The Reno Police Department is reporting a police operation took place Thursday with code enforcement at the Vagabond Inn at 3131 S Virginia St, Reno, resulting in two felony arrests, eight misdemeanors, 13 citations and one firearm being recovered.
Police say a room at the two-story motel close to the Reno-Sparks Convention Center was condemned due to alleged fentanyl exposure.
“Operations like this focus to reduce criminal activity in specific areas of the city,” a Reno PD statement indicated.
Calls this morning to the motel, which was built in 1974 and last renovated in 2004, went unanswered.
It’s part of a chain of motels with many locations across California.
Heather Goulding, Seeking to Champion Northern Nevada’s Working Families out of District 27
Heather Goulding, running for District 27 of the Nevada State Assembly, rides bikes whenever and wherever she can, including on her commutes, and with big tires, she handles all weather and steep inclines.
Goulding, who works in utility energy efficiency programs, is bringing that can do spirit to her campaign to become a representative for a district encompassing portions of the North Valleys including Panther Valley and Sun Valley.
The seat opened after incumbent Angie Taylor decided to run for Nevada’s state senate. Goulding quickly points to other well know Democratic women who have held the northern district’s elected position, including Sheila Leslie and Teresa Benitez-Thompson.
Goulding says two experiences in her own career led her to want to be an elected representative.
The first is related to accomplishments but also frustrations when raising money to provide for uninsured women dealing with the risks of breast cancer.
“Basically, we tried to make sure that uninsured women didn't have to make a choice between putting food on the table and finding out if they had cancer or not,” she says.
“So that was a great job. But ultimately it felt like we were hosting pink galas and we were having 5k runs of people dressing up in pink tutus and it felt like we were kind of throwing glorified bake sales to solve a problem that was much, much bigger than that. Ultimately it felt like we were trying to patch holes with bubble gum and duct tape into a big, big problem.”
Later she helped a friend bring a National Guard program to Nevada to address the high number of local high school dropouts.
“It’s a program that helps kids that are credit deficient. So when kids are credit deficient in high school, it's almost impossible to pull yourself out of that hole. And if you don't finish high school, you don't get over that finish line. It's a real problem for the rest of your life,” she said.
With her friend as citizen lobbyists they worked through the 2019 legislative session, bringing stories of kids that had participated in the program in California, all the way to having the Battle Born Youth Challenge program established in the Silver State.
“It was a thrill to see the governor sign that bill. It's very satisfying after working for months and months and months on a project, the governor signed the bill, but that was really not the prize. The prize was this program,” she says.
At a recent high school graduation ceremony, a mother leaned over to tell Goulding the program had saved her son’s life.
“It takes really digging into these complex problems and trying to understand, well what's feasible for us to carve out and affect solutions. And I can see that government can work,” she says.
Goulding who grew up outside Chicago came to Reno with her husband in the early 1990s when he started working as a professor at UNR in the biology department. Their three kids were raised here, and her family loves the outdoors, from skiing to cycling to walking nature trails.
The time was right for her to run with her kids now grown up.
Her initial press release when she started her campaign indicated that “we have seen an assault on abortion rights, democracy and the prosperity of our neighbors.” Other issues she mentioned in our interview were expanding affordable housing and sustainable energy programs.
Her website includes concerns about pedestrian safety and abandoned vehicles.
“I think it's important to get out there and vote, so find out about the people that are running,” she said at the conclusion of our interview. “You know, Google your candidates and find out what makes them tick and call and tell them what you think.”
Her phone number is on her website at voteheatherg.com and Goulding says she’s already ready to answer and listen as “a sponge” before thinking through what solutions might work.
As she’s gone around knocking on doors in District 27, she says she’s been surprised that front of mind for many voters, including from older generations, is climate change.
“I had not anticipated that folks in their seventies and eighties were going to be as focused on climate change,” she says. “People are concerned and quite frankly a bit frightened about how dysfunctional the government is. And this is, again, another reason that's important to me to run is there's a lot of craziness in Washington. There's a lot of not working very well in Washington, and I don't want that to happen here in Nevada. And I think that you need to be willing to sort of lean in and say, right, if we can complain about this or you know, I want a seat at the table to have a calm, reasonable voice. And if nobody's willing to do that, we're not going to have calm, reasonable voices at the table,” she says.
Our Town Reno reporting, March 2024
Bijou Bell Recovering from Serious Skateboard Accident, Shines Again with New Art
Last year on July 10th, Bijou Bell hit her head skateboarding home. She woke up the next day to blood covering her pillow, and she doesn’t remember much else.
Perhaps you’ve seen Bijou at the Holland Project, performing in one of her three bands. You might have seen her working at Bad Apple, or skating at Believe Park. Since the accident, Bijou hasn’t been around quite as much. But thanks to some good friends in Reno, and therapy, and lots of positive thinking… she’s getting back into the swing of things.
After Bijou hit her head, the community she had formed in Reno took care of her like a family would. Bijou’s boss and best friend, Francesca, took Bijou to the hospital– where she got staples in her head.
“I couldn’t walk. I still can’t smell and taste,” Bijou says, taking a glance at her pistachio latte with sadness.
Like many who experience major concussions, Bijou needed several different kinds of therapy in order to start recovering. Physical, cognitive, and speech therapy were all necessary for returning to some level of normalcy. “It was a lot of things,” she shakes her head. “I had to go to the doctor a lot.”
Inevitably, being at the doctor so often comes with a steep mountain of bills. That’s where Reno’s jazz community stepped in. The scene is “very present in each other’s lives,” according to Bijou. Her friend Tim organized a benefit jazz concert at Laughing Planet last year, which helped Bijou immensely in covering her medical costs.
Bijou’s injury also caused her brain to swell, which popped a hole in her eardrum. This made it hard to hear well– not ideal for a musician. Luckily, Bijou had connected with an ear specialist through the Holland Project, another friend named Tim. In the past, Tim had provided Bijou and her friends with ear plugs. After the accident, Tim was able to quickly set Bijou up with an ear appointment.
But the community love didn’t stop there. For about a month after she hit her head, Bijou needed round the clock supervision. Luckily, she has some incredible (and incredibly organized) friends who were up for the task. “They would all text each other, and they had like a huge spreadsheet of all the medications I had to take,” Bijou recalls. “The community aspect of my recovery is literally like- the only reason I’m here.
Bijou has come a long way since last July, but cracking her head open on the Reno pavement has had some lasting effects that she’s still working through. “My memory is not very good anymore,” says Bijou. “It's getting better for real, but there's some things I just don't remember at all. And then when I do remember I get really angry…I feel like my emotions are really hard to understand right now.”
Through journaling, Bijou has been able to piece some thoughts and memories back together.
“I had to literally force myself to write what happened every day, like what I ate and stuff,” she says, her journal next to the pistachio latte- a little portal into her own life. “I feel like I can read through all the stuff that I forgot, and it seems like I understand myself a little bit more. And I'm getting back into myself now that I can see my thoughts over time.”
Despite all the unexpected setbacks of the last eight months, Bijou says that in some ways, she’s grateful that she hit her head. “I definitely was in a really bad depressive state. I feel like it sort of pushed me to realize that people care about me, and I really needed that reminder, I guess. Before… I had all these sort of dreams– like moving to New York, maybe one day,” Bijou remembers.
For a long time she’s also wanted to produce an album of her band’s music. “Then I hit my head. And as soon as I had the go, you know, it's like, okay cool. I’m gonna move to New York on this day. All the opportunities started coming just because I felt like– life's a little short.”
Especially in the beginning of her recovery, it was really difficult for Bijou to play music. But that didn’t stop her from creating. “The only thing I could do was make art for 30 minutes at a time. So I made this little book with all these little knight drawings.” Bijou’s sketches show knights in therapy, watching Shrek, sitting in a room of guitars, and performing other bits and pieces of Bijou’s (and our) lives. “I was like, this is so funny- a knight not wearing a helmet sounds so stupid.”
Bijou’s knights will be on exhibit at Sizzle Pie on March 19th, a Tuesday, from 5-7pm. The drawings reveal a little bit of Bijou’s life since July 10th– and a bit of the community that surrounded her as well.
Reporting by Ray Grosser for Our Town Reno
William Mantle, An “Elder Millennial" Running for Reno's New Ward 6
With two fourth place finishes in previous citywide mayoral elections, William Mantle, a raw data person who likes to ask questions, is now running for Ward 6, the new ward in South Reno with about 40,000 residents, high home prices, wild horses and plenty of new multi-unit apartment complexes.
“They are going up everywhere,” Mantle says of these complexes in his ward. “I mean, there [are] stacks and stacks and stacks of complexes going up with thousands of units, which was actually an argument I made regarding the redistricting that we've got all these units coming online, with thousands more people. It's going to tilt the population to the favor of Ward 6 compared to Ward 3 or 2.”
Like other residents he has his ideas on how to deal with horses.
“We have collisions too often about a dozen or so every year that obviously total someone's vehicle, and potentially injures those owners as well as unfortunately kills, you know, an innocent animal,” he said. “I would like to make sure that we can fence off those horses or control their migration away from our thoroughfare so they're not endangered, and neither are our citizens. We always have to focus on that. Traffic mitigation is a really big deal. We are building all those units, as I mentioned earlier, and that means more cars on the road every time.”
Easing congestion would be a priority for Mantle as well.
“Steamboat Parkway, which has been a major artery, is going to start getting bogged down with a lot of vehicles that it's never seen before,” Mantle said.
“So we have to look at our traffic patterns and reinvent some of them as that usage goes up, as well as ensure that people have the ability to evacuate if needed. And we are in a lower lying level of the city.”
Mantle would work for more fire stations, tree canopies and emergency medical services among several ideas he has for a rapidly growing Ward 6.
Speaking of the current City Council in general, Mantle would like to see a culture shift in terms of responsiveness.
“First and foremost, I'm tired of representatives who don't answer questions,” he told Our Town Reno during a recent podcast interview. “We don't know who they're meeting with or when they're meeting. We don't know when they're in office and they don't have the clarity, accountability and transparency that I firmly believe in is required to be in public office.”
Getting more services into Reno at large is also crucial to Mantle, with many residents struggling to get their needs met.
“We need specialists, we need doctors, we need counselors, for heaven's sakes, we need vets. It's horrible that I know too many people that have to go over the hill to Sacramento for regular simple medical procedures because there are no specialists in our area that could do a quick 15 minute injection that's costing so much time, money and affects our economy and their happiness,” he explained.
Mantle finds there’s a growing disconnect between our soaring demographics and ensuring our quality of life.
Part of his strategy to make it onto the November ballot or to win outright during the June primary, he says, will be knocking on doors and standing outside supermarkets and malls to discuss important issues with would-be voters.
Born in Eureka, California, Mantle coincidentally grew up in Eureka, Nevada, before going to UNR on a Millennium Scholarship, and settling on criminal justice after switching his major several times.
He nearly completed a PhD program in Nebraska, but after deciding academia wasn’t for him, he returned to Reno to work on crisis support teams, with the District Attorney’s office and now with the alternate public defender’s office as a legal assistant.
He initially lived in what is now Ward 6 with seven other people in a house, and then he took advantage of low interest rates at the beginning of the pandemic to buy a home there, which he feels extremely fortunate for.
As a council member, he says he would love to give more opportunities to residents to have a better life than they currently have.
“Ward 6 has a deep seated problem of a lack of spaces for people to intermix and exist, especially for our youth,” he explained at the conclusion of our interview. “I was talking to the assistant director of the Holland Project not too long ago and I praised them because it's a place where kids can be kids together... That doesn't really exist in South Reno. You're either at home or you're at school or somebody drove you maybe to the mall… That's it. There's nothing else for you to go do or be. And so I think these places are really essential that we need to look at, develop and invest in.”
Our Town Reno reporting, March 2024
The DVRC: Answering the Call to Assist Local Victims of Domestic Violence
Across parts of downtown Reno, many motels have been leveled to rubble, folks are still sleeping on cold concrete, the roads and bike lanes could use some love, and billboards advertise homes that barely anyone can afford.
There are less visible problems too. According to the National Coalition against Domestic Violence, “43.8% of Nevada women and 32.8% of Nevada men experience intimate partner physical violence, intimate partner sexual violence and/or intimate partner stalking in their lifetimes.”
These numbers place Nevada as the state with the second highest percentage of people who experience domestic violence, and that’s only what’s been reported. Reporting and seeking help while in a domestic violence situation is extremely difficult for many, especially those with children.
It’s a relief, then, to know that the Domestic Violence Resource Center exists in Reno. Not only do they exist; they are ready to receive anyone with open arms. Unassuming from the outside, the center is filled with colorful murals on the walls, a library collection, plenty of kids toys, and a whole room filled to the brim with diapers.
The resource center does not require survivors to identify themselves. In fact, they have a food bank and a free “thrift store” (full of gently used clothes and household items) that are both accessible resources to anyone in need, abuse survivor or not.
Sylvia Gonzalez, the director of client services, has worked at the resource center for twenty years. She first worked with domestic violence survivors in Fresno. After coming to Reno and working as an apartment manager for a while, she realized that she “missed the call,” and found herself first volunteering, then working at the resource center.
Kristin Kennedy works alongside Gonzalez as the executive director. For the past year and a half, she’s guided the organization through conquering big obstacles– and there are still plenty of challenges to go around.
“If you look at other cities our size in western United States, and you compare the number of domestic violence shelter beds, we should have seventy five (beds),” explains Kennedy. “We currently have, in operation in Reno/Sparks, thirty five.”
Some issues are deeply intertwined within standard operating procedures. Too often, the burden of proof is put on victims of domestic violence. “A restraining order is not a shield,” says Gonzalez. “It's just a piece of paper. Here is a victim that's trusting the legal system, and they call the police. And the police say, ‘sorry. I can't do anything about it.’ That victim is not going to call the police a second time or a third time. So what's gonna happen to her? Or to her kids?”
Last year in Reno, data from the center indicates at least three victims of domestic violence were killed by their intimate partner.
“We live in this really great, unique, vibrant city,” Kennedy says, “but we also are experiencing a lot of the same economic stresses that you see in the West, with lack of affordable housing and high inflation rates.”
The high cost of living in Reno makes it especially difficult for some to leave abusive situations. “It's really hard, especially if they have no family support or friends to assist them,” says Gonzalez. “Where can they go? So it's like a revolving door, you know- ‘I'll just go back.’ And that's what we don't want. We want to have the resources for them to be able to stay away from those situations.”
The center has found tremendous support through partnering with the Katie Grace Foundation, which donates brand new clothes, toys, and other household goods. This foundation also set up a children’s boutique at Our Place last year. The center has also started working with UNR, offering an option for graduate students to fulfill clinic hours by counseling clients.
Gonzalez, Kennedy, and everyone else at the center are invested in seeing each survivor through to the light at the end of the tunnel. Services address the needs of their clients– from housing, to legal aid, to mental health help and financial coaching.
It’s the little things that help clients break downward cycles – like being able to finance a laptop with no interest rate, or attending support groups with other survivors. There’s a long road ahead when it comes to reaching all domestic violence survivors. But there have already been many stories of triumph.
Gonzalez remembers a story about a client who decided to seek help, after many years of living with a violent partner. The resource center set her up in their confidential emergency shelter for ninety days. After those three months, the client was able to move to transitional housing– also confidential, and provided through the center.
“(The client) told us that the first time she had to go pump gas in her car, she cried,” Gonzalez recalls. “She cried because she had never done that. It was always her partner that did it for her.” The experience helped that client realize that she could do things on her own. And two years ago, that same client bought a house.
If you, or someone you know, could use any of the resources or services at the center, Gonzalez and Kennedy welcome you to come on through. “You can come in person, no appointment needed,” encourages Gonzalez. “You can call us over the phone 24 hours a day, seven days a week. You can even text us.”
The number for the center’s 24 hour hotline is 775-329-4150. You can also text DVHELP or DVSAFE to 839863.
Our Town Reno photos and reporting by Ray Grosser
Sparks Uses New Form to Assess Domestic Violence
The City of Sparks this week said it will start using a so-called “danger assessment form” for domestic violence cases.
“The Danger Assessment Law Enforcement (DA-LE) form is a questionnaire for victims to assess the danger posed to them by an abuser. Police ask a series of eleven questions at the scene and based on the victim’s response; a lethality score is calculated. The higher the tabulation of the score the greater the risk of potential harm to the victim. Prosecutors will then use that risk score to argue appropriate bail and conditions to better protect victims from potential escalating violence in the community,” a press release from the City Attorney’s office indicates.
Here are some of the questions on the list: “Has the physical violence increased in severity or frequency over the past year?
• Does he/she control most or all of your daily activities?
• Has he/she tried to kill you?
• Has he/she choked (strangled) you multiple times?
• Has he/she ever threatened or tried to commit suicide?
• Do you believe he/she is capable of killing you?”
Yes to seven of the 11 questions means there is a high risk of lethality.
The press release indicates there were at least three known domestic related homicides in Washoe County in 2023.
“The implementation of the DA-LE is the most recent effort in the City Attorney’s “End the Silence of Domestic Violence” campaign,” the press release goes on to say.
This comes as a recent report from the Nevada Coalition to End Domestic Violence indicates the Silver State is second in the nation for domestic violence, and worst 10 for highest female homicide rates.
Our Town Reno reporting, March 2024
Immigrants of Reno: From Perth to Golfing for UNR
Reno, Nevada, and Perth, Western Australia, have very little in common.
Reno is in the Northern Hemisphere, has all four seasons, and has a population of 264,000. Perth, on the other hand, is in the Southern Hemisphere, has only two seasons, and is over nine times larger than Reno, with a population of 2.2 million.
However, for Nevada golfer Tom Patterson, both places have a key similarity for him: he calls both places “home.”
“(Moving to Reno in 2019) was definitely a bit of a change,” Patterson said. “It’s a long way from home. Where I'm from, the ocean is two minutes away so it's very easy to know where the ocean is and that kind of stuff. To me, the weather is a bit weird here.”
Despite this major change in Patterson’s life, he says that it wasn’t really too hard to adjust to his new home.
“I've been pretty privileged,” Patterson said. “I'd been on a trip to Orlando when I was 12 or 13 with my family, and then I'd been on a trip when I was maybe 15 or 16 to New York, which I was also very privileged to go on. So I'd had a little bit of a glimpse of what life over here is like.”
Besides, even if his move to Reno was the first time he had ever been to the U.S., Patterson doesn’t believe it would have been very hard to adjust anyways, since Australia and the United States are similar culturally.
“The biggest difference between America and Australia is the people. It's hard to put a finger on what is different, but Aussies tend to be more blunt and straight to the point,” he said. “Culturally, though, Australia’s just kind of the same as everywhere else.”
When asked why he chose Nevada over other offers such as James Madison and Arkansas State, Patterson stated that, at first, it was because Nevada gave him the best scholarship offer that he could get.
“When I got recruited here, we were a top 50 school and then my freshman year we ended up 30th in the nation, which was really cool to be a part of. So that's kind of why just because it was a very good school golf-wise and helped me financially,” he explained.
Last season, Patterson was able to secure a couple of top 25 finishes, helping with the team’s continued growth.
Despite initially coming to Reno due to opportunity and finances, Patterson has come to love the “Biggest Little City.”
“I kind of went into it with the mindset that it would be much smaller,” Patterson said. “Obviously we are still a college town, but it's definitely blown me away with a lot of the support for the teams. It’s awesome to see how everyone plays their role within the Wolf Pack community. People are always eager to inquire about how the golf team and our other teams are doing and we're always more than welcome to interact and meet new people.”
Patterson also has a love-hate relationship with the ever-changing Northern Nevada weather conditions. “We never get to see snow back home in Perth, so it’s cool to see all four seasons blossom in Reno,” he said. “Snow is cool, but as a golfer we like to keep it to a minimum, since it messes things up a lot. I’m also not a big fan of the cold, either.”
As for his single favorite thing about northern Nevada, Patterson pointed the finger straight at one place.
“Lake Tahoe, definitely. The ocean will always be number one for me, but (Tahoe) is beautiful. I think Tahoe was very much underrated,” he said. “You can swim at one end of the lake and you can have snow on the mountains on the other side. It's kind of a cool phenomenon to be a part of.”
When asked what his plans were after college, Patterson said the U.S. is more than just a quick stop for him. Rather, it may become his permanent home.
“I would like to stay in America when I graduate, but I have to wait and see if a graduate position arises, or if I can get employment somewhere local. But I would like to stay here long-term, if I can,” he said.
Patterson hopes to graduate this summer with a degree in international business and would like to work in Human Resources.
Our Town Reno reporting by Chase Dulude
From Goodwill to Savers, St. Vincent's and Freestyle: Going on Thrifting Rounds in Reno
Thrifting, the act of buying used items, has become an increasingly popular trend in northern Nevada, as elsewhere, where consumers find popular brands and items for a fraction of normal new prices.
People of a variety of backgrounds go to secondhand shops to avoid fast fashion and become more eco-friendly.
“New clothing is so expensive, plus it helps me feel environmentally conscious,” said Izzie Cardoso, a twenty-year-old UNR student.
Others are trying to get good deals, or even make money by reselling their finds elsewhere.
Jorden Woods, another local, was doing her own rounds on a recent holiday Monday.
Her first stop was Savers on Kietzke Lane, where racks were filled with clothing for all ages and styles, for any occasion, whether it be business attire, loungewear, or new dresses for a first date.
A few blocks south, less than five minutes away from Savers, she then went to Goodwill on Oddie Blvd. This location is undoubtedly one of the larger thrift shops as it was easy to get lost in the racks of vintage clothing and Nevada gear. Just past the rack of clothes are household items that are perfect for students who need items for their dorm or new apartment.
“I love finding cool things and making a whole day out of thrifting,” Woods said of thrifting rather than visiting a mall.
“There’s a certain thrill of going through every rack to find hidden treasures.”
She then headed up north ito St.Vincent’s, in downtown Reno, where there are shelves with houseware, and a wide variety of items, from tricycles to gift little ones to vinyls for old record players.
A final stop she made was five minutes south, in Midtown, inside the busy Freestyle Clothing Exchange. While on the pricier side, the shop had an array of items from big labels such as Freepeople, Lululemon, Princess Polly, and Urban Outfitters.
At these different locations, there was a range of demographics, from families looking cash-strapped, to students who choose to shop secondhand to be able to be more creative.
There is also a hustle that comes with thrifting. It can be easy to find vintage or trendy items and be able to clean them up and resell for a higher price, making a profit, in some cases substantial.
Another frequent avid thrifter, 19-year-old student Kelsie Frobes was happy to recount a lucrative find. “I found a Chanel purse at UCP Thrift for $4 and sold it for over $4500! I used it to pay off my car,” she said.
In a society of mass-production, thrifting offers a fresh alternative to filling one’s closet. The thrifting community continues to embrace individuality, creativity, sustainability and occasional profits in their newfound treasures.
Our Town Reno reporting and photos by Valentina Garcia
Immigrants of Reno: From the Coffee Region of Colombia to teaching Spanish at UNR
Spanish Graduate Assistant Juliana Loaiza, who grew up in Manizales, Colombia, a medium-sized city within the coffee region of the South American country, is grateful for the opportunities she is now pursuing in Reno.
“Because of the difficulties of making a living there, people get excited to get by. They have a lot of gratitude because it’s not easy there,” said Loaiza.
On the flip side, there are many aspects of Colombia she misses. “It’s not uncommon for people who just met to hang out with each other. It’s a very close culture,” she said.
After growing up in Manizales for most of her childhood, Loaiza first came to the U.S. in 2013. After this visit and having problems in her home country, she decided to come to the U.S. for the long term.
“I was struggling in 2021 in Colombia. I wasn’t earning enough to live and travel,” she said.
Due to this predicament, in her early 20s, Loaiza decided to move to the suburbs of Houston, Texas, in her aunt’s home and learn English. Her experience with learning a new language during this time was hard, but she also had experience learning it in school in Colombia. “I tried to learn by listening to podcasts and reading,” she said.
With this practice, she eventually became proficient in English. Still, though, she sometimes has a hard time speaking the language. “The most important thing is practicing speaking since people are afraid to make mistakes. Sometimes I do feel ashamed of how I talk because I know I am making mistakes,” said Juliana.
This experience didn’t deter Juliana, and she was eventually able to start teaching preschool in Colombia once she received her TOEFL certification. After this, she returned to the United States, making it to the University of Nevada, Reno, where she now teaches Spanish to students while working on a master’s degree in Spanish Literature and World Language.
While completing her degree is a big goal for her, Juliana loves to teach Spanish to students at the university, despite her fears at first. “I feel like the young people respect me. Showing them pictures and experiencing how they discover my culture. I love it,” she said.
Now, Juliana is settled into life in the U.S. Despite this, there are still aspects of her home country that she misses. “Everything. The culture, the people, and the food. I miss the food so much,” said Juliana when asked about what she misses most about her home country.
One aspect of America that Juliana doesn’t like is its reliance on cars. She misses being able to walk to places in Colombia and not having to drive everywhere. “I miss the familiarity of the people and the infrastructure since everything is really walkable. I was living in the suburbs of Houston, and if I wanted to buy an egg, I would need to take a car and drive for 15 minutes,” she said.
Even though she misses Manizales, Juliana is still able to find qualities within Reno that remind her of home. In particular, she finds the nature dominant aspect to be similar. “It was really similar to Reno because we had a volcano near the city,” she said.
Juliana also appreciates many aspects of life in America, that, according to her, are absent in Colombia.
“Coming to live here has taught me a lot about organization and goals. That’s something we all need in our lives, to know how to set goals and make plans in the long term,” she said.
In terms of her future, Juliana remains uncertain, but knows she can be adventurous and wants to keep teaching, whether it’s by staying here or going elsewhere.
“I really don’t know. I’ve been thinking of studying for a Ph.D. here in the U.S. or Spain, but I know that I want to keep teaching. I really want to teach history and literature,” said Juliana when asked about her future.
Our Town Reno reporting by Cameron Perkins
Non-Conforming Tattooing in The Biggest Little City
Ignorant style tattoos, started by French graffiti artist Fuzi Uvtpk, a relatively new tattoo style consisting of counterculture humorous, absurd, sketchbook-like tattoos is now finding a foothold in Reno.
This style hasn’t been explored a lot in Reno until recent years when the tattoo scene started to expand and diversify as the city grows and changes.
Kai Morikawa, Nyelli Chacon (Koottsoo), and JD are three tattoo artists in Reno that are changing up the local scene by putting a focus on this and other alternative tattoo styles, as well as using their intersectional identities to inspire and inform their tattooing.
These tattoo artists better known by their Instagram handles as @doggie.heart, @koottsoo, and @badztatu have built a following in the local tattoo scene by each having non-conforming approaches to being tattoo artists.
All three of them tattoo in styles very different from others in the scene. Kai describes their style as taking inspiration from their nostalgia. “I feel like I’m a niche person when it comes to tattoos,” they said. “I like doing animals and I like doing cute things, that's pretty much it.”
One thing that makes Kai’s style different from many other artists is that they hand-poke all the tattoos they do rather than using a machine.
JD and Koottsoo’s style are very similar, mainly using black and gray ink and drawing inspiration from pop culture or what the local community is into.
However, the styles that they tattoo in aren’t the only ways that they don’t align with mainstream tattoo artists.
JD and Kai take into consideration the idea that tattooing is a practice that was stolen from Indigenous communities around the world and made popular by white American soldiers during the 1940s.
“[American soldiers] militarized tattooing, they gatekept it, and now they tell people like us that this isn’t our thing,” JD said.
JD and Kai also realize that tattooing is popular among lower income people, but has been made inaccessible in recent years due to higher and higher prices.
To combat how expensive getting a tattoo is, the two both work on sliding scales for their pricing and try to work with everyone’s budget.
They both credit being able to be so flexible with their clients because of working in a private studio rather than a traditional tattoo shop.
Koottsoo, Kai, and JD all work in private studios where they’re able to curate the environment to be the most comfortable for their clients.
Koottsoo has experienced how intimidating traditional tattoo shops can be as a young Indigenous woman artist so she uses that to inform how she runs her own studio.
“I created my private studio as a safe space for BIPOC, women, and queer people looking for their next tattoo. I focus on creating an intimate space for my client,” Koottsoo said.
Kai and JD work in a private studio together where they aim to create a space where people can build connections with them and not be overwhelmed by a traditional tattoo studio that often has loud music, lots of people, and lots of noise.
JD and Kai also aim to make their studio a comfortable place for neurodivergent people. “We try to tone it down and work with people to make them comfortable,” JD said.
Koottsoo, Kai, and JD have worked hard in Reno to build a community with the people they tattoo and try to open up tattooing to everyone regardless of your gender, sexuality, race, etc.
All three of these artists work to make tattoos accessible, comfortable and a fun experience for everyone.
Reporting by Dez Peltzer for Our Town Reno
Second Round of Matching Grants for Downtown Reno Business Improvements
A second round of awardees in the ReStore Reno downtown revitalization program was recently announced, with 29 additional applicants, including eight new businesses, totaling $589,000 in funds to be received.
In total, there has now been over one million dollars awarded in the matching grants program funded by the federal American Rescue Plan for downtown Reno property owners and business tenants to make facade improvements and interior upgrades.
Mayor Hillary Schieve has also tried to push landlords who are holding onto unused buildings in the downtown corridor to lower their rents for new tenants to be able to start new businesses.
Uncle Junkee at 101 N. Virginia Street was in the first round of awarded applicants, trying to help change downtown, as its previous location did further south in Midtown.
“ReStore Reno is all about making the Biggest Little City even better,” Schieve said.
The City is matching up to $50,000 for exterior improvements and up to $50,000 for interior projects. Applicants can be reimbursed up to $100,000 if they do both.
Winners have 90 days to submit a building permit application and an additional 180 days to complete the work.
The second round awardees are below:
Birdeez - 151 N. Viginia St.
• National Automobile Museum - 1 Museum Drive
• The Reno Bar and Grill - 903 E. 4th
• Street
• Crak N' Grill - 301 S. Wells Ave.
• Cluckers – 651 E. 4th
• Street
• Yuzu Sushi & Bar - 440 N. Virginia St.
• D Bar M Western Store - 1020 E. 4th
• St.
• Lead Dog & Sunset Wines - 415 E. 4th
• Street
• Horseshoe - 229 N Virginia St.
• 101 N. Virginia St. Property
• USA Drycleaners - 1080 S. Virginia St.
• Dubs Sports Lounge - 95 N Virginia St.
• Dead Ringer Analog Bar – 432 E. 4th
• St.
• Black Rabbit Mead Co. - 401 E. 4th
• St.
• Sol-Up - 902 S. Virginia St.
• Ferino Distillery - 541 E. 4th
• St.
• Our Bar - 211 W. 1st
• St.
• Slieve Brewing Company - 495 Morrill Ave.
• 495 Morrill Ave. Property
• The EP Listening Lounge – 1300 S. Wells Ave.
Our Town Reno reporting, February 2024
Petition Against Book Censorship in Washoe County Gains Steam
An online petition against book censorship in Washoe County has breezed by 2,000 signatures and is now aiming for 3,000.
“Like most Americans, we strongly oppose book banning and organized attempts to purge books from library shelves. Recently, a small group has been trying to remove books from our public and school libraries,” the petition begins.
It can be found here: https://www.fightforthefirst.org/.../oppose-censorship-in...
A challenged in Washoe County list available on the library system website has 21 titles on it currently, including The Bluest Eye, the first novel by acclaimed author Toni Morrison, The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement and “This Book is Gay” by trans writer Juno Dawson.
The full list can be found here: https://catalog.washoecountylibrary.us/...
At the County school level, if parents give notification that a student should not read a specific book, or a certain category of books, their account is flagged, preventing them from checking the book out, based on the parental request.
Our Town Reno reporting, February 2024
Ren and Ricardo, Fostering Community with the Reno Art Community Closet
If you attended Visions of Change at the Holland Project last April, you may have stumbled across a table with Ren Frick and Ricardo Rubalcaba Paredes behind it. The two artists were debuting their project for the first time– the Reno Community Art Closet.
Ren had been pondering the idea for a community art closet for a few years, after encountering a similar project in Sacramento. Eventually Ren asked Ricardo if they would help bring the idea to life.
“We were working really really late, painting signs the night before (Visions of Change),” Ren remembers. “We really hit it off. I feel like we have a lot of very similar interests, and very similar values. And I was like, ‘do you want to run with the art closet with me?’” Ricardo hopped on board, and the pair worked together to get RCAC up and running.
At the Visions of Change event, Ren and Ricardo provided a poster board for folks to come and share their own ideas for what the art closet might look like. This was intentional– one of their uncompromisable goals was that the art closet be shaped by the community itself.
Although RCAC was first conceived as a project for a class at UNR, the art closet is not affiliated with the university at all. “The institution is very extractive. When the institution invites the community to come in, it's not a mutually beneficial relationship,” says Ricardo. “There's no community that's being fostered. And I think that's what the intent was (with the art closet). We want to foster community.”
At 22 years old, Ricardo has spent much of their adult life navigating housing instability. “(Reno has) major problems with lack of affordable housing,” Ricardo points out. “So another intent with the community art closet was to bring things which aren't readily accessible, or easily accessible…and make those things affordable to artists who may be having a difficult time.”
Community members can access art supply drop boxes at two different locations in Reno: The Radical Cat at 1717 S Wells St (the box can be found right outside the front door) as well as Coyote Supply at 30 Mary St Unit #11 (walk inside the brick building, up the stairs and to the left). In under a year, Reno Community Art Closet has become a valuable resource to local artists. Especially those who are unable to purchase new, usually expensive, art supplies.
The drop boxes have been a great success, but Ren and Ricardo are not stopping there. RCAC is building an online network of artists with all kinds of skill sets. So if a community member wants to try something new, they have the chance to get connected with experienced artists through the community art closet network.
RCAC will also be hosting a workshop series at the downtown Reno public library in March, April, and May, on the second Sunday of each month. “We're thinking about access to creativity, access to art making, and knowledge about art making,” says Ren. “We're really trying to make things as tangible as we can.”
Community members can register for the workshops through the Washoe County Library’s events calendar, with registration for the first workshop opening on February 25th. Workshop attendees will be sent home with their own art kits and instructional zines, in order to empower artists to keep creating on their own time.
With everything that RCAC has already provided the community in such a short time, Ren and Ricardo recently started imagining a brick and mortar location– a store full of free art supplies and books for Renoites to access.
For now, though, they are continuing to support local artists, spread art knowledge and skills as far as they can reach, and encourage everyone to pick up a pen or a paintbrush. “You can be an artist,” Ricardo says. “It's not something that's unfathomable or inaccessible. You just gotta find that community.”
Our Town Reno reporting and photos by Ray Grosser
Dogs of Washoe County, part 4: Having the Commitment to Keep the Pet You Choose
While there are numerous complexities to finding the “right dog,” it truly comes down to the owner’s commitment. At the end of the day, these animals rely on their caretaker to provide food, shelter, and all their other needs.
For Washoe County Regional Animal Services Program Coordinator Quinn Sweet, there needs to be a “little more personal responsibility” when it comes to pet ownership. In addition to feeding and housing the pet, it means being prepared for the worst case scenarios.
The show chairman of the Reno Kennel Club Jack Riggsbee spoke on wanting to see more due diligence. “‘My biggest thing is, I wish people out in the general public who want a dog would research the breed, know what the breed is supposed to be noted for, and go after the one that they really like, or think they would really like.”
In case of problems and challenges, owners and prospective ones aren’t alone, though. The WCRAS has a variety of resources available to owners, which Sweet says many Washoe pet owners don’t realize.
For example, WCRAS offers entirely free pet microchipping, which can improve the chances of reuniting lost pets. During the 2023 fiscal year, 43% of stray dogs and cats were returned to owners because of a microchip - 3428 dogs in total.
“You just have to walk in and ask for one, and we’ll do it right then and there,” Sweet said. “That helps us. That helps the pets. It’s a beautiful system.”
Sweet also reminded pet owners in Washoe to license their pet. As previously mentioned, the data on the county’s top breeds only represents licensed dogs. She believes approximately 30% of the dogs in the county are registered with WCRAS, which is actually a legal requirement in the county.
Failing to register a dog through the WCRAS can result in a fine of $100 to $400. WCRAS does offer “fix-it tickets” to violators, waiving their fines if they register their dog and get them up to date on their rabies vaccinations. Rabies vaccinations are another requirement in the county that can fly under owners’ radars.
“We always try to work with people to have the best outcomes for their animal,” Sweet said. “And that’s all we want - the best outcome for all the animals in our community.
More on licensing dogs through the WCRAS can be found on its website.
Rebecca Goff, the Nevada State Director of the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) “highly recommends” doing research into the needs of the animal and having a discussion with everyone in the household before getting one. Also, make sure everyone is on the same page about bringing an animal into the home - “that should not be a surprise.”
Secondly, she points out the importance of patience with an adopted dog. While shelters “do their best” to showcase a dog’s personality, there is “no way for a shelter to truly know” how it will behave at home.
“They say it takes about three months for a dog to come out of its shell and display its full personality after they are adopted,” Goff stated. “Your new dog might be super stressed initially, but could turn into the most mellow, chill pup after they have time to settle in and build trust. I would advise patience after adopting a new pet.”
Goff added that, sometimes, shelter pets don’t always “work out.” This can be caused for a number of reasons, whether it be due to a lack of research, incompatibility with the home, or circumstances outside of the owners control. As mentioned earlier, it’s important that owners be aware of their options in any case.
Whether it be returning a dog to the breeder or to the shelter, it’s safer than simply abandoning it. “It’s not just the animal, it’s the people,” she stated towards the end of our interview.
People have the power to make the decision to get a dog, while the animal has to follow. It’s up to the humans to make the conscious decision: whether they’re getting a dog purely as a disposable gift, or if they’re welcoming a new member to their home.
Next week, the Nevada Humane Society and Washoe County Regional Animal Services will host a town hall event Feb. 28 with a public Q&A at their building on Longley Lane, with a wide range of issues to be addressed included the worrisome local increase in owner-surrendered animals.
Our Town Reno reporting by Cole Payne
A Dive into Local Campaign Contributions, from Charter Schools, to Lawyers for Jacobs Entertainment, Casinos and Construction Companies
A look through the January filings for candidate 2023 contributions and expenses over $1,000 reveals the usual generous donations for establishment and initially appointed rather than elected candidates from developers, incumbents to each other, Jacobs Entertainment and its law firm, other casinos and wealthy individuals.
One candidate’s filing which caught our eye is that of Kurt Thigpen who is running for Assembly District 24, which covers most of Reno.
His total of $7,500 is modest but it was filed under the Friends of Kurt Thigpen group category rather than as an individual.
“This happens often and is done incorrectly by the candidate. I will contact Mr. Thigpen to let him know,” Kristen Rhymes from the Elections Division in the Office of Nevada Secretary of State Francisco Aguilar wrote back to us yesterday, when we asked about this.
In the itemized section of contributions, there is $2,500 from Academica Nevada, $100 from Paul Klein who works for Tri-Strategies, $50 from Chris Thigpen and $25 from Bethany Drysdale, the communications director at Washoe County, as well as $5,000 in in kind contributions from Ace Studios, his own advertising agency.
There’s a few circles going on there, as the lobbying firm Tri-Strategies helps Thigpen and Academica Nevada, part of the Academica charter school management company giant which administers more than half of Nevada’s 55,000 charter school students, while Thigpen has been a member of the Nevada State Public School Charter Authority since an appointment in 2022.
The Washoe County School District recently expressed concerns over one of the Academica schools Mater Academy of Northern Nevada receiving unanimous approval from the Nevada State Public Charter School Authority to open a second facility in Golden Valley, saying it could be detrimental to tax-funded public schools.
Thigpen previously served on the Washoe County School Board in 2021 before he resigned from that body due to high stress levels, and then wrote a book about getting the seat called “How to Win an Election: An Essential Guide to Campaigning During Adversity.”
His opponents in the race are civil rights attorney Erica Roth, who received over $23,074 in large donations, including $5,000 from Nicole Miller and $2,500 from Southwest Gas Corporation, and environmentalist Ben Barteau who didn’t appear to file. All three are running as Democrats in a race where the primary should be decisive in a heavily Democratic district.
We also looked at filings for other races, which all appeared to be reflective of business as usual in terms of local elections and campaign contributions.
The contentious Republican battle in District 4 for County Commission will likely determine the eventual winner for that seat, with the incumbent and governor appointed Clara Andriola receiving over $114,000 in contributions, including $5,000 from the Jensen Electric Company, $5,000 from the Associated Builders and Contractors and $10,205 from Roger Prime.
Her opponent local GOP operative Tracey Hilton-Thomas received $3,158, including $1,000 from herself, while we couldn’t find anything for the third announced candidate former Sparks fire chief Mark Lawson, who is on his way to receiving a $381,000 settlement for wrongful termination.
In District 1, where there should be a Democrat/Republican showdown in November, the incumbent Democrat Alexis Hill raised over $151,851, including $2,500 from Woodland Village North, $2,500 from Hamilton Properties, $1,000 from the Abbi Agency, $6,000 from Christopher Wood, $500 from Devon Reese, $5,000 from the Tridentata Trust, $450 from Jerry Snyder, $2,500 from Peppermill Casinos, $500 from Aaron Ford, $5,000 from the GSR, $2000 from Erika White, $1,000 from the Nevada Housing Alliance, $1,000 from Lewis Roca (the law firm for Jacobs Entertainment), $2,500 from the Atlantis, $5,000 from Robert Goldberg and $500 from the Committee to Elect Devon Reese, among many contributions.
We couldn’t find anything for Marsha Berkbigler, Hill’s Republican opponent.
Over in Reno City council races, incumbents who were all initially appointed, are getting the biggest contributions, by far.
In Ward 1, the incumbent appointed Kathleen Taylor received over $102,383, including $2,500 from the Gold Dust West Jacobs Entertainment casino and $2,500 from their lawyers at Lewis Roca, $2,500 from the Peppermill, $5,000 from the development company Panattoni, $5,000 from Dolan Trust, $5,000 from Andrew Diss, $500 from Devon Reese, $50 from fellow appointed incumbent Miguel Martinez and $1,000 from Friends of Hillary Schieve among notable contributions.
Challenger Frank Perez received over $30,755, including $10,000 from Friends of Edgar Flores, and $10,000 from D’Silva for Nevada. Nothing could be found for mutual aid champion Lily Baran also contesting in that race.
In Ward 3, the other more recent incumbent appointed Miguel Martinez received over $65,323 in contributions, including $2,000 from Bonnie Weber for Reno Campaign, $2,500 from the Gold Dust Reno Jacobs Entertainment casino, $5,000 from Dandini Spectrum Holdings, $2,500 from the Atlantis Casino, $1,000 from the Committee to Elect Devon Reese, $1,000 from the Lewis Roca Jacobs Entertainment lawyers, and $2,000 from Peter Zak who was equally generous to Devon Reese. We couldn’t find anything for challenger Denise Meyer.
In Ward 5, another current city council member who was initially appointed, Devon Reese, received a whopping $205,000, including $2,500 from Stacie Mathewson, $2,200 from Ian Anderson who organizes lacrosse locally, $5,000 from Dermody Properties, $2,000 from Savage and Son, $150 from Miguel Martinez, $500 from Naomi Duerr, $5,000 from the Reno Firefighters Association, $5,000 from Greenstreet Development, $2,500 from the Jacobs Entertainment lawyers Lewis Roca, $5,000 from Panattoni Development, $2,500 from the Gold Dust West Jacobs Entertainment casino, $5,000 from Dandini Spectrum, $5,000 from the Atlantis, $5,000 from the Heinz Ranch Land Company, $5,000 from Wood Rodgers, $2,500 from Abby Whitaker, $5,000 from the GSR and $197 from Friends of Kathleen Taylor, among notable contributions.
Nothing was found for opponents Brian Cassidy or Tara Webster, while Sheila Peuchaud got just $1,480.
For the wide open Ward 6 race, we couldn’t find anyone receiving contributions for 2023.
Our Town Reno reporting, February 2024
Erica Roth, An Advocate for the People, Running for State Assembly
Erica Roth, a civil rights attorney now running for Assembly seat District 24, traces back her willingness to serve in elected office to help she gave as a public defender to a now incarcerated man.
“He was somebody who had been in and out of the system for a long time, and he had picked up a misdemeanor case, something minor along the lines of breaking into a building, trying to find a place to sleep, things like that,” she explained.
“And we started a years long relationship together. And during those years, he came back again and again for these similar crimes. He was experiencing chronic homelessness. He did not have the resources or services that he needed.”
As she advanced in her career, and started doing felony work, he ended up as a client in a more serious case. Roth tried to convey to the judge what her client had been through.
“I said, ‘Judge, I want you to imagine what it's like every night to lay your head down onto concrete and to not believe that you have anyone in this world or anyone to take care of you.’”
Roth says despite her efforts her client was given a lengthy prison sentence. She felt devastated, watching a “slow motion tragedy.” The man had even threatened her with violence and yelled at her, but she kept trying to help him over the years.
“When I got back to the office that day after that sentencing, he called me and I thought he was going to yell at me,” she remembers.
“And I picked up the phone and he was crying and … he said, you know, Miss Erica, I'm so sorry that I'm crying. I'm so embarrassed. I've just never had anyone love me before like you loved me today in that courtroom.”
She says this instance coupled with a difficult home life growing up in Carson City, which led her to become a high school dropout, has made her an advocate for those in need, when the rest of the world is failing them and proper services are lacking.
When current assemblywoman Sarah Peters said she would not be running for re-election in 2024, Roth, 34, said she felt it was now her time to run.
Peters is now one of many local Democratic and progressive heavyweights backing Roth, and whose names appear on a flyer for a February 22nd fundraiser.
District 24 which covers UNR, downtown Reno, Midtown, the Wells Avenue district where Roth lives and parts of the old southwest leans heavily democratic so the June 11th primary will be decisive, in less than four months.
An elected assembly member, Roth says, is limited in what they can do, but their role in setting the state budget is crucial to the state’s direction.
“You know, are we putting the right amount of money in into education and are we using our resources well? It’s really important that we have people stepping into these roles who not only have been fighting for their communities, but also know what is required to actually enact that change.”
Roth previously served as Democratic Governor Steve Sisolak’s deputy general counsel, gaining experience on how policy is moved through the levers of power.
She got her degrees at UC Santa Cruz and then at the University of San Francisco School of Law, and moved back to Northern Nevada to be back close to her mother.
The issues she has been on the front lines for include protecting the environment, improving prison conditions, expanding abortion access, as well as helping tenants, veterans and the unhoused.
“How do we center the voices of those who are actually impacted by these issues to make sure that the legislation that we pass is going to benefit them? I think that people recognize how I do business in that way,” she says of the support she is receiving.
In terms of abortion rights, Roth drafted the executive order which protected patients, volunteers and providers from criminal prosecution or civil lawsuits after the Dobbs decision. The fight is far from over, she says, despite what many often comment on Nevada posts.
“Even though abortion is legal with parameters in the state of Nevada, that does not equal access, and the right to an abortion without access to abortion renders that right obsolete. And so expanding who can access abortion is something that is so critically important to me, especially because we're no longer just serving Nevadans. We are serving patients from all sorts of state who are seeking haven here, and we have to figure out how to serve them,” she explained.
Another fight she will help lead she says is helping tenants.
“You're not supposed to spend more than 30% of your income on rent and we have lots of families spending 50, 60% of their income on rent. There's absolutely no pathway to home ownership, which is how we pass on wealth, generationally. I think some practical things that I would really love to see brought back in the next legislative session are limits on things like fees, right? You can have a landlord make a lot of money just by collecting applications, and the tenant doesn't get that money back,” she said.
Roth started out her career as a legal aid attorney doing housing justice work, and says there’s an unusual and unfair requirement in Nevada for tenants to initiate court proceedings once they receive an eviction notice.
“It really preys on people who don't have the resources to take off of work to deal with these issues. It preys on people who don't have experience in the legal system, which is very scary to navigate, especially when your housing is on the line. And so there are absolutely, really practical protections that we can put in place for renters,” she said.
When asked about her own difficult childhood and teenage years, Roth didn’t give specifics, but said it certainly shaped who she is and why she’s a candidate.
“It’s something that also has motivated me to run because I know what it's like to be a person, a young woman especially, who was in such need of an advocate. And that's really been kind of the driving force in who I have become as a lawyer. And so, you know, that drives so much of what I do and who I am, because I was lucky to have resources that allowed me to overcome those circumstance. But dedicating myself to people who need an advocate is the cornerstone of who I am,” she concluded.
Our Town Reno reporting, February 2024
Activists "Break Up" with Jacobs Entertainment Reno Plans
There were signs, speeches, tours of fenced off dirt lots, pets, solidarity and photo ops at yesterday’s activist “breakup” with Jacobs Entertainment in downtown Reno.
“The fact that Jacobs has been allowed to buy up multiple blocks of Reno, and the City Council has just given him a deal to do whatever he wants with all that land,” Rosa, one of the protest organizers from Reno-Sparks Tenants Union said, “and so far he has just been knocking them down and not replacing them with anything.”
“He started buying up buildings around 2017 and started most of his demolitions in 2018,” Elizabeth, another RSTU organizer said.
“A lot of people have been displaced since he has torn down motels, which is the last stop for many people before homelessness. Not a lot of building has been going on, but a lot of people have been displaced.”
The crowd consisted of several dozen people chanting and walking together. Passing cars honked their horns at the protesters, which was read as support. Pedestrians raised their fists in solidarity.
“It’s a way to show that we exist,“ said David Friedman, another member of the RTSU. “It’s a way to educate."
RSTU’s complaints about the lack of affordable housing locally, include having even fewer options when looking for a place which allows pets.
“When we got to a point where we could afford a place” Aspin Murio, who has two dogs, says on finding a place with their pets, “a lot of the places we could afford did not allow pets. It was actually a huge battle and we actually had to find emergency living for three months.”
“We had to end up registering our dogs as emotional support animals to have them with us,” Hana Fahmi, a roommate of Aspin said.
In its latest move in buying out properties on and around 4th street to develop a so-called Neon Line District, after saying it wouldn’t, Jacobs Entertainment won a court auction bid on the dilapidated Bonanza Inn.
Another motel it recently bought out the Desert Rose Inn used to house many seniors living on fixed income, and people who had been previously unhoused.
Reporting and photos by Kade Collins and Quay Skankey
Immigrants of Reno: From Romania to Initial Shock to Now Finding Community
Isabella Pavelea, 51, is from Transylvania, Romania and after 17 years of living in Reno, the Biggest Little City is feeling like home.
The immigration process can be long, she said. “We applied and waited 11 years until we received a letter from immigration saying [we’ve] been accepted,” Pavelea remembers of the initial challenges of making it to the United States.
It took Pavelea, her former husband and her two kids another year afterwards to finish all of the paperwork to move here in 2007. They originally decided to move to be closer to her brother-in-law who lived in northern Nevada. For Pavelea, the change was initally a shock.
“Everybody was so excited. Not me, at the beginning. I was freaked out,” Pavelea said. She described being worried about the language barrier.
However, once she and her family arrived and settled in their new, two-bedroom apartment, Pavelea began taking English and math classes at Truckee Meadows Community College.
“For me, it was difficult to start with pronunciation,” she said. The English she was learning in Romania was more similar to British English.
“I started from zero, from scratch,” she said. She was taking classes at TMCC and taking care of her children at the same time, while her former husband worked at his brother’s construction company. This process was, at times, difficult for her.
“I needed to hold everything on my shoulders,” she remembers.
For Pavelea, there was also a culture shock that came with moving to the U.S.
“What shocked me is everything [is] related to freedom. When I saw [for] the first time people walking around Walmart in pajamas, I was amazed,” she said. Dressing is about self-esteem and respect, she adds.
Currently, she is a Clinical Lab Assistant (CLA) and Phlebotomist at Renown Health. Before she moved to the U.S., she worked with the Red Cross. She’s been at Renown Health since 2012.
Pavelea misses her family back in Romania and Spain, where siblings now live, as well as the food. She misses the pedestrian safety in Romania as well.
For our interview, Pavelea brought with her two different types of candies, both of which she said are popular in Romania. One is called Eugenia - a biscuit with cacao. The other is ROM - it’s a chocolate bar with a rum-cream filling. The colors on both of the packages reflect the colors of the Romanian flag - blue, yellow and red.
She got these candies from her trip back to Romania in 2022, when visiting her parents. Pavelea wants to travel home more often, but flights can be expensive, with many stops.
“It’s very complicated…it’s the waiting time between the flights,” she said.
However, Pavelea, in between these visits, keeps in touch with her family.
“We talk over WhatsApp every single day,” Pavelea said.
As for Reno, the mountains, parks, lakes and the hiking are her favorite parts. And Easter is one of the holidays when she gets together with her family and friends.
“We always get together and everybody brings food,” Pavelea said. They’ve been getting together as a group for 15 years now, she said. The group brings lamb for Easter, she said. Outside of the holiday, Pavelea also likes to make sarmale, also known as Romanian cabbage rolls, as well as Ciorba de Burta (tripe soup).
This is one of the ways in which she keeps her children, and herself, connected to Romania.
Our Town Reno reporting and photos by Ember Braun
Our Town Reno Cold Cases, part 2: Saul Garcia
“It seems like it just happened. Every year, you wish it didn't happen, but it did happen,” Abby Garcia says of her youngest son having been murdered.
January 21st marked seven years since Saul Garcia was killed in the back of a vehicle in Sparks. While the case remains unsolved, the Facebook page Justice for Saul-Toast-Garcia remains active.
“I posted something on Facebook and some of his friends posted on there, you know, that he would never be forgotten,” Abby said. “They put pictures of him that they had, and, I just go back and I tell them, ‘thank you for remembering and thank you for sharing.’”
The family lit a candle at the Sparks Marina where there’s a plaque with a bike honoring his life. It’s a good spot for the family to remember him, as he would always go cruising there on his bike with a speaker connected, playing the music he loved, getting smiles from those he passed.
His birthday on August 16th is just as difficult for Abby and the rest of the family, as is Thanksgiving which was Saul’s favorite holiday. “We do something at the house for him, but it's just too hard,” she said. “I know it's been seven years, but it's just too hard still. It’s hard to talk about it. I have pictures of him on the wall but sometimes I can't look at them.”
Saul, the youngest of five siblings, named after an uncle from Mexico, was killed in the early morning hours of Jan 21, 2017, and found by Sparks police in the back of a vehicle on the 2600 block of Cygnet Circle. That same early morning Edgar Rodriguez was found shot dead in the area of McCarran Boulevard and Sutro Street.
Police say Rodriguez had left a party in a vehicle with several other people. Both of the young men were 19 when they were killed.
Very little information came out in the media, and Abby has grown increasingly frustrated with the local investigation.
“I don't see them doing anything anymore about it,” she says. “I just gave up on texting the detective because he never would text me back. I would text him like once a month and say, ‘Hey, you know what? This is his mom, I want to know what's going on with the case.’ And I wouldn't hear back from him anymore.”
She would like to know where the case stands.
“If they did give up, I mean, they need to let me know what's going on. They need to tell me, ‘okay, you know what, we're not getting any more leads. Nothing's going on. We're gonna close the case now.’ But no one contacted me at all. Nobody. “
Abby says her family and friends believe they know who the killer is in her son’s murder but that everyone who could help with the investigation is afraid to come forward.
“They don't want the same thing to happen to them or anything to their family,” she said. “They're just all too scared to come forward. I do wish that somebody eventually will come forward”
Abby also wishes police were more communicative. “They said that Saul was in the wrong place at the wrong time. That's what they said. And the gang unit was called but he wasn't a gang banger or anything. He just liked to go out and have fun. It'd be nice to have somebody that really did care, but they don’t,” she said.
Saul had had trouble with his schooling, struggling with ADHD, but he was doing well, she says, working at a roofing company, getting his life sorted out, when it was abruptly ended.
“Deep down in my heart, I know that it's going to stay unsolved,” she added. “You know? I know it's never going to get solved. It's just something that I feel. I just feel it in my heart that no one's ever, ever going to come forward.”
After his death, a GoFundMe for Saul got 30 donations but only received $1,600 out of a $15,000 goal. Others told Abby, who works in a warehouse, to hire a private detective but she says she doesn’t have the money for that. A GoFundMe previously set up for Rodriguez is no longer up.
“Everybody needs justice for their children, you know, but some will get it and some won’t,” Abby says, with tears swelling up. She feels racism plays a part in whether or not certain cases get looked into seriously.
“A lot of people say, like, they'll try to say, ‘get over it. It's over and done with,’ but you never get over it. You know, you never get over it,” she says. “There's nothing anybody can say or do. You know, you as a person just have to go through it yourself. I have to go through it by myself. My kids gotta go through it. They're going to go through it their way. Like I'm going through it my way. But there isn't anything really that anybody can say or do.”
Her other kids still live in the area, and she says they are what keep her going.
They all miss Saul’s humor. “He was a funny person. He would tell jokes and he was just a funny person. He was always there for his friends. Whenever some of his friends needed a ride, he would always tell me, ‘Mom, can I use a car? Mom, can I use a truck?’”
His dream was to buy a nice car and go low riding, so now one of his brothers, Gerardo, has been working on tailoring one in Saul’s memory, even displaying it at car shows, like the one above in Las Vegas several years ago.
“It’s hard for us still to talk about it because we just start crying. I mean, I know it's been seven years, but it's still hard,” she said at the conclusion of our interview. “I remember the day, I remember what happened and it's just like, I don’t know, it’s hard. “
Reno Police Detectives can be reached at 334-2188 and Sparks Police Department Division at 353-2225. Anonymous tips can be submitted through Secret Witness at 322-4900, www.secretwitness.com or text the tip to 847411 (TIP 411) keyword – SW.
Our Town Reno reporting, February 2024
Lawson to Cash in on Settlement, While Facing Charges Again
In what was a busy day for the Sparks City Council yesterday, it approved a $381,000 settlement with ex-fire chief Mark Lawson over wrongful termination and defamation claims, allowing him to cash in more than expected as he now runs for office, just months after the same body turned down a previously offered $170,000 settlement.
Lawson left his job in late 2022 in disputed circumstances a week after he started it, after being confronted by then Sparks City Manager Neil Krutz that he was facing four felony steroid charges.
The case was dismissed with prejudice earlier this year, with prosecutors saying they needed more time.
The Nevada attorney general’s office quickly refiled charges against Lawson in Sparks Justice Court earlier this month, with a new arraignment hearing scheduled for March 26th.
Lawson who has maintained his innocence throughout this saga says he is running for Washoe County Commission District 4 in a contentious Republican primary against appointed incumbent Clara Andriola, favored by establishment figures, and Washoe County GOP Vice Chair Tracey Hilton-Thomas.
As of today, his Facebook page Mark Lawson for Nevada Washoe County Commission has 68 likes and 243 followers, with recent posts promoting local events, recirculating local news stories of interest and an explainer on ideal tire pressure in cold weather.