The Urban Blog

The Myth of the Shrinking Pie

There is an argument to be found in some internet comments about the gaming market in Reno right now which goes like this:  Now is not a good time to build or open new  hotels and/or casinos.  The reason is that they steal business from existing properties.  They make a smaller and shrinking pie divided into smaller pieces percentagewise for everyone.

It’s logical unless you consider something:  the effect of competition.  The way to grow the size of the pie is to invest.  An argument could be made that a more appropriate pie to look at is the pie representing in the total size of investment going in to Reno right now.

One reason why this is a hard argument to make is because there’s another truism in Reno: “gaming is not the future for Reno.”  What’s funny is that truism is usually followed up by another one:  “we need to attract investment in new industries.”

A good environment for new investment is a good environment for investment – period.  It’s an environment where things don’t sit and rot.  Imagine that you are the CEO of a company looking to open operations in Reno or an entrepreneur looking to start a new, cutting-edge business there.  A good environment for business is a place anybody would be proud to take a business visitor.  How do you feel about taking your visitor downtown?

There are plenty of properties right along Virginia Street and within a two-block radius that need some investment.  Reno needs to be able to compete not just as a visitor destination for those tourists who are still coming (a market that should still be nurtured) but also for those visitors who are in town with the intent to conduct any legitimate and desirable business.  The time for that investment is now.

Reno’s Broke

A few months back, this blog groused after Reno put itself on the hook for more subsidies to the owner of the Reno Aces baseball team, to help get the second phase of the ballpark district project built:

One thing that’s been missing all along – a methodical, programmatic approach, is just one thing.  Another thing is the lack of foresight with the allocation of funding resources to projects.  Projects sit in the imagination of some plan or official for 25 years or more, and it’s frequently an emergency, or some stroke of luck which allows them to proceed. […] This is one reason to celebrate that Reno is now committed to truly subsidizing the baseball project, the second phase of which is due to begin construction, the developers tell us, any day now.

I still agree with my line of reason there, as draconian as it sounds.  (This is not a particularly sunny subject, it turns out.)  Which makes all the more dispiriting the news from the RGJ yesterday that Reno is broke and won’t be able to make its million dollar payment to the owners of the Reno Aces due to declining property values downtown.  (Reno Comes Up Short In Payments To Reno Aces Owners, Susan Voyles, January 25, 2010)

When this project has hit on hard times before, this blog has often suggested renegotiating in good faith with the baseball developers.  The only renegotiations which have occurred have been the kind of renegotiations that result in more money out of the public coffers for the baseball owners, thus far.  Which makes this quote from the article galling:

“We cannot renegotiate,” Jerry Katzoff, a partner in the SK Baseball and Nevada Lands LLC companies that bought the baseball team and built the stadium, said of the property tax share, because that was the basis for a bank loan for the project.

According to another RGJ article, (3 Things That Will Change Reno Entertainment in 2010, Jason Kellner, January  22, 2010), the Aces sold 466,000 tickets last year in the inaugural season.  Let’s do the math:  $1 million / 466,000 = $2.15.  Even if attendance were off by over a quarter this year, the average price per ticket to make the payment would be $3.  But let’s go back to the original quoted RGJ article:  the city does have $290,000 toward its commitment.  $710,000 divided by 400,000 = $1.78.

For a price increase of about 2 bucks per ticket, the ballpark developers can pay the bank, the city can keep its team, and everyone, residents and visitors alike, can enjoy the new attractions currently under construction at the ballpark.  Problem solved.

Cautionary note to Carson City:  former Reno Redevelopment Director Mark Lewis, architect of most of this deal, is the lead consultant on the Nugget Foundation plan to revitalize downtown Carson City to the tune of a public contribution of $40,000,000 dollars, out of – wait for it – that city’s declining tax revenues.  The CC Board of Supervisors would be well advised to take a step back and look north 30 miles and see what is happening with deals like this.

Seattle’s Pioneer Square Is A Mess

The growth in Seattle’s downtown areas over the past few years, even during the worst of the financial crisis, has been remarkable. Two large cities, Seattle and Bellevue, are both forests of cranes and have been for years. 

Seattle’s South Lake Union neighborhood, which was created in an early 20th century hill-flattening, has been given over from a mix of low-slung warehouses and old residences to apartments, condominiums, and corporate headquarters.  As Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood prepares for the coming of underground light rail, increased height limits on main street Broadway Ave look to create a new urban canyon.

And yet there is one neighborhood in Seattle that simply can’t catch a break.  Pioneer Square, the original Seattle neighborhood, has been well preserved over the years but largely stagnant. 

Pioneer Square features a mix of boutiques and art galleries, a subway stop, and plenty of restaurants.  At night it is home to a considerable number of nightclubs catering almost exclusively to people from outside the neighborhood – in part because not a lot of people live in Pioneer Square.  This lack of regular residents and basic services for the residents who do live in the neighborhood creates a vacuum of the kind of workaday street life that makes a good urban neighborhood feel safe and vibrant.

One of the most famous bookstores on the west coast today, Pioneer Square’s Elliott Bay Book Company, will be moving to Capitol Hill in spring of 2010.  This, more than anything else, represents the decline of the neighborhood.  Such a close, well-connected neighborhood should not be suffering as Pioneer Square does.  Physically, Pioneer Square is in fine shape and is home to many well-maintained, beautiful buildings.

Problems frequently cited with the neighborhood center around a large homeless presence, open drug dealing, rambunctious behavior by partiers, and not enough parking.

Some more law and order certainly would help, but Pioneer Square is an old neighborhood.  It has a high concentration of homeless services.  It is adjacent to sports stadiums, and features a lot bars and nightclubs.  It already possesses a bawdy reputation going back to the turn of the century.  In short, perception can be a blessing as well as a curse.  With more of its own residents, and more visitors from in-city, Pioneer Square would be able to live beyond its reputation.

Which brings us to the main point – Pioneer Square is inconveniently located.  It is at the bottom of a hill, in a part of town without plentiful parking.  While it has a subway stop, for years before the light rail opened the tunnel closed at 7 pm and wasn’t even open on Sundays.  It would be interesting to see if more people have visited from South Seattle neighborhoods conveniently located to light rail since the line opened.  When access opens to Capitol Hill and the U-District in 2016, Pioneer Square may hit a sweet spot of being very convenient both to live and to visit for people who don’t want or need a car.

What should happen between now and then?  Probably the best thing that could happen, is for people in Seattle who care about the neighborhood to find ways to visit and patronize the businesses in daytime and early evening hours.  These are the hours when a lack of legitimate users will kill any hope a neighborhood has of feeling “normal”.  The city should get serious about putting more cops on the street with a focus on after dark hours.

Pioneer Square may also want to try non-sports related special events on summer days and evenings when no sporting events are scheduled.  Occidental Ave is a natural to be given over to street fairs, and some side streets could be narrowed, with wider sidewalks encouraging cafes and restaurants with outdoor seating.

Finding ways to bring Seattleites in regularly is what it will take to build the kind of critical mass that will keep Pioneer Square viable.  Seattle’s founding neighborhood deserves no less.

In Reno, a Streetcar, No Wait, Light Rail? Plan is Not a Transit Plan

In Reno, news has been out for a while now about a plan to convert the soon to be implemented Virginia Street BRT (or bus rapid transit for you non wonks) service to streetcar, and eventually a light rail system.  This blog has remained silent on the subject thus far because the whole effort is part great idea, part hastily conceived notion.  The project’s costs would come in the form of a property tax increase, which doesn’t feel too promising to pass at the ballot box, which it would be required to do.

I am personally very interested in the idea of establishing rail transit in the Reno area, and I pay property taxes in Reno.  I would vote to raise my own taxes to pay for transit related improvements.  However, one of the things about this current proposal that is worrisome is that it is so ill defined, it could end up a flash in the pan and any future effort would be tainted by it.

So it is with that background that I have been looking at this thing, and when I look at things, I tend to try to find areas where they can be improved.  Here’s what the Reno plan is missing.

One thing that is missing is a long-range plan.  RTC needs to produce maps and conceptual renderings of not just what the vehicles or station facilities would look like but rather what areas are being served over the long term.  The plan to lay track and run streetcars and eventually, if voters will approve it, light rail, is shortsighted thinking.

Washoe RTC’s Proposed Primary Transit Network [Source]

Any plan put before voters needs to show how that plan has positive long-term implications for the regional transit network.  The different types of transit vehicles and their infrastructure have different uses in the regional and local contexts.

For example, a city-level streetcar network should be conceived as joining close-in neighborhoods to downtowns and other regional centers.  A regional light rail system connects farther flung destinations along greater distances.  In this model, proposed light rail would have a focus on connecting the far south end of the corridor, at Mt Rose Highway, with the north end of the corridor, in Stead.  (Instead of what?  You ask.  Hooray for you!  You’re still reading.)

 
A light rail corridor

It might be said about this light rail corridor, in the planning meetings where nearby citizens show up and say what they think, that it should be largely grade-separated, and that trains should come no less frequently than every 15 minutes.

Streetcars, on the other hand, would be used to knit together the urban fabric.

   
A streetcar network

Such a streetcar network could serve as the impetus for streetscape redesign projects, and naturally would feed into the idea of making the city more connected to downtown and making parts of the city feel more connected to one another.  The residents might say that they want streetcars to run at no greater than 20 minute intervals most of the day, on most days.

Politically, a transit plan composed of such elements would benefit more than 144,000 residents in 4 area ZIP codes.  That is over half the residents of Reno.  A plan that shows them where their money is being spent and how it benefits them will have a much better chance at the ballot box.

Reno-Tahoe: Far From Expected

I’m a little ashamed of myself for not writing about Reno-Tahoe’s new campaign tagline (“Far From Expected”) yet – but I’ve been holding back, trying to fully understand what it’s all about  - and I think I’ve got it all figured out.

Comps of the new Reno-Tahoe USA “Far From Expected” Campaign Creative

It’s good news, folks.  Good news.

Let’s just make one thing clear up front:  at first, I didn’t like it.  I wrote a spirited defense before of “A Little West of Center” which I thought was a great tagline in general – a nice association between the brand and a concept.

However, it’s become clear after reading up as much as possible on this subject that the new slogan makes a lot of sense.  It’s important to note:  this slogan is a slogan that will go with a batch of commercials and flyers, and is not the slogan that will always get tagged on to the name of the destination, Reno-Tahoe.  The new thing that is always tagged on to Reno-Tahoe is USA, which actually works pretty well.

Now that I know that this slogan isn’t permanent, I’m satisfied.  It shouldn’t have to live up to being forever associated with the whole regional brand.  That is one of the tragic errors of “America’s Adventure Place”.

In the initial comps that have been shared, there’s a hidden gem, right there at the bottom:

Laughter is contagious, and fun always finds a way.  More often than not, it finds its way here.

That’s a pretty good bit of emotional writing that gives us the building blocks for another tagline for another campaign:  “Fun Always Finds Its Way Here”.

Anyway the new brand looks good.  If the commercials and other creative can paint the right kind of picture this new marketing effort could mean some growth in the Reno tourist market.  Such growth is long overdue.

Last Call… In reno?

Not as in, Reno’s done for but… downtown Reno may be getting a closing time.

City Council has asked for one prominent downtown bar, Second Street Bar (which is slated to become Gringo’s following an expansion in progress… more on that later), to close at 4 am and they have agreed to it, in exchange for getting a sidewalk abandonment to install a wheelchair ramp.

This blog has brought up the topic of closing time in Reno before – it’s a scary concept as a Native Nevadan, something vaguely unsettling about bars closing, however… it’s a good idea.

Downtown Reno nightlife can occasionally be quite intimidating and even can turn violent.  A commenter on Facebook mentions seeing a glass smashed in someone’s face.  This author has witnessed head butting.

Closing all the bars at once, or just arbitrarily cutting people off at a certain time, isn’t necessarily a requirement in having good civil order.  Closing all the bars at once might create a worse situation as the rush to last call creates binge drinking, followed by a drunken mob on the sidewalks outside the bars and then a mess of cars driven by drunks as the commuter partiers return from whence they came. 

Bars should take a good look at what being in business does for them, and the community, and then decide when to close.  A 4 am closing time is a pretty reasonable cutoff even in an entertainment district.  A city need not market itself as a 24 hour party zone, after all.  Some bars downtown are already well aware of this, and already close.

A series of staggered closings and “wind-downs” might be the best policy.  Serious debauchery is called to be good and done with by 2.  This might mean no more loud music, no more cocktail service, and any place that wants to stay open needs to have food onsite.  All drinking would cease by sometime in the 4 O’clock hour.  Police presence between 11 pm and 5 am would be stepped up.

It’s important to remember that the cause of this discussion even happening, is public nuisance.  Thus the creation of a more safe, sane and civil environment is the desired outcome – not a set of arbitrary regulations that merely push undesirable behavior elsewhere while leaving behind a ghost town.  Creating an attitude of civility, respect and some restraint, while still keeping the festivities going on late would be a winning proposition for Reno.

By the way, the owner of Gringo’s is a genius for picking the name.  Someone named Tom Cladianos might not naturally be expected to be doing a Mexican restaurant.  We don’t really know what will emerge in that location.  But for anyone looking at the name as a grammatical faux pas writ large, there should be a section in the menu that at least makes clear:  the owner of Gringo’s is a gringo.  It’s grammatically correct.

More on Washoe RTC Cuts

RGJ today has more on the service cuts RTC is considering. 

From RTC’s web page about the cuts:

• Reduce peak hour frequency:
  Weekdays:  RT 1, 13, 16
  Saturday:  RT 1, 5, 13
• Reduce midday frequency:
  Weekdays:  RT 1, 6, 9, 13, 16
  Saturday:  RT 1, 5, 11, 15, 21
• Drop midday service:
  Weekdays:  RT 2s, 3CC, 57
  Saturday:  RT 25, 57
  Sunday:  RT 4, 13, 57
• Discontinue service:
  Weekdays:  RT 14A, 19
  Saturday:  RT 2s, 3CC, 14A, 19
  Sunday:  RT 2s
• Additional reductions:
  RT 3CC – drop last trip, weekdays
  RT 5 – drop last trip, Saturday
  RT 18 – drop 1 peak trip, cut evening, but run late night, weekdays
• RTC ACCESS possible service reduction and fee increases
• Would more than double the RTC ACCESS fare from $1.75 to $4.00

There will be a public hearing on Thursday, February 12 at RTC Administrative Offices, at 2050 Villanova Drive (under the US 395 Freeway next to Wooster High) at no earlier than 9:05 am (whatever that means.)

For what it’s worth, RTC’s new 4th Street Station project is a $37Mil project.  There is clearly some work they can do around efficiency of service – definitely eliminate the useless #19 for example.  But the RTC is looking at a funding shortfall of $6.7Mil, at the same time they are about to undertake a $37Mil capital project.  They should delay 4th Street Station until sales tax revenues begin to improve, and borrow from 4th Street Station funds to minimize the service cuts.

V&T Railroad May Run This Summer

Via Around Carson via Nevada Appeal, comes a report that the V&T Railroad Commission may ask the V&T Railroad Company in Virginia City to operate a train from Virginia City to Mound House beginning this summer.

The story has a bit of history.  Originally the V&T Commission had selected a now defunct out of state operator to run the completed project.  But the V&T project funding has stalled out a bit.  The track through to Mound House is very likely to be ready for trains this summer, and a new bridge over Highway 50 is well along.

Meanwhile, Tom Gray has operated a train from Virginia City to Silver City for quite a while now.  It’s possibly not a terrific business but he has certainly been doing it for awhile.  He has a diesel train for when his steam engine is in the shop, and has managed to run every year since he opened.  The Commission apparently is investigating taking over the V&T Company to run the train.  The Commission would handle maintenance costs and take 5% of ticket revenues under the proposed agreement.

There is concern on the part of some that the V&T Company doesn’t have the money or people to run the 11 mile run.  It currently runs 2.5 miles.

The agreement should use part of V&T Commission’s money to invest in V&T Company to get it capable of operating the train to Mound House this season.  A large parking lot should be built in Mound House.  Mound House can start thinking about the construction of a western themed village adjacent to the rail depot.  There are already antique shops, a candy store, and bars in Mound House, not to mention the brothels.  A little work to create a pedestrian mall, maybe even with a dirt road and boardwalks, would be a good investment.

VC has a treacherous (Geiger Grade) or overly long (through Mound House) drive to get up there for tourists visiting Reno.  And parking is tight during the busy season.  Silver City, the current endpoint of the V&T, doesn’t have much going on.  So it only makes sense that the V&T could actually take up the job of operating transportation to get people up the hill and into town from their cars, and back down the hill to their cars.  Mound House’s little Old West mall would be something to do while folks wait for the train.

If the Commission wants to look at taking over the operations of the V&T Company eventually anyway, it will need to invest at some point to expand the operations suitably.  Since the funding is stalled for the project, it makes sense to get the project operating now.  It is well and good to plan on running the train the eventual proposed distance of 18 miles to Carson City.  Getting the 11 mile route to Mound House operating this season will allow the Commission and Company to get some experience running a longer route down the hill, raise much needed revenue, and help develop a model for operating in the future.

Reno New Year’s Eve Fireworks Canceled

Via RGJ today, Downtown Reno’s New Year’s Eve fireworks display has been canceled this year.  The display is funded by a combination of city funds and money from the downtown casinos.  With tax revenues declining in Reno, the city decided not to spend its part of the $20 – 30K, and according to Glenn Carano of Silver Legacy, “[…] the quality is not what we would want.”

This blog has spoken before about the room for growth in tourism to Reno and the need to have solid special events on holidays in non-summer months.  If the hotels are booked solid for NYE in Reno as some of the RGJ’s commenters suggest, then cutting the fireworks seems like a strange way to reward those who decided to celebrate their NYE in Reno.  The show should go on, and those in a position to do something about the level of quality of the fireworks show should plan ahead to make next year’s display something worth writing home about.

Reno: Spring Mountain Vote Tonight

Via RGJ this morning, the Reno City Council is slated to vote on the issue of approving the zoning required for the developers of Spring Mountain to move forward with their plan to add 25,000+ new residents 20 miles from North McCarran Blvd, in a non-contiguous annexed area that geographically challenged Reno is responsible for due to the regional plan, regardless of annexation status or approved development.

Here at The Urban Blog, despite our generally optimistic viewpoint, we can’t stave off the visions in our head of what this development will eventually look like. 

We are quite certain that this project will be a mess of CC&R enforced, bland, characterless cookie-cutter housing lining cul-de-sacs, its “Sidewalk Activity Zones” more resembling Summerlin Town Centre than any actual downtown.  We envision residents whizzing by on golf carts inside their neighborhood to go to the grocery store in the strip mall for milk, because we’re pretty sure there will be no corner stores, and we envision these same folks placing themselves one-at-a-time into their SUVs to travel 60 and more miles each way to work.

Our primary concerns are actually traffic in and out of the development, and sustainable availability of water resources.  For the developers’ part, their plans refer to specific water resources, and vigilantly address the traffic concern with a unique formula which would stop development of residential if commercial/industrial development does not also keep pace.  This stuff all looks and sounds great.  It’s just that the history of greenfield development is littered with such promises.

To help you make up your own mind, here are some links to elements of the plan from the developer’s own website:

Map packet detailing the three villages, open space corridors, and wildlife corridors - 3.8 MB PDF File

Public Services Plan covering schools, roads, water, police and fire – small PDF

Traffic Reduction and Mitigation Program – an admittedly innovative approach to keeping the traffic impact low – small PDF

We’ve been unable to find the Spring Mountain PUD Handbook referenced in the minutes in the City Council meeting staff report on this item, which will be heard at 6 PM today at Reno City Hall, 1 E. First Street.