Where Is All This Leading Us?

I was driving back through Verdi today when I noticed that the Grand Sierra Resort has put up a billboard on I-80 advertising the fact that they'll soon be offering condo sales. Grand Sierra will take the place of the Reno Hilton. Here's what the Hilton looks like today:

And here's what the Grand Sierra's website envisions the place looking like in a year or two:

The picture doesn't tell the whole story; the plans include several new residential buildings, a revamped casino, a mall, a new kayak course on the nearby Truckee River, an amphitheater, and the world's largest indoor waterpark among many other things. Oh, and there'll be a restaurant owned by Ashton Kutcher and a bunch of other Hollywood nimrods.

I don't intend this posting to be a sales pitch for this project, even thought it will probably be very nice and all. I mention all this because frankly it makes me wonder where the city of Reno is going with all this. There's something about this project, and the planned massive Station Casino down at the Highway 395 - Mt. Rose Highway intersection, that sounds kind of . . . I don't know . . . too Vegas-y.

Ever since the Mob conjured up the modern city of Las Vegas out of the Mojave Desert in the late 1940's, Reno has been torn between the temptation of trying to compete with the younger, more obnoxious city to the south on the one hand, and the desire to be true to itself on the other. The result is a schizophrenic landscape, a downtown that has gone through exuberant boom periods--usually related to casino construction--followed by depressing busts. Drive down Virginia Street today and you will see a handful of well-heeled (if cheesy) casinos like the Silver Legacy or El Dorado that are doing decent (not great, but decent) business right across the street from decrepit pawn shops, scary-looking liquor stores, cheap souvenir outlets, older-and-scuzzier casinos that are struggling just to keep the doors open like Fitzgerald's or the Cal-Neva, and flea-bag motels that specialize in providing housing to the very poor on a week-to-week basis.

Right now it seems as though we are definitely on the upswing of the familiar boom-bust cycle. I and others have practically talked the much-heralded condo craze to death, major construction projects of all kinds are underway all over town, and everywhere one looks the effects of growth (both good and bad) are visible. Such growth is inevitable and, for the most part, positive. But my hope is that this time around we forego the whole "we can be just like Vegas" mode of thinking. We can't be Vegas. What's more, we shouldn't want to be Vegas. Not to put too fine a point on it, but we're better than that.

This city has seen periods of explosive growth before, only to sink back into a familiar malaise. More than anything, I hope that this time around Reno will realize that the sun does not rise and set just to shine on the gaming industry. Gambling has been a part of Reno's history from the beginning, and it will remain so in the future. New developments like the Station project and Grand Sierra are, again, mostly positive. But the casinos must be one part of the picture in Northern Nevada, not our entire reason for existing. Let me be blunt: It's 2006. Casinos are everywhere in this country. The days when gambling legally meant traveling either to Nevada or Atlantic City are long over. And frankly, if gambling and over-the-top gaudiness is all someone is interested in then they probably should go to Vegas. Sin City is light years ahead of us in that department and we're simply not going to catch up.

What this city needs to focus on is what it has that no one else does. If we're going to rely so heavily on tourism, then instead of shooting for the lowest common denominator with weekend festivals that encourage people to blow in to town, trash the place and leave--**cough**Street Vibrations**cough**--why not work to enhance the things that already make this such a fantastic place? I've spent time pursuing outdoor recreation everywhere from Alaska to Guatemala, and I can tell you that nowhere on this continent is more blessed than is Reno-Tahoe with all the natural resources necessary for a fantastic outdoor lifestyle. Our summers are warm but not hot, our winters are cold but not frigid. We have clean air and abundant sunshine. We have Lake Tahoe, Pyramid Lake (okay, the Paiutes have Pyramid Lake, but still) and miles and miles of whitewater on the Truckee River. We have Mount Rose, Job's Peak, Slide Mountain, Peavine Mountain and Mount Talac. We have Squaw Valley, Heavenly, and over a dozen other major ski destinations within an hour or so. We have six National Forests practically in our back yard. We have a major university enrolling 17,000 students. We have Virginia City, which is brimming with Western history and has the potential to be sooooo much more than the tourist trap that it currently is. Here we can live the sort of life that most of the rest of the country only sees on SUV commercials.

But its time to stop thinking only in terms of tourism, and its particularly time we stop waiting for the casinos to save us. The casinos will always be here, but they don't care if the neighborhoods that surround them sink into poverty and wretchedness--they care first and foremost about keeping people inside; if there is less incentive for visitors to venture into the city beyond their walls, so much the better in their eyes. Real progress will include the gaming industry, but will ultimately consist of making this city a great place to live, not just a great place to smoke and play blackjack at 2:30 a.m. on a Tuesday.

Forgive me if this sounds sappy, but the people of this city can make this region the envy of millions. All the building blocks are there, but there's much work to be done. We need to attract a young, well-educated workforce that will bring in the kind of diversified industry needed to build a stable future independent of the ebb and flow of the gaming industry. The city's infrastructure needs a massive overhaul, particularly the snarled mess that has become our traffic network. Problems of crime and vagrancy that still haunt downtown must be dealt with. And we need to emphasize smart growth so as not to destroy the very lifestyle elements that make this region so incredible to begin with. A lot of steps have been taken in the right direction, and frankly the future looks pretty good, but much is still up in the air. I just hope we don't fall into old ways of thinking.