The Urban Blog

Reno: Redevelopment Strategies Get a Good Hearing At City Council

This blog has been harping on the approach to redevelopment in Nevada, and in Reno in particular, for a while.  While it is encouraging to note positive developments such as Aces Ballpark, the movie theater complex, the West Street Market, and the kayak park, it’s somewhat disheartening to find that downtown, all over, businesses are barely able to stay open.  Retail is almost nonexistent downtown, and several blocks of Virginia Street, on one side or the other (thankfully not both sides) are severely blighted.  There are vacant buildings all over the place.

Recently, La Bussola boutique was evicted from its storefront.  La Bussola responded to this incident with a public statement posted on God Hates Reno, and the business’ owner, Meredith Tanzer, was lucky to have just recently opened a bar on 4th Street called Treehouse Lounge – providing a location for much of her former stock until it could be cleared out, and a business to run in the meantime.  She, however, cited problems with her landlord in the eviction and problems finding a new retail space downtown because of inflexibility on the part of property owners regarding reasonable terms of occupancy.

Also recently, Cavanaugh’s Fine Furniture announced it was closing.  In the Reno Gazette-Journal, Richard Oppio, the store’s owner, cited the inflexibility of his building’s owner, The City of Reno, in adjusting his lease rate downward to help him in a time of down sales.

So we’ve seen that the RDA is capable of good, even great work, and it’s clear they’re not slackers.  But, working to improve the overall business climate in the city seems to be something they don’t consider their mandate today, as evidenced by a recent exchange between Councilwoman Sharon Zadra and Redevelopment Director John Hester, at the 10/7/09 City Council Meeting.

Zadra asked Hester if the RDA was doing anything to help the downtown business community in terms of helping them identify what would be lucrative business opportunities for them in these down economic times.  She didn’t go into detail but with what we know from the two previous examples, let’s say a furniture store accustomed to dealing in particularly high end merchandise is on the rocks.  This is due to the recession and the fact that nearby residences aren’t filing up nearly as quickly, nor with the sort of clientele, upon which the business plan for the store originally rested.  Does the RDA as an entity function in any kind of advisory capacity?

Hester’s answer was telling.  The RDA, he said, is helping prospective businesses in the West Street Market to identify sources of funding and business assistance.

Zadra at that point had to follow up.  No, she meant the entire downtown business community existing within the bounds of the redevelopment district.

Hester replied that the RDA will sometimes help an interested party determine whether they could obtain financial assistance through the city’s Opportunity Growth Fund (OGF), and will put them in touch with UNR’s Nevada Small Business Development Center (NSBDC).

After I was done viewing the meeting, I went in search of a web page about the OGF.  Multiple search engines do not display a summary web page about this resource – they display PDF files which are minutes or agendas from prior meetings where it was discussed.  The NSBDC is focused on providing technical assistance to small businesses statewide.

Big projects – big developments like the theater complex and the ballpark represent important lynchpins for downtown in the form of attractions.  It’s possible that a model like the West Street Market provides some glimpse into a future for other blighted properties. 

But the problem today seems to be the lack of a methodical approach on the part of the RDA to organizing a groundswell of entrepreneurship to help fill the vacant real estate downtown.  RDA could well act as a broker – helping property owners access funds to assist with beautification and tenant improvements, while helping entrepreneurs access funding and other resources. 

In the case of Cavanaugh’s, a furniture store located in a city owned parking garage, if the business plan had been altered in line with Zadra’s question, the store itself might have been able to function as a draw to downtown pulling customers from around the city looking for a different product.  Yes, it takes something on the part of the business owner to identify that market and that opportunity or at least go looking for it and help finding it.  But, to use an old advertising slogan, you could have heard a pin drop at news of La Bussola’s closing, and Cavanaugh’s closing, if you were on the line waiting for the city, or the RDA, to say or do something to help either.

There are other unanswered questions.  What exactly is Downtown Reno envisioned as?  Is it an evening entertainment district?  Bars and restaurants don’t seem to be having trouble.  Is all that to be encouraged at the expense of any kind of decent daytime street life or retail activity?  Is the new “ballpark retail” currently under construction some sort of panacea?  Will the myriad of business associations downtown merge or otherwise give way to a single downtown association capable of providing what the RDA will not, or cannot?

That the discussion is happening in council meetings is a good sign.  The future success of downtown Reno depends on the discussion producing some positive results.

Seattle: State Legislature Transit Mess

Just when Puget Sound area residents thought they had spoken once and for all about how highly they prioritize getting a regional light rail network built, along comes the state Legislature in a year of down revenues to use procedural tricks to potentially delay a recently-approved expansion for up to 4 years over a fraction of its funding.

This is going to be an exciting year for Seattle, when Link Light Rail opens up from downtown to the airport by the end of the year.  The initial segment, from downtown to just near the airport, will open up in July.  Light rail service is a welcome addition to the Seattle area.

Link Light Rail Initial Segment Map.  University Link to open 2016

In November, voters approved a second and third line – one linking the University of Washington with Northgate Mall to the north, and one linking downtown to Bellevue and Redmond across Lake Washington on the I-90 bridge.

The I-90 bridge crosses affluent Mercer Island, which has always been a point of contention for transportation projects linking Seattle and the Eastside.  I-90 includes “Express Lanes” – dedicated lanes in the middle of the freeway which are reversed to assist with the heaviest traffic direction in the morning and evening commutes by handling buses and carpools.  Or, at least the morning and evening commutes ca. so long ago nobody remembers.  One perk Islanders get, however, is that they get to use the express lanes even if they’re not a carpool.  It’s the price the rest of us paid I guess, for being able to cross the northern tip of their fair hamlet.

The Express Lanes are the key to the light rail project.  Remove the cars from those lanes, and run trains on them instead and all of a sudden you have just cost effectively done a large chunk of the work required to get light rail linking the two halves of the region’s economic engine.

The clincher here is that in order to turn the Express Lanes over to trains, the HOV capacity has to be moved to the main roadway.  Most of that project is done.  All that’s missing is $24 million in funding the state agreed to dedicate to the project, which Sound Transit is also contributing to.  Several key lawmakers in the state Leg are currently working to thwart that $24 million in funding – and calling for new studies – and bending over backward to find any tortured logic they can that will justify stalling this project.

The money, of course, is being diverted to more highway projects around the state.

It seems like decades following Robert Moses’ exit from road building and transit starving for the purposes of expanding the road network, transit is still quite vulnerable to being held hostage by its opponents – even in the face of overwhelming voter support.

This must stop.  Seattle Transit Blog has called for citizens to write their legislators and I for one am joining the chorus.  Here are some key email addresses (lifted right from STB’s pages):

Rep. Judy Clibborn - Chair of House Transportation Committee: [email protected]

Rep. Marko Liias - Vice Chair of House Transportation Committee: [email protected]

Rep. Frank Chopp - Speaker of the House: [email protected]

Senator Mary Haugen - Chair of Senate Transportation Committee: [email protected]

Senator Chris Marr - Vice Chair of Senate Transportation Committee: [email protected]

Senator Fred Jarrett - Member of Senate Transportation Committee: [email protected]

More great info on this, of course, can be found at Seattle Transit Blog, and once in a while SLOG even writes about it. 

The Urban Blog On Transportation Measures

It’s not every day a person sees their name in the newspaper, but I saw mine in the paper today.  It’s ok, it’s for a good reason.  I wasn’t arrested.

I was quoted in the Reno News & Review this week in a piece regarding some Washoe County transportation ballot measures.  I’ve written a fair bit about those subjects here, so it was nice to be contacted by the story’s author.  After dipping my toe into the water of talking about current affairs vis-a-vis the ballot box by making a presidential endorsement, here’s a roundup of the transportation-related ballot measures affecting both Reno and Seattle.

Reno

WC-2 Sales Tax Increase for Public Transit

Yes

As I said in the RNR, everyone could end up on the bus at some point.  Cars are great, I like having one, but cars break, and people still have to get to work.  People still have lives to live with independence.  A good bus system goes a long way toward keeping everything moving.

RTC Ride isn’t a perfect bus service.  In fact, if this blog were going to the ballot with a transit measure, we’d be pretty specific about the improvements in service that would be made, and we’d ask for all the money we’d need.  Our bus service would feature 15-minute headways on 80% of the routes during 12 hours of the day and no less than 30-minute headways on all routes in the system.  Express buses would run all day, every day, between Reno, Sparks, Fernley, Spanish Springs, North Valleys via TRIC, and Carson City.

Turns out they’re not giving buses away, and bus drivers need food and shelter.  So this would cost a pretty penny.

Alas, The Urban Blog’s new bus system isn’t on the ballot this year in Washoe County, and with service cuts looming in the wake of some other service cuts, it does make sense to go ahead and raise the sales tax an eight of a percent bringing the total sales tax rate to 7.5%.

WC-5 Gas Tax Indexing Advisory Question

Yes

If The Urban Blog were running the show, gas tax would be used primarily for the operation of public highway facilities and excise tax would be the way public highway facilities were paid for.  That way, every time you registered your car, you could see line items to tell you about the bonds you’re paying off, and you could see their expiration date.  Suddenly major public facilities such as a road between Sparks and South Meadows or a Spanish Springs Freeway or a US-50 East Freeway, would now have an established, dedicated funding mechanism.

The Urban Blog is not running the show, but in our ideal system we figure we’d probably want our operational budget to account for inflation.  This measure merely lets the RTC know if they should go to the Legislature to ask for the gas tax to be indexed to inflation.  So even though it pains us to say it, this measure should pass.

Seattle

Initiative 985 Traffic Signal Timing & Other Assorted Related Items

No

The bane of the existences of many Washington citizens is a guy by the name of Tim Eyman.  He’s forever getting stuff put on the ballot that sounds great, would break three things to fix one, and usually gets invalidated by the court after it passes.  This measure is one of his.  It would siphon funds off from every transportation budget in the state to fund timing every traffic signal in the state, and would open the HOV lanes to general traffic considerably more than they are today.

The Seattle area is working on finally getting light rail service to its major destinations and for a while now has had great express bus service between major destinations and that express bus service depends largely on what I call the “bus freeway”, which provides all kinds of dedicated ramps and lanes for buses, carpools, and vanpools.  The HOV network should remain closed to general traffic most hours of the day.  Traffic in Seattle is wretched, and public transit ought to be on time.

Timing the traffic lights in the state is a great idea.  We’d support a measure that provides a dedicated funding source that doesn’t impact other budgets.  This is not that measure.  This measure is a turkey and needs to be voted down.

Sound Transit Proposition 1

HELL YEAH!

Sound Transit is the Seattle-area regional transit authority which operates the aforementioned express bus system, and is building the aforementioned light rail system, and also operates the regional commuter rail system.

In 2009 the first trains from downtown to the airport will begin operating, and that’ll be a glorious day.  Downtown Seattle has for many years had a tunnel running underneath it carrying buses.  When the tunnel was originally built, tracks were installed to carry the light rail trains they were going to purchase any day.  Turned out the tracks were not installed properly and the tunnel had to be closed for two years while they installed the track for THESE trains.  Once the initial segment to the airport is complete, another segment will begin construction linking downtown to the University District.

This measure would authorize the expansion of the system further, across Lake Washington to the technology and business havens of Bellevue and Redmond, and would also push transit further north from the University and south from the airport.  It would add to the commuter rail and express bus services.  In short, it would authorize the expansion of the regional public transit service to a point where its usefulness would be greatly improved.

And that’s why we say “HELL YEAH!” to this one.  The population of the tri-county area served by Sound Transit is about 3 million.  This is long overdue.

It's Politics. On The Urban Blog.

I can't go long without having thoughts about politics, so it's time to say something about politics.

I want to let everybody know that I'm supporting the Obama-Biden ticket in the upcoming Presidential election.  I was kind of wondering why my output has been consistently low on this blog for awhile now, and there are a ton of reasons, but probably the one I neglected to notice was my addiction to presidential election politics and my apprehension to writing about it here.

Yes, folks, I am the kind of person who starts watching Road to the White House as soon as they start airing it in advance of the upcoming election season.  I pay good close attention.  I'm more of a Democrat, but I try to consume a fair amount of both sides' content.  I want to make sure that I feel the way I feel before I allow myself to actually feel it.

Last year when I was in Reno visiting the folks, Barack Obama showed up to town and had a really nice event in Wingfield Park.  He gave a jim-dandy speech and complimented the city and talked about civil rights and his health care plan and foreign affairs and his story a little bit.  It was a short speech, but it was densely packed and it was coming out from a clarity of belief and purpose that was evident.

Organizers gather for orientation at Barack Obama's appearance in Reno, NV on 05/30/07

The naysayers of Obama often say that they think he is long on platitudes but short on details, but every time I hear him speak, I hear words that actually represent what actions would be taken to effect the kinds of changes he's talking about.  He makes a good case for not being a jerk and for trying to lead with issues and not to insult your opponent but to insult their policy positions.

You may wish to go back to the point about the details that I have heard that not everybody heard.  Well, after the jump... a few.