Inside the Loop

Okay, here is a fragment of a post I never put up on the blog.  Some of you might enjoy it and even take the tour, so I thought I’d let you see it before I purge it from WordPress. I think Wazoo will hop in his car!   There is a second segment that takes you through Verdi, if anyone is remotely interested. 

I have this weird hope that Reno may someday grow up to be a real city.  One with an active and vital down town core core, a diverse mix of retail and housing options for all residents, a public transportation system that works, and maybe even employment opportunities that would allow our residents to actually afford to live here.

It will definitely be a renovation project for the city.  Nothing was ever planned to support a population of 400,000 plus here. Our growth pattern for generations has been new subdivisions budding ever outward from older subdivisions, with little regard to creating a livable core.  The last generation of the Regional Plan had a goal of directing one third of all growth within the McCarran ring to reinforce the urban core, but there were no incentives to work cowards this goal, or penalties for not.  In our infinite planning wisdom, the current Regional Plan dilutes the goal of urbanization, mainly saying it would be "nice" and should be encouraged.  And we end up with things like Winnemucka Ranch, but that’s another post entirely.

The city really IS doing a lot downtown to improve the situation, much of it chronicled by Downtown Makerover Dude.  In fact, Mike, you have been officially Sainted for your crusade and will now be know only as "The Dude" on this blog.  But outside of the Redevelopment Districts, there is a lot of work to be done  to focus growth inside the Loop.  I think there are a lot of great development  possibilities working west from downtown.