The Urban Blog

Reno: Can we please be done with 10 N. Virginia?

Downtown Makeover reports on the Reno RDA meeting 10/24/2007.  The stream won't likely be available for a while, but the report is informative - it seems the entire meeting (almost) was about the 10 N. Virginia plaza.

It is time to move on from this issue.  What the City needs on this site is a building that will take care of skate shop & concession amenities in the winter, and room to store product out of the sun in the summer.  If they can hire an architect to provide them with this building, then hire a builder to build it for them, they will have a first-rate city park as part of the Wingfield Park/Riverwalk Annex.

I am taken back to a council meeting before baseball was approved where councilman Aiazzi asked "what are we calling this thing again"?  He was asking in relation to this very plaza I am discussing now.  The City has a park - a plaza - an attraction in the form of a skating rink in the winter - and they don't even know what its name is.

This thing is a park.  Given the site I would hope that Reno Parks & Rec would turn it into something awesome.  It's time to stop getting the private sector involved on this parcel and just get it functional.

As mentioned in the report, there is plenty of other space needing a great restaurant in Reno.  Right across the street in the old Woolworth's building.  Down the street a bit in the Palladio.  There are plenty of good, commercial, redevelopment projects to be done.  When Famous Murphy's couldn't wait to build their signature restaurant downtown on 10 N. Virginia, the City balked due to cost.  Now they see what they can get for their money.  Maybe they will decide instead, to just get something predictable operating on that site and be done with the whole matter.

Reno: Evaluate Carefully Retail Over The Trench, or "Stay On Target"

Downtown Makeover links to a Northern Nevada Business Weekly article on Fernando Leal's plans for recovering the ReTRAC air rights in Reno - notably, putting retail on top.

More retail in downtown Reno is a great idea and long overdue.  That is why the principals in the baseball stadium deal recently approved, made retail a major component of that development.  It's why 100 N. Sierra is currently undergoing renovation.  It's why Long's Drugs will eventually open downtown in the old Riverboat casino.  It's why Leal himself is banking heavily on the retail components in his Montage project, in fact.

It is important to note that what is also needed in downtown Reno, especially around the Arch, is more open space.  Currently Virginia Street is taken hostage several times per year to serve as a special events venue, irritating motorists and rerouting essential transit services.  With the near-constant construction activity which had occurred on Virginia Street for a number of years (which is hopefully done for at least a little while thanks to the recent project to widen, re-pour, and landscape the street's sidewalks), many might have gotten the idea the street was going to be perpetually closed to traffic.

Over ReTRAC, for a couple of blocks west of Virginia at least, is a natural, desirable location for open space.  It would provide a great opportunity for plaza/street vendors of all stripes to operate during the summer months (think caricature artists, street musicians, and the like) and it would also provide that essential dedicated open space that will help make downtown a more useful space in the long run by allowing, finally, a real investment in Virginia Street as a reliable transportation corridor.

With Leal in control of Fitzgerald's, he is also in control of the Fitz parking garage which sits partially above ReTRAC, currently looking like the world's biggest carport, a relic from the days when train tracks ran on the same grade as the streets.  That space should definitely be filled in with a retail development, to create a transition zone to the retail developments which will be occurring to the east.  He should also get hold of at least the Ace Motor Lodge on the Fitz block and build a garage there and add retail at the ground level on that site.  He should add more high quality retail to the rest of the Fitz redevelopment project, including finally doing something with Old Reno casino and the Masonic Building (which should remain, preserved.)  He should do all of this not losing sight of the need to build the plaza as well.

Reno: Transit Centers and North Virginia Street

Following on to Downtown Makeover's report from the 10-2-07 CAC meeting, I thought I'd take up the issue of the transit center, the Evans Ave transit mall, and the baseball park as a separate post.

First, it is heartening to see that my original suggestion - open Evans Ave as a transit-only throughway - was either accepted as a good idea or already had occurred to someone else actually related to the project as a good idea.  But the elephant in the room is the location of the new transit center in the first place.

Mayor Bob Cashell was not showing some anti-transit side of himself when he suggested running Sierra Spirit and the other RTC routes on the Center-Sierra couplet.  He was more likely thinking in terms of overall efficiency and predictability for the riders of the bus.  I'll get to the meaning of this statement in a second.

A representative from the RTC testified at a city council meeting lately that one of the primary reasons they don't route buses according to the Mayor's suggestion is the impact on trip time of the left and right turns the buses must make to conform to this proposed routing.  That's why the buses run up and down Virginia Street today.

Now, onto the issue of the transit center being located at 4th and Evans.  Would someone please explain to me how forcing the buses to route not one block either direction but two full blocks off the main route in both directions and potentially through crowds of sports spectators, is going to help the transit agency meet their trip time numbers?

No, it's not going to help, it's a mess, it has been a mess since the beginning - Evans Ave is out of the way and building a new transit center in a city evolving the direction Reno is evolving is just plain wrong anyway.

Back to the Mayor's question.  It has occurred to me on many occasions, that the real problem here is Virginia Street's propensity to close for special events all summer long and at other points during the year as well.  This makes for a lousy location for a busy transit corridor.  Not only do you have the mixed traffic of cars, buses, and semi trucks on Virginia Street causing some headaches for motorists but you have the random closure of the corridor causing some headaches for riders.

Taken in sum, we have a recipe for disaster here.  But the real culprit is the lack of available open space for the public events.  This is presumably where some plazas along ReTRAC would come in handy - the events taking place on the section of Virginia which is so often closed could be moved to the section of plaza along ReTRAC - and then Virginia could be turned in to a transit corridor at least 4 blocks long, which could provide bus bays for all the major routes running through downtown.  RTC is spared needing to construct a "terminal".  The city has the chance to get a good deal on some land for a parking/mixed use infill project in the heart of the 4th Street district.  And finally, bus service in downtown Reno begins to function as that in a more transit-oriented city.  Not only does this help the new BRT corridor but it helps every other route that runs north-south through downtown, be clearly routed along a dedicated corridor.

There's more:  The intersection of 4th and Virginia potentially becomes a major transfer point for all the E-W and N-S transit routes running through the Reno area.  Situated in the heart of the action, this intersection connects tourists and residents alike to West Reno, Downtown Reno, Downtown Sparks, and East Sparks, providing an invaluable waypoint which would be impossible to miss.

It's time to break out of the box a little bit.

Reno: Quick Reactions to CAC Meeting

Downtown Makeover reports from the Citizens Advisory Council meeting of 10/2/2007 where some details emerged about a number of topics.  This post is the quick reactions to a few items - only those on which I think commentary is needed.

1. The 10 N Virginia Plaza news is good news (developer selected, design selected) - and here's hopin'.  I understand the profit motive, but building a structure on the west side of the plaza is not an appropriate move given the way the space has shaped up.
2. Longs Drugs - this is more complicated.  I believe Longs is acting inappropriately in this case.  I also believe there is a problem with the City if the paperwork to straighten the mess out, is delayed as long as it's delayed.  What do I mean?
   1. Longs won't open a store without slots.  That is ridiculous.  Longs is essentially saying to the citizens of Reno, and Nevada in general, that they are second-class citizens as far as it is concerned.  This is fine, business is business.  But I agree with everyone who says they should open the store sooner rather than later, and get the slot machines in when the paperwork is cleared up.  Right now they are holding a critical downtown location hostage after already demanding suburban amenities on an urban site (parking out front?  a drive-through window?  what in blazes?) and now they are essentially saying to local residents "We're not really a drug store - we're a locals slot parlor.  Please make a note of it."
   2. How could the City only now be just beginning the process of straightening out this paperwork mess?  "Next few months"?  This is Nevada, folks.  It's 15 slot machines.  If someone wants to come out of the shadows and say out loud that they were planning to reopen a full-service casino in that location all along, then so be it.  Otherwise, give the holder of the unlimited gaming license a grandfathered right to open a full service casino somewhere else and let's be done with this.
      1. On a related note, I've said here before time and again that the 200 room rule for an unlimited license is the most ridiculous impediment to business ever seen in the state and I hold fast to that statement and I think this case is a textbook example of the lunacy.  Reno needs a special local exemption to that rule.  I believe it was devised by mega-property operators to shut down Downtown Reno and that it worked very effectively, but I call shenanigans on it.  Time for some reform.