Reno Street Audio

The Truckee River is looking frighteningly low toward the end of 2021. Our guest for this episode is environmental storyteller and Truckee River expert Kelsey Fitzgerald. She is a graduate of the Reynolds School of Journalism who earned her Master’s degree here in 2015 and started the website truckeeriverguide.org/ The website is a citizen interactive field guide to plants and wildlife along the majestic and rugged Truckee River. She’s also a science writer for the Desert Research Institute.

Jake Maynard explains why he joined the anti-sweeps movement in Reno, Nevada, while we go into our archives, a profile of Joane, over 70 and fending for herself. Can't we do better as a society to help the most vulnerable among us?

What happens when you've lost almost all hope while living on the streets? Why is it that in certain situations it's so difficult to climb that hill again and get back into the job market? Our Town Reno reporters speak to Robert and Ace, the first saying he's waiting for death, and the second from our archives suicidal while unhoused. Our neighbors without stable shelter deserve our close attention and empathy, because who are we if we can't help those among us struggling in our communities?

Contracted private operator Keolis, transportation and city officials have expressed disappointment and frustration bus drivers are back on strike amid ongoing efforts to get a better collective bargaining agreement. Little media attention is given to who these bus drivers are exactly and what led them to pursue the job in the first place. Our reporter Richard Bednarski went to the picket line this week to find out.

Too many of our neighbors have had their relatives killed by local law enforcement in situations which could have easily avoided death. At a recent rally, Our Town Reno reporters Gracie Gordon and Rachel Jackson met with the daughter and sister of Johnny Bonta who was killed at the age of 43 by Sparks police four years ago.

In this episode with Richard Bednarski, we look into getting more details on what’s going on at the Nevada Cares Campus and the overall local government plan to help the unhoused.

Our guest is Washoe County Commissioner Alexis Hill. She speaks to us as the county is taking over leadership in helping the unhoused regionally from the city of Reno after months and months of negotiations to make that happen. She’s also the new chair of CHAB the community homelessness advisory board. Unlike many others in town, Commissioner Hill always responds to emails and queries for interviews. This is a frank discussion from improving the food at the massive big tent mega shelter to logistics and staff, to renewing contracts and building better partnerships with advocates.

Being elderly in normal times can lead to acute loneliness. In this new normal of a still surging pandemic and terrible air quality, the loneliness has grown exponentially. Our guest with reporter Richard Bednarski for this week’s podcast episode is Hannah Sweeney, the program director for Seniors in Service. The northern Nevada non profit has been growing a program that combats isolation by giving tablets, wifi and tech training to seniors in need.

In this bonus episode, we look into the plight of evacuees from the Caldor Fire on the California Nevada border. Despite efforts by firefighters, hundreds of homes have already been destroyed. Reporter Richard Bednarski catches up with evacuees now staying at the Reno Sparks Convention Center amid this climate change crisis we are experiencing full on right now, from bad air quality for those around the fires, to those losing homes destroyed by the rampaging flames.

Jessica Castro was unhoused herself and went through devastating trauma but has rebounded. She’s now a powerhouse advocate for those struggling in Reno and northern Nevava, on social media, at City Council meetings and outside the new Nevada Cares campus. She works as a local auditor at a call center, but when she’s off work you’ll usually find her helping others. Several times a week, she distributes hundreds of bottles of water and holds big community meals, providing healthier options than what’s being offered inside. In this episode with reporter Richard Bednarski you'll also hear those she helps and volunteers working by her side.

Our guest on this episode is Anthony Shafton, a Chicago native, independent scholar and current Reno resident. He’s an author who has written several books including The Nevada They Knew, Robert Caples, Walter Van Tilburg Clark, a double biography about Nevada’s prominent modern painter and novelist of the 20th century. Recently Shafton wrote an oped for Our Town Reno about public art in Reno and how current pursuits might be misguided. He discusses this past, present and future of the Biggest Little City and warns about corporate driven gentrification and homogenization.