranormal at the Jesse Hotel and Bar

Seeing a woman use dowsing rods to look for spirits in a basement and then watching a man punching out demons in the air with a knife was a first for me as a reporter.

It was raining and hailing on a Sunday afternoon in downtown Reno. I had arrived a few minutes before the entire ghost hunting team I had an appointment with. The group known as Researching the Paranormal has been contacting Our Town Reno for a while now, for us to document what they do.

When everyone was at the Jesse Hotel and Bar, I was introduced to Andre Lewis the “CEO” of the operation. He along with Leroy Abolinas, the “demon hunter” of the group, I was told, were the two who initially started these ghost hunting activities, taking them to spooky places across the region. 

They later added other members including Chevonne Sumler, the medium, and also Andre’s fiance, Teri McCormick, the “overseer of research” and also the only member who is able to use dowsing rods to communicate with spirits.

There’s also Dave, who films and does voice-overs. Angela Nannegathe is the empath of the group who seems to help Chevonne the most in the group when she is overcome by visions from the spirit world.

“The visions make me cry, there’s so many mixed emotions at once. I don’t know how to control that yet,” Chevonne said.

Left to Right: Members of the ghost hunting team: Dave, Terri McCormick, Andre Lewis, Chevonne Sumler, Leroy Abolinas, and Angela Nannegathe. Taken in the lobby of the Jesse Hotel and Bar. 

All of the members say they are sensitive to paranormal activity in one way or another. Andre and Leroy always saw spirits as young boys. “Since they’re messing with me anyway, it’s time for me to come at them,” Andre says. 

Leroy on the other hand specifically told of a time as a child when he would be frequently visited by a Native American Spirit that spoke to him. Terry on the other hand has never seen a spirit but has started to believe in them since joining the team. 

Dave also cannot see spirits but has feelings about certain places and says he’s now friendly with a spirit the group picked up on one of their investigations named Lily. He says she currently lives in his pickup truck and enjoys metal music. “I don't think I have a well developed gift like Chevonne or anything … it's more like a gab,” Dave explains. 

Andre above filming the visit for the group’s channels.
Angela also is unable to see spirits except for in her dreams but can most certainly feel them. She says this ability came about after she was pronounced medically dead a few times in the past. During these times when she was momentarily gone, she described out-of-body experiences. 

What prompted an investigation of the Jesse Hotel were previous experiences the team had encountered there. One of the members recalls going to use the restroom and then seeing something in one of the mirrors.

Another member says that a hanger was thrown at them out of nowhere while they were in the hotel.

Meanwhile, Leroy had a much more personal experience with a physical housekeeper of the hotel.  He described the housemaid as strange and with a fly flying around her.  He said the entire conversation was uncomfortable and that she kept asking questions such as, “if demons have a chance to change their ways,” Leroy says. 

Chevonne breaks down after having a vision of the spirits trapped in the basement. 

During this investigation, the team decided look into the basement of the hotel, which according to the managers is the most active place for spirit activity.

The basement of the hotel used to have tunnels that are now sealed. These tunnels were believed to have been used to transfer money safely from one location to another beneath Reno and were also popular for prostitution activities.

Typically however the team finds places to investigate by researching the history and legends of Nevada or from word of mouth. “There’s just places you drive by and you feel something,” Dave says. 

After everyone had geared up, it was time to head downstairs. During the initial interview, the members had something that I was now recalling on the wooden steps … that was to be careful going down or up the stairs so you don’t get pushed by anything that could be lurking. 

Once downstairs the team started to get a feel for the place. At some point during this process, Andre wandered off by himself into the deeper basement area. No one had noticed until we all heard a metal clang and Andre exclaiming, “Oh shit!” To which Dave announced, “Ok viewers it is starting already, we are not two minutes in, we haven't gotten set up yet and we have things being thrown.” 

Andre claims to have had something thrown at him that their viewers can see in their YouTube video linked above.

The next step was the dowsing rods. Terri wielded the rods and even let me hold one. She explained to me how the precision bearing on the instrument made it so no one could manipulate them. The way that they worked was a question would be asked and typically they would cross for yes or stay open for no.

One of the many questions that Terri asked the spirits was where the demons were located in the basement room. This was caught in their video as well, but once she had asked that question I couldn't help but feel that the dowsing rods slowly pointed in my direction since I was standing behind Terri. Of course, I got a bit nervous. 

Somewhere in between the questions Chevonne suddenly started having a vision. She began to cry and break down.  While she was in this trance-like state she was telling us she could see a young female prostitute, somewhere, likely in her twenties. “She was beat,” Chevonne said.  She also described that the spirit was running through the tunnels and that her name was Natalie. 

Terri asked the rods if there was a Natalie present in the basement to which she got a yes answer. The next step for the team was to exercise the spirit which is where Leroy comes in. 

Leroy had previously shown me a knife that he carries around his waist, that he says has been blessed by the universe. At this point, Leroy was wielding the knife and was drawing his ritual pentagon in the air in front of where the demon supposedly was. He would then proceed to stab this entity and move their energy to be no more. 

“You’re very lucky,” Teri said to me. “Sometimes we’re here for hours and nothing happens.” In just a few minutes, I had gotten to see a bit of everything that typically happens in their investigations. 

Afterward, the team proceeded to a room on the top floor of the hotel to have a discussion. This time served as a reflection of what they had just experienced as well as to recall other similar encounters, and to plan for their next investigation, as well their outreach efforts to have their work noticed.

Our Town Reno reporting by Nancy Vazquez

Enos Interiano, for the Love of Teaching Spanish

In raw and honest terms, Spanish teacher at Reno High Enos Interiano defines the experience in his own words:  

“So, the experience of teaching... Well, it goes something like this. If you like baseball, it’s like hitting a home run, going through all the bases, but once you get to third base you feel like you’re craw-w-wling from third base to home base.  That’s teaching.  When you get to your final quarter, you just feel like ‘Oh my god, is this thing ever going to end?’  That’s my experience with teaching.”  

Born in El Salvador, San Salvador, Interiano’s passion for teaching came from the act of giving.  It was early at age fourteen that he discovered this talent when becoming a karate instructor. 
Since then, he has been devoted to the path of teaching with now four years of experience in the profession.  His favorite part about teaching is, “seeing your students at graduation after putting in so much work for them to graduate."

To him, it is students that make his life of teaching worthwhile. From students writing a thoughtful letter to him to students buying him lunch, Interiano is grateful to have students who show him the power students carry beyond the classroom. 

Story and photo by Eneida Castaneda Sanchez

Rediscovering Spiritual Roots: Locals Find Healing in Indigenous Practices and Shamanism

From Indigenous Mexican witch healer, Mary Rojas (above) to Peruvian Shaman, Fabiola Baughman, Reno’s world of the occult is dazzling, intriguing, and led by courageous Latine leaders. Through practices rooted in ancient Indigenous traditions, these Latine healers are able to push back against post-colonial Catholic doctrines which have often quelled the voices of alternative spiritual practitioners.

Practitioners diverting from their Latin American Catholic heritage in Reno include Mary Rojas, a self-described witch who has been actively reconnecting with their Indigenous heritage through their spirituality and art.

Rojas grew up Catholic, but six years ago they started recognizing that some family practices didn’t align with Catholicism. They were derived from their Purépecha and Nahua ancestry.

The Purépecha and Nahua are Indigenous peoples in Mexico, and the Nahua is most famous for founding the Aztec empire. Rojas honors their Nahua heritage by incorporating the Aztec calendar into their daily life and using the Aztec codex as a reference for their art.

Stickers that Rojas sells featuring their logo “Saint Fax” and a “Land Back” sticker. Land back is a movement associated with decolonization and has a long history of organizing and sacrificing to get Indigenous lands back into Indigenous hands.

Rojas said that they use the Aztec calendar to judge the “vibes” of the day. Depending on what type of day it is on the calendar, Rojas will adjust how they approach it.

While Rojas was lucky enough to know what tribes they descended from, they acknowledge that it isn’t that way for everyone.

“Even if you don't know what people you come from, you can still appreciate that we are still here, we're still connected, like, you know, this is something you can look at to, you know, be proud of,” Rojas said.

As practices of decolonizing and reconnecting with deeper roots become more popular, Rojas says people need to pay attention to how they follow this process.

“I'm not going to go reconnect with like, Ojibwe practices, for example, like, that's not gonna vibe with me. You know, that's not who I am,” they said. "So when Catholics rolled up on the shores of Mexico and tried to convert everyone, they tried to connect different saints to different deities and different powers," Rojas said.

Denise Sheehan in foreground on right describes herself as a Conscious Evolution Coach, Reiki Master Teacher, Shaman, Stargate Experience Facilitator on her LinkedIn.

While there are many Latine leaders like Rojas who are practicing Indigenous traditions in Reno, several non-Latine people have also taken up such practices, including Denise Sheehan, who coordinates a program called Sky Spirit Shamans.

Sheehan, who has an English degree from the University of Nevada, Reno, then worked there from 1997 to 2009 as a prevention specialist, before getting into the spiritual business.

Sheehan describes her experience in shamanism as something serendipitous. She faced multiple near-death experiences and then realized that they led to visions and her finding her purpose in life through shamanism.

“There's so much more to our experience that's mysterious,” she told us, detailing her own evolution. “And I feel like that's the draw to spirituality, and for some to religion. But there's this, there's this miraculous essence of ourselves. It's so much more than just this human experience. And being able to access that is like the gateway to accessing the divine or the infinite or spirit or source or, often times, this may be a little out there.”

Sheehan faces several challenges, including being a white woman now practicing shamanism, which might be viewed as appropriation or just not natural. 

“For me, there always has been questioning around the practices that have come to me, how they're to be shared, how to honor them with the utmost respect,” Sheehan says. “And I do feel like they came to me in a very serendipitous way. I was not seeking them and did not ever think I could have access to them.”

Sheehan also thinks that the Latine community in Reno and others are starting to find peace in ancient, Indigenous practices.

She also thinks that she should be helping in perpetuating the narrative of decolonizing religion. It is stated in her bio online, “Though my life has held deep trauma too, I was raised with privilege that comes from being white-bodied.  I acknowledge, regret, and to the extent possible, apologize, for the ancestral harm caused by my ancestors and those who conquered and colonized, with lingering destruction that exists into the now.”

She believes that decolonizing religion is a part of her mission and in the process, she connects more with a different part of her lineage. “And I have worked with, you know, all of the races, and it's been really helpful too, to see that connection, that people come alive when they don't have a connection to their own ancestry,” She said. “And all of a sudden, they're able to access their families, their ancestors, through journey work and connect directly with their lineage, which is really beautiful. And it's offered me the opportunity to do that with my own lineage too, even though they're from somewhere completely different, but they've done a very honoring of that.”

Among traditional Catholics in the community, there is still pushback to shamanism which is viewed by some as misleading and even dangerous. Some say shamans use drugs to induce certain experiences. Others who practice Catholicism partake in syncretic practices– mixing Christian rituals with Indigenous beliefs.

Take for example egg cleanses, which is originally a shamanistic ritual to cleanse the spirit of bad energy. In Hispanic culture, if someone is seemingly sick out of nowhere they sometimes assume they have been given what’s known as “the evil eye”. This is when the egg cleanse is practiced in which an egg is rubbed all over the sick person’s body to rid it of the bad energy.

Many Hispanic Catholics, like the family of UNR student Nancy Vasquez,  perform these cleanses despite the “witchcraft” it comes attached with. Many also use other herbs and prayers to try and heal all sorts of ailments that sometimes don’t even have medical proof of effectiveness in combating that sickness. These practices, linked to Indigenous lineage, point to a movement of decolonization within the Latine population in Reno and the U.S. in general, many times mixing in with Catholic religious practices.

One reporter on our team Alexandra Couraud participated in a private shamanic session with Peruvian Shaman Fabiola Boughman.

Boughman immigrated to Reno 20 years ago and ever since, she says, her ancestors told her to heal others through the special gifts of the divine they gave her. She specializes in working with women and feminine energy and has been working for her clientele from her house in South Reno.

During the session, Boughman started by cleansing the room and calling on archangels to be present and guide her through her ritual. After this, she began reading the aura and energy of Couraud. She was then hit by images from Couraud’s past lives which she discussed at length. This brought out many traumas from Couraud’s past. 

After the session Boughman, advised by her ancestors and the archangels, gave Couraud an energetic cleansing in which she used several sound instruments as well as her hands to pull any traumas and negative energy out of Couraud.

Couraud says that “while I do not know the exact powers Fabiola holds and I do not think she in any way replaces therapy, I do know her work as a Shaman–connected in the roots of her Indigenous ancestors– inspired me to release my own traumas and to begin to validate my own story.”

In a sense that is what decolonization can represent and what Indigenous-rooted spiritual practices can bring about. It is a way for people to validate their own stories, to heal past wounds and to redefine who they are.

Reporting shared with Our Town Reno by Hadi Eltahlawi, Alexandra Couraud, Nancy Vazquez and Lynn Lazaro

Ashlyn Surviving on Reno's Streets: "Home is Wherever your Heart Is"

Ashlyn, 39, originally from Kingsport, Tennessee, says she chooses to live on the streets of Reno.  To her, the concept of homelessness does not exist because the city itself is a big mansion of God, she says, where there is a room for every night.   

She admits living on the streets is a struggle though.  Some days the struggle includes jumping into the cold Truckee river to wash and bathe.  Other days the struggle can get to the point where sleeping inside a trash bag can save her from freezing to death. 

Her strength comes from within, she says.

She delights in being honest with herself and others. She finds purpose in helping those around her; and finally, she’s proud to be free from drugs and alcohol for over twenty years. 

Ashlyn believes most parents do not take advantage of the time they have with their children.  Family, she emphasizes, is the most important part about life that no one should take for granted.  With that, her heart wishes nothing but happiness to her children–wherever they may be. 

“As long as you give it your all–no matter what throughout your life–at least in the end you know that there wasn’t anything else that you should’ve done different or that would’ve made it better or any less worse,” she says.

“Home is where you lay your head at night and home is wherever your heart’s at.  So, wherever your heart is, that's where your home is.”  

Story and photos by Eneida Castaneda Sanchez 

Renown and Other Local Hospitals Struggle with Nurse Shortages

Despite incentives and sign-on bonuses of up to $30,000 being offered to new nurses for their first two years, Renown Regional Health is still experiencing a shortage in this fundamental medical position, according to multiple employees at the hospital.

COVID, which caused a decrease of nurses and a lower amount of those going to nursing schools, intensified a pressing need to hire and train more medical professionals. The pandemic increased already high workloads and stress levels, with several nurses we spoke to saying they are considering a new line of work, or taking time off to think about their options.

A campaign to hire 500 more nurses and physicians across Northern Nevada was introduced last February by Renown, in a push to meet the needs of the community, but those have fallen short so far.

In an email response, Caroline Ackerman, the Manager of Communications & Public Affairs at Renown, said that employees have “felt the burden of picking up additional shifts to ensure [they] have the coverage needed to care for our community.”

At the time of our recent interview, Ackerman said that 147 new employees had been hired since the February campaign launched.

Meanwhile, departures also continue. The average age of nurses is becoming older, with early to mid-career nurses often looking for higher paying, lower stress jobs with insurance agencies or health consultant companies.

For nurses who already work 12 hour shifts, the burnout can come on quickly. The same goes for CNAs, or certified nursing assistants. These clinical employees are essential to registered nurses and patients, changing out patients’ clothing, taking vitals and cleaning up patients’ rooms.

Natasha Marko, a CNA apprentice at Renown, explains that bedside burnout, which can range from a mental health drain to worrying that you haven’t done enough for the patients under your care, has become a serious issue for clinical workers.

“We do the dirty work,” Marko says, when describing the work that she does as a CNA apprentice. Having about 12 patients at a time to clean up and check in on, a long shift can become “grueling,” she said.

She doesn’t feel her growth is being encouraged either, and that others around her at Renown give her indications they want her to stay in the position she is in now.

“Since I started being a nursing apprentice, they said, ‘don’t go to nursing school, you don’t want to do it.’” This reflects a structural problem of fewer incoming nurses.

At the state level, it’s estimated Nevada has 4,000 fewer nurses than the national average in terms of RN to population average. One solution which has been proposed is to create a nursing compact, which allows licensed nurses, in good standing in their home state, to practice in any other compact state, of which there are already 39.

Union leaders oppose this saying it’s the local working conditions which need to be improved first and foremost to address the nursing shortage.

During the pandemic, the trend of hiring more expensive travel nurses also took off, to follow where the COVID hotspots were, but with pay disparity, and a mercenary attitude, this created jealousy and further broke down local systems with local nurses also leaving for these positions, according to several nurses who spoke to us anonymously.

Another idea is to increase the pay of nurses in academia, to give a new boost to nursing schools facing their own shortages and decreased enrollment.

At the Congressional federal level, Rep. Nanette Barragán (CA-44) recently introduced the Support Faculty and Expand Access to Nursing School Act to provide grant funding through the Department of Health and Human Services to nursing schools to allow them to expand their capacity to train nurses by hiring more nursing faculty. With a divided Congress though, analysts say it’s a long shot.

The current situation has led to a thriving criminal industry of bogus nurses with fake diplomas, further complicating the search for competent, qualified nurses.

“We just need more pay and more of us to divide the work,” one of them who is thinking of taking a break and getting another degree told us anonymously.

Our Town Reno reporting and photos by Ember Braun

European Fitness Center Under the Weight of Angry Internet Comments and Reviews

The European Fitness Center on South Virginia street has become the topic of angry discussion online, channeling frustrations over alleged predatory membership practices.

In March 2022, a thread was started in a Reno, Nevada, community Facebook group by a disgruntled community member who had what they described as a far from ideal experience at the gym, also known for its faux golden entrance art of Atlas perhaps holding a globe.

The original post, about allegedly shady billing practices and pushy employees, garnered over 175 comments from community members who have had similar experiences, with a handful of commenters leaving positive, glowing reviews in the mix.

The dominant negative comments can be found on other threads through local Facebook groups as well as on Yelp and Google reviews, leading Our Town Reno reporters Gaia Osborne and Arianna Pride to dig deeper. Gym ownership didn’t respond to queries for an interview, but the reporters went on their own trial experience at the gym, followed up with disgruntled internet commenters and also found previous court documents.

When signing up for a gym in Reno or elsewhere, it’s customary to go there beforehand to scope out the facilities, equipment, and overall environment before committing financially to anything. 

Often gyms will offer a free week membership to attract potential new customers and draw them into their establishment. These trial periods are usually non-committal, with gym goers sometimes putting down a small deposit to cover a lost or non-returned key.

At the end of the free trial, they can choose whether to continue on and sign up for a membership, or walk out of the gym, no money lost.

When choosing to pass, you definitely wouldn’t want the gym to begin billing you and demanding payment for a membership you didn’t sign up for. But this is what some of the commenters say is happening at the European Fitness Center for the past few decades.

The Better Business Bureau indicates the gym has been around 38 years. It has a D- rating there, and two publicly viewable negative comments.

On its own website, the gym describes itself as a “family-oriented, comfortable and affordable full-service fitness center,” boasting a fully-equipped gym and workout area, as well as a health spa with an indoor swimming pool, a tanning and beauty salon, hair salon, barbers, and an accident injury clinic. It’s marketed as a one-stop shop for all things health and fitness, offering members every facility and class they could possibly need.

As part of the angry comments, several locals said they had entered a giveaway held at the local pizza chain Blind Onion, “winning” a free month-long membership to European Fitness Center. 

However, after trying out the gym, they said they experienced pushiness from gym employees, received incomplete information regarding paperwork and waivers, and were charged even before deciding to join.

This is echoed throughout the Facebook thread mentioned at the top of this article. One individual commented: “I went in to take a tour and decided not to sign up and they still sent me to collections.” Another wrote: “The owner tried to take me to collections for a balance of $80. Place is a joke.” 

A Yelp review posted by Kenneth M. in April of this year stated: “I was duped during a special they had going where to sign up for your membership was $30, and then 50 more dollars within the first month for your card. This membership was supposed to be a month-to-month membership, today I tried to cancel my membership, and they told me that I have agreed to a year-long membership, which was not the case and was not explained whatsoever when I signed up. They are intentionally not telling people that to get you to sign the contract.”

There are similar, much earlier accounts. Michele V (last name withheld for privacy reasons) is a longtime Reno local who has haunting memories of her own experiences, which she recollected through a phone interview.

Back in 1993, Michele – then 23 – and her boyfriend at the time says she won a free one-month membership at a home show at the Reno Convention Center. 

After going in, Michele said they were quickly taken into a small room with a desk full of papers. “Right away, the employee was telling us the paperwork was just for insurance purposes, asking us to sign our names so we could walk around freely. I started feeling weird about the whole thing, but I was young at the time and didn’t really know any better,” Michele explained.

“After I signed, they had me leave the room and separated my then-boyfriend and I. My boyfriend at the time was on the spectrum, and I think they recognized that and cornered him. He didn’t know any better at the time,” she remembers.

When this occurred, Michele was living in Sparks. After looking around the gym, they decided not to sign up and to find a place closer to their home to join instead. “When we visited, nothing monetary was talked about. Nothing indicated that what we were signing had anything to do with finances, they told us it was just for insurance. And, oh my goodness, a few hours after we got home, our telephone was ringing off the hook. Every half hour, 45 minutes. Mostly every 20 minutes.” 

It was the European Fitness Center blowing up Michele’s home phone, demanding they return and pay an outstanding fee. Despite Michele’s protests about not signing anything of that nature, they would not relent. “They were rude. I’ve never talked to anybody like that on the phone. Extremely unprofessional. They were talking to me like I was a bad person, and threatening to get us put in jail if we did not pay. It was a ridiculous fee, $150 per person which was a ton of money back then. Our cable bill was only $9 a month.” 

Michele never returned to the gym after finding out the paperwork they signed had a membership clause, and that it wasn’t just strictly for insurance purposes. For the next two years, Michele would receive phone calls on a daily basis until she decided enough was enough. She said she filed a case at the small claims court for harassment and bad business practice.

For those already members, there is friction as well concerning the pushiness to get new members.

A comment left on Facebook in March of last year said, “When I had a membership I brought a friend and they wouldn’t leave her alone until she signed up. Very uncomfortable environment.” 

Another member, Ehsan, had been living and working in Reno in 2022, and had already made up his mind to sign up when he went to the gym to join.

Ehsan talked about his experience at the gym in a phone interview. He said that during the sign-up process, he was told he must put down three references as ‘emergency contacts,’ which you’d think would be in case something happened to Ehsan, like getting injured while working out. 

 “The next day, they were calling every single one of those three references who were my coworkers. They were telling them that I was introducing them to this gym and they should sign up too as soon as possible. They were literally using my name and who I was,” Ehsan explained. 

“I called the gym to tell them to stop calling and bugging my coworkers. They’d called them not just once, but three times. Every single one of them.”

During the sign-up process, Ehsan explained to the gym employee that he was in between moving and would only need the membership for the next month or so. “They told me that I could terminate or cancel my membership whenever I want. But there was no clause about the cancellation in the terms. I told them I wanted it in the contract, and they said the documents were old and the new ones hadn’t been printed so they ‘made a note’ about it,” said Ehsan. 

The no-strings-attached cancellation Ehsan was promised turned out to be more convoluted than Ehsan originally thought, and when it came down to him skipping town, he says he had to pay for a few months of membership fees to cut ties with the gym.

Digging on the internet, we were able to find that Simon Abittan, the president of the European Fitness Center, was previously sentenced to five months in federal prison and fined $180,000 for defrauding several insurance companies and double billing customers at European Health Care.

The European Fitness Center houses many separate entities within their gym, with the word European, such as the European Wax Center, as part of their concept of being an all in one destination for health.

“An investigation revealed that Abittan was involved in a scheme that was double billing for services provided on a customer's initial visit by misusing codes for physician consultations and chiropractic care, inflating bills by charging for more expensive services than those actually performed, and submitting bills for manual massage therapy that was not provided,” the 2000 statement from Nevada’s office of the Attorney General indicates.

In order to get a firsthand experience, one of our reporters toured the facility. Here is her own recollection:

“Like many, I was intrigued by the many amenities on hand. We first headed to the pool area which was a smaller, more intimate area that held saunas as well. The pool area seemed to be maintained pretty well, however, I wish that visitors were not allowed to walk through the area with outdoor shoes on (for sanitary reasons). 

I was also shown the nail salon as well as the chiropractic unit that was located near the pool. We then headed to the main machine and free weights area, which had about one or two of each machine on hand. I am personally unaware of how many members the European Fitness Center has, however, it seems as if it would serve a smaller number of people.

Their weights section is a bit smaller in comparison to many other gyms around the area. However, their cardio theaters house many treadmills and walking machines. Throughout the rest of the facility, there were other amenities such as a hair salon, a barber shop, a tanning salon, as well as a nail shop.

After I was given the tour, I sat down with the manager David to talk about signing up for a membership. I was given the run-down that included being made aware of the current special that was going on. This included paying only $20 a month instead of a $60 monthly fee. After a year, you are also grandfathered in the plan, which allows you to pause your membership at any time (after a year contract), he said. I decided to let them know that I won’t be signing up today, however, if I did want to sign up for a membership, I would have to physically come back in to start that sign-up process. 

I personally was intrigued by all of the bells and whistles this facility has to offer. I was not able to experience a trial period, but I think that that would be a more in-depth test to see how the gym's equipment and amenities hold up. The main demographics of the gym also seem to be older and younger men. I did see a couple of women at the facility, however, the weight and sauna sections were mainly occupied by men. 

Overall, the European Fitness Center seems to be a place that offers many great additives to the general workout facility. Many people have mixed feelings about this facility, but from the outside looking in, the amenities make it a very intriguing place to be.”

Despite the barrage poor reviews, there are also many people on Yelp and Google who are delighted with their experiences at the European Fitness Center. 

One Google reviewer states, “This place is whole vibe package deal in one building, Affordable with everything from gym, swimming pool to sauna ,spa tanning room, hair, nail...etc..def worth checking out.” 

Another member on Yelp who is extremely satisfied wrote: “I've been a member of European Fitness for 15 years. They are always professional and polite. They've been doing an incredible (job) during the Governors [sic] mandates the past 10 months.  The gym is clean and sanitized. Members are asked to mask up and all equipment is socially distanced. If you're looking for a great environment with free personal training at a great rate Europe is the gym to try!  Simon and staff keep up the great work!!”  

Yet another Yelp reviewer decided to debunk the bad reviews: “I read all the terrible reviews on Google and yelp and was for sure expecting the place to be a disaster with so many negative reviews; numbers don't usually lie. The sole issue with this gym is its recruitment and sales practices, specifically the "contract.” The management here is big on the contract approach and in my opinion, it is working against them horribly. Every one of the negative reviews is from someone that signed a contract and stopped paying it. ALL THE BAD REVIEWS ARE FROM (PEOPLE) BREAKING CONTRACTS. The management here is great. On one hand, I believe these negative reviews are unwarranted. On the other (hand), this place needs to move away from the contract strategy and start a new business model.”

European Fitness Center did not respond to our efforts to give their own views on all the negative social media comments and reviews.

While the gym boasts a wide range of amenities and attracts customers with various offerings, there have been persistent complaints about its pushy sales tactics, billing practices, and lack of transparency. 

More internet digging had one article from January 2nd, 2011 in the Northern Nevada Business Weekly, identifying Abittan as the owner of European Fitness Center since 1985.

As part of the gym craze for New Year’s resolutions, the article indicated “the health club also has waived enrollment fee for new members a step it hasn't made in 25 years.”

The article gave indications of tactics, saying that winter months were key to the gym’s survival.

"If we don't turn over big numbers it can get challenging in the summertime," Abittan is quoted as saying in the article. The NNBW then explained that the gym had “put together a three-month television advertising blitz beginning in late December and hired additional service, membership sales and maintenance staff to keep pace with increased activity at the health club.”

Recurring complaints make you wonder how many gym goers were reeled in then, and how many were left with headaches and feeling conned/

A former UNR student wrote in 2022 on the Better Business Bureau website: “I tried cancelling, but when I did they pulled out the contract and showed me the fine print in a specific area of the contract, saying I was locked in for the year and that they would continue to charge me. Since then I have cancelled my card, but now they have sent my info to a collection agency that has been demanding and harassing me to pay the entire year membership PLUS an insane “late fee” or else they will take “further action”. I was harassed and pressured into signing a contract that was deceitful and not clear with what I thought I was getting myself into…. I feel completely ripped off and wished I had never stepped foot into this business for my nonexistent “free week pass”.

The status of the complaint? Unanswered.

Our Town Reno reporting May 2023