A few days ago at Rio Wrangler and Ridgebrook Drive …why do they keep damaging the HOA owned fence there a local writes, after sending previous content about this fence being damaged and written on with graffiti … also why don’t they just get rid of the fence at this point, they ask …
What is up with the RED development at South Virginia and Plumb now putting three of its parcels up for sale, which can be seen on LoopNet with a screenshot of the area?
“The RED Development parcels are a three-parcel, ±12.6-acre mixed-use development site in the heart of Reno within the Reno Experience District (“RED”),” the listing indicates.
“The Property offers exceptional development flexibility across a wide range of uses. Existing grading, utility backbone and supporting infrastructure are in place, and the Property is located within a designated Opportunity Zone. As RED’s final major development phase, the Property represents a rare opportunity to complete one of Reno’s most distinctive mixed-use destinations.”
The overly hyped Reno Experience District seems to be passing off the baton for an uncertain future on its large property, with its previously promised tech campus just vapor for now, and the touted work live play offerings also very much short on the play.
If you live there how has it been? Do you feel it's been worth what you are paying for?
The LoopNet sale listing can be found here: https://www.loopnet.com/Listing/RED-Development/42434476/
As New York prosecutors now finally work on a criminal inquiry into the alleged rape of a woman at Cornell University in 2024, how would you assess the #metoo movement here in northern Nevada?
With multiple disturbing accounts related to the local arts and recovery scene, did some warrant more attention as well as criminal charges?
What about fraternities at UNR, has the culture there improved? In one not so distant example, in late 2018, TKE was suspended on the UNR campus after documents found left open on an on-campus computer contained pledge songs about sexual assault including references to UNR sororities.
Chi Phi at Cornell is now among the defendants in the much publicized lawsuit brought by the woman identified in court records as Jane Doe, who was then 20, with allegations she “was plied with alcohol and drugs to the point of intoxication” including ketamine by members of the fraternity before being sexually assaulted. It also alleges one of the men sent a Snapchat message to fraternity members to join in the assault which several allegedly did.
The lawsuit prompted the criminal investigation to be reopened after it had previously not been pursued.
A complaint related to fundraising for mayoral candidate Kathleen Taylor in her 2024 council run has been filed with the Secretary of State’s Office by Harrison Emery. It was signed on September 28th and just forwarded to us this morning.
It alleges council member Taylor repeatedly received contributions exceeding limits allowed, referring to NRS 294A.100, with several examples detailed in the complaint.
The referenced statute sets a limit of $5,000 for a primary election and $5,000 for a general election on campaign contributions made or accepted for non-federal candidates in Nevada, with a $10,000 limit across both election cycles.
We will update when we get more information and look more closely into this complaint.
Taylor is facing off in November against Kate Marshall in an election battle getting increasingly testy with divisive issues which include data centers and budgeting abilities. We have written Taylor’s campaign team by email and they responded they were unaware of this.
“Nick Shirley and Jonathan Choe are the badassess (his spelling) that ask uncomfortable questions, uncover the fraud, document what’s actually happening, and tell stories that might otherwise never get told. I’ve got a ton of respect for the work they do,” Grant Denton posted yesterday publicly on his Facebook page where he lists himself as an entrepreneur.
When challenged in comments repeatedly about Shirley’s slopaganda reputation and worse Denton wrote back with variations of “I thought he was a pretty rad dude,” underneath a photo where he poses with Choe, Shirley and what appear to be bodyguards with an overlaid caption indicating “gorilla journalism at its finest” and music by Delinquent Habits.
Not sure what gorilla journalism is, but there is guerrilla journalism which was initiated by Claud Cockburn, a British journalist who resigned from The Times in 1932 after becoming disillusioned with the mainstream establishment's appeasement of fascism. For most guerrilla journalists, having bodyguards would be antithetical to what they stand for.
The photo Denton posted is tagged as being in Seattle where the lesser known Choe was previously a reporter for ABC affiliate KOMO News, who was then fired after live tweeting about a Proud Boys rally on his personal account. His work has since been published on Frontlines, which is part of Turning Point USA, which has a rally coming up at UNR.
Perhaps, Shirley and Choe should look into why and how Denton’s Karma Box project got so many government contracts locally, why the one for the Safe Camp was dropped, the multiple allegations of misconduct by women against him, the missing tax filing years for the nonprofit he founded, two Karma Box supervisors and a contractor being arrested in the past year, and his rising salary from $82,300 in 2022 to $110,480 in the last available filing in 2024.
With buzz mounting about a possible Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez AOC presidential run in 2028, how do you think she would fare if she does run in a crucial second in line Nevada Democratic primary?
Her political father of sorts Bernie Sanders always did well in Nevada primaries, but he always did poorly in South Carolina, which will go first.
Sanders easily defeated Joe Biden in the Nevada caucuses 40% to 19% in 2020, before being clobbered in South Carolina 49% to 20%, which effectively led to his overall Democratic party defeat.
Next up in the 2028 cycle though will be New Hampshire (which Sanders also won in 2020), so AOC could have early momentum if she does run given the current calendar.
If she decides to throw her hat in the ring, the 36-year-old soon to turn 37 would undoubtedly get lots of media coverage and volunteer support.
During a recent interview she recently stated “Woke 1 was crazy,” quoting an earlier tweet from a political ally New York City Council member Chi Osse, before laughing, leading to lots of analysis of what exactly that means.
There has been lots of attention recently on her deciding to freeze her eggs, which she’s posted about on her own Instagram which has nearly 10 million followers as part of normalizing conversations about women’s reproductive health while balancing physical and financial realities.
“Day 16, Recovery Day 2! 🐣❄️,” she wrote a month ago. “Today we are getting into it and discussing how can we make fertility treatment and preservation more affordable and accessible to working people, the finances of my own cycle, how the costs break down, and more.”
More recently she has had posts endorsing Angie Nixon for that politician's Senate run in Florida.
A public relations shakeitoffwashing?
The Public Relations Society of America -Sierra Nevada Chapter is promoting what it’s calling Shake it Off PRSA After Hours for a Zumba class Sunday morning at the Eddy, which recently caused public outrage with its plans to take over the Believe Plaza.
“Who says professional development has to happen sitting down?” the local chapter writes as an intro.
The “After Hours” event is scheduled to begin at 9:30 a.m. on September 27th on Sierra Street.
A website called futureofbelieveplaza.com remains active, while many locals have expressed staunch willingness in keeping the Believe Plaza a public place for skateboarders, protesters, community meals and those relaxing.
"My neighbor doesn't have social media so I'm sharing for them as they had a box stolen from them..Hopefully someone may know who it is," a local writes sharing alleged porch piracy
from the Truckee River Green townhomes area.
While we've seen understandable local pushback to tacky, always the same more or less AI flyers, what about the northern Nevada politicians, pr hacks and marketers who while still being in emoji filled listicles mode have now obviously added heavy use of AI in their posts?
The tell tale signs are unnecessarily long winded posts, less than nuanced, full of epic sounding declarations, and one sentence paragraphs with sections of extremely short gospel emulating proclamations to further plunge their bluster. Have you noticed this as well, and who are some of the recent culprits you've come across?
"Join your neighbors on Saturday, September 26th from 12-5pm in Reno for a training that covers what authoritarianism looks like, what movements have done around the world to defeat it, and how you can take action with local groups in Reno," an event with All Voting is Local indicates with this flyer.
"Whether you’re new or experienced with political activism, come and get the playbook to protect and perfect our democracy in 2026.
The training is free to attend, and we’ll provide snacks, drinks, and a sense of purpose and community. Register now and we hope to see you there! "
The registration link is here: https://www.mobilize.us/indivisiblenorthernnevada/event/1026465/
Do you think Lynn Chapman from the Independent American Party in the northern Nevada Congressional race, the non partisan Danielle Ford in the governor’s race, Janine Hansen from the IAP in the Lieutenant Governor’s Race, John Kennedy from the Libertarian Party of Nevada and Brad Barnhill IAP in the Secretary of State race, Charlene Young IAP in the State Senate District 13 race, or Lisa Lee with LPN for County Commissioner District 5 have any chance of dethroning the Democrat Republican duopoly come November?
For countless reasons, candidates without the D or R very rarely get any substantial voter backing. So why do these candidates run outside the two major parties, which weed out top candidates in primaries? Even Bernie Sanders, the longest serving independent member of Congress in US history, tried to go through the D nominating process for his presidential runs.
Sometimes something can be at play too.
Currently, in other parts of the country candidates with clearly pro-Trump histories have shown up on Green Party tickets while Republicans have accused Democrats of propping up Libertarians to act as spoilers and vote dividers.
These strategies of strange alliances though also rarely seem to work.
In the Reno mayor’s race which even though it’s non partisan we saw candidate Devon Reese and outgoing Mayor Hillary Schieve suddenly being extremely nice in public to another candidate, Eddie Lorton, who used to hurl mean barbs at them on repeated social media posts and elsewhere. The result was that both Reese and Lorton crashed out in June.
Reno mayoral candidate Kate Marshall has publicly posted a lengthy rebuttal to an attack ad by her opponent council member Kathleen Taylor concerning the thorny issue of data centers, and other accusations
If you read it, let us know your thoughts. It ends with a reference to Voltaire, and the importance of improving our immediate surroundings and lives.
Our latest newsletter is out which includes an op-ed plus a recap of our recent reporting.
The promo video for Reno City FC introducing its new “crest” has a voiceover like we are joining a soccer cult of us, which has us just shaking in the stands already.
The logo itself has gotten multiple comments from people saying it seems like the horses are wanting to hump an antique Reno sign.
More worrisome as we pointed out on our social media is why there has been so much focus on the branding and marketing of this project, without even a field to call home or a roster for its USL Championship expansion assembled.
Rather than have a small, cozy stadium with cheap tickets, surrounded by food trucks, local star players to cheer on and work on public transportation access, the developers of this project want to make it part of an extremely expensive entertainment district called “The Boulevard Reno” which sounds like a car centric mall with gaudy fountains.
Whether a TIF is asked for and granted for this in the near future seems to be a big worry.
This comes as we are still uncertain about the timeline of the new GSR arena which has already gotten its approval for tax-increment financing, from council members who receive lots of GSR linked donations; the Reno Revival at the former Harrah’s has been anything but one so far; and Jacobsville is lacking in affordable housing but not in usually unused micro turf soccer fields or huge heat creating parking lots.
There always seems to be a lean into the costly faux luxury with high prices with these projects. Are people behind these projects forgetting about the little in the Biggest Little City?
Speaking of Jeffrey Jacobs, what is he doing in the Bahamas, long known as a high-risk offshore financial center vulnerable to money laundering, and a former playground of another wealthy Jeffrey.
Wasn’t Jacobs saying Reno was his last big project with all his chips in here?
“Eleuthera residents pushed back strongly against a proposal involving roughly 100 acres of Crown land at Navy Base Beach, ultimately prompting American developer Jeff Jacobs to withdraw that component of his planned Governor’s Harbour development,” a recent ewnews.com article from the Bahamas points out, which has been previously documented by Mike’s Reno Report.
Eleuthera is a long, thin island in the Bahamas, known for pink sand beaches such as the French Leave Beach.
Crown land in the Bahamas is public land owned by the government and held in trust for the benefit of its citizens. Developer takeover of Crown land was a line few want Jacobs to cross, even as there is mounting opposition to his overall plans over 2,600 miles from Reno.
Eleuthera residents have also been angry about him wanting to add a casino as part of this project, not understanding the local culture, with added concerns about the proposed development’s negative environmental impact and burdensome infrastructure needs.
Jacobs is using a similar playbook there as he did in Reno of buying up properties in a certain area to create a new entertainment district surrounding a casino, but with yachts rather than Burner art.
A website called ourgovernorsharbour.org (sounds like Our Town Reno no?) has at the top a plea to sign a petition.
“A large-scale resort development including a casino, mega-yacht marina, and vacation residences has been proposed for Governor’s Harbour, Eleuthera,” it indicates. “The community has not been formally consulted. We are calling on our elected representatives and relevant ministers to act.”
In another part of the website called Residents Want Growth -On Their Own Terms it indicates after a survey was conducted that it was “unambiguous that Eleuthera’s communities are not opposed to development. What residents want is sustainable development, growth that is environmentally responsible, culturally appropriate, and structured to deliver real, lasting benefit to the people who live here.”
Sounds like that fits what Reno residents should be fighting for as well.
Find our Substack here and subscribe if you want to receive it by email in your inbox: https://ourtownreno.substack.com/p/why-do-local-developers-keep-going
"The City of Reno recently launched a new public-facing Code Enforcement Case Dashboard, making information about code enforcement activity across the city easier for the community to access," the City of Reno writes with a fascinating new tool to look through here: https://citymaps.reno.gov/portal/apps/dashboards/cf75a4c8b063401d9dae813a8cd70943
"This dashboard provides a daily snapshot of Code Enforcement activity based on data updated from the previous day. Use the filters at the top of the page to explore cases by Ward, violation type, case status, and other available attributes," it indicates before opening.
"The interactive map displays the general location of active and closed cases. Selecting a point will show details such as the case address, geographic coordinates, and current status. Please note that dashboard data history is limited to January 1, 2026.
For more information, reporting concerns, or assistance with navigating this dashboard, please email CodeEnforcementAdmin@reno.gov."
In the email, it explains the dashboard allows users to
"Search for active and closed cases
View cases on a map
Filter by case type, status, Council ward, and date
Track inspection progress and resolution timelines
The dashboard includes data beginning Jan. 1, 2026, and is updated daily.," with a media demo tomorrow so expect lots of stories about it then.
Reno mayoral candidate former Lieutenant Governor and State Treasurer Kate Marshall has responded to an attack ad which we reported about being surfaced on X earlier today by her November opponent council member Kathleen Taylor.
"This is a desperate, false attack from Kathleen Taylor to distract from her reckless record on Reno’s finances and unchecked support for data centers," she emailed Our Town Reno.
"The truth: Kate Marshall saved Nevada taxpayers millions by taking on big banks and rooting out waste and corruption in the Treasurer’s Office. As Mayor, Kate will get Reno back on track—building a stronger more affordable Reno for those of us who live and work here -prioritizing affordable housing and revitalizing downtown."
Taylor has been in full campaign mode in the past few days with multiple videos on her social media channels. Marshall got the most votes by far in a strong first after the primary in June, but it came with low turnout.
Is this a case of more branding and marketing than actually building something?
The soccer project has a logo and name, announced at the Reno Public Market tonight, but when will the stadium at the former Jones West Ford site on Kietzke for a USL Championship expansion franchise be built and with whose money?
The official team colors chosen range from sunset orange, desert grit brown, dusty twilight, sky blue and summit white, but where is the green?
The stadium is supposed to be included in a massive $350 million entertainment district which is raising eyebrows as to feasibility and financing, with promised opening games for soccer which keep getting pushed back, now to 2028.
“As your next mayor, I won’t gamble with your money, and I’ll never quit on you,” a 30 second ad concludes after multiple attacks against mayoral frontrunner Kate Marshall featuring challenger council member Kathleen Taylor.
It is now playing on X, with one heart and 24 views so far as of this writing Wednesday noontime.
In the June primary, Marshall got over 22,500 votes to Taylor’s 9,548 votes, with some votes for Devon Reese (4,688) and Greg Nuttle (872) likely to carry over to the former Lieutenant Governor and be reflected in November.
We wrote Marshall’s Instagram account for a reaction and will update if we hear back.
In the primary, it was Reese who had attack type posts on his behalf against both Marshall and Taylor, resulting in a dismal fourth place finish, far behind even perennial candidate Eddie Lorton.
"Washoe County is working with local, state and federal jurisdictions to assist residents with properties that were damaged or destroyed by the Hawk, Bug and Stallion fires that occurred in August of 2026. The County is offering free services to help clean up certain aspects of properties and committed to helping those who plan to rebuild. The cleanup process for properties impacted will occur in phases regardless of their jurisdiction. All residents – in City of Reno and unincorporated Washoe County – should follow these steps," its emergency information center website page indicates followed by bullet points of the three phases.
"Phase 1: Household Hazardous Waste Removal
Phase 1 is the assessment and removal of household hazardous waste from fire-damaged properties. Washoe County is covering the cost of this work and will coordinate with EPA-qualified contractors to safely remove immediate health and environmental hazards. Materials may include batteries, propane tanks, paints, pesticides, herbicides, and other hazardous materials that are present on the property.
The Washoe County Assessor’s Office has identified properties damaged or destroyed by the Hawk, Bug and Stallion fires. Washoe 311 (the County’s call center) has reached out to those homeowners to detail the process of removing hazardous materials. If you have a property that was damaged or destroyed and have not been contacted, please dial 3-1-1.
Phase 2: Debris and Ash Removal
Phase 2 addresses the removal of remaining fire-related debris, including structural debris, ash, and other materials left after the fire. Phase 2 can begin once Phase 1 is complete.
Property owners will be responsible for coordinating and paying for Phase 2 cleanup, including working with their insurance provider when applicable. Federal resources may be available – see more from the state of Nevada – Office of Emergency Management / Homeland Security.
Phase 3 – Prepare for Rebuild
Once the property owner is ready to rebuild, Washoe County – Community Services Division (CSD) is available to provide resources and individual support to help navigate and streamline the demolition and rebuilding process. To get started, call CSD at 775-328-2020 or email building@washoecounty.gov."