What About the Future of the Reno-Sparks Gospel Mission?

While the future of the former Record Street shelter known as the CAC (Community Assistance Center) is up in the air, members of the community are also wondering what might happen to the non-profit Reno-Sparks Gospel Mission next door, increasingly surrounded by new bars, businesses and apartment projects on 4th street.

Advocates have been urging City Council for several years now to save the Record street shelter compound and still use it for emergency social services. With the establishment of the Cares Campus post pandemic, the County took over local services for the unhoused.

The Reno City Council decided this past week to appraise the shelter compound which has been neglected in recent years and put it up for an RFP, instead of going straight to negotiations with Bash Capital as initially recommended by city staff.

In one of their letters, the Bash developers had written they “will work in tandem with local social services to provide support for homeless residents, and continue to look for [sic] new location for Gospel Mission."

After we reached out by email expressing concern over their own future fate, we received this statement from Reno-Sparks Gospel Mission Executive Director Luis Santoni.

"Any development agreements regarding the CAC is between the City of Reno and Bash Capital. The Reno-Sparks Gospel Mission is committed to being a good neighbor to the future renovation to the CAC property. The Reno-Sparks Gospel Mission is also dedicated to continuing the best possible services to the hungry, homeless, abused and addicted in our beloved community,” he wrote.

The Reno-Sparks Gospel Mission website asks for the community’s support to provide “nutritious meals, safe shelter, clothing and addiction recovery services.”

“We rely solely on the generous support of private donors like you, as we do not receive any federal, state or other government assistance,” it indicates.

Our Town Reno reporting, April 2024

Places of Reno: Peaceful Living in Spanish Springs

Reno can be gritty and filled with loud noises, casinos and bright lights. It can be hard to find peaceful options. The northeast suburb of Spanish Springs offers that choice. 

Its population is about 17,000 and is much smaller and quieter than other parts of Northern Nevada.

My family moved here in 2018 from Wingfield, a nearby neighborhood in Sparks. It was during my high school years, and I made plenty of memories as a Spanish Springs High alumni. McDonald’s and Starbucks are within walking distance of the high school, so it was a tradition every Friday to walk down. 

Driving around the area, you wouldn’t think 17,000 people lived there. It’s slowly expanding, but your options out here are pretty slim.

In terms of education, Spanish Springs High School and Shaw Middle School are both located in the area. Spanish Springs Elementary School and Alice Taylor Elementary School aren’t too far away either. 

There are a few small shopping centers, including two gas stations, a few fast food spots, a Walgreens, and two grocery stores. An ER was most recently built, big bonus points for that.

Besides that, there’s a lot of open land. There’s the Andelin Family Farm, which hosts several events throughout the year such as a pumpkin patch and corn mazes in the fall.

A bit further down Pyramid Highway, which connects Spanish Springs to the rest of Sparks, you’ll reach my neighborhood of Autumn Trails.

A map of Autumn Trails and nearby neighborhoods.

This neighborhood is still fairly new, as my house was built the year my family and I moved in. It was the first house built on Smoke Wagon, the name of my street.

People get a kick over my street name. If I’m ID’d or filling out paperwork, a small laugh or mocking tone over the name “Smoke Wagon” will usually follow. I’ve always lived on originally named streets, so the jokes cause me to eye-roll from time to time. 

Slowly but surely, the rest of the street was built and families began moving in. Driving through these neighborhoods made me feel like I almost didn’t belong because of how elegant the homes were.

About every house has at least two-plus acres of backyard space. Many have even more space with small white fences to cover their ranches. Horses, goats, and chickens can usually be seen walking around in their owner’s backyards.

The entryway of Autumn Trails

It’s hard to not sound snobby when talking about my neighborhood, but the hard reality is people and families with money live here. Almost every home, mine included, is valued at over $1 million. According to CalNeva Reality, the average house in this area is listed at $1.16 million.

Another reality is that a majority of Autumn Trail residents are white. The longer I’ve lived here and the more I’ve grown up, the more I’ve seen how predominantly white the neighborhood is.

Now, I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with that. Living in more of a countryside ranch-type area where it’s usually quiet will consist of that. Many residents are either retired or have established families and careers. 

But, as one of the few minority families living in the area, it’s easy to notice. My family is of Latino descent, coming from both parents. As I mentioned before, you usually won’t see others like my family in the area. There’s definitely some, but it’s not the majority.  

It’s also easy to notice how residents are not afraid to spend their money on luxury. About every other house on my street owns either a sports car or a car/truck bought brand new very recently. I can’t judge when I own a 2018 Camaro and my mom owns a 2023 Hybrid Hyundai.

The holidays are another time when you can notice the money. Most residents will put up their own Halloween or Christmas decorations, but some will pay to have companies install them. Most of the neighborhood has fancy phone-controlled house lights that can make any color or pattern appear.

It does make the neighborhood look great during the holidays, however. Streets illuminate every night with tons of lights and decorations. Most houses will even leave their Christmas lights on all day (not worried about the electrical bill I suppose.) Halloween is filled with kids on the streets to check out the self-made haunted houses and loads of full-size candy bars.

Speaking of holidays and money, residents in Spanish Springs love to own and give each other expensive toys. ATVs, dirtbikes, and quads are everywhere. The neighborhood is mostly quiet, but now and then you’ll be driving by and hear the loud rev of an ATV go by.

They’re even more common during the holidays. Halloween in this neighborhood doesn’t see kids walking around the streets. Instead, parents will drive them around on ATVs or in self-made wagons pulled by their pickup trucks.

The same can be said for Christmas, when families decorate their rides, make floats out of trailers, and drive around looking at Christmas lights.

The money also shows from the amount of home improvements residents do. My family and I have done a LOT to our house, so I’m not calling anyone out. But, it seems like every other week there’s a house with construction workers in the backyard and different types of rock piled outside.

Whether it’s adding stone to the backyard, putting in a firepit or hot tub, or re-doing the driveway, home improvements are always happening. It makes sense why almost all of these homes are selling for over $1 million when constant renovations are done to jack up the value.

I’m in no way trying to make up a stereotype about the residents who live here. But, it can be quite funny reading posts from neighbors on the Ring app.

Being straight up, people like to be nosey. I can’t say that I’m not curious about what’s going on, but sometimes it can be a bit much.

“Screenshots of the ring app, showing neighbors posting about coyotes in the area” 
Posts I see a lot are about coyotes in the area. I understand if the intent is to give a heads-up to homeowners with smaller pets or children, but Spanish Springs is filled with them. The coyotes were here first, and the whole community doesn’t need to know when you see one just minding its own business.

There are always plenty of posts saying “Did you feel that earthquake?” (Yes, everyone felt it.) “Did anyone hear a loud banging sound? It almost sounded like a gun.” (They were just fireworks and you could see them in the sky.)

Lots of animals go missing as well which of course is a sad event. More times than not, the pets get returned to their rightful owners. Lots of packages seem to get misplaced or even stolen at times as well.

“Screenshots from the Ring app of neighbors posting about missing animals and missing packages”  

Overall though, there’s not much to complain about my neighborhood. People are proud to live here and aren’t afraid to show how they have money. 

When the Spring/Summer season hits and the sun is out, you’ll see people everywhere walking, running, or taking their dogs on a walk. You’ll see those fancy sports cars in the driveways being hand-washed or yard work being done.

I feel blessed to be able to reside here, and I’m sure many people feel the same way. It’s a great, safe, and quiet neighborhood, and it’s a place you look out on and can say “I made it” if you live there.

Anonymous Places of Reno Contribution

Future of Former Record Street Shelter Is Back on City's Agenda

The former Record Street shelter right behind Greater Nevada Field was locked up and partially boarded up this morning, with tumbleweeds, broken glass, plastic bags and litter strewn all around.  

Advocates have long called for the former shelter to be rehabilitated so that it could be an emergency location in extreme situations, or perhaps continue as a smaller shelter for the locally unhoused feeling overwhelmed and unwelcomed at the Cares Campus, or for families when no spots are left at Our Place, or for victims of domestic abuse when all facilities helping them are closed or unable to answer their phones.  

Item D5 on the agenda for Wednesday’s City Council meeting is “presentation, discussion, and direction to staff on the potential disposition of the Community Assistance Center (CAC) properties generally located at 315 and 335 Record Street … in response to a Letter of Interest by Bash Capital, LLC to include entering into an Exclusive Negotiating Agreement, obtaining an appraisal, and/or reversion of acreage.”

A letter of intent from late January indicates Bash Capital is offering two purchase options, one for $1.5 million without a development agreement, the other for one dollar, with a development agreement for a multi-family project with over half of its units at 80% Area Median Income of HUD income limit calculations.

In another letter from late January, Troy Keeney and Brianna Bullentini conclude that their “attainable workforce housing project represents a significant step towards transforming downtown Reno.” 

In a previous paragraph outlined as “Our Commitment” bullet point 1. refers to “homelessness services” indicating they “will work in tandem with local social services to provide support for homeless residents, and continue to look for new location for Gospel Mission,” which is currently operating next door.

City of Reno staff are currently recommending that the City dispose of the former CAC either through a developer, through a request for interest  proposal process or through an auction. 

Alicia Barber recently wrote in the Barber Brief she was surprised this proposal was being considered so suddenly as “the City has not yet decided whether or not to dispose of these properties, much less whether to offer them for private development. And yet staff is not only recommending that Council direct them to “prepare the properties for sale” but is providing them with just three options—enter into negotiations with this company; issue an RFP; or hold an auction—without even providing the option that the City might retain the properties for some other use, either civic or leased.”

Just a few years ago, Reno’s City Council had considered selling the CAC for a much higher total of $7 million, and then more recently indicated the former shelter was in need of major interior repairs prohibiting any current usage. 

“Even if Council decides in favor of unloading the property, the various options for how to proceed also warrant thoughtful discussion,” the latest Barber Brief indicates. “Auctions, of course, basically award a property to the highest bidder. In contrast, issuing an Request for Proposals or Request for Interest … gives the City (and the public) control over what might be developed there, allowing for public negotiation, transparency, and community buy-in.”

Our Town Reno reporting April 2024

Tara Webster, Running for Ward 5 and Seeking a "Transformative Community"

As crowded June primaries approach quickly, one of the new local candidates on the ballot this year is Reno native Tara Webster, running for City Council Ward 5, which goes from West University all the way through Verdi.

Webster has a background in science, with past research focusing on the “integration of social political issues in higher education,” as she explains. In her academic past, she has examined the views of both first year students and professors on the importance of bringing political issues into STEM curricula.

“We're talking about things like air pollution and land use,” says Webster– topics that were pressing issues at the time of Webster’s research during the 2016 and 2020 elections. 

“What I found was that, pretty much across the board, everyone wanted these conversations to be happening. They saw the importance of social political issues in higher ed, but they didn't really know how to act on it,” she says.

Webster’s research motivated her pivot from academia to running for public office. She is determined to bring more people into the conversations about social issues, and she has a few ideas about how to do so. If elected, Webster’s focal points will include increasing accessible housing, and building sustainable safety nets for Reno’s unsheltered neighbors.

Despite local government initiatives, homelessness and lack of affordable housing have proven to be stubborn issues in recent years.

Webster views the pervasiveness of the crisis as “a lack of compassion.” As she sees it, unhoused folks and other marginalized populations “aren't really being brought into conversation,” and because of that, “decisions are being made for them, and not with them.” 

Reno has a robust mutual aid community, with organizers and advocates who work hard and often to provide resources to unhoused and housing insecure members of the community. “These groups are carrying so much of the weight…to take care of people,” says Webster.

“All of these amazing people are doing this out of genuine care and compassion,” she continues, “and I think that our resources, on a public level, need to be going to take off some of that burden.”

Webster believes that one possible solution to relieving that burden may lie in increased protection of public lands. Pushing back against urban sprawl, and focusing more heavily on developing properties that already exist within the city, might have a great impact on the housing crisis, in Webster’s view. 

On top of running for public office, Webster is also a new parent. And raising her child has opened her eyes even more to solvable problems in the city. Webster’s monthly childcare cost is $1300– “that's like, a rent payment or a mortgage payment for most people. So, I'm basically working so that my son can go to daycare and get normal development and engage with other kids.” Another one of Webster’s goals is to work on “rezoning ordinances, and reducing fees and overhead costs” so that childcare within the city is more affordable and accessible for the average parent. 

Webster emphasizes that her campaign is not for or about herself. Rather, she sees it as a potential step in building a long term, transformative community in Reno. She knows that term, “transformative community,” may sound a little “woo-woo” to some. But for her, it’s about giving a voice to all members of the community so that the changes made will be meaningful and impactful in the long run.

Having grown up in Reno, and after experiencing homelessness and housing insecurity in her own childhood, Webster has a wide lens view of the city and all of its potential. And despite the city’s needs for improvement, she also sees Reno as the beautiful landscape that it is. “Outside of the fact that we have four seasons and we're surrounded by these gorgeous mountains, we (also) have the most beautiful sunsets that I've ever seen,” she says with a smile. 

Our Town Reno reporting and photo by Ray Grosser

Michaelangelo Aranda, Running for Ward 6 with Love for South Reno and Public Service

Before his mother passed away at the end of 2022, Michaelangelo Aranda remembers she used to call him “Mayor Michael.”

His father, who is currently struggling with health challenges, set the bar even higher.  “When I had shared with him that I'm running for city council,” Aranda says, he told him he hopes to stay alive to see him as president. 

“I don't know if I will career that far,” Aranda told Our Town Reno during a recent podcast interview. 

For now he’s one of many candidates for our city’s new Ward 6, with a campaign website extolling “Reno Born Reno Ready.” 

He says he wants to be a voice for a thriving neighborhood as well as bringing representation for the city’s large Filipino-descendant population. 

“I am a first generation product of immigrants who chose Reno as their home when they moved away from their homeland of the Philippines Islands,” he writes on his about page.

For Ward 6 and south Reno, it’s a labor of love.   

“I love the community. I have tried to build strong ties within it,” he said of where his mother used to work as a nurse and what has been his family home for his wife and two young boys. “We go on walks, we do all the local things within our areas, including the library and the regional parks. It actually inspired me to get into local government. I actually currently serve on the Washoe County Regional Parks and Open Spaces Commission and hopefully do a good job of representing my district as well as on the Washoe County School District’s SHARE Advisory Committee.”

As part of his busy life, Aranda works part time as a paraeducator at Jwood Raw Elementary School for students on the neurodivergent scale from kindergarten up to fourth grade.

“I have a strong belief in localized government,” he said when asked his reason for now running for political office. 

“The biggest changes come from those who represent us on a local level. Nothing is more affecting to the day to day of an average citizen than the rules, the municipal codes, everything that happens on that local level. I want to do right by my community,” he said.

With a crowded field, and only the top two vote getters going to the November election, unless one wins outright with a majority on June 11th, Aranda says he is trying to meet as many ward members as he can. 

“I am very excited and proud of the connections I've made so far, but it's really about getting into the community, knocking on some doors. I have an upcoming Meet the Candidate Town Hall that's coming up on April 10th, where I want to be able to meet as many people as possible, get my name out there, and hopefully succeed in the primary to make it to the general,” he said. 

His underlying priorities he says are cross partisan. “I think that no matter who you are on party lines, everyone can agree that you want safe schools, you want safe access to parks, and you would love to keep our beautiful wetlands and our beautiful South Reno economy ecologically succeeding,” he explained.  

As a school educator, he has inside interests in improving our schools.  

“There is obviously the constant underfunding,” he said. “Everyone, I think would agree with that. There's also the change of leadership that keeps happening with the superintendents going in and out.”

Another point he brought up is the importance of increasing access to more quality child care, with long waiting lists currently for many families.

Meanwhile, he calls regional parks the most important aspect of our communities.  

“We're talking about these large parks that are multipurpose that our community uses. And it's so important to be able to put some love and appreciation into that. It also encompasses anything that's not within the actual city borders to the open spaces, anything that's owned by the county. “

His story is Reno through and through, having been born at what was then called Washoe Medical Center, attending Dilworth Middle School, Reed High School and then UNR, with his father having worked in casinos his entire life.  

One of Aranda’s first adult jobs was working for the Sands Regency before if became known as the J Resort, as part of the Jacobs Entertainment 4th street buyout spree. 

“I have a little bit of nostalgia when I look at the building, and then I cry a little bit knowing that it's not the Sands Regency it was in its heyday,” he said of a development project that has divided locals.

“That's not to say that it didn't need the improvements, and I believe that if you ever followed and not many people do, the story of the Sands Regency in that area in itself, it has changed hands because of a lot of economic downfall…. Jacobs has the funds to be able to make that area beautiful, and I think they're doing a good job at that,” he said. “What we should be looking at is the economic impact that it's having on that area in that district.” 

Generally, in terms of new ideas for the 4th street area, downtown Reno, other development and the boom in Ward 6, he believes there should be more strategizing and work with the Planning Commission.   

“We just don't want new traffic,” he said of Ward 6 specifically.  “And when we say traffic, it's because there's a lot of lack of infrastructure to go with the speed of everything being built.”

Proper infrastructure, he says, should also include “ensuring street lighting projects are thought ahead of time rather than reactive to the population that we're growing, but also making sure that we don't encroach on some of the natural resources and the natural environments that we have.”

On a personal level, when asked if he has any hobbies he responded:  “At the risk of sounding boring, I think the biggest hobby I'll have is learning. I'm a perpetual learner.”

What about his first name? “I’m a baby of five, and when [my parents] were pregnant with me, they allowed my siblings to choose my name and they voted on their favorite Ninja Turtle, which happened to be Michaelangelo,” he explained. “I remember in high school I had an election and I said, Michaelangelo, I have two names. I'll do twice the work.”

Our Town Reno reporting, April 2024

Highland Ranch – My Beloved Hellhole in Sun Valley

I was born in Napa Valley, California, in 2004.

My family moved around several times in my first three years, then we moved to Reno when my dad lost his job as a transit planner in 2007.

My dad could not support us in a house with his new job at Cabela’s, so we had to move into our trailer for three years, moving from Truckee to Verdi to Stead. Afterwards, we moved into a house in the Highland Ranch neighborhood of Sun Valley, where we have been ever since.

Reno, Nevada is known as the “Biggest Little City in the World.” While this is a unique nickname that most residents of the city connect with, I believe that a more accurate nickname would be the “Biggest, Most Complicated Little City in the World.” 

What most outsiders refer to as “Reno” is actually a combination of two neighboring cities - Reno to the west and Sparks to the northeast, respectively. Within these cities, there are many different “census-designated places,” which are defined as “a concentration of population defined by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes only.” Within the greater Reno-Sparks area, there are a total of 15 census-designated places.

One of these places is Sun Valley, which is located north of Reno, northeast of the UNR campus. In the 2020 U.S. Census, this area had 21,178 residents, a number which has consisted of me and my family since 2010.

After driving all the way down the main road of this area, Sun Valley Boulevard, you will find Highland Ranch sitting at the northern end of Sun Valley, on the border between it and Golden Valley. 

Notably, Sun Valley’s crime rate is significantly higher than the city, state, and national averages. Locals, such as my dad, sometimes refer to it as “The Murder Capital of the World.” This is because Sun Valley’s murder rate of 5 per 1,000 residents is significantly higher than the average American rate of 0.064 per 1,000 residents.

The majority of homes in Sun Valley are mobile homes, which, for the most part, are rather worn down. I am lucky enough to live in a typical house. Most crime in Sun Valley takes place in the “trailer park” area, but the suburban area does still have its fair share of rowdy kids and domestic violence.

There are hardly ever any cross-street connections in Highland Ranch. Most families are friends with people on their street, and only people on their street. My street contains three distinct “cliques” that hardly ever interact with each other. The bottom half of the street holds parties, gatherings, homeowners meetings, and are genuinely young and energetic. 

The top half of the street, which is where I live, is much different. Most people in this half are older, and their relationships are more of what I call “useful connections.” Most interactions between the people on this half of the street are amicable, but we don’t really go out of our way to see each other unless we either need help or wish to provide it.

The final “clique” is the two-story house at the center of the court, next to my house. This family is massive, disruptive, rude, and does not interact with any of the other families unless they have to. They hold frequent, massive parties where they blare their music, set off fireworks, park in neighbors' driveways, and are a general nuisance to everyone in the area until times as late as four in the morning. All of this is against HOA regulations. However, they are never fined for anything they do, seeing as the family has close connections with HOA members.

My house is one story, and was around 1,700 square feet when we moved in. There are three bedrooms and two bathrooms, which was perfect for a family of three. I grew up a bit spoiled, as I got two of the bedrooms, since my parents did not want me to keep my gaming systems in the same room as me. 

Once I became an adult, I condensed everything into one bedroom, while my parents repurposed the spare room as an exercise area. My dad eventually got a new job as a transit planner in Reno, which allowed us to expand the house, adding around 500 square feet, when my grandma moved in with us in 2022. 

Now, in 2024, I am a student at the University of Nevada, Reno. Most of my friends on campus aren’t from Reno, so every day, when I drive home from campus, I realize how lucky I am to live just 15 minutes away from my college.

Sun Valley may be a crime-infested hellhole that has hardly any notable landmarks, but, at the end of the day, it’s my hellhole, and until life takes me elsewhere, there’s no place I’d rather be.

Anonymous Contribution, March 2024

Mark Mausert, A Lawyer Helping Local Victims of Workplace Harassment

Mark Mausert is an attorney here in Reno, whose services are very much needed as over the past several decades he has specialized in combating sexual and racial harassment in the workplace. 

He remembers distinctly a case in 1990, his first related to Title VII, the statute in the Civil Rights Act prohibiting employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex and national origin.

A mother and father had grown concerned about their daughter, after drastic changes in her health and sleep schedule. “Turns out, at the restaurant she was working at, this sleazeball manager…was terrorizing her,” Mausert recalls. 

Mausert would come to find out just how common this waitress’s story was. As he was beginning to take on Title VII cases, the law was changing in drastic ways to allow for more employee protections.

Suddenly, “sleazeball managers” weren’t able to hide anymore, and workers finally had the ability to call out abuses of power, without fear of retaliation. 

In order to fully understand the way Title VII shakes out in the American judicial system, it’s helpful to look at the history. 

The progression of Title VII law throughout the late 1900s not only shaped Mausert’s career, but also had long-overdue positive impacts on the working class. Luckily, Mausert’s astounding memory doesn’t only apply to law; it extends to history as well. He remembers the chain of events well, all the way back to 1964.

In 1964, there were many Democratic opponents to the Civil Rights Act. Protests erupted, and Southern Democratic senators attempted to thwart the act’s passing with a filibuster. “The last thing they did to try to stop the civil rights bill,” Mausert says “…they added women to it.” The rationale was that this would generate more opposition to the bill, and stop it in its tracks. 

Fortunately, that plan didn’t work. “The liberal Democrats said, ‘that’s a good idea!’ And that’s how women got protected against discrimination and sexual harassment in the workplace,” Mausert explains. 

But the original bill didn’t account for emotional damage. On top of that, attorneys fees were quite unaffordable for most people. Many victims of workplace harassment worked low-paying jobs, like waiting tables. “In three days, the victim has a job down the street making the same, or more,” Mausert says. “It wasn’t worth it.”

Then, on November 21st, 1991, (the year after Mausert’s first sexual harassment case) they amended the statute to add emotional and punitive damages. Plus, victims would have attorney fees covered. “So there was this explosion of Title VII litigations in the 90s,” Mausert goes on, “because suddenly, you could get some kind of compensation for getting your butt slapped and for guys saying all kinds of stuff to you.”

After two sexual harassment cases were brought to the Supreme Court in 1998, the Court spelled out the circumstances which would give a company immunity against charges of harassment. Essentially, employers couldn’t fire or demote victims of these cases, and they also had to implement harassment training for their employees. 

After the decision in 1998, workplace harassment cases tapered off for a while. But about five years ago, Mausert caught on to “a weird thing that’s happening.” He started to uncover that sexual harassment cases were often correlated to a surprising culprit: music.

Music with explicit, and sometimes brutally violent, lyrics is often played over speakers in kitchens, warehouses, and other work environments. To Mausert, this means that employers are violating their duty to enforce reasonable workplace harassment policies. “It’s a non-delegable duty,” Mausert says, meaning that employers can’t leave the enforcement of their harassment policies up to their employees. “So you have fifty guys and five women…and you’re gonna leave it up to the women, who are outnumbered 10 to 1, to stop the guys from playing their music?”

Mausert recalls a case that involved a large factory where “they just let (the) guys rock and roll. There was a cadre of really mean-spirited guys, and they basically engaged in competition over who could do the most outrageous (things) to the women each day.” One of the factory workers “broke ranks” and sought help from a lawyer friend of Mark’s. The case was settled with a 34-million dollar check that compensated over 800 women. 

It goes deeper than music. Mausert understands that not only women, but most humans, carry trauma with them. Sexual and racial trauma are extremely common, and usually have profound effects on human psychology. Workplace cultures of disrespect and violence can fester. These workplaces subject people with trauma to be re-traumatized on a daily basis.

Mausert also understands that seeking justice cannot, in itself, heal trauma. “I’m not in the vengeance business,” he says. “The Buddha says…vengeance is a hot coal, you pick it up to throw at somebody, you always get burned.”

“We need to get you over here, and on a different path, and deal with the trauma,” he remembers telling some of the victims he has worked with. “And I will try to get you some justice.”

Mausert has been an attorney for over half of his life now, and he says it hasn’t been easy. But he feels that, after 43 years on the job, he’s come out on the other side. “You know what the trick is? There’s a trick,” he says. “You have to do the right thing, without being right.”

Mausert’s law office on Evans Avenue was built in 1910. It was the historical home of Benson Dillon Billinghurst, who was superintendent of Washoe County schools from 1908 until his death in 1935. Under Billinghurst’s leadership, Nevada schools were ranked second in quality nationwide in 1933. It’s probable that the late Mr. Billinghurst would be proud of what his old house is used for today.

If you find yourself in need of Mark Mausert’s assistance, his yellow lab, Max, will greet you at the front door of the old house. Inside, the walls are stacked with thousands of books. In one corner of the office sits a stack with several copies of the same book: Trauma and Recovery, by Judith L. Herman M.D. In the introduction to her book, Herman writes: “Survivors challenge us to reconnect fragments, to reconstruct history, to make meaning of their present symptoms in the light of past events.” Mausert offers a copy of the book to all of his clients. 

Reporting and Photos by Ray Grosser for Our Town Reno

Police Bust at Vagabond Inn in Reno

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.

Our Town Reno reporting, March 2024

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. 

Comic art Bijou is now making will be on display at Sizzle Pie on March 19th.

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