Submitted by Ky Plaskon
Editor’s note: Plaskon’s opinion is in response to the Reno City Council’s scheduled vote for implementation of downtown changes at its Wednesday meeting. View the staff presentation of ideas below.
The City of Reno’s Placemaking timeline looks like more delays to public safety. According to the timeline, things like lounge chairs and installing businesses and facades are priority number one which is kind of backwards when no one is down there to enjoy them.
The Placemaking study results were clear: Safety and micromobility were the number one priority. People walking and on bikes and scooters would bring people downtown safely every day. The placemaking study was also clear that events aren’t a long-term solution. Without a doubt, micromobility should be Phase 1.
The study engineers said it in the final public meeting — and the City proved they can do it fast and cheap — not take years and millions of dollars. So why the delay?
You have to wonder where the City staff’s heart is when they put lounge chairs and facades that the casinos want over public safety. They were supposed to install a protected path from UNR to Midtown on University Way by 2019, but the city has stood in the way of that safety improvement downtown for years, backed by The Row.
The City’s record of improving safety downtown is not good. Just look at it. It’s there for everyone to see and the same players are pulling the strings now — delaying safety.
The City has spent hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars over the years on downtown studies and have no concrete safety measures to show for it except a rotting core — and now they want lounge chairs as the number one priority.
Why is that priority number one — so people can sit and watch it decay, watch drug addicts and get robbed?
As it is, wildly successful businesses like Whitney Peak have to close their front doors on Virginia Street because its too dangerous — and now they want to try to get more businesses to open their front doors in the hostile environment?
Meanwhile Bike Life Radio has talked to employees of Whitney Peak and the Row who say they started to ride to work when pilot micromobility lanes were installed. Bike Life Radio also talked to liqour store owners who hated bike lanes.
Why? Because people couldn’t drive up super fast to get booze and then jump back behind the wheel.
The results are clear. Micromobility brings a new, healthier demographic to downtown: children, families, tourists and workers. Those are the kind of people we need on the street, sooner rather than later.
Ask yourself, who do you want sitting in those taxpayer-funded lounge chairs?
We hope the City follows through one day with what the public wants, what the safety studies show and listen to safety advocates like the Truckee Meadows Bicycle Alliance that emphasize the same thing over and over: Micromobility needs to be priority number one, not lounge chairs.
Finally, the City’s timeline for the phases of placemaking development are not very clear and that is disappointing. Our critique is likely disappointing to the City staff too. But if we are going to be a bike-friendly city and move toward a safer downtown, they need to be less defensive about what they can do better.
City staff hate it that we don’t rubber-stamp all their plans just because they mention that they will have “bike facilities” at some point in the future. They always say, “here is our plan, do you jump on board?” This placemaking timeline is no different. Later, they likely wonder why their plans sometimes fail or take a long time to implement.
We are much more likely to succeed as a city if staff develop plans in coordination with and take into account the feedback from safety advocates. We will continue to champion public safety as priority number one, reduce conflict with drivers and scrutinize the City’s plans until they start to include the recommendations of safety advocates in their plans.
When will they start to listen? Safety first over lounge chairs.
Ky Plaskon is president of the Truckee Meadows Bicycle Alliance.
Submitted opinions do not necessarily reflect the views of This Is Reno. Have something to say? Submit an opinion article or letter to the editor here.
