February 2023

MARCH - MAY 2023

ISAAC MIZRAHI

and His Six Piece Band

7:30 pm at Eldorado Showroom

Tickets at artown.org

MOMIX Alice

May 9, 2023 at Pioneer Center

Tickets at artown.org

AT THE ILLUSIONIST'S TABLE with SCOTT SILVEN

artown.org

LETTERS EDITOR'S NOTE

When hardship hits neighbors, community members respond

Stories about people who need help, and those who step up to aid them, are a staple of local journalism.

This issue of the RN&R contains both kinds of stories; our cover piece about 23 displaced renters combines the themes. From the Do Drop In Center in Carson City to Reno’s Black Wall Street, we celebrate the caring people who help neighbors who need assistance, often through no fault of their own.

But it’s not enough to merely describe suffering and praise the people and agencies who try to alleviate the pain. Our story about the displaced tenants from the Carson Pines Apartments, for example, also underlines the need for more accountability for landlords. And it exemplifies the necessity to create better community resources so that local governments aren’t caught flat-footed when citizens are unexpectedly thrust into dire circumstances.

Our brief about a boy who is facing a second open-heart surgery that threatens to bankrupt his family is a plea for assistance—but it also is a symptom of our profit-driven health care system, which is subject to the whims of middle-man insurance companies.

Local journalism brings national issues down to the street level. Some stories evoke empathy and generate contributions. In the larger context, they inform readers of what’s happening around them, and what ought to change.

It’s our job to put our community under a spotlight, to show folks what’s happening behind the curtain and how things can be made better. That’s what we’ll lose if local news organizations go extinct.

I’m a dinosaur from the Printazoic Era, but I’m excited that many young journalists I know share my view of the profession. Whether there will still be local publications where they can tell those stories in the coming years is another matter. That’s up to the community as well.

—FRANK X. MULLEN frankm@renonr.com

Can downtown Reno be revived?

So retailers, restaurants and services are waiting for all these new apartments to fill in before making the decision to risk their business downtown (RN&R, January 2023)? It seems the Downtown Reno Partnership convinced itself that’s the case. The problem isn’t just foot traffic; it’s the “don’t go outside” mantra of gaming that sets the tone. Small business can do much better elsewhere without that challenge surrounding them.

Larry DeVincenzi Reno

I remember the Reno of the 1950s and ’60s, and I loved the city then, so vibrant and alive. When they tore down the Mapes, I knew it was the beginning of the end, and I don’t think Reno will ever get its groove back.

Brad Nelson Reno

Silver State on the silver screen

Some additions to your Northern Nevada films listing (RN&R, January 2023): Tom Selleck in An Innocent Man, shot at the old

Nevada State Prison in Carson City; The Wizard (a Nintendo Movie) with Fred Savage in Minden; and Misery, with James Caan and Kathy Bates in Genoa. Nice article, RN&R. Thank you.

John Procaccini Carson City

I enjoyed the article on essential Reno movies and feel that one essential Reno film was missing from the recommendations: Hard Eight by Paul Thomas Anderson, a brief Reno resident.

Many sources will claim Anderson disowns this film, because he did not get a final cut, but it is excellent nonetheless. Not only does Hard Eight capture a more-grimy downtown Reno of the past, full of outcasts and lost souls, but Anderson truly went on to become one of the nation’s greatest film directors.

The film features strong supporting roles from Samuel L. Jackson and Gwyneth Paltrow, a brief cameo from young and then-unknown actor Philip Seymour Hoffman, and glimpses of a lively Sundowner hotel and casino that exists today as nothing more than a hollow shell.

Brandon Clark Reno

EDITOR’S NOTE: Readers also recommended: Smokin’ Aces, shot at Lake Tahoe; Blind Fury, starring Rutger Hauer; and Far From

Home, a 1989 flick starring Drew Barrymore, shot in Gerlach.

Gannett cut RGJ to the bone

I was one of the Reno Gazette Journal’s weekly columnists for 20 years and was part of (Gannett Corp.’s) million cuts (RN&R, January 2023). I was let go with an email saying, “This is your last column,” no explanation. When I asked to write a final one just to say good bye to readers … I was told it wasn’t personal; they cut all the columnists. I was living in Ireland and just accepted it. But to me, the columnists are the heart of the community, and opinions are an important part of every newspaper. My hat’s off to Frank and staff for building the RN&R as they have!

Erin Meehan Breen Reno

Remembering the Donner Party

Wonderful writing about the Donner Party’s Christmas experiences (RN&R, December 2022). I visited the memorial in 1985, when I met and interviewed (Ordeal by Hunger author) George Stewart’s widow, Theodosia. This written account took me right back, as it’s so evocative.

Steve Williams Reno

Mailing address: 31855 Date Palm Drive, No. 3-263, Cathedral City, CA 92234 775-324-4440 • RenoNR.com

Publisher/Executive Editor

Jimmy Boegle

Editor

Frank X. Mullen

Photo Editor David Robert Cover and Feature Design Dennis Wodzisz

Contributors

Alicia Barber, Matthew Berrey, Matt Bieker, Maude Ballinger, Lucy Birmingham, Cheree Boteler, Owen Bryant, Brad Bynum, Max Cannon, Bob Grimm, Michael Grimm, Janice Hoke, Matt Jones, Matt King, Lynn Lazaro, Michael Moberly, Maggie Nichols, Steve Noel, Dan Perkins, Pax Leigh Robinson, Jessica Santina, Kingkini Sengupta, John L. Smith, Todd South, Kris Vagner, Robert Victor, Madison Wanco, Katelyn Welsh, Matt Westfield

The Reno News & Review print edition is published monthly. All content is ©2023 and may not be published or reprinted in any form without the written permission of the publisher. The RN&R is available free of charge throughout Northern Nevada, limited to one copy per reader. Additional copies may be purchased for $5 by calling 775-324-4440. The RN&R may be distributed only authorized distributors.

The RN&R is a proud member of the Association of Alternative Newsmedia, the Nevada Press Association, and the Local Independent Online News Publishers.

GUEST COMMENT

Lithium mine will help, not harm, buckwheat and other native plants

The Rhyolite Ridge lithium mine of the Ioneer corporation is undergoing its final review by the federal Bureau of Land Management. Having taught U.S. energy policy for 18 years at the University of Nevada, Reno, and climate-change mitigation and adaptation policy for five years, I am very enthusiastic about this lithium mine.

The site is located in Esmerelda County, on public land managed by the BLM, in the high desert about 200 miles southeast of Reno.

I have visited the mine site and the (“endangered native plants”) buckwheat site the so-called environmentalists are talking about in their attempts to stop the mine. They are on the same ridgeline, but the mine site was moved further away to ensure the mine did not hurt the buckwheat or change the environment around it.

This mine is very environmentally friendly. They will recycle the water they use and put the land back as it was before. The lithium they produce over 40 years will help save the buckwheat by powering 400,000plus electric cars a year for 40 years.

As we all know, the environment is rapidly changing for the worse. If we don’t electrify a massive number of electric vehicles and clean up our power production, the greenhouse gases we continue to produce will ensure the destruction of the buckwheat through frequent droughts and wildfires. The proposed mine helps save the environment, and its licensing should be expedited to help save our country and enable the BLM to continue to do a great job preserving our country.

True environmentalists support this mine

BY JOHN SCIRE

STREETALK

Would you live in downtown Reno?

BY DAVID ROBERT

Asked at the Northwest Reno Library, 2325 Robb Drive

Kiera Scott Cannabis cultivation/production

Probably not. I love downtown, but it’s kind of stressful, with too much going on. I would worry about my car. Parking in general is problematic, let alone having to find a spot if I lived there. The crime downtown is bad. I feel that the Reno Police Department is not trained enough to deal with the un-homed population. There is a lot of destruction out of frustration by the un-homed.

and the opening up of as many other lithium mine sites as soon as possible. I am an environmentalist and hike frequently in the mountains in the region, and I am a longtime member of the Sierra Club. As an environmentalist and as a retired professor with great knowledge of both energy policy and climate change policy, I urge the rapid licensing for environmental reasons.

There is another good reason to authorize the mine. Our energy security is threatened by our need to import 70% of the lithium we use from China. The lithium is mined in Chile and Australia and then shipped to China, which processes it and exports the final product to the U.S. The electric car industry will grind to a halt if China cuts off the lithium for political reasons—and it will affect any industry that uses lithium in batteries, such as those used in cell phones and other electronic devices.

We need to expedite lithium mining and domestic processing for both environmental and energy security reasons.

Details about the project, including the mine’s plan of operations, can be found on the BLM’s website.

John A. Scire, Ph.D., is a retired adjunct professor at the University of Nevada, Reno. He has a doctorate in international relations and an master’s degree in international business management, and has taught U.S. foreign policy, energy policy, climate change policy and other courses for over 26 years. Scire also has 27 years of military experience, including two years in the Marine Corps and 15 years in the Army Reserve.

Dennis Lamb Laborer

I actually have lived in downtown Reno—but not right now; it’s a complete mess. It’s overrun by the homeless, and the city doesn’t do anything to help. The city only cleans up the tourist area and is not concerned about the residents. Military vets live on the streets. Jacobs Entertainment has been tearing down low-income housing. Anything that Jacobs does, Hillary Schieve goes along with.

Sue Pelt Book expert

I prefer a rural setting, so probably not. I like a natural setting where I can see the wildlife, deer, etc. I like to have space. I have chickens, which I probably could not have in downtown Reno. I live in Carson City; Reno is too big.

Teddi Mendoza Marketing specialist

No, it’s too crowded. I prefer the outskirts of Reno. I live in the northwest area, and it’s quiet and still convenient to get to things. I’m close to all the stores, and there are a lot of parks up here. I have a dog, and living downtown wouldn’t work. The high-rise buildings and even the janky homes downtown do not allow dogs. Certain parts of downtown are dangerous.

Linda Herrick Retired

No. I believe that downtown Reno still needs a lot of TLC. Aspects of downtown are daunting, because of the homeless crisis and safety issues. I do like to go downtown to art events like Artown, but only during the day. At night, there is a lot of criminal and underground activity. I love downtown, but it needs some help.

BY JIMMY BOEGLE

The march toward fascism continues

From The Associated Press:

Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is asking state universities for the numbers and ages of their students who sought or received gender dysphoria treatment, including sex reassignment surgery and hormone prescriptions. ... Why he’s conducting the survey wasn’t completely clear. LGBTQ advocates have criticized DeSantis for policies seen as discriminatory, including banning instruction on sexual and gender identity in early grades and making it easier for parents to remove books related to the topic in public schools.

“We can see cuts in funding for universities to treat students with this condition, and I think an all-out elimination of services is certainly on the table,” House Democratic leader Fentrice Driskell said.

The survey was released the same day the university presidents voted to support DeSantis’ “anti-woke” agenda and to reject “the progressivist higher education indoctrination agenda,” while committing to “removing all woke positions and ideologies by February 1, 2023,” the state Education Department said in a news release.

From USA Today:

Iowa House Republicans are proposing limitations to the state’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits, which could drastically narrow what items program beneficiaries can purchase. Under the proposal items including white bread, American sliced cheese and fresh meat would not be covered by the program. Instead, House File 3, introduced last week, would restrict users to items on the state’s approved list for the Women, Infants and Children program. ...

The bill would prevent SNAP recipients from buying everyday kitchen staples including butter, cooking oils, spices, white rice, rice noodles and canned vegetables, fruits and soups, as the approved WIC list is restricted to only 23 food categories—four of them being specific to infants.

Critics of the bill have said that the proposal would dramatically affect low-income, older and disabled Iowans, who rely on the food assistance program, by narrowing their options to a restrictive list intended for new mothers and pregnant people.

From The Washington Post: In one Texas school district, school librarians

have ordered 6,000 fewer books this year than the year before, because under a new rule parents must have 30 days to review the titles before the school board votes to approve them. In Pennsylvania, a school librarian who must now obtain her principal’s OK for acquisitions has bought just 100 books this school year, compared with her typical 600.

And throughout Florida, many school librarians have been unable to order books for nearly a year, thanks to their districts’ interpretation of a state law requiring librarians to undergo an online retraining program on “the selection and maintenance of library … collections”—which was not published until this month. Julie Miller, a librarian for the Clay County School District, has not been permitted to order a book since March 2022. In a typical year, she would have ordered 300 titles by now. Instead, she has had more than a hundred conversations with disappointed students seeking fresh titles, she said, especially the latest books in their favorite fantasy series. ...

States and districts nationwide have begun to constrain what librarians can order. At least 10 states have passed laws giving parents more power over which books appear in libraries or

limiting students’ access to books, a Washington Post analysis found. At the same time, school districts are passing policies that bar certain kinds of texts—most often, those focused on issues of gender and sexuality—while increasing administrative or parental oversight of acquisitions.

From

The Guardian:

Across the United States Republican politicians are seeking to bring in new laws that crack down on drag shows as part of a broader backlash against LGTBQ+ rights sweeping through rightwing parts of America.

Legislators in at least eight states have introduced legislation aiming to restrict or censor the shows, according to a new report from a leading freedom of speech group. A total of 14 bills have been introduced across Arizona, Arkansas, Missouri, Nebraska, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and West Virginia. Other bills are also being drafted in other states, including in Montana and Idaho.

Now is not the time to be quiet and do nothing. It’s important that we all support efforts to fight these sorts of things. Freedom isn’t free, after all.

| BY MATT WESTFIELD

The people who helped build Reno’s biz environment

Congratulations to the Reno News & Review for coming back like a Phoenix from the ashes! Many didn’t know what a benefit this rag and its website are to all in Northern Nevada and California … until it disappeared. We have been informed and entertained by this publication for many years—and many small businesses and startups used this pub to reach the people who make things happen.

To the point above: We are launching this new column, which will feature a multitude of voices and information not available anywhere else. It will be focused on startups; tech; business; cool initiatives at the University of Nevada, Reno; and local entrepreneurs changing various pieces of the world. These columns will be from numerous authors and standpoints, and I am honored to launch this endeavor as a longtime reader and serial startup protagonist here in Reno and Tahoe.

There has been such a tremendous momentum shift in the local startup arena in the last 20 years. Economic development agencies like the Economic Development Authority of Western Nevada (EDAWN) in Reno and Northern Nevada Development Authority (NNDA) in Carson City are charged

with helping startups, bringing businesses to the area and nurturing them when they get here. The chambers of commerce organize small businesses, with some political activism sprinkled in. By all counts, these organizations and other government agencies have done a phenomenal job of attracting companies here, from over the hill and elsewhere. I have personally worked with these groups while building an award-winning nonprofit, founded in 2011 and wholly dedicated to startup and founder mentoring (BizAssembly.org).

I moved here in ’99 to help build a dotcom. A few of us saw a huge gap in support for startups and founders, so we began dedicating ourselves (under the radar) to helping founders get started and get through the tough times. No one knows what a founder goes through—except another founder. So we’ve been bringing founders together to collaborate and solve each other’s problems for more than a decade. We’ve helped create and mentor some very well-known startups in Nevada and are prepping to assist many more in 2023 and beyond.

Much of the growth of the Reno startup community, and its newfound reputation as a startup hub, are due to several people and organizations that have gone unheralded and

relatively under the radar, like BizAssembly. org. Buy Nevada First founder Dave Asher has been a huge catalyst over these last 15 years, by sponsoring and leading the small retail business community, and getting locals to honor the “Buy Nevada” mantra. (You’ve seen the little green stickies on the backs of Toyotas all over Reno.) My longtime colleague and friend Dave Archer started TechAlliance (today’s NCET), which began to get the word out about the nascent tech community we had in ’99. NCET has had an incredible impact on the local community and awareness for startups and tech. NCET attracts many different supporters for all walks of the business community, and we are a better business community due to Dave’s contributions.

Dave Croasdell, Dick Bartholet and Mark Pingle, all up in the University of Nevada, Reno, College of Business, have been working with community, student and faculty startups for more than a decade now, helping build “hometown” companies. These gents have created dozens of opportunities to keep the smart people here, building this new economy and adding to the building local reputation.

Further up the hill at UNR, there is the ARF lab (Applied Research Facility), run by my buddy Carlos Cardillo, where anyone with technology needing a lab, a group of really smart engineers and/or other resources can access some of the most brilliant minds in Reno/Tahoe. They have various tech, specialized machines and cuttingedge research labs for battery technologies, medical technologies, remote sensing, robotics, drones, autonomous vehicle research and other cutting edge applications. It is one of the leading university labs in the U.S., collaborating with locals who are dedicated to changing the world (and Reno) for the better.

The Small Business Development Center up on campus (SBDC) is a free program, funded by the Small Business Administration, with personnel dedicated to helping entrepreneurs

get a business or startup organized, with demographics, geographic information, business plan templates, guidance, recommendations and comprehensive statistics. Its free to you—no kidding! The Ozmen Center for Entrepreneurship at the UNR College of Business has resources for students, faculty and staff and community members who wish to tie into the resources up on campus. The Sontag competition also awards a student-lead startup $50,000, free and clear, to launch their biz.

The last needed pieces for a successful startup ecosystem involve adequate funding. Former EDAWN executive (and longtime friend) Bryan McArdle has been another incredible talent who started rallying for startup dollars. The old Startup Weekend events and the Angel Pitchfest events we co-hosted began to build awareness of Reno as a startup hub. He then acquired a grant to create a startup marketing conference, which helped launch what are now three accelerators looking for scalable tech companies in Nevada.

At the state level, we need to shout out Karsten Heise, senior director of strategic programs and innovation at the Governor’s Office of Economic Development. He has created and built several funds for Nevada-based startups in tech and the university. With his work, we now have a national incubator putting our startups into the national spotlight.

All of the above players have spent thousands of hours over the decades (often for zero remuneration) helping create this incredible business environment. The Reno 911! days are long gone, and the spirit of our economic success is due in great part to the people and organizations mentioned here that most of you have never heard of … but you should!

In this column, we will be showcasing the incredible people and businesses right here in your big beautiful back yard. If you have an interesting startup, founder, business or nonprofit we should feature here, please email me: mwestfield@unr.edu.

Casino legend

Philip Hannifin shaped Nevada’s gaming regulations and showed the mob the door

While Phillip P. Hannifin’s name may not be familiar to those who’ve entered gaming in the last 20 years, he was a giant who helped create and shape the state’s premier industry.

Hannifin, 88, lost his battle with lung cancer Jan. 8.

“Phil Hannifin paved the way for Nevada’s present regulatory model as an exemplar of the ‘tough but fair regulator,” said Michael Rumbolz, a former Nevada gaming regulator and Everi CEO. “His transition to an industry leadership role was an inspiration to many and proved that you could regulate with integrity and, when later working in the industry, continue to help licensed operators understand their compliance obligations.”

Most gaming regulators today are held in high esteem for their strict enforcement and laser focus on protecting the integrity and legality of casino operations. But before Hannifin’s appointment as chairman of the Nevada Gaming Control Board, the panel often was seen as more of a political body than an arm of law enforcement.

In 1971, when newly elected Nevada Gov. Mike O’Callaghan made it his mission to change things, he chose the 36-year-old Hannifin to do the job. It was the right choice, at the right time.

Gaming was in Hannifin’s blood. His father was an operator in Montana, where Phil was born in Butte in October 1934. “Growing up, it took me a while to realize that a slot machine was more than a toy,” he once said. Hannifin moved to Nevada in 1940, graduated from Reno’s Bishop Manogue High School, and then earned a degree in psychology from the University of Nevada in 1957.

At 23, he joined the Washoe County probation department. He eventually ran

Wittenberg Hall, Reno’s juvenile detention center. After several promotions, he was named the director of the Nevada Parole and Probation department. In his four years there, he developed strong investigative skills and knew his way around the law—and lawbreakers. Those were perfect credentials to carry out O’Callaghan’s mandate of stronger gaming oversight.

When I was a news reporter covering him, it was nearly impossible to get Hannifin to talk about anything. It wasn’t just me he shut out; he rarely talked to any reporter. Unlike flamboyant casino bosses, Hannifin preferred to stay out of the limelight and the headlines. But when I worked with him at the Fitzgeralds Group, where he was a board member, things changed.

Some of my best memories in gaming are of sharing dinners and wine with him. I discovered that far from being shy, he was a world-class storyteller. In the last few years, it has been hard for me to realize that he was in his late 80s. While he physically moved a bit slower; his commanding voice and hearty laughter were as strong as ever.

Many of his stories would have made great episodes of Law & Order or new scenes for Goodfellas. I one asked him about the movie Casino. Was that really the way it was? I was surprised to hear him say that director Marin Scorsese got most things right. Of course, the Tangiers Casino was the real-life Stardust, and “Ace” Rothstein (Robert De Niro) was based on Frank “Lefty” Rosenthal.

Turning tables on the ‘goodfellas’ He once told us the tale of trying to catch the mob “skimming” in the Stardust count room, as shown in the movie. His team of enforcement agents made several raids, but whenever they arrived, everything looked kosher. Suspecting the mobsters were tipped off by someone in his

Phil Hannifin speaks after his induction into the Gaming Hall of Fame in 2018.

Photo/Courtesy of Buddy Frank

office, Hannifin ordered all of his agents onto a chartered bus. They eventually pulled into the Stardust parking lot and marched straight into the count room. Jackpot! They found ample evidence of illegal skimming.

Many credit Hannifin as a driving force in getting organized crime out of Las Vegas. A key piece of that eviction was when the mob sold out to (or fleeced) Howard Hughes in 1967, when Paul Laxalt was the state’s governor. Inexplicably, Hughes was granted a license to operate the Desert Inn, Frontier, Sands, Castaways, Landmark and Silver Slipper casinos without ever appearing before the Gaming Commission, and with virtually no investigation by the board.

When Hughes left the state in the middle of the night via a fire escape on Thanksgiving Day 1970, O’Callaghan and Hannifin saw an opportunity to correct the record. They demanded a face-to-face meeting with Hughes. Before that, Hannifin was fond of saying that communicating with Hughes was like “yelling into a big barrel. All I ever hear is my own voice.”

The recluse “didn’t look anything like the crazy madman (shown in The Aviator movie). However, they told me his team had cleaned him up quite a bit prior to our meeting,” Hannifin said. “Clearly, we could see some of the injuries he’d suffered from his airplane crashes, but he was dressed in a nice suit, very business-like, and seemed in complete control. He got angry a few times, but we left convinced that he knew what he was doing and was still in complete charge.”

The board approved his licenses and completed investigations of his new executive team. Licensing Hughes helped to legitimize Nevada gaming. Hughes had the Haskins and Sells accounting firm come to Nevada to audit his casinos. Many of the CPAs who relocated to the state as a result of Hughes’ mandate went on to run numerous Nevada casinos.

Phil Griffith was one of those auditors originally brought in by Summa Corporation, Hughes’ company, in the early 1970s. Later, after running Harold’s Club, Griffith founded the Fitzgeralds Group, based in Reno.

“Phil Hannifin always acted with honesty and integrity,” Griffith said. “While that is not particularly unique today, it was an era of great temptation. Phil stood head and shoulders above everyone else then in his principled leadership.”

Becoming an executive

He could have retired a monumental figure in gaming just based on his regulatory resume, but Hannifin was headed for even more accolades. In 1977, the year after Hughes’ death, he became a director and executive vice president

of Summa, serving from 1977 to 1984. He managed the seven casinos and five hotels of the Hughes estate.

In 1984, Hannifin became president of Harrah’s West (the forerunner of today’s Caesars Entertainment). Phil Satre, the current non-executive chairman of the board of Wynn Resorts, was also at Harrah’s.

“I had the great good fortune to work alongside Phil Hannifin,” Satre said. “His leadership style was collaborative, direct and pragmatic— and he had a natural ability to create consensus and impart his considerable wisdom. Along with many others in the gaming industry, I learned a lot from him.”

Satre is a member of the American Gaming Association’s Gaming Hall of Fame. He helped sponsor Hannifin’s induction as part of the Class of 2018. Another HOF inductee, Kirk Kerkorian, also benefitted from Hannifin’s wisdom. Kerkorian purchased the Sands and the Desert Inn from Summa and immediately appointed Hannifin as executive vice president to run those operations in October 1987. Hannifin worked closely with Kerkorian to purchase the Marina Casino Hotel at the south end of the Las Vegas Strip and eventually build the gigantic 6,852room MGM Grand Las Vegas. The original 700-room Marina is still there, assimilated by the resort and known today as the “west wing.”

After some time with the Rivera in Las Vegas, Hannifin’s final executive role before retiring in 2000 was as a board member with the Fitzgeralds Group. He helped the operation grow from a single casino-hotel to a nationwide group with multiple properties in Nevada and casinos in New York, Mississippi, Illinois, Arizona and Colorado.

“You can’t overstate the effect that Phil Hannifin has had on the gaming industry,” said Patricia Becker, the first woman to serve on the Control Board. “Most importantly, he was a truly wonderful person who cared deeply for his family, and the people who worked for him, maintaining those friendships for decades. I was lucky enough to be one of those people. We have lost a gaming legend and a Nevada treasure.”

Hannifin was proceeded in death by his wife, Doris “Dori” Belli, in 1998. For many years, the couple lived on the Belli Ranch just west of Reno. They had been married for 41 years. He spent his last few days in the company of his daughter, Mari, and son, Bret.

Nothing summarizes Hannifin more than the advice he once gave me when I was concerned about making a difficult management decision. “Listen, Bud,” he said. “Stop worrying about it and just do the right thing.”

He always did it right. RIP, Phil. We’ll all miss you.

Buddy Frank is a retired Reno journalist and casino executive.

UPFRONT

Reno judge set to rule on Thacker Pass lawsuit

A federal judge in Reno is expected to rule in the next two months whether Lithium Americas Corp.’s Thacker Pass lithium-mining project in Northern Nevada can proceed without further environmental reviews and consultations with indigenous communities.

U.S. District Court Chief Judge Miranda Du on Jan. 5 spent nearly three hours hearing arguments from environmental activists, tribal members, ranchers and the lawyers representing the project planned on a site 53 miles northeast of Winnemucca. Those opposed to the mine say the $1.6 billion project would permanently scar and disrupt the area, which is home to wildlife and key water sources for livestock.

The lithium mine, which would be the largest in the nation, was slated to start construction last year, but the company’s timetable has been delayed by lawsuits.

Lithium is the main component for rechargeable batteries found in hightech devices from electric cars to cell phones. It’s touted as a green-energy solution to fossil fuels, but critics say extracting the element comes at too high of a cost for rural communities, endangered species and water resources.

The environmental review process was fast-tracked by the Trump administration; the Bureau of Land Management’s initial assessment was completed in less than a year. A lawyer for Lithium Americas told the judge that she should give extra weight to the argument that lithium is essential in the nation’s effort to wean itself off fossil fuels and battle climate change.

Du wasn’t buying it: “That’s a policy argument,” she said. “ ... which really doesn’t apply.”

Several Nevada tribes, including the Reno-Sparks Indian Colony, have argued they were not properly consulted about the mine—which they say is on a sacred ground—and that there are many unanswered questions about how the mining operations will affect the area.

Lithium Americas officials have said they remain committed to the project, which is near a site where in 1865, Nevada cavalry volunteers murdered 31 Paiute men, women and children as they slept in shelters.

—Frank X. Mullen

No toke

Sol Cannabis is SOL in its quest to operate a consumption lounge in Washoe Valley

The Washoe County Board of Commissioners in January voted 3-2 against allowing cannabis-consumption lounges to operate in the county outside of the city limits of Reno and Sparks.

That means SoL Cannabis, a dispensary in Washoe Valley, can’t move forward with plans to create an on-property lounge where customers can consume its products. SoL was granted a provisional license for a consumption lounge from the Nevada Cannabis Compliance Board, along with 39 other businesses outside of Washoe County. However, it’s ultimately up to local governments to decide if lounges will be allowed to operate in their jurisdictions.

“(We’re) at Disneyland but can’t ride the rides,” said Ed Alexander, the founder of SoL Cannabis, using a metaphor to voice his frustration at having to tell patrons not to consume their cannabis products on the dispensary’s property, where he also hosts live music and other events. Alexander said cannabis regulations are so strict that even hosting a teaching session on how to infuse butter, or showing someone how to properly use cannabis products as a medicine, would jeopardize SoL’s dispensary license.

The regulations surrounding alcohol consumption, he said, are less rigorous than those affecting marihuana—a disparity that Alexander sees as a double standard. For example, he pointed out that local governments were quick to allow restaurants to

serve carry-out alcoholic beverages during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“At some point, it was OK to get a margarita to go, but it’s not OK for us to have a lounge with insane regulatory oversight. That seems hypocritical,” he said.

Adults can currently buy cannabis products at Nevada dispensaries, but can only consume them on private property—unless the property owner prohibits it. Hotels prohibit cannabis consumption on their premises, and smoking weed outdoors on public property remains illegal. That means visitors to the Silver State can purchase cannabis products, but have no way to consume them legally.

“What it’s causing right now is law-abiding citizens to break laws,” Alexander said.

Driving while stoned

Washoe County commissioners who opposed the establishment of consumption lounges were concerned about people visiting the lounges and then driving while impaired. That’s a valid concern, Alexander said.

The Governors Highway Safety Association noted in a 2018 report: “There’s no public consensus on whether marijuana increases crash risk or whether it’s acceptable to drive after using marijuana.” In addition, unlike alcohol, there’s no consensus about how much cannabis usage may result in reducing a person’s ability to drive safely.

The report also stated that measuring marijuana metabolites in a user’s body by testing their

SoL Cannabis founder Ed Alexander: “At some point, it was OK to get a margarita to go, but it’s not OK for us to have a lounge with insane regulatory oversight. That seems hypocritical.” Photo/David Robert

blood, urine or sweat is not closely related to impairment. Metabolites, the non-intoxicating compounds resulting from partaking in cannabis, can remain detectable in a human body for weeks after cannabis products have been consumed.

That means the current Nevada law regarding driving under the influence of cannabis is similar to the statute that defines alcohol-related DUIs. The Silver State has a “per se” standard for cannabis DUI: If a driver commits a traffic violation, and his or her blood contains 2 nanograms per milliliter or more of THC, the intoxicating component of cannabis, or 5 nanograms of its inactive metabolite, the driver is considered to be driving under the influence.

Alexander, who noted that impaired driving should be a concern when any psychoactive substances are used, said it’s hard to not see the disparity between the way the two inebriants are treated in Nevada law. In a 24-hour town like Reno, he noted, bars are as common as alley cats, and people get behind the wheel with different levels of impairment—yet local governments don’t ban bars.

“Really, what we’re talking about is giving people a place where they can comfortably consume cannabis if they choose to,” he said. “… If I, as a cannabis consumer, choose to consume, and you, as a non-consumer, choose not to, that’s where the choice should end.”

Regulators just don’t understand the major differences between alcohol and cannabis consumption. Alexander said, an opinion echoed by one of Sol’s regular customers.

“There’s such a stigma with it,” said Angie Gibson. “I can’t drink; I can’t even taste alcohol. If I were to drink, I’d be out causing problems and doing stupid stuff. But I smoke a joint, I get mellow and do my housework.”

Advocates of cannabis use tout the drug’s safety compared to alcohol, and critics of strict cannabis regulations complain that many non-users are stuck in an old narrative exemplified by the 1936 movie Reefer Madness. That propaganda film is a horror story in which high school students try marijuana and instantly become addicted. The students suffer hallucinations and embark on a crime spree that includes manslaughter, murder and attempted rape. Some go insane; one commits suicide.

As states legalized medical and recreational use of the weed, proponents had to debunk such misinformation and overcome decades of prejudice against cannabis—and would-be consumption-lounge operators say they are still facing

those biases as local governments consider rules for consumption lounges.

Denver lounge isn’t profitable Colorado, where recreational use of pot has been legal for nine years, got its first licensed cannabis lounge in Denver in 2018. Helping people understand responsible consumption and educating them on proper cannabis use is one of the goals of Rita Tsalyuk, the owner and operator of The Coffee Joint. That lounge is next door to the dispensary Tsalyuk and her husband opened in 2014.

The Coffee Joint sells marijuana accessories and souvenirs and provides a space for patrons to use cannabis products—but actual smoking isn’t allowed. Patrons can’t smoke anything that requires an open flame, thanks to Denver’s indoor-smoking law. However, customers may consume cannabis edibles, electronic vape products or concentrates.

Tsalyuk said The Coffee Joint’s business model is based on BYOC—bring your own cannabis. Patrons can use the space for free if they buy cannabis products from the couple’s dispensary, or they can bring their own stash and pay $5.

The space features cozy seating areas and is stocked with games, books and video screens. Even with such amenities, the business has never turned a profit, she said.

“That’s a reason why you don’t see lounges everywhere: People are figuring out that it’s just not a profitable venture, (because) people don’t want to pay for consumption,” Tsalyuk said.

For her and her husband, the lounge portion of their business is more about educating consumers than making money. “Responsible consumption comes with education and everything,” she said. “…There’s nothing wrong with the product; it’s how people are using it.”

Driving while under the influence of cannabis also is an issue in Colorado. Tsalyuk said it’s important that people who use lounges have access to food and water, as well as areas where they can sit and relax. She explained there is no accurate way to measure how impaired someone may be after imbibing THC products. Individuals have different tolerance levels and reactions to cannabis, and therefore must be aware of their mental and physical conditions and act responsibly.

Patrons of The Coffee Joint are encouraged to hang out for as long as they like, Tsalyuk said, and are encouraged to let the staff members know if they are feeling a bit too high. The lounge, she said, is a hospitable and secure space where users can relax and feel safe.

The Reno City Council is in the process of considering regulations for lounges within city limits. Those proposals are scheduled to be announced after the soon, after the print edition’s deadline; visit RenoNR.com for an updated version of this story.

Jason Gurko needs the community’s help

Jacob Gurko, 6, of Sparks, is facing his second open-heart surgery, at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford on Feb. 21.

Jacob was born with Williams Syndrome, a rare genetic disorder which includes heart defects. Even though his condition puts him at a higher risk during surgery, his family has no real choice. He had his first open-heart procedure when he was 11 months old, but now needs a second operation to reconstruct his pulmonary artery. His short life has included a litany of doctor visits, medical tests and procedures aimed at giving him a normal life expectancy.

His dad, Jason, said the family’s insurance may not cover his surgery, and even if it does, there will be additional costs for lodging, transportation and food during the three-plus weeks the family will be at Stanford. The Gurkos are asking the community for help.

“Jacob is a fan of superheroes,” Jason Gurko said. “I’m asking that people be his.”

Jason also asks that people also pray for his son.

The family’s GoFundMe is at gofund. me/21aff528.

Think Free!

Delivering literacy

Four tiny neighborhood library boxes, created in 2015, have grown into 100 across Reno-Sparks

All around town, little boxes filled with books offer free reading to anyone.

Some of the little libraries are labors of love created by local carpenters. Others are repurposed from old newsstands or kitchen cabinets. They are painted in a rainbow of colors. You see them in neighborhoods across Reno and Sparks—in front of houses, schools, community organizations and even at a shopping mall.

All are put up by book-lovers to promote their passion for reading. In the Truckee Meadows, there may be as many as a hundred or more.

Charles Albright painted a donated Reno News & Review newsstand a dark lime green and added plywood trim and a magazine holder on the side. The box is close to Rancho San Rafael Park, he said, a prime spot with lots of foot traffic.

“It was half-empty this week,” Albright noted. “It encourages people to read.”

He often picks up a bag of books at Grassroots Books, which supplies many of the little libraries in the area. His stock includes novels and children’s books, as well as nonfiction books about the outdoors, history, comedy and sports.

A recycled newsstand from the Reno Gazette-Journal found new life as a streetside library on Thomas Creek Road, downhill from the new Marce Herz Middle School. That library was created by April Pederson, who keeps an eye on the library.

“I see the middle school kids walking home from school and stopping at the box,” she said.

Pederson and her mother, Mary Pederson, put the library up in 2016, inspired by a Reno News & Review column. “We’ve always loved books, and it’s fun for the neighbor-

hood,” Mary said. “It gets people out to walk.”

An avid reader herself, April delights in discovering books inside the little library that she wants to read, especially “vintage books.” The people using the library seem to prefer novels, children’s books, cookbooks, reference books and tomes on topics including golf, true crime, humor and pets. During the COVID-19 pandemic, jigsaw puzzles and DVDs became popular.

Every two weeks, April takes books that haven’t been chosen and donates them to Goodwill or Savers. She is grateful that a user straightens the books, and she hasn’t found any trash in the box.

In south Reno, Mary Ann and Paul Ricciardi recently added an additional box to their original tiny library—at a lower level, accessible to smaller children. That upgrade was in response to a note placed in the box by a grandparent. “It seems the little ones love to read as much as the big ones, so they needed their own bit of space,” she said.

Paul Ricciardi was raised in the south Reno neighborhood they live in today. A decade ago, they wondered if the semi-rural area, where houses were built far apart, would attract library users. Now, the area has many more residents, and the library is well used.

“I see some neighbors walking by, and even driving in from other neighborhoods close by,” Mary Ann said. She even sees bicycle riders hit their brakes to peruse the books.

The Ricciardis and some other library hosts register their boxes on the Little Free Library (LFL) website, www.littlefreelibrary.org. For a fee, the library and its steward are included in a public directory and are offered an official LFL sign, as well as advice about setting up a library. The nonprofit organization’s website provides a how-to section, free box plans and building tips. In the Truckee Meadows, 45 free libraries are displayed on the website map.

A list compiled by Grassroots Books lists another 30 small free libraries in the area. Many more probably remain unlisted, library stewards said.

Some libraries are located in high-traffic areas, such as the one at the Summit mall’s central plaza. That one is a large cabinet hung on an outside wall of a retail store. Schools also sponsor little libraries for a larger readership beyond the students who can use the school library services. Those include Libby Booth, Jesse Beck and Lloyd Diedrichsen elementary schools.

At Libby Booth Elementary, school library assistant Sharon June and principal Joe Pazar stock two little library boxes at the front of the school about once a week. June makes sure there are Spanish-language books available for parents and children.

June wrote that Pazar “is a huge advocate of literacy for our unique Libby Booth demographic.” Many families in the neighborhood do not have many books at home, nor do they have the storage space to keep them, she said.

In 2015, then-Reno City Councilman Oscar Delgado sponsored four little libraries. Two of those still operate: at Arts for All Nevada at the Lake Mansion in downtown Reno, and at the Holland Project, at 140 Vesta St. Arts for All Nevada marketing coordinator Michelle Tiscareno said the little library appeals to parents who are picking up their children from the center’s art classes. Some of the books come from staff members’ book collections. Library partners include Spread the Word, Grassroots Books and the United Way of Northern Nevada and the Sierra, she said.

In 2019, the United Way collaborated with an Eagle Scout project to build small libraries, said Ashley Cabrera, vice president of marketing and community relations. United Way also occasionally provides books to community members from an in-office little library, and shares books with the community at year-round community events.

“United Way celebrates the community coming together to find creative ways to increase access to books,” Cabrera said.

Tips for little libraries

• It’s OK to take a book and keep it, but if you can, donate another book to replace it. If the library is getting short on books, contribute a few more if possible.

• Don’t put trash or inappropriate things in a little library.

• Stewards are encouraged to monitor their libraries weekly, if possible, to check on the condition, replenish books, remove any trash or see if users have left notes.

• Information about starting a tiny library is available at www.littlefreelibrary.org.

Charles Albright sits atop his tiny library, made from a recycled RN&R street box, in Northwest Reno. Photo/David Robert

| BY SAMUEL CESPEDES

A goal of educating

New Councilman Miguel Martinez wants to involve young people in Reno government

When he was appointed to the Ward 3 seat on the Reno City Council in October, Miguel Martinez, 32, told the council that he is very “goal oriented.”

Martinez’s resume gives weight to that statement: The kid who grew up in a mobile home park on Kietzke Lane went on to earn three college degrees, including a master’s in education; he has served on more than a dozen local boards and committees; and for the last seven years, he has been an educator and coordinator at Truckee Meadows Community College.

At TMCC, he said, his job includes improving education-attainment gaps, expanding accessibility to higher education, and developing a stronger sense of community. Public service, he said, has always been a vocation.

“I have always loved helping people, and since I started working at (TMCC), I’ve worked hard to help young people make the transition from student life to work life,” Martinez said. “I help them with the most basic things, from how to put on a tie to how to prepare for a job interview. … (As a councilman), I want to continue educating and providing resources that provide security and well-being to our community.”

He replaced Councilman Oscar Delgado, who resigned in September. Martinez’s term ends in 2024.

Ward 3 is a diverse area of Reno, encompassing a variety of services and constituents. The ward includes the Wells Avenue business district, the CARES (homeless) campus, Greater Nevada Field, and a large segment of the Truckee River. It also boasts two Reno Parks and Recreation Department facilities: Teglia’s Paradise Park Activity Center and the Neil Road Recreation Center.

Martinez, who is married and has two

daughters, sees informing and educating residents about city services as a big part of his job as a councilman.

“There are a lot of programs out there that are still unknown to a lot of people in Reno, and that’s one of my jobs: letting people know about the help that’s out there,” he said. “For example, there are people in Reno who are homeless and are unaware of the programs that exist to help them, (like) the Clean and Safe program.”

Ward 3 includes a large percentage of Latinx people. “I am also very concerned about the Hispanic community,” Martinez said. “My parents are Mexican, so I understand the challenges they face. Unfortunately, many of these people are unaware of the services that are available to them, especially health services. That is one of my main functions as a council person: to inform people about the services that are offered.”

Reaching out to younger residents is also a priority. He said his experiences at TMCC have helped him understand the importance of integrating the next generation into the city’s affairs.

“I would like young people to join the projects of the Reno city government,” Martinez said.

“We have the Youth City Council, a group ranging in age from 14 to 22. (They) plan events and activities for the youth in Reno and provide input to the Reno City Council regarding youth issues that relate to the city of Reno.”

Residents interested in the Youth City Council can find more information on the City of Reno website, he noted.

Martinez said he’s still learning the ropes as a council member, but wants to help improve the city’s infrastructure, particularly in Ward 3, and work on public-safety issues.

Martinez earned an associate’s degree from Truckee Meadows Community College, a bachelor’s degree from the University of Nevada, Reno, and a master’s degree in higher education administration from Virginia Tech.

1 Rotate and Inspect Tires

If the tread is worn down, you are going to see diminished performance, stopping distances will be longer on slippery roads, ice and snow.

2 Fix Tire Pressure Each 10 degree drop in outside temperature can mean a one-pound loss in air pressure.

3 Test the Battery Engines are more difficult to start in cold weather.

4 Change Oil Lighter weight oil is as important to starting an engine in cold weather as is a strong battery

5 Add Proper Coolant Test the protection level to prevent freezing.

6 Check Belts and Hoses

Cold temps weaken these items — hoses can become brittle and fail.

7 Inspect AWD or 4WD

Both systems offer improved snow traction and require maintenance.

8 Inspect Brakes The car’s brakes need to be in top operating condition.

9 Change Wiper Blades

Snow, slush and salt can quickly build up on the windshield, blinding a driver if the wiper blades are worn out.

10 Top off Fluids Carry a gallon of windshield fluid so you can quickly refill the container under the hood.

Miguel Martinez: “Unfortunately, many of these people are unaware of the services that are available to them.” Photo/David Robert

Planets and Bright Stars in Evening Mid-Twilight

For February, 2023

This sky chart is drawn for latitude 40 degrees north, but may be used in continental U.S. and southern Canada.

February skies

Comet ZTF has a rendezvous with planet Earth

Evenings in February feature a striking array of three bright planets: Venus, Jupiter and Mars. (Saturn disappears into bright twilight within first few days.) The length of the three-planet lineup shrinks from 93° on

Feb. 1 to 68° on the 28th.

In the year’s brightest planet pairing, Venus will pass 0.5° to the north (right) of Jupiter on March 1. Follow the pair for several evenings before and after, to watch for daily changes. On

BVD Radio

February’s evening sky chart. Illustration/Robert D. Miller

Feb. 19 and March 11—10 days before and after their March 1 conjunction—Venus and Jupiter are 10° apart. Five days out, on Feb. 24 and Mar. 6, they’re separated by 5°.

Binoculars provide fine views of the moon, pairings of planets (such as Venus-Jupiter around March 1), star clusters (such as the Pleiades and Hyades in Taurus, the Great Nebula in Orion’s Sword, and Andromeda Galaxy) and even an occasional comet. Comet ZTF (C/2022 E3)—discovered in March 2022 by the Zwicky Transient Facility at Palomar Observatory—was predicted to reach magnitude 5.4 in late January and early February. It will pass closest to Earth, at a distance of 26 million miles, on Feb. 1.

The comet appears about 10° from Polaris on the night of Jan. 29 (on a line from the North Star toward the Pointer Stars of the Big Dipper) and the evening of Jan. 30 (on a line from the North Star toward Omicron in Ursa Major, marking the nose of the Great Bear on detailed star maps). For six nights, from Jan. 29-Feb. 3, the comet shifts more than 6° daily, moving toward Capella. On night of Feb. 1, Comet ZTF, plying the wilderness of the faint constellation Camelopardalis, the Giraffe, is just east of the midpoint between Polaris and Capella. On the evening of Feb. 5, the comet passes within 1.6° to the west of Capella. Moving through the nearby compact isosceles triangle called the Kids, by the next evening, Feb. 6, ZTF passes only 0.2° west of Zeta Aurigae, one of the baby goats. By the evening of Feb. 8, in a moonless sky, the comet, now moving less than 4° per day, has passed within 0.7° west of Iota Aurigae, the 2.7-magnitude star nearly halfway from Capella toward Aldebaran. On the night of Feb. 10-11, the fading comet, moving 3° per day, will pass about 1° east of Mars. On the next night, Feb. 11, ZTF passes the descending node of its orbit and plunges through the ecliptic, the plane of Earth’s orbit, from north to south. On evening of Feb. 14, the comet passes 1.5° east of Aldebaran. By now, the comet has “slowed” to 1.9° per day, and is expected to have faded to 7th magnitude.

Follow the moon in evening sky from Feb. 1-6 and 20-28 and observe its gatherings with planets and bright zodiacal stars: Pollux and Castor in Gemini, near a waxing gibbous moon on the evenings of Feb. 2 and 3; and Regulus, heart of Leo, near the moon, just past full, from nightfall until dawn on nights of Feb. 5 and 6. Try to see zodiacal light—dust in the plane of the solar system—in dark, moonless sky at end of evening twilight Feb. 8-20.

The moon returns to early evening sky on Feb. 20. A very thin crescent may be seen with the unaided eye in excellent sky conditions.

BY ROBERT VICTOR

Venus pairs up with an easier crescent moon, low in the western sky at dusk, on Feb. 21; and Jupiter, within 2° of an even fatter crescent moon, on the next evening, Feb. 22. The gatherings with the two brightest planets, 8° or 7° apart those evenings, will present an excellent photo-op!

On the evening of Feb. 26, the nearly first quarter (half-full) moon will lie in Taurus, between two clusters of stars, the Hyades and Pleiades, and not far from Aldebaran. On Feb. 27 during the 9 p.m. hour, the southern edge of the moon will miss Mars by little more than one moon-diameter. Seen from the Arctic, the moon will occult Mars.

Follow the moon in the morning sky from Feb. 4-18, and catch it near Regulus on Feb. 6, Spica in Virgo on Feb. 11, and Antares in Scorpius on Feb. 14.

Regulus is at opposition on night of Feb. 18-19. As the Earth passes between the sun and Regulus, the star appears 180° from the sun. Spaceship Earth is then moving away from a point 4° south of the Pleiades in evening sky, and toward a point 3° west of the head of Scorpius in morning sky.

Don’t miss the monthly conjunctions of moon and Venus; during the current evening apparition of Venus, the best of these will occur on June 21. In coming months, watch Venus chase Mars through the evening zodiacal constellations until Venus gives up the pursuit. Watch for these planets’ conjunctions with Pleiades, Aldebaran and Beta in Taurus; Pollux and Castor in Gemini; Beehive in Cancer; and Regulus in Leo.

When will Venus finally catch up to and pass Mars? With Pollux and Castor, watch for three events for each planet: (1) When the planet forms an isosceles triangle with the “Twin” stars. (2) When the planet passes closest to Pollux. (3) When Castor, Pollux and the planet lie in a straight line. For Mars, the three Gemini events will occur April 22-May 16; for Venus, May 21-June 1. All these events will be illustrated in Sky Calendar.

Illustrations of many of the events described here, including nightly views leading up to the conjunction of Venus and Jupiter, appear on the February 2023 Sky Calendar. Subscriptions and a sample issue are available at www. abramsplanetarium.org/skycalendar.

Robert Victor originated the Abrams Planetarium monthly Sky Calendar in October 1968 and still produces issues occasionally, including the February 2023 edition. He enjoys being outdoors sharing the wonders of the night sky. Robert Miller, who provided the twilight chart, did graduate work in planetarium science and later astronomy and computer science at Michigan State University, and remains active in research and public outreach in astronomy.

Stereographic Projection Map by Robert D. Miller

"Big Bucket O’ Tunes" (a collection of some 4000+ tunes he curated from 2014-’22), old & current ID’s & Blurbs, and outtakes from his morning show on 'The X' in the ’90’s.

Bruce Van Dyke’s only on: jiveradio.org/bvd

Galena winter gems

The Thomas Creek and Whites Creek trails are excellent places to enjoy the snow

It’s been a great winter so far for playing in the snow. The storms keep coming and dumping heaps of white stuff across the mountains and into our valley.

Renoites looking for a spot to enjoy snowy solitude in the woods often turn toward Galena Creek Regional Park. It’s a great area to explore in every season. Located just off of Mount Rose Highway, this park is heavily wooded and crisscrossed by streams, trails and various park buildings. Miles of trails, readily accessible in the warmer months, lead into the mountains with sweeping views of Reno and the surrounding valley.

When Reno is blanketed in snow, as it has been this winter, the whole Galena Creek area transforms into a magical space. The trails are hidden, but a good pair of snowshoes or even cross-country skis can take you to pockets of the park you may

have never seen before.

On a nice weekend, the parking lots around the Galena Creek Visitor Center and closeby picnic areas and trailheads fill up quickly. This family-friendly spot is an easy getaway for kids to build snowmen, have snowball fights and generally enjoy the snow—without having to fight the crowds that flood Tahoe. The ground is relatively flat throughout a good portion of this area, making it a fairly easy place to snowshoe for the first time; you can even go exploring in just a sturdy pair of boots.

For anyone seeking a little more quiet and solitude, there are other trails within the Galena Creek Regional Park system to consider. The north side of the park holds the Whites Creek and Thomas Creek trails. During the summer, these trails are popular with mountain bikers and hikers. But in the winter, they are far less in demand, offering great opportunities to find some peace and quiet—as long as you have the

| BY MAGGIE NICHOLS

right winter gear.

To get to either of these trails, turn north off Mount Rose Highway on Timberline Drive; it’s the last stoplight on the edge of town before you start heading up the mountain toward Tahoe, so it’s pretty painless to locate. At first, Timberline Drive winds through scattered houses, before the landscape opens up.

Several marked trailheads can be found along this 1.3 mile stretch of road, including a turn-off leading west to Whites Creek Trailhead, and a more obvious parking lot along the side of the road for Thomas Creek Trailhead. Numerous unmarked parking areas can also be found along Timberline Drive— though their existence and size depend on the snow plows during a winter like this one.

When the ground is covered by snow, there’s no wrong place to start your adventure. As long as you can remember where you parked (and you can find your way back to it!), you’re free to explore wherever you’d like within the boundary of the park.

This back side of Galena Creek is topographically more challenging than the area around the visitor center. A sturdy pair of snowshoes, good base-layers to keep you warm (even after you’re soaked with sweat from climbing all those hills!), lots of water and snacks to keep you fueled will help you make a fun romp through the woods.

You can usually follow the trails by following their respective creeks, or you can forge your own path by cutting across and going through the woods to follow your whim. Thomas and Whites creeks are cut steeply into the surrounding areas, giving you great opportunities for excellent views if you feel invested enough to slog uphill and find a vista. Dogs are also welcome in the park (on a leash), though they may easily break through the deep snow, since they don’t have the benefits of snowshoes. With or without your furry friend, exploring this lessseen side of Galena Creek Regional Park makes for a great all-day adventure.

Because most of these slopes face east and north, the snow typically takes longer to melt than the areas on the front side of Galena Creek, around the visitor center. This means that even as the snow thins nearby, there’s still ample opportunity to re-create a winter wonderland without having to drive all the way up to Tahoe.

Thanks to views for days, a respite from the crowds and miles of forest to enjoy, it’s hard to have a bad time around Whites Creek and Thomas Creek—especially in the snow.

The Reno News & Review is looking to expand its paid freelance writing team! We are looking for:

• News freelancers

• Feature writers

• Cannabis writer

• Beer columnist

jimmyb@renonr.com

Dogs are welcome in Galena Creek Regional Park—as long as they are on a leash. Photo/ Maggie Nichols

If you have the knowledge, the desire, and the ability to write and report, email a resume, clips/writing samples and anything else you would like to share to

Jim Leslie got an eviction notice via email the day after Christmas—minutes after he noticed a 2-foot-wide bubble clinging to his bedroom ceiling, like a blob creature that escaped from a science-fiction movie.

Leslie and his best friend, William Merritt, who is battling throat cancer, were among tenants in 23 units at the Carson Pines Apartments in Carson City who on Dec. 26 were notified they had six days to vacate. The second floor of the building was about to be condemned, because the landlord had failed to fix rotting stairwells and an unstable roof— despite warnings and threats issued by the city for nearly two years.

“I knew what the bubble was,” said Leslie, a computer technician who was working remotely for three clients at the time. “I realized that the ceiling was held up by nothing but paint. I got my computer and electronics out of the way.”

That day, a winter storm delivered a river of rain followed by about a foot of “Sierra cement” snow that blanketed Nevada’s capital city. Leslie, Merritt and the other 22 families who suddenly were ordered to leave their homes frantically tried to find other places to land before the Jan. 1 deadline. By nightfall on Dec. 26, another ominous bubble began

growing on Leslie and Merritt’s living-room ceiling. It was slowly expanding like a giant, white amoeba.

The next morning, Leslie was awakened from a fitful sleep by an automated phone call from his Roomba vacuum cleaner. The robot’s sensors had encountered water while rolling across the living room floor. “We had two inches of water in the living room,” he said. “When we woke up the next day, the living room bubble was replaced by a hole. It looked like someone had fired a missile through the roof.”

Things got worse from there, as more storms marched over the Sierra to hammer Northern Nevada.

Leslie, Merritt and the other tenants of Carson Pines—including families with small children, elderly residents and disabled people—alternately battled rain, snow, slush and freezing temperatures as they were forced to vacate the building during the final week of 2022 and the first week of this year. Most are low-income workers or live on fixed incomes and disability payments. None were prepared for the disaster that plunged their lives into chaos as soggy Christmas trees still stood in their apartments.

By Jan. 21, a few of the 50 or more tenants had found permanent places to stay, but most had not. Some were in motels, or surfing

couches in the homes of friends, or living in their cars. They received limited help from government and nonprofit groups, but the region’s safety net is full of holes and unprepared for so many people thrown into dire circumstances in so short a time. For the dozens of tenants made homeless through no fault of their own, help came from strangers who saw posts on social media and in newspaper stories. They opened their hearts to the plight of people they had never met.

“I saw the story on the Carson Now (website) and the Facebook page, and I just wanted to help,” said Chelsie Padilla, who, with her two young sons, had once suffered through a no-cause eviction in Carson City that forced the family to live in their car. “I just jumped in and helped people move their stuff. I knew what they were going through. This is what humans are supposed to do when people are in need. That’s what it means to be part of a community.”

The Carson Pines debacle underlines housing problems that have been painfully obvious

for decades, and which have rapidly gotten worse over the last several years. Real estate values have soared; rents skyrocketed; and wages remained stagnant. Affordable housing is scarce and often tenuous; landlords aren’t held accountable when tenants suffer due to a property owner’s actions (or inaction); and when lawmakers try to level the landlordtenant playing field, lobbyists with the most money or political clout usually win the game.

Carson Pines’ legal

problems began in May 2021, when animalcontrol officers responding to a complaint noted significant damage to the second-floor walkways, court records show.

Code

“ I just jumped in and helped people move their stuff. I knew what they were going through. This is what humans are supposed to do when people are in need. That’s what it means to be part of a community. ”

— Chelsie Padilla, whooncewentthrough a no-cause eviction

A closeup of the outdoor staircase shows metal parts are rusting away and the concrete steps are deteriorating. The city’s condemnation notice warned of the danger of “injury or death” if the stairs are used.

Photo by Frank X. Mullen

Shawna Alvarado, with her son, 13, who has autism, and daughter, 7. They are just one of the many families who had to vacate their home.

inspectors were called in and documented that the building’s supporting structures were rotting away. Several other buildingcode violations were noted, and the city filed “chronic nuisance” charges against the landlord.

William Kranz, who owns the building, entered a not-guilty plea to the charges on June 22, 2021. In October 2021, the city sent a notice of building-code violations to the landlord for structural and safety violations involving the foundation, the roof, stairwells, floors and other parts of the twostory building.

A report on a structural inspection in September 2022 by Robison Engineering documented severe damage to the second-story railings, stairwell, decking and roof. “Many of these issues could have been avoided with regular maintenance and proper construction techniques,” the report noted.

Kranz and Eagle Real Estate, the management company involved, did not return multiple messages from the RN&R asking for comment. At a hearing in Carson City Justice Court on Jan. 6, Judge Kristin Luis ordered that all remaining second-floor tenants must leave their apartments, because the second floor isn’t safe. Kranz’s lawyer told the judge that repairs weren’t made due to difficulties obtaining the construction materials needed to fix the stairwells, where concrete stairs are cracked, and iron supports are deteriorating.

At the hearing, which was attended by more than 20 tenants, Thomas Marshall, an engineer contracted by the city, testified that the building’s roof and stairwells are structurally unsafe and could injure or kill residents who remain there. Marshall testified that the recent storms exacerbated the problems.

“We are being thrown out into the streets!” one tenant said from the audience while Marshall was on the witness stand. After the hearing, a few tenants returned to the building at 201 David St. to remove their possessions. Judge Luis said she is considering contempt charges against Kranz, who is again scheduled to appear in court on Jan. 31. Kranz is selling the building, according to court testimony. His former tenants, meanwhile, are struggling to get their lives back on track.

“We left so much behind,” said Jamie Burke, who had lived in Carson Pines since 2017 with her husband, Cameron, and their 5-year-old daughter. “Half our life, just gone, for nothing else but pure greed and negligence.” The

family stayed with relatives as they looked for a new place.

“We are blessed… There are other families that don’t have that luxury right now,” said Burke, who has since found an apartment. A friend set up a now-disabled GoFundMe account to help the family, as did six other displaced tenants. Links to those accounts can be found on the Carson Pines Help Group Facebook page and the digital version of this story on RenoNR.com

John Vela, his wife, Adrianna Domaratius, and their dog Blaze, were finally able to move out of their apartment on Jan. 6, after their U-Haul truck kept getting stuck in the snow and ice during previous attempts to vacate the building. They are staying in a motel while they try to find another apartment.

“People from the community came by and helped people move or gave us boxes,” Vela said. “Some contributed to our GoFundMe account. That’s about the only good thing

in this situation. We met some good people and people (in the complex) we hadn’t talked to before. Tenants moved their belongings and then came back to help other tenants. Carson City (Health and) Human Services helped a lot. When we find a place, they will pay the security deposit.”

Some of the former residents of Carson Pines received enough assistance to find temporary housing, but are worried about being able to find a more permanent solution. The average rent at Carson Pines was about $800 a month for a one-bedroom, but the average rent in Carson City is $1,400, and $1,600 per month in Reno, according to RentCafe.com.

Dee Dee Foremaster, executive director of the Rural Center for Independent Living and the Do Drop In day refuge for the unhoused and mentally ill in Carson City, said the displaced tenants have few options. On Jan. 19, Foremaster asked the Carson City Board of Supervisors to form a panel to explore ways to make sure situations like Carson Pines won’t be repeated. Grants and deferred-payment loans to rehabilitate low-income housing are available, and the city and state need to increase incentives for building affordable housing, she said. “People need housing first—a roof over their head before anything else,” Foremaster said. “We don’t have near enough housing for the working poor and the low-income families. And when people get housing (subsidy) vouchers, many landlords refuse to accept them.”

Foremaster has known Kranz, the landlord, for more than 40 years. He often has helped provide low-income housing to her clients, she said. “(Kranz) should have made those repairs, but the city should have worked with him, not just sent threatening letters,” she said. “The whole thing could have been handled differently instead of leaving the tenants holding the bag.”

The Nevada Housing Coalition reports there are limited opportunities for the 81.5 percent of extremely low-income Nevadans who pay more than half their income in rent. Affordable-housing programs are available for residents making 80% or below the median income, which is about $45,000 a year in Nevada. The state lacks more than 84,000 units for those with extremely low incomes (less than $29,200), according to the coalition. New rental properties are being built, but those often are luxury units, which generate larger profits for developers.

Existing affordable housing, Foremaster said, often involves blighted properties. “The city needs to work with landlords to see what can be done,” she said. “Red tags (condemnation) should be a last resort. That puts people out in the street and desperate to get a roof over their heads.”

Some tenants queried lawyers about filing a lawsuit against Kranz, but were told there isn’t much that can be done legally.

“There’s nothing in the (landlordtenant) statute that’s going to be very helpful,” said Drew Wheaton, supervising attorney at Northern Nevada Legal Aid. “There are not a continued on next page

“ We left so much behind. Half our life, just gone, for nothing else but pure greed and negligence. ”

—JamieBurke, who had lived in Carson Pines since 2017 with her husband,Cameron,and their5-year-olddaughter

One of the outside stairways at the Carson Pines Apartments. Photo by Frank X. Mullen

Adrianna Domaratius moves a mattress at the Carson Pines Apartments on Jan. 6. Photo by Frank X. Mullen

lot of remedies there. (The tenants) may have a negligence claim, but those are pretty involved and may take a while.”

Lawmakers could change that dynamic, he said.

“There could be steps put in place if there are large structural issues, structural integrity problems—maybe requiring all tenants to be notified, not just the landlord,” Wheaton said. “That way, the tenants would have more information about what’s coming down the pipeline. Also, there could be remedies in place on the back end, so if the landlord doesn’t do anything, and the tenants are forced to move out for valid reasons like safety, the landlord could be on the hook for finding alternate housing or paying for alternate housing.”

Some of the displaced tenants who have set up GoFundMe accounts (find the links at the version of this story at RenoNR.com) are surviving one day at a time as they look for a way to find more permanent housing. They include:

• Shawna Alverado, a single mom with two children, ages 13 and 7. The Dec. 26 notice to vacate, she said, “came as a complete shock. … We have no family here, and we have nowhere to go. This has been extremely hard on my kids, especially my son who is 13 and on the (autism) spectrum. … I am asking please whatever you can do to help get us into a new place.”

On Jan. 20, she thought her family could move into another apartment, but was rejected because she has a large dog, a support animal for her son.

“I literally have no fight and no tears left in me,” she wrote on the Carson Pines Help Group Facebook page on Jan. 20.

• Aprille Knight, her boyfriend and their 1-year-old son moved into the apartment building in July and were not told about the impending condemnation. “My boyfriend and I only have one income, and we are struggling with finances,” she wrote.

• Laura Hanson is a single mom with two children. “I’m working three jobs just to scrape by now and have to take off the time just to do all of this. So I’m missing out on money and

spending money I don’t have to move. … I’m raising money to help with the moving cost and getting into a place.”

• Miles Eylar, his wife and his daughter have a place to move into, but are staying in a motel until they can do so. “… I just really need help paying for the deposit and a hotel/ motel,” Eylar wrote.

• Another tenant, identified by the initials S.A., wrote that he has been homeless before and is probably going to wind up on the streets again. He noted that he had the apartment for two years, but it was “ripped away within days! I don’t want to be homeless again. I just started doing good. I’ve never asked for much at all in life. But I am in need of help now.”

• Sandi A and her adult daughter also are struggling to find another place to stay: “I don’t have a vehicle, and the money I have is not even enough. Everything right now seems like a nightmare every day. All I

know is I can’t give up. I won’t. … I survived a lot, and can’t just give up and be homeless again.”

Jim Leslie said William Merritt’s GoFundMe donations will help him and his friend meet the costs of staying in California while Merritt gets his cancer surgery Feb. 3, and to find housing in Carson City thereafter. The account has so far raised about $2,500 of its $3,500 goal.

The donations have been a godsend, Merritt said. “I feel I have the whole community rooting for me, and there’s no better feeling. I cry happy tears, and it helps me push through this after your kind words, too. What a wonderful place to call home. I feel like you're all family.”

Chelsie Padilla, who, with her sons, ages

10 and 7, helped three tenant families move out of Carson Pines during the first week of January, said she has been the beneficiary of “random acts of kindness” and wanted to pay that debt forward.

“Having gone through a no-cause eviction, I knew there’s no help out there, no rental assistance, no affordable housing,” she said. “People who haven’t been through it just don’t understand (the lack of services) and how hard it is getting a place to stay if you are kicked out of your apartment. You look for help and keep hitting dead ends.”

One of the tenants they helped move out was a 75-year-old veteran who couldn’t understand why he had to leave his home. “He kept breaking down and wasn’t prepared for this,” Padilla said. “He just didn’t know what to do. It’s heartbreaking.”

She told her sons that they had a duty to assist others, even if it meant fighting the snow, slush and freezing temperatures. She reminded them of the time they had to live in a Ford Festiva, and the people who assisted them.

“Humans are built to do that. That’s why we have emotions, to help other humans and care about them when they are in need,” Padilla said. “Religion or politics or whether or not you know them doesn’t matter. Just help! A little bit of help here and there makes a big difference.”

“ The (GoFundMe) donations have been a godsend. I feel I have the whole community rooting for me, and there’s no better feeling. I cry happy tears, and it helps me push through this. … What a wonderful place to call home. ”

— William Merritt, whoisfacingcancer surgeryFeb.3

Aprille Knight with her 1-year-old son (pictured above) and boyfriend (not pictured) just moved into the apartment in July and were not told about the impending condemnation.

Jim Leslie, left, and his friend, William Merritt, right, while staying in a friend’s living room after being forced to vacate their apartment at the Carson Pines complex. Merritt faces a second surgery for throat cancer on Feb. 3. Photo by Frank X. Mullen

In Nevada, landlords hold all the cards— and tenants have few rights or recourse under the Silver State’s speedy eviction system.

Jonathan Norman, the statewide advocacy, outreach and policy director for Nevada Coalition of Legal Service Providers, said reforming Nevada’s “backwards” summary eviction law will be a priority in the coming legislative session.

For decades, critics of the Nevada summary eviction system—which is unique among the 50 states—have complained the process is backward and counterintuitive. That’s because it’s up to the defendant, the tenant, to initiate the involvement of a court.

“I’m not aware of any other legal proceeding that starts with someone filing an answer,” Norman said. Having landlords start the 7-day-eviction procedure by filing a notice with the court, rather than just taping a notice

to tenants’ doors and having the tenants file an affidavit with the court if they want to fight, would also provide a way to accurately track evictions in the Silver State, he said.

“We have no idea how many of those notices are posted every month,” Norman said.

Under current law, a landlord can download an eviction form from the internet, fill it out and put it on a tenant’s door. If a tenant wants to fight the eviction, they have to file an answer with the court, and a hearing will be scheduled. If the tenant vacates instead, there’s no official record of the eviction. “That’s functioning like an eviction, but there’s no way to track it,” Norman said. “That way, there’s no way to even understand the scope of the problem. … We’re missing all those cases where households are getting those 7-day notices.”

If the tenant doesn’t file an answer with the court, the landlord can apply for a lockout

notice after seven days. “So I think the speed of the process in Nevada is also a problem,” Norman said. “What I hear from legal services all over the state is that often, the first time the tenant really understands that they are going to lose their housing is when they get a lockout notice from the constable.”

By then, he said, it’s usually too late. “We really try to scramble to do things, but (by then), it’s really hard to intervene for a good outcome,” Norman said. “And the cost for our social services, when they have to engage in that rapid re-housing, is very expensive.”

Transparency regarding the added fees that landlords charge to tenants also needs to be addressed in law, Norman said.

“There are often ancillary fees, starting with application fees when people apply to rent a unit,” he said. “If (a landlord) has one or two units to rent, and dozens of prospective tenants are paying application fees, that money should be returned” to the applicants who didn’t get the apartments.

Other fees include “portal” charges when a tenant pays rent online. “That’s all included in the costs of housing, but a lot of those are (now) hidden,” he said, which allows unscrupulous landlords to take advantage of the system.

Other priorities for reforming landlordtenant laws, he said, include bills that failed

to pass in the 2021 legislative session, and extending a law related to rental assistance programs, which is scheduled to sunset in June: Two years ago, lawmakers passed Assembly Bill 486, which connected eviction proceedings to the rental-assistance process, to prevent tenants from being locked out while applications were being approved. That law expires June 5, but can be reauthorized in the session.

“That legislation allows the tenant to have a defense if they have a pending rental assistance application,” Norman said.

Lawmakers also are expected to revisit a proposal extending the period of no-cause eviction from 30 to 60 days. That provision, which was opposed by the Nevada State Apartment Association, made it through the State Senate in the 2021 session, but died in the Assembly when Sandra Jauregui, a real estate agent, declined to schedule it for a hearing.

In general, Norman said, Nevada’s speedy eviction process needs to be slowed down to allow tenants more time to deal with an eviction and/or find alternative housing. In Nevada, he noted, tenants facing eviction often are put in a position where they have just days to figure out how they will keep a roof over their heads.

—Frank X. Mullen

RECOGNITION, FINALLY

The Nevada Museum of Art gives sculptor Adaline Kent (1900-1957) a long overdue retrospective exhibition

Women artists are finally getting the recognition they deserve—even in death. Thanks to the Nevada Museum of Art, one such artist is Adaline Kent (1900-1957), considered one of America’s most innovative and under-recognized midcentury artists. Adaline Kent: The Click of Authenticity, which just opened at the NMA and will be on display through Sept. 10, is the first retrospective exhibition of her work in nearly

60 years. It includes about 120 sculptures, drawings and other works that span Kent’s entire career. Some of the works have never been shown before.

Kent’s passion for nature, the High Sierra and her time in the Tahoe region are just part of her remarkable story. She was one of seven children of women’s rights activist Elizabeth Kent and U.S. Rep. William Kent; their family home was at the foot of Mount Tamalpais in

what is now called Kentfield.

“When you look at the old family home, it seems embedded into the mountain there,” said Apsara DiQuinzio, senior curator of contemporary art at the Nevada Museum of Art. “I think that’s an important context through which to understand her work. She was very much a part of the early environmentalist movement in the early 20th century.” Family friends included John

Muir, a naturalist famously known for creating several national parks.

Kent married Robert Howard in 1930; they shared a love of nature and spent much time in the Sierra Nevada, including skiing trips in the Tahoe region.

Kent’s connection to the Nevada Museum of Art came about through a blessing in disguise. The COVID-19 pandemic led to cancellations at two institutions that were organizing an Adaline Kent show. But DiQuinzio—working at the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive at the time—had one more feather in her cap.

“When I started talking to the Nevada Museum of Art, I brought up the idea of this exhibition, realizing that it might even be a better fit for the Nevada Museum of Art, given its context of the High Sierra,” she said. “The museum was really intrigued and supportive.”

Her efforts to galvanize the exhibition led the museum to produce an exhibition catalogue that is the first scholarly publication on the artist to date.

“This is the outcome of many years of researching and thinking about Adaline Kent’s work,” DiQuinzio said. “We have great contributions by Prof. Alexander Nemerov of Stanford University, and Jeff Gunderson, who is an archivist and librarian at the Anne Bremer Memorial Library at the San Francisco Art Institute. Both Adaline Kent and Robert L. Howard were closely involved with that institution for a majority of their lives. (Also involved is) Elaine Yau, who is an associate curator at the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, where I used to work.”

The catalogue was designed by the Purtill Family Business in Los Angeles.

“We had a great rapport with the designer, Connie Purtill, who really responded to Adaline Kent’s work,” DiQuinzio said. “I think the design of the catalogue turned out beautifully.”

The exhibition title, though, is a bit curious: The Click of Authenticity.

“It comes from a kind of poetic note that she wrote down in her notebooks,” DiQuinzio said. “The ‘click of authenticity’ would be when she developed a work of art that she felt was unique. She was very interested in the idea of infinity, and how infinity was experienced on mountain tops and in nature. Her notion of authenticity is linked to that experience.”

Kent considered herself primarily a sculptor, and began sculpting in her early 20s. She studied with Ralph Stackpole, one of San Francisco’s leading artists in the 1920s and

Adaline Kent in her studio standing next to her sculpture “Night Club,” 1930. Collection of the Adaline Kent family

’30s. She then went to Paris and took lessons with the influential French sculptor EmileAntoine Bourdelle at the Académie de la Grande Chaumiere. She lived in Paris for several years before returning to the Bay Area.

During the 1940s and 1950s, Kent’s work was featured in exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Bienal de Sao Paulo. She also became a member of the San Francisco Bay area’s prolific mid-century artistic clan, with Charles H. Howard, Madge Knight, John Langley Howard, Robert Boardman Howard, Henry Temple Howard and Jane Berlandina.

However, the art world at the time was almost exclusively male-dominated.

“She was part of a whole group of women artists in the 20th century whose work was not recognized as being a significant contribution to art history,” DiQuinzio said. “And so there is a kind of excavation that’s happening now to re-explore and re-examine their contributions, because they play a significant role in shaping 20th century or modern art. … We’re looking beyond the Picassos and the Magrittes of art history and thinking about all the other artists who played an important role in helping give shape to what we now think of as modern art.”

Kent’s life was cut short just as her career was starting to take off: In 1957, she died in a car accident while driving on the Pacific Coast Highway in Marin County. She was only 56 years old. Left behind were her husband and their two daughters, Ellen and Galen, both in their early 20s.

Adams and Walt Disney,” DiQuinzio said.

Kent left $10,000 in her will to create an annual award recognizing promising California artists. Long sponsored by the San Francisco Art Institute, the award was ultimately named the Adaline Kent Art Award. The Marin Conservation League also established a memorial fund in her honor that helped finance a redwood forest in Lagunitas called the Samuel P. Taylor State Park.

Kent’s legacy is undeniable—but is the Nevada Museum of Art taking a risk in showing the work of a fairly unknown woman artist who passed away in 1957? DiQuinzio said that if so, it’s a risk worth taking.

“I think there’s a real hunger and desire to learn more about artists who are women and who have been overlooked by the historical canon,” she said. “I think it’s necessary and very relevant to our moment.”

Adaline Kent: The Click of Authenticity will be on display through Sunday, Sept. 10, at the Nevada Museum of Art, 160 W. Liberty St., in Reno. For more information, call 775-3293333, or visit nevadaart.org.

RUDRESH MAHANTHAPPA

FEBRUARY 11

LANEY LOU & THE BIRD DOGS

MARCH 11

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APRIL 15

“There were a lot of people who her death impacted. The family still has boxes of condolence letters from people like Ansel “Figment” (1953).

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“Never Fear” (1948).

War of words

Brüka’s ‘Lifespan of a Fact’ debates the difference between truth and facts

As a graduate student at UNR in the late ’90s, I took a journalism class called “Advanced Writing.” The instructor had one unwavering rule: An assignment with even one factual inaccuracy would earn an immediate failing grade. She explained this was a rule of journalism we’d all be expected to abide by in our careers—and it was one I could respect … until our second major assignment, a personality profile, when I wrote that my subject had attended “Weslayan” University.

I earned an automatic F on the paper. Despite my passionate cries in her office of, “It was just a misspelling! That’s not fair!” she held firm.

“It’s a factual inaccuracy. What if you

were writing about a crime committed by a William Smith, with an ‘i,’ and you write it with a ‘y’? You’ve just accused the wrong man. The F stands.”

Though I received an A in the class, it was a hard pill to swallow and a lesson I would never forget. It came rushing back to me as I watched a sneak-preview performance of Brüka Theatre’s The Lifespan of a Fact

Based on the titular book by John D’Agata and Jim Fingal—who also happen to be two of the three main characters—the play, directed here by David Richards, is an exploration of what constitutes truth in journalism. Although the book was written in 2012, it was prescient in how it nails our current climate of “alternative facts” and “misinformation,”

making it a juicy, provocative 90 minutes.

It takes only three actors to tell this true(ish) story of what is essentially a standard journalistic practice. Emily Penrose, played by Kathy Welch, is the editor of a well-respected New York magazine. She begins the play at her desk, interviewing a potential intern, Jim Fingal (played by Ryan Corrigan), for a quick fact-checking job. The following Monday, she’s hoping to publish a remarkable 15-page essay by writer John D’Agata (Bob Ives), about a young man’s jump to his death from the top of the Stratosphere in Las Vegas. She’s sure it’s a winning feature, if she can only make sure the facts are checked. Fingal, an enthusiastic candidate, seems like the right fit.

Fingal sets right to work—and immediately

uncovers a variety of factual errors, from the miniscule (Are there 31 or 34 clubs?) to the major (Wait … how did that person die again?). Penrose, under enormous deadline pressure, foists the young man off to the author to speed up the process.

But D’Agata is having none of it. Changing his words amounts to destroying the story, he claims. “I’m not interested in accuracy,” he says. “I’m interested in truth.” But aren’t they the same thing? Maybe not. After all, everyone’s truth is unique to them. If he’s done the boy’s death justice, and honored his truth, isn’t that the goal?

What follows is an in-depth examination of the nature of various f-words: fiction, facts and fake news. How much do all the nitpicky details matter, really, if the story resonates and feels true? Do such changes rob the story of its soul? If no one on Earth knows the answer, is it OK to make something up? Who does it hurt?

And in the midst of such esoteric discussion, our poor editor is faced with more practical matters. How can she get this story ready to publish in time?

While I absolutely love what this play makes me think about—and I’m still thinking about it a lot—don’t think for a minute it isn’t fun. The script is filled with wry, subtle, rapid-fire comedy that underscores how inane the idea of fact-checking can sometimes be … but also why it matters.

Lifespan of a Fact is performed at 7 p.m., Thursday through Saturday; and 2 p.m., Sunday, through Saturday, Feb. 11, at Brüka Theatre, 99 N. Virginia St., in Reno. Tickets are $28 with discounts in advance, and $30 at the door. For tickets or more information, call 775-323-3221, or visit bruka.org.

HRPS 2023 SPEAKER PROGRAMS

Sunday, February 12, 2023 at noon

Presenter: Anne Simone with ZoAnn Campana

historicreno.org

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The Life and Works of Frederic J. DeLongchamps

Bob Ives, Kathy Welch and Ryan Corrigan in Brüka’s production of Lifespan of a Fact Photo/David Robert

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Howling good time

Reno Little Theater’s ‘Baskerville’ is a zany take on a classic Holmes mystery

There’s a mystery afoot at Reno Little Theater: The heirs to the Baskerville fortune keep getting murdered, and there’s a hellhound on the loose. But in this madcap parody of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s classic The Hound of the Baskervilles, those in attendance are in far more danger of dying from laughter.

The play by comedic genius Ken Ludwig, Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery, pits the world’s most-famous detective, Sherlock Holmes (played here by Rosie Calkin), and his sidekick, Dr. Watson (Ryan Costello), against the evil hound rumored to wander the desolate and unforgiving moors of England, killing off the male heirs to the Baskerville fortune as part of a deadly curse—and this is where Ludwig’s version veers from the original. In this wacky

retelling, five actors play a mind-boggling 40plus characters, wrangling a dizzying array of costumes and props, changing accents on a dime, and navigating an intricate and ingeniously designed set as they race to solve the mystery … although I’d argue that whodunit is almost an afterthought.

The newest heir, Sir Henry of Texas, has come to claim his fortune and has hired Holmes to solve the murders before he himself falls victim. Henry is played by “Actor 2,” Ian Sorensen, a longtime favorite among locals for his comedic and improvisational skills who moved to Seattle two years ago—a loss we all felt acutely. I’m thrilled to report he’s back and as funny as ever as the goofball, gun-loving Texan with a heart of gold who works with Watson to infiltrate Baskerville Hall and uncover the truth behind the curse.

He also portrays an array of characters, from the constantly snacking, cockney-accented Inspector Lestrade, to a curly-haired domestic servant, and more.

Also integral to the performance are Actors 1 and 3—Jim Sturtevant and Katie Hughes, respectively. Each of Sturtevant’s characters is more absurd than the next: There’s Dr. Mortimer, who alerts Holmes and Watson to the case; a cockney street urchin who helps Holmes by spying; the somber, Lurch-like, German-accented man who, along with his wife, is caretaker of Baskerville Hall; a bizarre, butterfly-obsessed stranger who wanders the moors; and more.

Hughes displays remarkable versatility and comedic timing and she ping-pongs between a fellow cockney street urchin, a nurse, Henry’s love interest, an opera performer, and the other

The cast of Reno Little Theater’s Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery: (front row) Rosie Calkin and Ryan Costello; (back row) Ian Sorensen, Jim Sturtevant and Katie Hughes.

mysterious and bizarrely accented caretaker, and others—often in the blink of an eye.

High-speed costume changes are impressive, but all the more so when involving mustaches, wigs and pantaloons, not to mention radical changes to facial expressions, voice timbres and accents. Across the board, all the performances remain strong, with comedic timing sharp at all times; the laughs keep coming for the duration, which is a rarity, in my experience. There are gags aplenty, and the scenes are mayhem, but never chaotic— frequent costume failures and other unexpected challenges just become fodder for comedy, a way to play more with the audience. Take, for instance, Hughes’ costume change delay that results in an off-stage call, “I’m coming, wait a minute!”

Not to be overlooked is Chad Sweet’s direction, which involved guiding actors through an ever-changing, constantly moving set involving scaffolding on wheels, custombuilt projections, doors that become beds and tunnels, and impressive uses of lighting and sound.

In this darkest, gloomiest, wettest of winters, what does one do to stay lighthearted and be entertained? It’s elementary! Start with tickets to Baskerville.

Reno Little Theater’s production of Ken Ludwig’s Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery will be performed at 7:30 p.m., Thursday through Saturday; and 2 p.m., Sunday, through Sunday, Feb. 12, at 147 E. Pueblo St. Tickets are $28, with discounts. For tickets or more information, call 775-813-8900, or visit www.renolittletheater.org.

Photo/David Robert

Nostalgically decent

Netflix’s ‘That ’90s Show’ is just cute enough; ‘A Man Called Ove’ is inferior to the Swedish original

Netflix gets mixed results with the sequel to That ’70s Show

In all honesty, I watched the first five episodes of the 10-episode season and had a review of That ’90s Show—mostly negative—nearly finished. My brother kept texting me about how cute he thought the show was, so I decided to soldier through and watch the other five to complete the season.

Turns out, the show is actually kind of cute in the end. It still has its problems; here’s hoping the creators get a chance to improve things with a second season.

Set in 1995, That ’90s Show brings back

Red (Kurtwood Smith) and Kitty (Debra Jo Rupp) as they deal with an all-new batch of kooky kids, some of whom are the offspring of the original show’s then-teenagers.

The first episode sees the return of the nowmarried Eric (Topher Grace, looking just like he did in the original show) and Donna (Laura Prepon) as they drop off their teen daughter, Leia (Callie Haverda), for a summer stay. She makes friends with a new group of teen weirdos, including Jay (Mace Coronel), son of Kelso (Ashton Kutcher) and Jackie (Mila Kunis), who also make brief appearances.

Seeing the gang back together is great. Problem is, the adults disappear for the majority

of the episodes in favor of the new group … and they are not quite on the same level as the original crew. They grow on you a bit as the season plays out, but I’m not sure this group will ever measure up.

The show is good when Red, Kitty and the old gang are involved; otherwise, it feels like one of those Disney Channel teen comedies. Maybe that was the intent … to do something authentically cheesy, like a lot of the shows that actually aired in the ’90s? If that was the case, they’ve succeeded in crafting something authentic, and sporadically entertaining, and occasionally too fluffy.

There’s enough vintage Red and Kitty, some Fez (Wilmer Valderrama) and enough decent moments with the new group to give this one mild thumbs-up. Netflix needs to pony up some more dollars to get Grace and Kutcher to hang out for a couple more episodes if they do a second season.

That ’90s Show is now streaming on Netflix.

A Man Called Otto, a remake of A Man Called Ove, is quite inferior to the Swedish original. The 2015 original had true heart and a surprisingly epic scope. This remake, with Tom Hanks in the central role of Otto, feels like a derivative sitcom despite some decent performances.

Hanks, in a performance far superior to his miserably bad turn in Elvis, plays a widower who’s just about done with this world after losing his wife. He’s suicidal, and he’s kind of nasty, yet his neighbors still find him amusing, as does a neighborhood cat. He is Tom Hanks, after all.

Will Otto’s heart soften? Will the cat become attached? This is a movie where everything goes according to the stereotypical plan. I’m guessing the producers figured that most viewers have not seen the original film, so there is little effort toward making this anything more than a halfhearted retread.

If you haven’t seen the original, you might find this film to be OK. Hanks is enjoyable enough, doing his version of Clint Eastwood’s crusty old guy in Gran Torino, minus the racism.

Truman Hanks does a fairly good job of playing a younger version of Otto in flashbacks, which makes sense, because he looks like a younger version of his dad.

The existence of this film is fairly inconsequential thanks to the existence of the superior original. That said, only seven or eight people in America saw A Man Called Ove, so most people will probably enjoy A Man Called Otto more than I did.

Callie Haverda and Debra Jo Rupp in That ’90s Show

Tom Hanks in A Man Called Otto.

Plants preferred

Reno just lost one of its first vegan eateries; can the community fill the void?

Regulars were saddened when Nom Eats, one of the first vegan hot spots in Reno, closed its doors on Dec. 31.

During the final weeks of 2022, customers visited the restaurant in the West Street Market to say goodbye as they picked up their last Nom burrito or smash burger. Patrons lamented the loss of the eatery—and bemoaned the relatively limited options that remain for those who prefer plant-based foods, particularly vegan dishes, which contain no animal products at all.

Owners and sisters Robyn and Carly Gurinskas, and partner Ian Mcintosh, said the decision to close wasn’t easy. Although the move into the West Street Market coincided with the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic, the closure was not related to financial difficulties or problems hiring employees, they said. The lockdown in March and April 2020 “didn’t sour the taste; it just made it that much harder,” Mcintosh said.

The partners agreed it was better to “leave on a high note” and have the decision be in their control, instead of some other circumstance forcing them to shut their doors. They said they are grateful for the strong community support they enjoyed for the last eight years, from the restaurant’s genesis as a food truck through the move to the West Street Market.

“People told us we were crazy in the beginning, because Reno is not a big enough town for this,” Robyn said. “But it is definitely way more accepting now then we first started.”

Nom’s former space will soon be occupied by The Fix, which also began as a fully vegan food truck that specializes in falafels.

“I would say things are definitely chang-

ing to a more positive outlook regarding vegan food in our city,” said Jack McGrath, The Fix’s chef. “That being said, there will always be people who don’t want to try our food because it’s vegan. Their loss!”

The number of vegans and vegetarians is rising, according to surveys. Today, about 6% of the U.S. population identifies as vegan, compared to 1% in 2014, according to PlantProteins. co. The site makes the case that omitting animal products from people’s diets benefits their health while simultaneously helping the planet, because animal agriculture is responsible for a large amount of greenhouse gas emissions. The shift in tastes has prompted some restaurants to offer a variety of vegetarian and vegan dishes on their menus.

House of Mexica, at Warren Way and Moana Lane, may be the only 100% plant-based restaurant left in Reno. All the dishes are vegan, but the owners said they avoid using the word, because they want to steer clear of anyone’s preconceived ideas. House of Mexica’s mission statement focuses solely on the creation of food in a holistic way. The cafe has a Mexican-themed menu, and the owners said they try to make their food align with nature to honor their ancestral roots in Mexico. Their mantra is that all the nutrition humans need is found in plants, and that food should be a celebration— that does not need to be overly complicated.

House of Mexica favorites include the “carne asada” nachos—thick, crispy chips with seitan and vegan cheese, seitan, topped with a housemade salsa and (faux) sour cream ($17.17).

Another is the cheese god chimichanga, which gives diners a choice among hibiscus flower, cactus or soy “meat “as the protein. The dish also features bell peppers, beans, onions, tomatoes, vegan queso, sour cream and house-made

| BY TAYLOR HARKER

The former Nom Eats space in the West Street Market is closed, but The Fix, which also specializes in vegan food, is scheduled to move in. Photo/Dave Robert

salsa and guacamole. The ingredients are stuffed in a burrito and deep-fried ($19.19).

The owners said that in the four years they have been open, their customer base has continued to grow. Like the partners at Nom Eats, the House of Mexica owners said plenty of patrons have tried and enjoyed menu items without realizing they don’t contain any meat or dairy products.

The popularity of plant-based dining has evolved since Robyn and Carly Gurinskas started their vegan food truck in 2014. Back then, they said, vegans had few places to go get a meal. The food truck dished out its cuisine outside of Reno Public House on Virginia Street until the early hours of the morning.

“A lot of times, we wouldn’t even really tell people it was vegan until after they tasted it. They would always come back for more,” Carly said.

Nom Eats’ menu and recipes came from Chef Robyn. “I would create different dishes for my friends and give them note cards to tell me if they liked it or not,” she said.

The recipes were created through trial and error. “I would take tofu and think, ‘How can I make this like a ricotta?’” Robyn said.

Nom Eats was known for its all-plant-based burritos, tacos and sandwiches. The Nom burrito, a fan favorite, contained soy curls (a meat alternative made from boiling/dehydrating soybeans), mac and cheese, and coleslaw. The popular “crunch wrap supreme,” inspired by Taco Bell, included faux meat and cheese on a tostada topped with pico de gallo, black beans and a jalapeno cream sauce. It was a healthier facsimile of junk food.

After an accident caused the food truck to go up in flames, they took their menu to the West Street Market. “It was perfect; it was like a restaurant on training wheels,” Carly said.

As they looked for a restaurant location, real estate agents would express concern that a restaurant exclusively serving vegan food would be able to pay its rent on time. The common wisdom was that an all plant-based menu couldn’t be delicious or profitable.

The owners said that the Nom staff members were out to prove the critics wrong—and they did.

Other places to get plant-based fare

• Great Full Gardens, various locations

• Laughing Planet, 650 Tahoe St., 775 3602592; 941 N. Virginia St., 775-409-3410

• Sizzle Pie, 190 S. Center St., 775-525-7437

• Moo Dang, 1565 S. Virginia St., 775-420-4267

• Thali, 148 West St., 775-470-5898

• Pizza Collective, 148 West St., 775-800-6577

• Homegrown Gastropub, 719 S. Virginia St., 775-683-9989

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Happenings

Dance your way down East Fourth Street during Heart Beat of Reno, a 12-hour block party on Saturday, Feb. 11—yes, the Saturday before Valentine’s Day. House DJs will be bumping tunes at Dead Ringer, Black Rabbit Mead, Lead Dog Brewery and Abby’s Highway 40. Eat, drink, support local artists and celebrate love. Find tickets, for $35, on Eventbrite. … Thursday, Feb. 9 is National Pizza Day. Celebrate with a slice from local purveyors, and look for specials throughout the month.

Openings

The Reno Public Market is officially open at what was once Shoppers’ Square, at 299 E. Plumb Lane. With a variety of shops and a dining hall touting 15-plus food and drink options, guests can get their fill of whatever they fancy—and even listen to live music. Reno Public Market is open every day except Tuesday; renopublicmarket.com.

… The Hangout Bar + Kitchen just opened inside the Swift Sportsdome, at 1465 S. Meadows Parkway, in south Reno. Brought to you by the team at Blend Catering, the menu features elevated versions of comfort classics like pizza, sliders and wings, but also surprising items for a sports bar such as pork belly bao buns, oysters and lobster fries; www.thehangoutreno. com. … Rebel Pioneer Bakery’s brickand-mortar location has opened at The Sticks, 704B S. Virginia St., in Midtown. Rebel Pioneer is an organic bakery featuring whimsical cakes, baked goods, breakfast sandwiches and an array of gluten-free and vegan options; www.rebelpioneer.com. … Armando & Sons, an “old school/new school” butcher shop, opened at Rancharrah, 7600 Rancharrah Parkway, Suite 110. Customers can find best-in-class meat and seafood, specialty food products and dine-in or takeaway from a select menu of burgers, sausages and soups; armandoandsons.com.

Closings

Little Philadelphia, a Kietzke Lane icon since 1980, has closed. Owner Jorge Ramos is stepping away and selling the business. … After five years of serving German-American food in Midtown, Brauhaus 701 is closing. It will be replaced by Tequila Catador, a tequila bar and upscale Mexican dining experience, slated to open sometime in February.

—Maude Ballinger

Culinary love

A chat with two Reno couples who are shaking up the local food scene

A sea of pizza, burgers and pasta, Reno’s food scene has been short on foods like Chinese dumplings and Greek souvlaki.

Enter Dumpling Queen and Claio, two fresh concepts owned and operated by young married couples shaking things up around town. With Valentine’s Day around the corner, I sat down with both couples to discuss what it’s like to work with your partner—and get the scoop on their new venues.

Dumpling Queen: Piper Stremmel and Chris Reilly

Dumpling Queen, in a converted 1948 Airstream that serves xiao long bao (Chinese soup dumplings), is located in the back of Abby’s Highway 40, a longtime Reno dive bar. The brainchild of Piper Stremmel and Chris Reilly, Dumpling Queen is an innovative approach to filling Reno’s dumpling dearth.

While Stremmel and Reilly aren’t making the dumplings themselves, they were particular about their source: The Washington statebased XCJ, a company that skyrocketed in 2020 with their flash-frozen, steam-at-home dumplings.

Stremmel and Reilly met in London; she was studying art history for grad school, and he was on a work trip for Apple. Upon learning he was being transferred to Shanghai for work, Reilly asked Stremmel to go with him.

“I was like, ‘Hey I just got an offer to move to Shanghai; it would be so fun,’” he said. “We had literally hung out, like, five times before that. Our relationship really began in Shanghai.”

They lived there for three years, falling in love not just with each other, but with the nuances of Chinese food.

“It’s such an exciting food scene, and all of it was culminating in Shanghai—both super high-end meals and street food,” Stremmel said.

They moved back stateside to the Bay Area in 2016, and married in Reno, Stremmel’s hometown. Reilly, originally from Southern California, was charmed by Reno.

“We thought it would be a lot of fun to move to Reno and get involved in something in a smaller city,” he said.

Not long after that, the couple opened The Jesse, a six-room boutique hotel with elevated taqueria, Estella.

“For us, it was seeing The Jesse and Estella come together, and then thinking, ‘Let’s see what we can come up with; what can we do next?’” said Reilly. “You get hooked.”

Down the street from The Jesse was Abby’s Highway 40, a well-known dive bar the couple had frequented. The couple loved the bar; when they purchased it, they wanted to preserve its history, but also wanted to complement it with something surprising on the patio.

“We had an obsession with dumplings,” said Stremmel. “How fun would it be to do some type of dumpling concept? We found a 1948 Airstream, created a special patio—and just did it.”

Reilly joked that he “does the spreadsheets, and Piper does everything else.” But on a more serious note, he said, “I’ll push us on the front end, of what the vision is. I’m more interested in the real estate and back office side, and Piper is on the people side—the management, building the team and the experience of it all.”

Stremmel added: “I’m a little bit anxious, and Chris is more laid back. It works; it’s fun for us.”

When asked about their Valentine’s Day plans, the couple laughed and looked at each other, saying, “We’ll probably be here, at the restaurant.”

Claio: Aubrey and Tyler O’Laskey

Claio, from the team behind Perenn Bakery, is a “Greek-ish” restaurant on Mayberry Drive centered around a rotisserie and designed for easy takeout. Owners Aubrey and Tyler O’Laskey said the “ish” is important, because they didn’t want to be too compartmentalized.

| BY MAUDE BALLINGER

Aubrey and Tyler met at the Culinary Institute of America in New York. Aubrey, who grew up in Gardenville, said, “I met Tyler on his third day. He came into the kitchen I was working in—and that was it.”

Aubrey and Tyler were told that success in the industry means not having a life outside of the kitchen—but that wasn’t what the couple wanted.

“We connected on being really passionate about culinary but not wanting it to overshadow what else we wanted in life, which was to be married and have a family,” said Aubrey.

The couple opened their first brick-and-mortar location, Perenn Bakery Midtown, in 2018. Soon the opportunity arose to open another Perenn Bakery location at Rancharrah.

While pregnant with their fourth child, and halfway through production at the Rancharrah location, Aubrey said: “We were getting frozen yogurt with our daughters over (at the Mayberry location of Yogurt Beach), saw the space was available, and thought, ‘Oh that’s good; we should just do that.’ And, like, a week later, we signed a lease, and now here we are.”

On working together, Aubrey said: “It definitely took a lot of time for us to find our flow working together as a couple. I think a lot of ideas and then will present them, and then he’ll figure out how those ideas get executed.”

Added Tyler: “It’s cheesy, but it’s like yin and yang, even on the business side. Aubrey’s focused on the cash flow, and I’m on the other side, like how can we save and be efficient with the money we’re making. It’s not perfect, but we’re better together. Every year, we learn something and are constantly balancing—we have a lot of ambition.”

When asked what inspired them to open Claio, Aubrey said: “We’re living in this city where we want to selfishly eat at these restaurants. We want to have that food. And if we feel that way, we can only imagine and hope that the folks who live here appreciate that.”

The couple said they’re focused on building community. “We talk about our group being like a lifestyle company,” Aubrey said. “We have about 70 people in our company now, and we’re really focused on them. … We actually pay for their health care if they work full time.”

Tyler added: “The work/life balance is the only thing that’s going to keep us having the energy to do all of this. … Having kids made us have structure in our life. It holds us accountable.”

When asked about their Valentine’s Day plans, the couple said the restaurant will have a Valentine’s weekend special: rotisserie duck, duck fat potatoes and shared mezze. “The whole meal will be very shareable for two people—just a very cozy evening,” Aubrey said.

As for the couple, Aubrey said with a smile, “It’s Valentine’s Day all the time.”

Aubrey and Tyler O’Laskey.

Photo/David Robert

Upcoming in wine

Expect to hear a lot about low/no-alcohol wines, alternative packaging, and an environmental focus

Welcome to 2023! We have a whole new year of wine-drinking ahead of us. Every year, there are countless predictions about what will happen in the year ahead. The ones that involve Elvis and Bigfoot are always my favorites … but what about wine predictions?

As with Bigfoot, there are a lot of outlandish predictions out there about wine, and trends in wine. However, here are some things I do believe we’ll be hearing a lot about as 2023 goes on.

Low/no alcohol wine: One trend picking up speed is wine with low-alcohol—or no alcohol. Wines are generally considered to be low-alcohol if they are below 10-12% alcohol by volume.

Many younger, health-conscious consumers looking for “healthier” wine. There are many ads for “low-sugar” wines that make the dubious claim that they are better for you—but it is true that alcoholfree and reduced-alcohol wines have fewer calories per glass.

Older wine-drinkers are seeking out these wines, too. Those in the AARP set— that’s people 50 years old and beyond, for you whippersnappers—still love their wine, but find that excessive alcohol can have negative health benefits that affect them more and more as they age. I know one senior wine-lover in their 80s who mixes their regular box wine with a no-alcohol wine, effectively cutting their alcohol consumption in half.

The Cupcake Light Hearted line is a good place to start with low-alcohol wines. The company makes three white wines, a rosé and a pinot noir, all around 8% ABV and 80 calories. If you’re looking for alcohol-free wines, consider brands like Fre Wines, Ariel, and Leitz Eins Zwei Zero Riesling.

Natural/organic/biodynamic wines: Continuing with the theme of consumers looking for healthier wines, expect to see a lot of the terms natural, organic and biodynamic. While all of these terms involve how wine is produced, they all mean very different things. Here’s a quick, admittedly incomplete primer on each.

Natural: The term “natural,” when used with wine, has no legal definition. This means anyone can call their wine natural, regardless of how they produce their wine—so don’t be fooled by slick marketing. Generally, this term means the winemaker added nothing to the wine while producing it—no additives, no sulfur, no chemicals, no filtering and no added yeasts. The best of these wines are stunning and unique; the worst taste sour and dirty.

Organic: The term “organic” is regulated somewhat by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. If a wine is labeled “organic” in the United States, it means the wine-making process has to be organic—with no sulfites added—and the grapes have to be grown organically. If the wine says “made from organic grapes,” it means the grapes were grown organically, but sulfites may have been added during the winemaking process. Organic

Levi Whittaker, of Grafted Whiskey and Wine Bar: “Many of (our customers) are ordering Italian and French wines due to the lack of additives in them that are often found in American wines.” Photo/David

Robert

farming processes focus on what growers can’t apply—think additional chemicals—to the soil or the plants.

Biodynamics: “Biodynamic” refers to a regenerative farming process that focuses on enhancing and improving the entire farming ecosystem. Wines that use the term “biodynamic” on their labels must be certified by Demeter International. While it’s not a requirement, biodynamic wines are typically produced naturally or with low-intervention techniques.

I spoke to Levi Whittaker, the club and events director at Grafted Whiskey and Wine Bar in Rancharrah, about customer-buying trends.

“Our customers are looking for healthier wine options with less additives,” he said. “Many of them are ordering Italian and French wines due to the lack of additives in them that are often found in American wines.”

Whittaker said he’s a fan of truly natural

wines.

“We have a select group of patrons who really know and love natural wines, and I hope we can educate more people to love them, too,” he said.

If you want to try some organic and biodynamic wines, consider bottles from Tablas Creek, Troon, and Bonterra.

Packaging: High-quality wines are now being delivered in alternative packaging—and this trend will continue to grow in 2023. These alternative packages include cans, kegs and bag-in-box packages.

The average wine-drinker today is less concerned about the perceived quality of the container, and more concerned about convenience—like less weight, more durability, and a longer life after being opened, when compared to a glass bottle with a cork. Boxed and canned wines are also much easier to take camping, skiing or to the beach.

There are advantages for the wineproducers, too: Lighter means less fuel used, lower costs and fewer greenhouse-gas emissions.

Bigfoot and I both hope you take these predictions and help turn them into trends that can change how we drink wine for the better: In 2023, let’s drink wines that are better-tasting, better for us, and better for the environment!

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The true experts

We asked some of Reno’s favorite barkeeps for first-date advice

It’s that magical time of year when bars and restaurants begin filling up again after the holiday lull. People start coming back around Valentine’s Day, and with the V-Day crowd comes everyone’s favorite trainwreck: first dates.

The restaurant or bar first date is a staple

in the dating scene; public places are the best place to meet a stranger for a million reasons. Many years in the service industry have given me the superpower to spot a first date from across the room—and I am not alone.

Bartenders can provide the best advice for a wide swath of topics, from the best place

Noel Judal, of Craft Beer and Wine: “I would personally stick with wine or something lower in (alcohol by volume) at first. You don’t want to seem too nervous chugging back martinis.” Photo/David Robert

to get a sandwich within walking distance, to what to order for someone who loves the band Buckcherry. I therefore asked some of Reno’s finest bartenders to share their worldly experience and offer some advice for those going on a first date, because, let’s be honest: Everything is easier when the bartender has your back.

Walk it out; talk it out

One of the most complex parts of picking a first date can be deciding where to go. Things can get awkward fast if your date and the location do not mix.

“The best place for a first date would be a walk first, or an outdoor meeting place to walk to a bar or coffee shop,” said Noel Judal, of Craft Beer and Wine. “If you arrive together at a place, you might feel more connected.”

A light stroll can take some of that pressure off and give you time to get to know one another before you sit down.

Ashley Wheaton, a bartender at Death and Taxes, had some excellent advice for picking the perfect date spot: “Look up three places, and let them pick the location (among them). It’s good to create common ground, and it looks like you are putting in the planning work while also allowing them to have some control.”

Having your date pick an activity from a curated list also shows how excited you are to share your time with them. Everyone loves a thoughtful date.

Do not drink to impress

In this golden age of cocktails, it can be difficult to select a drink among the overwhelming options, let alone pick a drink when you know it may be leaving a first impression. Jamie Stachofsky, front-ofhouse manager at Kauboi Izakaya, had some common-sense advice when asked what to order on a first date.

“Whatever you normally drink!” she said. “I think it’s silly to get off on the first step by pretending to like something you don’t! Be yourself! If you hate negronis, don’t order one just to seem cool.”

I’ll admit it: I have been guilty at times of being a walking drink encyclopedia; my wife deals with it every time we go to a new bar. But Stachofsky wants you to remember: “There is also nothing worse than hearing someone trying to impress their date with their

vast knowledge of Japanese whisky, when everything they say is incorrect.”

It is the bartender’s job to educate your date; nothing looks better than showing you are willing to ask questions when you don’t know the answer.

Know your limits and your surroundings

The most crucial bit of advice for first dates is to know your limits, and think about what impression you want to leave. One of the most common mistakes on first dates is overdrinking.

“I’ve seen numerous people keep saying ‘yes’ to another drink when their date offers, and end up having a few too many. It’s always sad to see a date that was going well end because someone’s too drunk,” Stachofsky said.

Noel Judal also had some sage advice on this topic, “I would personally stick with wine or something lower in alcohol at first. You don’t want to seem too nervous chugging back martinis.”

It’s easy for multiple drinks to go down too fast on a first date—because nothing keeps your hands busy like bringing a glass to your lips. But keep in mind: The average person can only consume one drink per hour without getting drunk; three drinks in an hour on an empty stomach can mean a slippery slope for most folks.

The other limits to remember have to do with the people serving you: Treating your bartender or server poorly is a turn-off for everyone. As front-of-house manager at one of Reno’s busiest restaurants, Stachofsky knows: “While it may be a big day for you and your date, it is just another day for us. Sometimes we are very busy, and sometimes, things inevitably go wrong in every bar or restaurant. We are doing our best and are not out to get you.”

Patience and kindness are very sexy traits, so be kind to the ones helping your date go well.

My favorite bit of advice came from Judal—and I admit I have been guilty of this.

“For god’s sake, please don’t make a late reservation on a first date and keep the whole staff an hour after closing, getting to know each other,” Judal said. “People are selfinvolved on first dates and tend not to notice when every chair beside theirs is up on the tables.”

When a first date is going well, it’s easy to lose yourself in the moment and the romance. As someone who has been on both sides, trust me when I say: You should know when to wrap it up.

All this first-date advice is essentially saying the same thing over and over: Be thoughtful, kind and patient with yourself and everyone around you. The more considerate you are, the sexier you are.

Leave it to the pros

The members of Platinum say that no matter what or where they play, they’re bringing a party

A “professional” musician can simply mean a musician who gets paid. It’s a popular notion—that once you’ve been compensated (and not in “exposure bucks,” as some venues prefer), you have officially transcended the divide that separates amateur and professional players.

But to Allen Palmer, director and guitarist of the genre-spanning cover group Platinum, being a professional has other requirements.

“There’s no ‘talent,’” said Palmer, “There’s pretty much just work, and wherever you can create it.”

Palmer grew up immersed in the music industry around Compton, Calif. A multiinstrumentalist since childhood, he found steady work as a backing musician with Capitol Records, working with soul and R&B artists like Tracie Spencer, Calloway and Tara Kemp. He also found his way onto TV stages, playing live on The Tonight Show With Jay Leno and The Arsenio Hall Show

“We backed artists who were on a particular label and did promotional tours,

just right in L.A., for a long time, “ Palmer said. “The big thing that we prided ourselves on back then is that we were, like, Johnny-on-the-spot. I mean, we knew everybody’s music … so that allowed us to be considered for situations, due to us being up on what was hot.”

Palmer also had a knack for building relationships with other players. For several years, he toured with various bands, playing covers in showrooms, lounges and cruise ships all over the West Coast. He came as close to Reno as South Lake Tahoe—but never actually entered the city. That changed around 1999.

“I ended up playing with this band called Hollywood, which ended up coming to Reno for two weeks,” Palmer said. “An agent approached me here in town at the Silver Club. They were asking, ‘Well, where do you come from? What do you do?’ … They asked me, if they gave us another room to play, would I come up from L.A. to play the room?”

He said yes, and for several years, Palmer commuted from Los Angeles to Reno to play rooms around town—until he met and married his wife in the early 2000s, and relocated to Northern Nevada full-time. Unbeknownst

to Palmer, other musicians with similar professional backgrounds had made moves to Reno around the same time. When he started auditioning players to join his new group, Platinum, in 2014, he recognized a few faces.

“The guys grew up in L.A., kind of doing some similar things,” Palmer said. “We didn’t know each other in L.A., though. But the funny thing is, we were playing some of the same clubs, and that’s how I remembered them up here. … I used to go see them, and—actually, this is the key to it all—the Grand Sierra was where we all met again.”

It was in the Grand Sierra showroom, the venue Palmer wanted to play most upon his arrival in Reno, where he connected with Platinum’s keyboardist and bassist, Terry “TC” Caldwell, and drummer, Deemonier Harris. After a few lineup changes over the years, vocalist Erika Malone—originally from Dallas—joined four years ago, cementing the current lineup.

For the past almost-decade, Platinum has had a steady series of local and regional gigs, bringing their mashup of genres and styles to a dedicated fanbase—many of whom follow the

band from club to barroom to cabaret, looking for a good time.

“We’re unique in the sense of the quality in our sound,” Palmer said. “We pride ourselves on having a certain feel, you know. We’re a big dance band. We’re a big party band, and so our song list is a lot of party music and a lot of happy music.”

Palmer and his bandmates grew up steeped in a variety of sounds. He lists influences like the early Motown greats, Elton John, Led Zeppelin, Wes Montgomery and, especially, Prince. Platinum mostly sticks to funk, R&B, pop and neosoul, but Palmer takes care to mention that just because they play covers, that doesn’t mean they’re a jukebox. Showgoers will hear songs they recognize (everything from Ben E. King to Lady Gaga), but Platinum’s “act” is all about advanced musicality and putting their own spin on hit songs.

“We don’t just play the song like the song,” Palmer said. “What we normally do is speed the song up just slightly, just to have a certain swing. … When someone yells out a song, a request, sometimes you could oblige them … and we normally pull it off, because we put it in our vein. We go, ‘OK, you want a country song? You want to hear “Neon Moon”?’ We’re gonna do ‘Neon Moon’ meets The Temptations.”

Palmer credits the band’s professional experience for what he calls their “natural appeal”—a fluid combination of technique, stamina and stage presence that allows them to adapt to the room and capture the audience’s attention, no matter where (or what) they’re playing.

“It doesn’t matter if we play rock, country, reggae, pop—it’s going to feel a certain way,” he said. “And that’s why people come hang out with us. Before you even play a note or sing anything, your band just walks to the stage, and people start crowding around. That’s a natural appeal.”

In 2019, Platinum’s appeal was undeniable, with shows booked almost every weekend— momentum that was slowed during the pandemic. Over the past year, the band has been getting back on track. Their next shows are scheduled for Feb. 3 and 4 at the Circus Circus; Feb. 10 and 11 at the Legends Bay Casino; Feb. 17 at the Polo Lounge; and Feb. 24 and 25 at the Silver Legacy. Palmer also hopes to get an EP featuring original tracks recorded this summer.

Until then, Platinum knows their Reno audience well—and they plan to keep making them feel that certain way.

Terry “TC” Caldwell, Erika Malone, Allen Palmer and Deemonier Harris are Platinum. Photo/David Robert

Goofy and aggressive

Plain Oatmeal brings a comedygrindcore mix to the Holland Project

Grindcore—an extreme mix of punk and metal—can be intense.

There’s guttural screaming; incomprehensible lyrics being shouted over blast beasts and down-tuned guitar-chugging; and band names like Napalm Death, Pig Destroyer, Cannibal Corpse and—excuse my language—Anal Cunt.

And now we have the grindcore trio named … Plain Oatmeal? Yes, it’s true—and it’s safe to say this Reno group is out to accomplish something different.

Gus Rivera, Joey “Boey” Stout and Tucker Rash make up Plain Oatmeal, a band where heavy punk collides with nonsensical and humorous lyrics, creating the funniest mosh pit you’ll ever be a part of. Their self-titled release offers the Death Grips-reminiscent “Spit in My Mouth,” featuring an Autotuned rant about McDonald’s ketchup packets, while follow-up album Silly Crazy Love is filled with moments of some of the heaviest music you’ve ever heard, including song names like “Beef Supreme” and “Paper Bag.”

Experience this unique mix in person

when Plain Oatmeal performs alongside Golem, Ultra and Mescaline Maniacs at 7 p.m., Saturday, Feb. 25, at the Holland Project.

“There are many phases of Plain Oatmeal, and this modern version is definitely the longest-lasting,” Rash said during a recent Zoom interview. “Plain Oatmeal started originally, before I joined the band, with Joey and Gus here.”

Stout elaborated: “Gus and I were in high school together, and we used to listen to a lot of the same music, and we’d make a bunch of videos. Then we started trying to make music. He was playing Fortnite one time and got killed by someone named Average Soup. He thought that would be kind of a cool band name and said, ‘What if we did Plain Oatmeal or something?’”

Added Rivera: “A lot of our influences back then were things like Nirvana, and that was kind of it, but nowadays, we use bands like Dystopia and heavier stuff like that to really influence our sound.”

After a few pre-pandemic releases, Plain Oatmeal decided to take things more seriously.

“Early in 2021, we were all living together in the same house, and we started really trying to focus on our sound,” Rash said. That’s when

we released that self-titled album. We’re hella proud of that album, because it’s sort of the beginning of us coming into our new current sound. I feel like we’re starting to play a little heavier, and trying to write the songs that we want to hear and have fun with it.

“Things really accelerated for us later that year when we played Holland’s Halloween show as the band Mayhem. We covered them, and learning those old-school, fast-black metal songs taught us the discipline we needed to actually cultivate the kind of music that we’ve been wanting to play this whole time. … Everything after that, like Silly Crazy Love and the split with Golem (Petri Dish), was us really trying to write the kind of heavy shit that we wanted to listen to—and I feel like we really succeeded.”

Rash said the band wants to inspire “an energy” in people.

“When it comes to hardcore, grindcore, powerviolence, it’s really easy to fall into the same sort of tropes and just sort of rewrite songs that have already been written over and over again,” he said. “I think what’s cool about Plain Oatmeal is we take the foundations from those kinds of songs, but we’re still willing to have fun and be goofy and make it a more unique sound. We try to cultivate something that you haven’t necessarily heard before. … We want to make something that’s not only fun to play, but at least a little forward-moving, and has energy and ethos.”

Combining these seemingly polar-opposite worlds came naturally as the trio grew closer. As Rivera put it, the trio “opened up our inner oat.”

“We share a really unique friendship that I really appreciate,” Rash said. “When we write songs, we don’t really need to put much effort into it; we kind of just blast out a song in 20 minutes or something, and we’re always pretty stoked on it. I feel like the three of us have a similar mentality when it comes to creativity. We’re not necessarily trying to take ourselves too seriously, and the most important thing for us is that we’re having fun ourselves. Fortunately, that energy translates into what other people perceive when they listen to us, or when they come to our shows. We’re not trying to be tough guys; we’re not trying to be the hardest of the hardcore or whatever. We’re just trying to have fun.”

Some of the comedy in Plain Oatmeal’s lyrics can be missed, because the vocal phrasing is mostly screams. I asked for some of their favorite lines from songs, and Stout picked: “Microsoft microwaves are lies / My Minecraft is mine.”

From “Hospital Kill,” Rash selected: “‘SpongeBob SquarePants / Clifford the Red Dog / SpongeBob is my dad and I love him / Take your GED.’ That’s one of our gnarliest

songs, too, in terms of the breakdown, and the fact that Joe is screaming about SpongeBob being his dad while we’re playing that—it’s so sick to me.”

Yeah, the lyrics are bullshit. But the band members said that it’s special bullshit.

“You relieve that pressure from yourself when you’re not trying to make something too serious,” Rash said. “Kind of counterintuitively, you end up creating something that feels a little more truthful to whatever you’re trying to express. … This band is very cathartic, and it’s like a release every time we play a song.”

A Plain Oatmeal live show features more energy than laughs.

“It gets violent,” Stout said. “There are a lot of kicks and punches, people jumping on you and drums being thrown.”

Added Rash: “In a fun way. No one’s actively trying to hurt anybody. We totally break shit, but the thing is, the violence or the aggression or whatever is nothing that we’re trying to do. We’re not saying, ‘Oh, dude, wouldn’t it be sick if we tackled each other onstage?’ If we were to plan out our performances like that, it would feel so contrived. It’s just a natural expression of the music, and the physicality of it just comes effortlessly and ends up being pretty aggressive.”

The band attracts a younger, intense crowd.

“There’s hella young people who are super into the stuff that we’re doing, and I’m honestly super-inspired by them,” Rash said. “These are high school-aged kids who are seriously taking charge and leading the next wave of music in Reno and music in general. … I don’t take responsibility for these things as our band, but it is pretty apparent that we’re at the very beginning of a new scene or new movement or a new appreciation of heavier music. I just feel like a lot of kids are Plain Oatmeal fans, and they’re like, ‘Dude, we can make this shit, too.’ That inspires me and makes me want to keep making stuff.”

One example is Golem, with whom the band is playing at the Holland, and who is featured on Plain Oatmeal’s split EP Petri Dish, released late last year.

“They’re some of the high school kids we met because they were coming to our shows,” said Rash. “They’re trying to make their own take on mincecore (a simpler version of grindcore), but all of them are good rappers. … We hung out with them one time while we were about to record the split together, and we’re like, ‘Let’s just all read some bars and put a beat together and make this funny song real quick.’”

Plain Oatmeal will perform with Golem, Ultra and Mescaline Maniacs at 7 p.m., Saturday, Feb. 25, at the Holland Project, 140 Vesta St., in Reno. Tickets are $8. For more information, call 775-448-6500, or visit hollandreno.org. For more information on Plain Oatmeal, visit instagram.com/plain_oatmeal.

Plain Oatmeal.

“23 and Me”—Welcome to the new year!

By Matt Jones

Across

1. Don’t Hassle the ___

5. Pine for

9. Red Sea parter

14. Stuff in lotions

15. Aqueduct feature

16. The Jetsons dog

17. MVP of Super Bowl XXIII (23)

19. “Like, run, ___!”

20. Moving day vehicle

21. Source of vibranium in the Marvel universe

23. ___ Martin (007’s auto)

26. Contented murmurs

28. Replaceable oboe part

29. Early 1900s “King of Broadway” whose musical Little Johnny Jones is credited with popularizing “23 skidoo”

32. “Baker Street” instrument

33. Movie with Blu the macaw

34. Accelerator particles

37. His jersey #23 was retired by two NBA teams (even

though he never played for one of them)

42. Swindle

43. Part of TTYL

44. Talk too much

46. Quiz Show actor whose character reels off “23”-based facts before a pivotal scene

51. World Golf Hall of Famer ___ Aoki

54. Heady beverage

55. Tennis player Naomi

56. Infomercial line

58. “What ___ we going to do?”

59. Arthouse film, usually

60. Comedian and star of the 2007 thriller The Number 23

66. Idyllic settings

67. Leave off

68. Council Bluffs’ state

69. Olympic flag feature

70. Cellphone signal “measurement”

71. Not easily understood Down

1. The ___ (1984 Leon Uris novel)

BY MATT JONES

THE LUCKY 13

Spike McGuire

Local musician, founder of Loud as Folk and executive director of the Brewery Arts Center

Spike McGuire is one of the most prominent members the Northern Nevada music scene. He’s frontman of the Americana band Six Mile Station, and he’s half of Saviors of Mankind, an acoustic hiphop duo with performer Nulyphe. He also runs Loud as Folk, a community group of roots songwriters, and books bands at the Brewery Arts Center in Carson City.

What was the first concert you attended?

John Prine at Pioneer Center for the Performing Arts, right here in ol’ Reno, Nevada. I was about 5 years old, and it made a lasting impression, to say the least.

What was the first album you owned?

A cassette copy of Baby Beluga by Raffi. I honestly think we can thank Raffi’s entire catalog for the modern resurgence of folk music and the singer/songwriter’s rise to prominence. He’s the voice of my generation, and people don’t talk about that enough.

What’s your favorite music venue? The Crown Room at Crystal Bay Casino in Lake Tahoe. They bring in amazing national talent and support local acts; the staff is the best in the business; and Chango always has an immaculate mix.

What’s the one song lyric you can’t get out of your head?

“If I was to tell you that I was an astronaut, would you come with me on my rocket ship?” from “Marianarchy” by Nick Ramirez. That song is always in my head.

2. Flamenco dance cheer

3. Supporting

4. Zeal

5. Raise a red flag

6. Jackie O’s second husband

7. ___-1701 (Star Trek vehicle marking)

8. Pinball Wizard group

9. Piece of hockey equipment

10. Hope of many December movie releases

11. Skipping rock

12. Reduce bit by bit

13. “I need this win ___ I can taste it”

18. Bowen of SNL

22. Pokemon protagonist

23. Merrick Garland and predecessors

24. Baseball stitching 25. Type of masculinity that needs to be called out

26. Parisian’s confidante

27. Priest’s assistant 30. Victorian or Edwardian, e.g.

31. Tire inflater

35. Parminder ___ of ER and Bend It Like Beckham

36. Bit of sarcasm

38. Sweet-talking

39. Patient care gp.

40. Soup du ___

41. ___ Flag Means Death

45. Squeezy snake 47. Cable network with a 50th anniversary last year 48. It may start with orientation 49. Afghanistan’s ___ Bora region 50. Common log-in requirement 51. Less welcoming 52. QI and former Bake-Off host Toksvig 53. Pilgrim in a Longfellow poem 57. Queer Eye star Jonathan Van ___ 58. Talent show lineup 61. Britney Spears’s “___ Slave 4 U” 62. Space station that orbited Earth from 1986 to 2001 63. Spreadable sturgeon 64. Ma who baas

Talk too much

What bands are you listening to right now? Charity Kiss. Kat Heart. Heterophobia. Blunderbusst. Manchild. The new Deadly Gallows record; all bands under the Rachael McElhiney umbrella of musical awesomeness; whoever the weekly guest is on Worst Little Podcast; and everything released through ToneMark Sounds, Humaniterrorist or Voted Best Records. I am on a high-caloric musical diet; I have to consume at least 100 songs a day.

What artist, genre or musical trend does everyone love, but you don’t get? National anthems. I prefer songs that promote global unity.

What musical act, current or defunct, would you most like to see perform live? The Clash.

What’s your favorite musical guilty pleasure? That’s a foreign concept to me. Never let someone make you feel guilty about any joy brought to your life through music.

What band or artist changed your life? How? The Mudsharks. My sister gave me a copy of Crackin’ Porcelain when I was 8 years old. At that age, it was a total revelation that there were “local bands” making music just as good, if not better, than what was on the radio and MTV (which, at the time, still played music).

You have one question to ask one musician. What’s the question, and who are you asking? I’d ask Dolly Parton to leave Carl and run away with me.

What song would you like played at your funeral?

“Everywhere Now” by Willy Tea Taylor/ The Good Luck Thrift Store Outfit.

Figurative gun to your head, what is your favorite album of all time?

… And Out Come the Wolves by Rancid.

What song should everyone listen to right now?

“Best for Last” by Greg Gilmore and the Fever Dreams.

Where else in Northern Nevada can you get your message in front of tens of thousands of people for just $99 per month? Call 775-324-4440

©

Photo/ Jens Peerman

BY DAVID ROBERT

Strengthening disadvantaged communities

Donald Griffin

In 1921, a white mob destroyed the Black Wall Street business corridor in the Greenwood District of Tulsa, Okla. Homes, schools, churches, stores and a library were burned to the ground. An estimated 300 people were killed—the exact number is unknown—with many more injured. The name of Black Wall Street Reno, a nonprofit founded by Donald Griffin and RoMar Tolliver, honors the flourishing Black district in Tulsa that was destroyed more than a century ago. Learn more by calling 775-622-3612, or visiting blackwallstreetreno.org. We recently spoke to Donald Griffin about the group.

Tell me more about the origin of the name Black Wall Street. Black Wall Street originated in the early 1900s in Tulsa, Okla. It was a predominantly Black community, with their own hospitals and grocery stores. It was burned down by a racist mob and bombed by the U.S. Army in 1921. Afterward, the United States paid out a nice amount of money to those families, but some are still waiting to be paid off. Once again, they had to start from scratch.

How did Black Wall Street Reno come to be?

In August 2020, RoMar Toliver (co-founder and president) and I started Black Wall Street. We came together and said, “Let’s form Black Wall Street in Reno, where we can build up our own community and do for ourselves.”

What has Black Wall Street accomplished? We’ve provided more than 5,000 afterschool sack lunches for Pine Middle School, Vaughn Middle School and Traner Middle School. We took more than 200 students last summer ziplining at Project Discovery. We’re developing a mentorship program right now. We’re going to the schools, reaching out and partnering with the school communities.

I understand you’re doing something concerning the drug problem here, especially with fentanyl being such a danger to the community.

Yes, we have started putting out (public boxes containing) Narcan (which can save the life of someone overdosing on opioids). We have five locations around the Reno

area, including at Diamond’s Casino on Sixth Street, Hampton House Garden on Elko Street, Life Change Center on Second Street, at Life Change on Fourth Street, and near Wilkinson Park.

What events do you have coming up?

We have an event, the Black History Month Wellness Fair, at the Boys and Girls Club (2680 E. Ninth St., Reno) on Saturday, Feb. 11, from 2 to 6 p.m. It’ll be with ACCEPT (a communitybased organization providing HIV/AIDS prevention education, intervention and support services targeting African Americans in Washoe County) and the BCC (Black Community Collective). We’re trying to gather the Black population to come together.

What do you see for Black Wall Street’s future here in Reno?

We’d like to have our own shopping center, our own grocery store, our own barbershop and our own drop-in center for our youth.

Is there anything that the community should be aware of?

Yes, we want the community to be aware that we’re full force and addressing the opiate crisis. We’re reaching out by using old newspaper stands as Narcan boxes, and we’re keeping those filled.

What can the community do to help Black Wall Street Reno?

We’re always open to donations to help keep the lights on. We do go out to the unsheltered population, so things like blankets, gloves and hats help, and would be appreciated.