Deferred Agenda Item with Looming Sale
Savannah, a resident of the Gibson apartments, has heard the building’s sale to Jacobs Entertainment will be finalized before the end of the year. This means she has no idea how long her convenient and cozy apartment which costs her $970 per month with utilities will still be an option for her. She decided to speak out at the most recent Reno City Council meeting, even though the agenda item concerning her future, C1, with Jacobs Entertainment requesting the abandonment of a right of way in the Church Lane, Stevenson Street and West Second Street area , was then pushed back to the next meeting on January 12th.
That might be too late for her at that point, though.
“I had a lease all the way until August of next year, and then just like a month ago, they sent us all these letters to sign to take the lease to month to month,” Savannah explained. “And then we found out that, yeah, they're selling the property, it's set to close, and we're probably gonna be offered eviction notices on the first of January telling us to leave.”
She’s trying to see if she can get any help from lawyers pro bono or empathy from city council members. She wonders if there could be a zoning issue due to part of the plan being the expansion of a so-called entertainment district.
“We've kind of been looking at laws and seeing if there's anybody who could do like pro bono work and help us kind of figure out if there's any route we can take to protecting our home,” Savannah said. “For the most part, we haven't gotten any solid information about what we can do. So we're just kind of talking to the city council members and seeing if they can do anything from their end to stop the sale.”
With city council members and Mayor Hillary Schieve posing with casino mogul Jeffrey Jacobs at different events including on bulldozers set to demolish motels, as well as approving without barely any conditions what the developer keeps on seeking before the council, that seems like a long shot.
“I really like my apartment. It's my home. This is the first apartment that I've lived in by myself,” Savannah said. “Before this, I had roommates and lived with family. It’s really significant to me personally. Also, it's just a great building and the fact of the matter is in Reno, we don't have a lot of housing options that are inexpensive. My rent is 875. And then with utilities it's 970. So I don't know where I would live and, you know, I wouldn't wanna live too far away from my work or too far away from school. So yeah, I don't know what's gonna happen.”
Fearing for Her Future and for Her Neighbors
The Gibson apartment are also part of Reno’s history, more and more of which seems to be discarded during this current gentrification push.
“It’s definitely an older building,” Savannah explained. “I think it was built in like 1910 or something like that, so like a prewar building, and on the inside it's very cozy. It has like a really homey feel to it. Everybody kind of knows everybody else too. Like, we all have our neighbors that we hang out with and, you know, everybody talks, there's only like maybe 15 of us who live in the building. My apartment specifically is actually pretty big . It used to be from what our landlord told us, it used to be like a boarding house for a school, and then it got converted into singular apartments.”
She said some other residents don’t even know what’s happening while others are already trying to find new places.
“My one friend who lives down the hall, she has been like trying to find another place. And she's like, I don't know. She's like, ‘I'm gonna give up, I'm gonna live in like a house with five other people because there's no other options.’ A lot of the people who live here are families. I know the lady who lives down the hall from me, she has two babies. And they only live in one bed. And so I don't know, how would she be able to find a two bed, you know, you just won't and you know, a lot of the people here work downtown and it's convenient because it's right there. So I just don't know where all these people would go or, you know, how they would commute or anything.”
Savannah works six days a week, up to 40 hours at a downtown motel, in addition to being a student, and she only makes $13.25 an hour, meaning her relatively cheap rent already eats up half her income.
“If I do get kicked out of here because it gets sold honestly, I'll probably have to like find two or three roommates and move further out of town, which I really don't wanna do,” she said. “I hate driving. I'm terrible at it.”
“The Gibson apartments that I live in are actually connected kind of to this other building that is registered as a historical landmark and that was built by the guy who actually lives in here, his family built it. And so it's been like passed down through the generations. But if this plot of land sells, then they're gonna have to move the house,” Savannah said of a cute home in the same area, pictured above.
Not a Fan of the Jacobs Plan
Savannah, who comes from Fernley, and has lived some in Los Angeles, is not a fan of the Jacobs plan and its already built Glow Plaza with giant animal statues and a cemetery of motel replica signs.
“They're gonna buy out this whole entire area and expand the Glow park, which is that little strip on Fourth. I see absolutely no reason for that. First of all, Reno isn't Vegas. I don't see why we need to keep trying to be like Vegas. We're different. I think the people know that and honestly, we've had a lot more people moving here. So I just don't see why we have to keep like commodifying our town to make it more palatable to tourists when it's like, there are real people who live here who need homes. And if we just keep bulldozing them, where are we all gonna go?”
From what she’s heard of it and seen so far, she feels the Jacobs plan is a mismatch for what Reno is.
“I think a lot of people from Reno are more focused on like being outdoorsy or like having like a community. I really feel here in Reno, that's what we value most is our sense of community and our sense of togetherness. That's why I just don't feel like this whole Jacobs thing really plays into this. I feel like Vegas, you know, it's very flashy and like exciting. And it seems like it is the type of place that just wants to have people brought in, you know, for the sake of it. Um, and so I feel like, you know, even if you're just looking at like pictures of Vegas, like it has this very eye catching look, candy colored, you know, like basically like cocaine but I feel like Reno is like almost the exact opposite. It's like, everybody here wants to be mellow and live their lives and kind of go about things together, you know? I feel the Jacobs Entertainment thing just doesn't go with this. Like every time I drive past the Glow park, it seems like somebody literally just lifted something up, plopped it there and was like, have it, enjoy this. So it's like, so mismatched, it doesn't fit in with anything. And I just don't see why that has to be a part of this area specifically. It's vintage, it's old and we all like that. And you know, if you want that type of thing, go downtown, go on Virginia Street, where there actually are tourists, you know? “
Savannah’s apartment is across the street from the Castaway Inn which was recently boarded up by Jacobs Entertainment.
Feeling Sad for the Sudden Closure of the Castaway Inn Across the Street
Savannah lives across the street from the now boarded up and already bought out Castaway Inn. It also sits next to the now also boarded up 7/11 Motor Lodge.
She’s heard people including politicians call these places seedy and dangerous but she doesn’t share that sentiment.
“I think it's relatively safe. I mean, I've never had any issues. I don't tend to walk around at night just because, you know, I'm 21 that seems unsafe. But in general, it's you know, it's relatively quiet around here. I mean, I haven't had any issues,” she said. “The Castaway Inn seems like it was just kind of a place where people lived. I mean, it was pretty packed and then just like randomly one day it was like closed up nobody's there and everybody got kicked out. So that's kind of what I'm worried about happening here. I don't want it to be like one day we have a house then the next day it's just, everybody's kicked out, and I'm gone.”
For the longer term, she still believes in the election process, always pushing her friends to register and to vote, having worked herself on national campaigns in the past. This issue is local though, she says, and local elections coming up in 2022 are crucial.
“It’s really going to be those elected city officials who are making the decisions that are going to impact us the most. You know Joe Biden isn't gonna get across his desk and say ‘Oh, look at that 441 West Second Street is getting sold, you know? But Mayor Hillary Schieve she is, you know, and that's something she might care about and actually might be able to do something about. So I hope that she does. And obviously I encourage anybody who cares even a little bit to vote.”
In the meantime, she is going to continue to speak out now that she’s started and will encourage others to do the same.
“I definitely think more people should speak up,” Savannah said. “I really feel like if we don't speak up people aren't gonna really realize how important it is. I mean, specifically at the city council meeting, we went to, I mean, it was every pretty much every single comment was about the housing crisis and about gentrification. I just feel like everybody should speak up when they can.”