Schieve Says That Reno Is Booming. So Why Doesn’t It Feel Like It?
Mayor Hillary Schieve tells the story of a city transformed in her exit interview with Sam Shad, but is Life in Reno Better for the Residents?
Mayor Hillary Schieve is nearing the end of 14 years in Reno city government, first as a councilwoman and then, since 2014, as mayor.
Schieve recently sat down with Sam Shad on Nevada Newsmakers for what was billed as an exit interview.
“Reno is booming, and you’re the mayor, and you get to take credit for that,” Shad told Schieve.
The interview was less an examination of Schieve’s record and more of a friendly retrospective. Shad and Schieve reminisced about former Mayor Bob Cashell, talked about embracing Burning Man and playing off of Reno 911, praised the University of Nevada, discussed major development projects and celebrated record tourism.
Schieve says Reno has undergone a remarkable transformation, but when I travel around the city, I struggle to reconcile the Reno described in that interview with the Reno I experience every day.
A Boom in What? I’m not seeing it.
Schieve talked repeatedly about changing Reno’s image. She recalled that Reno was struggling when she entered office. The city had suffered badly during the 2008 recession. Its traditional casino economy had declined. Reno didn’t have a particularly good national reputation. Schieve wanted to change that.
She says that she embraced Burning Man, arts and culture, Reno 911 as a source of humor, the Truckee River, the university, and economic development. She became active with the U.S. Conference of Mayors. She wanted outsiders to stop thinking of Reno as a declining casino town.
Somewhere along the way, changing Reno’s perception seems to have become confused with changing the experience of living in Reno.
Those aren’t the same thing. You can attract investment. You can increase hotel revenue. You can bring more passengers through the airport. You can announce billion-dollar developments.
And you can still have a city where the quality of everyday life hasn’t noticeably improved for the people who already live here.
What the Exit of Developer Ahlquist Means for the Harrah’s Revival Project
Look at Downtown; it’s a mess.
Tourism doesn’t improve life for residents. If Reno has undergone a great urban renaissance, downtown should be the easiest place to see it. Harrah’s closed in 2020. Six years later, that property remains a reminder of what downtown Reno lost.
Along with Harrah’s went Sammy’s Showroom and another piece of the entertainment culture that once gave people a reason to visit. Walk around downtown, and you see empty storefronts, struggling businesses, and constant turnover.
And then there is the human misery visible on the streets. People experiencing homelessness and severe behavioral-health or substance-abuse problems. I’ve seen people yelling at nobody, stumbling down sidewalks and collapsing on the ground.
That isn’t an abstract economic statistic. It is part of the lived experience of downtown Reno. Yet Schieve described a very different downtown during her interview.
She talked about the Truckee River, new bridges, investment in the waterways, and expansion of the Riverwalk. “It’s beautiful and walkable,” she said, while acknowledging that Reno still has work to do.
There are certainly beautiful parts of the Truckee River corridor. I’ve walked them. But calling the river beautiful doesn’t answer whether residents feel comfortable using it, whether public disorder is under control, or whether downtown has become the functioning urban center Reno has promised for years.
The $2 Billion Mirage: Has Jeff Jacobs’ Downtown Reno Vision Stalled?
The Neon Line District
Then there is west downtown and the so-called Neon Line District. For almost 10 years we have heard about redevelopment along West Fourth Street. Jacobs Entertainment acquired properties, demolished old motels, and promoted the Neon Line District as part of a transformation of western downtown Reno.
When they discussed the J Resort and other developments, Shad called what was happening “amazing.” “It’s success,” he said.
From where I sit, the Neon Line isn’t evidence that Reno has successfully rebuilt its urban area. It shows how enormous the gap can be between a development vision and what residents actually experience.
Announcing future development is easy to celebrate. What ultimately matters is what gets built. Where are the businesses, housing, restaurants, entertainment, pedestrian activity, and people who want to spend time there?
Where Are the Tech Jobs?
For years, Northern Nevada’s economic-development story has included technology. Tesla came. Switch came. Google came. Apple came. Data centers came.
But being involved in technology doesn’t mean every job it creates is a high-paying technology job. Drive through the industrial areas surrounding Reno and Sparks, and another part of our economic transformation becomes obvious.
Warehouses. Lots of warehouses. Jobs lifting boxes all day long.
It’s not a transformation into a high-wage technology economy with software engineers, scientists, researchers, and other high-skilled technology workers.
Envisioning West Reno’s Transformation - Not the Neon Line
Growth Has Costs
Another side of Reno’s growth received remarkably little attention in Schieve’s exit interview. More people and more development mean more cars.
Housing became dramatically more expensive. Infrastructure has struggled to keep pace with development in portions of the region.
Residents experience congestion and high costs every day. This is why simply pointing to growth doesn’t answer the quality-of-life question.
Economic development is supposed to be a means to an end. The objective should be to make Reno better. Residents can ask what they received from the boom.
The Interview Shad Didn’t Conduct
This is where I found the Nevada Newsmakers interview especially lacking. It was an opportunity to seriously examine 14 years of Reno government.
An exit interview should ask difficult questions. Many could have been asked.
What didn’t work? What would Schieve do differently?
Why hasn’t downtown become the vibrant urban center Reno has talked about creating for decades?
Why do so many downtown storefronts remain vacant or experience constant turnover?
What happened to the promise of the West Reno Redevelopment?
What has Reno’s strategy done to improve wages and job quality for residents?
Why hasn’t infrastructure kept pace with growth?
Why hasn’t traffic improved?
Has housing become more affordable? Do residents feel safer downtown and along the river?
What measurable quality-of-life improvements can a Reno resident point to?
The Wild and Crazy Legacy of Reno Mayor Hillary Schieve
There Are Two Renos
There is growth, and there is progress in quality of life. Growth measures how much bigger an economy or city becomes. Progress asks whether people’s lives became better because of growth.
We should be asking Hillary Schieve not whether Reno grew during her tenure. Not whether Reno attracted investment. Not whether tourism generated record revenues.
The more important question is:
After all that growth, development, and investment, is Reno a better place for the people who live here?
Do you have a story to tell? Write to me at: mike@mikesrenoreport.com
Support Reno independent journalism. Click to donate: Mike’s Reno Report.