There’s a primary election on June 12, and if you live in Reno and you vote, there will be a lot of choices on there, depending on what part of town you live in.  Wards 1, 3, and 5 all have a gaggle of candidates running, plus there is an at-large seat.  The City Council is a nonpartisan body, so the top two vote-getters for each seat will advance to the general election, where under current rules, each candidate will have to get a majority of citywide votes to win (which doesn’t make sense, and could change in time for the next election)

There are a lot of candidates running in this race – 27 in total.  Some of the candidates are very serious, with professional websites, big signs all over town, name recognition and all that.  Some of the candidates have put out only their resume.  Some just have their name on the list.  A few have put up their own websites with that 1997 look.  But there is one thing that matters in this race, as much as personality or name recognition or funding, and that is the issues.

The big thing about issues in a race like this is making sure that the issues the candidates are focused on are issues that they can do something about in the office they’re seeking.  A good example is education.  Since the school district is at the county level, and the university is at the state level, and the city isn’t exactly rolling in the dough these days, there’s not much the city council can do to improve the quality of education in the area.

On the other hand, the city isn’t exactly rolling in the dough these days.  What does the candidate plan to do about that?  Where are they on basic things like sidewalks, parks, and neighborhood identity?  The relationship between Reno and Washoe County is notoriously toxic.  How do they feel about that?  The Truckee Meadows has three police departments, multiple fire departments and districts.  How do they feel about consolidation?

Patrick Smith sent questions to all the candidates and posted their answers on his site.  Brian Duggan has put together a handy-dandy list of the candidates’ websites.  We’ll keep watching this race, and report on what we find.

Today’s NY Times has an article about some proposals that are being worked on by political strategists for a GOP super-PAC called “Ending the Spending (on anyone but the ultra-wealthy) Action Fund,” headed up by Joe Ricketts, described in the article as “the patriarch of the family that owns the Chicago Cubs.”

Negative campaigning is nothing new.  I for one am often glad I don’t have television.  The only “campaign commercials” I see are linked to from blogs.  There are a few little nuggets inside this article that are worth calling attention to, however.  Let’s skip around a little bit.

“Our plan is to do exactly what John McCain would not let us do: Show the world how Barack Obama’s opinions of America and the world were formed,” the proposal says.

John McCain, a leader with a backbone, some honor and decency in his character, refused to allow his political operatives to go too negative on Obama in 2008.  Interesting, since:

In the opening paragraphs of the proposal, the Republican strategists refer to Mr. McCain as “a crusty old politician who often seemed confused, burdened with a campaign just as confused.”

Ah, yes, character assassination.  The last refuge of those without character.

The strategists grappled with the quandary of running against Mr. Obama that other Republicans have cited this year: “How to inflame their questions on his character and competency, while allowing themselves to still somewhat ‘like’ the man becomes the challenge.”

The Repair Café logo from repaircafe.nl

I can think of a dozen times when I’ve had something break on me that wasn’t worth fixing. Most things nowadays are made to break and not be fixed, just replaced with a new one. This creates so much trash and waste of not just computers and other electronic items, but clothes, household items, hardware, even sporting goods, that could all be fixed and used for a while longer instead of making more landfill. The void left by repair shops that have closed up over the last few years is about to be filled.

Some people in Amsterdam (I guess it’s Dutch Week here at BC) came together and created the idea of Repair Cafés. Here’s a NY Times article about Repair Cafés. And, the original website for the Repair Cafés- it’s in Dutch, so use Google or have Ken translate for you since he could use the practice. There, people have the tools and expertise available to fix all manner of things from clothes, to computers, to bikes, and everything else. The idea might have started in Amsterdam, but it’s spreading throughout the Netherlands and going international.

Since we already have a Maker Group and several other interesting collectives doing DIY stuff here in Reno, why not a Repair Café? I’m sure many people locally would be into it- I know I would be.

If you’ve visited the Netherlands, you’re aware of the famous Dutch ‘coffeeshops’ where they do sell coffee, but they also sell marijuana in small amounts for personal use (the max they can sell you at one time is 5 grams.)

Starting in 2013, the privilege of entering the coffeeshops and partaking of the wares offered therein will be the exclusive province of Dutch citizens and legal residents.  So if you visited and enjoyed these coffeeshops and had hoped to one day do it again, the clock is ticking – you might want to go sooner rather than later.  Already, the border provinces of the Netherlands have instituted the system, called the ‘Wietpas,’ or in English, ‘Weedpass.’

You might be wondering why this is all happening, and I’ve done some research and thinking on the subject.  Here’s what seems to be going on.

First, comes the issue of ‘drug tourism.’  If you are an American and reading this, you probably aren’t thinking of the same ‘drug tourism’ as the Dutch, Belgians or Germans are thinking of.  For an American to visit the famous coffeeshops, basically means taking a trip to Amsterdam, and it is not cheap.  An American needs to come up with at least a thousand dollars for an excursion to Amsterdam, and in most cases much more than that.  But the Netherlands borders Belgium and Germany and in a more limited sense, England and France, and for these folks to visit the Netherlands, especially the Germans and Belgians, requires little more than a tank of gas.

There are two groups of victims here – one group of actual victims and another group of imaginary victims.  Let’s start with the first group of victims.

These victims are the Dutch who live in the towns bordering Belgium and Germany.  These Dutch people are more conservative (socially) than the Amsterdammers and they only get more conservative as a few weekends a month, Belgians and Germans come into their towns and ransack them, acquiring and using as much weed as they can while they are there and then carting the rest back home to last until the next trip over the border.  The Dutch are remarkably tolerant people, but at some point, even the most tolerant person will throw up their hands and say, “Enough is enough!”

The second class of ‘victims’ is the imaginary ones.  It’s necessary at this point to take a step back and compare the marijuana situation to prostitution (another area where the remarkably tolerant Dutch have been pulling back a bit lately.)  Outside of legalization, there are two ways legal systems deal with prostitution.  One way is to arrest prostitutes, treating them as criminals, and the other way is to go after pimps and johns, treating them as victimizers.  Trust me, I’m going somewhere with this.  The latter method is generally regarded as the more enlightened one.  Arresting prostitutes, the alleged victims in sex trafficking, only ruins their lives and does nothing to deal with the problem of demand for their services.

Outside of decriminalization of both the cultivation/distribution side and the consumption side of drugs, there are generally two approaches to prosecuting drug crime:  arrest the users, or go after the cultivators and dealers.  The logic is the same as in prostitution, really, only as a mirror image.  The users are the victims, so why arrest them and ruin their lives, when you can go after the victimizers, the cultivators and distributors of the substance?

Which leads to the point.  Belgium and Germany have both to a considerable extent decriminalized possession of small amounts of marijuana for personal use, but the cultivation and distribution of marijuana remains a crime.  If a drug user is a victim, and a drug dealer is a victimizer, and you live right next door to a drug dealer, then who is the victimizer?  That’s right, your neighbor.

Faced with this situation, the remarkably tolerant Dutch, who correctly see that in marijuana-related matters nobody is really a victim, have two choices:  keep their remarkably tolerant attitude for themselves, or bow to international political pressure and give it up entirely.  Belgium and Germany would do well to realize that the primary victimizer in marijuana matters is the state and its legal policy of prohibition and open up their own coffeeshops.

The Dutch are very pragmatic, nonetheless.  It is entirely possible that this move to restrict access to the coffeeshops will lead to an increase in black market drug activity precisely of the sort that the original policy of decriminalization and tolerance was designed to avert.  If that happens, it is not unthinkable that they will declare the weedpass idea a failure, and go back to the way things were.  Time will tell.

Just now discovering this artist, Tim Knol. The first 10 seconds or so of this video is in Dutch.  The song is in English, and it’s absolutely gorgeous.

Previously, the RGJ’s (and presumably parent company Gannett’s) preferred tactic for blocking access to monetizing their online content was to ask users for demographic information.  What year were you born?  What is your gender?  What is your ZIP code?  Where are you located?  I am probably not the only person who fed that popup box false information, time after time after time after time.

On one hand, this move makes sense.  The newspaper business was always about multiple sources of revenue.  The 25, no 35, no 50 cents that it cost to buy the paper.  The 6 bucks a month to have it delivered to your house.  The classified ad revenue.  The revenue from the other ads that showed up in the paper.  Craigslist has the classifieds business, way less people are paying the 50 cents or 6 bucks a month.  People are used to getting their news online.  The newspaper is less that and more a news site.  So the logical decision might be to charge 12 bucks a month for it.

On the other hand, this move is unsettling.  Will the 12 bucks a month do anything to slow the pace of the news cycle that outlets like the RGJ are desperately trying to keep up with?  Will it buy copy editing?  Or is it just the new price of admission, a cost the informed citizen in the 21st century must be willing to pay?

Which leads to another question.  Are you gonna pay?

A little tune for your Saturday by Reno-based Misha.

In a unanimous vote today, the Reno City Council directed City staff to move forward with the process for creating a Midtown district.  A staff report identified a timeline for putting a master plan amendment before the Council by October of this year, ahead of the November elections when a majority of the current Council will change.

The motion to proceed included three key alterations to the staff report, which identified the Midtown plan area as bounded by Regency Way on the South, Liberty Street on the north, Humboldt Ave on the west and Holcomb Ave on the east.

The first was a question from Councilwoman Zadra about the western boundaries.  She wanted to know why the district would extend so far to the west when the main topics of discussion at the recent town hall had to do with the business district centered around South Virginia Street.  Staff responded that the point of including the whole area in the district is actually to recognize that it has two halves:  the business district and the residential district, and that the residential district may be impacted by the business district.  Therefore they’re planning to take that into account up front, to give the residential neighborhoods some benefits from this planning process.

The motion was amended to direct the staff to clearly state that there are two project areas:  Midtown business district, and Midtown residential district.

The second point was around being able to get a lot of the easier stuff done quicker than by October: increasing parking capacity by turning obsolete driveway cuts (currently red zones) into parking spots, adding trash cans, stepping up code enforcement.

The motion was amended to work on the business district first.

The third point had to do with the business mix.  Councilwoman Sferazza brought up the issue of adding tattoo parlors back on to the list of businesses for which no licenses would be issued, and Councilman Gustin redirected the conversation to a model of talking about “the mix of eclectic businesses” that this neighborhood needs, rather than singling out specific categories of businesses that won’t be allowed.

The motion was amended directing staff to consider the business mix.

I had the privilege of attending the Midtown “Town Hall” meeting I blogged about earlier.  It attracted quite a crowd – it was standing room only in the council chambers.  I even got a few words in – in the interest of fixing the sidewalks, and creating shared parking lots.

Out in full force was the Midtown business community – the owners of Süp, Craft, Junkee, Hub Coffee, the Carter Brothers, many of the entrepreneurs who are opening up businesses in the new 701 S. Virginia project (former Del Mar Station), and lots more – too many to list.  The #1 concern on the part of the business owners was parking.  Parking, parking, parking.  Not unexpected, really.  Reno is a largely suburban city.  People are used to being able to roll up in their car, park right next to the business they’re going to visit, and stroll right in.  Suggestions from the businesses included painting over some of the red zones that are there to protect driveways that no longer exist, and creating some nose-in parking on those streets that could handle it – effectively doubling the parking capacity of streets which currently have parallel parking.

There was also consensus, however, on the idea of improving the pedestrian infrastructure: lots of people talked about the sidewalks as an impediment to their enjoyment of the area.  Folks were open to the idea of shared parking lots that people could use and walk to their destinations.  You can’t really have the latter without the former.  Following logically from that was the idea that it can be scary down Virginia Street after dark – even for big guys who can defend themselves.  More lighting was called for to alleviate that problem.

Policing was another issue that came up.  Some folks wanted to get bike cops patrolling the neighborhood.  An officer from RPD was there at the meeting to answer questions, including one question that I had about doing some foot patrols in the area.  He heard the feedback and mentioned that he would look into some ways to get some bike cops funded and/or try to get some officers out of their patrol cars, plus assigning some resources in the short-term to do some drug crime enforcement. 

Drug crime was a huge issue for the people who attended the meeting.  One man used motion lights, yelling and screaming, and a baseball bat to keep the drug dealers and users out of his alley – and it worked.  The officer present mentioned that businesses and residents should watch the surroundings and call the police if they see a pattern of drug or other street crime.  “Take back your neighborhood,” was the theme – based on the positive experience the West of Wells group has had doing just that.

One of the Carters spoke about the projects that they do in the neighborhood.  What he said was essentially (paraphrasing here):  “We don’t like to talk about doing projects, we just like to do projects.”  He then put up his company’s mission statement on the overhead, which is all about making the streets exciting places again – places that inspire passion and desire.

A surprising thing:  Councilwoman Jessica Sferazza mentioned that she’s hoping to get a “Neighborhood Overlay District”  plan for the area done by October of this year.  “Ambitious,” she called it, “but I think we can get it done.”

Sferazza tried to get the participants to discuss what kinds of businesses – or “uses” might be a better word – should not be allowed in the area in the future.  New liquor stores, used car lots, and drive-throughs seemed to be the low-hanging fruit.  These discussions seemed to be based primarily on the experience in the Wells Ave neighborhood plan, which is something of a template for what they’re trying to accomplish on South Virginia Street. 

There was some talk of density – mostly with negative connotations.  Many people were opposed to density – but it never got clarified whether they were opposed to it in the single-family residential zones adjacent to Virginia Street specifically – or if they are opposed to it in general, to the extent that they would agitate against multifamily housing on Virginia Street.  It is understandable not to want your single-family neighborhood overrun by apartment buildings. 

It is another thing altogether to be opposed to apartment buildings going up along a commercial zone like Virginia Street.  If the apartments are unsubsidized, market rate, and non-age restricted, the potential is very good to increase desirable foot traffic and get more customers in the doors at businesses without the need for more parking.  This would increase the overall desirability of the neighborhood and actually drive up property values in the single-family zones.

All in all, Reno’s got a thing for Midtown.  What started as a project by a few business owners working together to create a district identity a few years ago has turned into a groundswell of support for this part of town that is growing in a down economy, not costing the taxpayers a dime doing it, and drawing in a lot of new people.  Midtown is the epicenter of Reno’s current neighborhood renaissance.  Building on a foundation laid by the Wells Ave neighborhood, if this current effort to channel some of the momentum into solving some of the structural issues succeeds, it will help Midtown to serve as a foundation for future neighborhood main street projects.

Why?  Because Reno has a bounty of great old neighborhood main streets that are all not currently realizing their full potential.  Each neighborhood that pushes the limits and improves itself, in the process helping refine our definition of the city government’s proper role, makes it that much easier for the neighborhoods that come next.  Maybe it’s just a pipe dream, but it sure is nice to imagine a future where all of Central Reno’s great old neighborhoods have been repaired and made livable and desirable again.  The city, healed.  Can you picture it?

It has been gratifying to watch the Midtown district develop in Reno all on its own.  The word “gratifying” is usually reserved for something that a person does that later leads to other things that satisfy, which is totally not the case here:  we haven’t done shit.  No, in this case “gratifying” has more to do with a proof of ideas:  building a district with an identity, a business community, a magnetic draw, is something that can happen, even in a small city like Reno.  After going on about this point for what seems like an eternity, it is awesome to see it playing out in real time.  This success has attracted city government attention and so there will be a meeting at Reno City Hall, tonight March 1, 2012, at 6 pm in the council chambers, to discuss the potential creation of an official Midtown district, as well as to discuss what the city can do to help with momentum.

Midtown is not without its challenges.  It looks sketchy. The pedestrian infrastructure wavers between nonexistent and woefully insufficient.  A district that stretches from the southern terminus of downtown (California Ave) to the northern boundary of Southwest Reno (Plumb Lane) is in many places missing sidewalks, with the rest of the sidewalks mostly being about 3 feet wide.  Hip restaurants, bars, art galleries and shops are joined by slightly less hip but character filled and welcome other shops and restaurants, with the remaining space filled by abandoned (and sometimes still-operating) used car dealerships, weekly motels, and empty lots.  Sidewalk-fronting commercial buildings are immediately adjacent to single-family residences and across the street from strip malls with acres of parking never completely filled.

From over here, the key issues are the pedestrian infrastructure, transitioning the car lots and motels out, and continuing the conversation of how to transform the strip malls from islands disconnected from the neighborhood by seas of parking into integrated parts of the neighborhood connected to it by passageways of parking.

Wait, wasn't this supposed to be the neighborhood plan?

It’s worth noting that several plans for this area have been explored over the years, the most recent being the South Virginia Complete Street Project (website now dead.)  One of the big problems with the plans Reno likes to draw up is that they never get implemented:  the city is not the various business entities and property owners that actually make things happen in the city.

Midtown is a perfect example of entrepreneurs coming into an area and starting something unique by themselves.  Now that the city is becoming involved it will be incredibly important to make sure that the city’s role is the proper one:  focused on the provision of great public infrastructure, zoning that makes sense, and as a clearinghouse to help property owners and would-be entrepreneurs access funding and resources to do hard or costly but necessary things.

The last thing we need are more pretty architectural renderings of things the city gives the impression they will build–followed by deadening silence when the elephant in the room suddenly becomes visible.  The question, “Who will build this?  And when?” is asked, and the answer is not forthcoming from anyone.  We’ve already seen enough of that.