Reno Street Audio

Reno Street Audio

By Reynolds Media LabSociety & CultureDocumentaryNewsNews Commentary
Download on the App Store

Reno Street Audio episodes

  • How do Homeless Women View the 2020 Election?
    Our reporters Scott King and Richie Bednarski reach out to Diana, who has been living on the streets on and off since childhood, and Rose, a senior citizen, who recently got evicted, and is also living in a tent in Reno, to find out how they view the 2020 election, whether they will vote, and if they think results make a difference. The two of them also share their survival techniques, with winter approaching.
    13 min
  • Soulful Seeds, a Gardening Non-Profit in Reno Helping Those in Need
    A sharecropper as a child in a large family, Arkansas-born Earstin Whitten wants to provide and teach others in Reno how to grow healthy food for themselves.
    Whitten dedicated himself in retirement to help others after three decades working in the insurance industry. Our reporter for our latest #heroesofreno #ourtownreno podcast episode is Richie Bednarski.
    12 min
  • The National Affordable Housing Trust Helps with Reno Projects and Big New Initiative

    The National Affordable Housing Trust has as its tag line Helping Create and Preserve Homes for Those in Need. It’s a non profit low income housing tax credit syndicator.

    For this episode, our reporter Scott King interviews Lori Little, the president and CEO of the NAHT, and Vice President David Lennon as their  organization joined with two other non profits, the Low Income Investment Fund and the Stewards of Affordable Housing for the Future to start a new partnership to address the nationwide affordable housing crisis. 

    They are helping to raise one billion dollars over five years to build new housing for those struggling in our communities.  Little and Lennon also discuss their plans and track record in Reno, which already includes helping establish the Sierra Manor for local seniors. 

     


     

    22 min
  • Wendy Stolyarov, A Progressive Running a Unique Campaign During COVID-19
    With the November elections just weeks away, campaigning is as important now as ever before. A major challenge for this year’s local office candidates, however, is finding creative ways to campaign during the COVID-19 pandemic. One such candidate, Wendy Stolyarov, who is running for the Ward One seat on Sparks City Council, has been conducting her own contact free campaign neighborhood “lit drops.”
    Stolyarov has also turned her campaign into a vehicle for assisting people in need. “When the pandemic hit, we switched to doing community welfare calls,” Stolyarov said. “Whatever [their needs] might've been, we were then putting them in contact with those resources and encouraged people to engage in mutual aid. Our first mailer for the campaign was a mutual aid card, which you basically put your name on and stuck it on your neighbor's door offering to help. I got a lot of phone calls from people who had received those and said that it was such a sweet idea and were going to reach out and help their neighbor and see what they can do in the community.” She says this also made her realize the positive influence of community building, rather than pretending to be an individual savior.
    Hear much more in this episode with reporter Scott King on her campaign techniques and the issues she cares about as she runs for a seat on the Sparks City Council in northern Nevada.
    11 min
  • Building a Community Housing Land Trust
    Kyle Chandler-Isacksen could be considered a visionary jack-of-all trades. We’ve featured him on Our Town Reno previously, helping with community murals, composting and garlic festivals. He also runs the non-profit Be The Change Reno, an urban learning space dedicated to service, sustainability, and community uplift. Now, he’s built a house which has been placed in a community land trust, an economic model designed to lower the cost of owning a home.
    He used locally sourced and milled lumber as the siding of the home, giving it a unique log cabin feel. His wife, Katie, established an organic garden, just steps from the spacious front porch.
    The two-bedroom home is an experiment to create affordable housing and home ownership a reality for low-income families. The cost of the land is taken out of the home price and put into a trust to keep the cost of home ownership down. Isacksen believes “it's part of a broader solution” as the community struggles with an affordable and accessible housing crisis.
    The reporter for this episode is Richard Bednarski.
    15 min
  • Getting to Full Capacity at the Village on Sage Street
    The Village on Sage Street, which offers affordable dorm style living inside large containers, was started in Reno in August 2019 after over 50 truckloads delivered the prefab buildings from a working site in Wyoming. Tenant requirements were loosened after the project launched to accept more lower income senior citizens. The 200 plus unit compound is now reported to be at 100% capacity. Each unit goes for $400.
    Our reporter for this episode is Scott King. He interviews Nick Tscheekar the community engagement officer with the Community Foundation of Western Nevada. The non-profit manages the compound on land donated by the City of Reno and operated by the Volunteers of America organization, which has local contracts to also run shelters. Residents have complained bathrooms, hallways and other common areas such as laundry and recreation spaces don’t always get cleaned quickly enough. They also have complained about too much security, and feeling watched a little too closely. Life isn’t perfect at the Village on Sage Street, but residents we spoke to said they thought they were getting really good value for $400 a month.
    10 min
  • Watching Your Son Get Killed by Police
    The episode starts out with Ray Bacasegua Valdez, the director of the American Indian Movement in Northern Nevada, who was one of over 60 people at a recent support protest in downtown Reno, Nevada, for families of those killed by local police. In the interview, he references Johnny Bonta, a Native American who was killed in 2017 by three police officers in Sparks.
    We will then hear from the mother of Kenneth Stafford, a soldier who was killed while on military leave in 2013 by police in Sparks while suffering from PSTD. Terry Colgrove recounts in detail what led to that horrific killing. Many police killings happen when victims are suffering from mental health breakdowns of some sorts. After families seek help to save a loved one, in the several local cases we've looked into, it’s the police who arrive on the scene, and a very bad day turns tragic.
    The reporters for this episode are Richie Bednarski and Gracie Gordon.
    25 min
  • Our Place, A New Shelter Model for Northern Nevada
    "I hope that Our Place brings the message that our neighbors are some of the most creative, resilient, beautiful humans I've ever met. And when we invest in people, we get great results," said Jen Cassady the Our Place director. Shelters take on many different forms, sizes, shapes and models. Here in northern Nevada, a grassroots movement called RISE, the Reno Initiative for Shelter and Equality has teamed up with Washoe County to establish Our Place, a new, more human centered, friendlier, less prison like shelter for women, families and the elderly with nature spaces, backyards, a wing for pets, and staff with lived homeless experience. Our reporter Scott King finds out more on how Our Place recently opened with the added challenges of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
    18 min
  • Our Lady of Snows Builds New COVID-19 Outreach Programs
    The parish of Our Lady of The Snows in downtown Reno, including volunteers and Reverend Bob Shorey, are now hosting a food insecurity outreach program in their church parking lot for those in need. This new outreach program which is being paired with other help was recently launched as an expansion effort due to COVID-19 difficulties. This episode with Our Town Reno reporter Scott King goes into strategies for helping those in need during these uncertain times.
    9 min
  • Lucia Starbuck, On Reporting About the Homeless in Reno
    "Our Town Reno is a little experimental, so sometimes we just have one voice for a story. But I'm still going into it as a journalist and these folks do not have an incentive to lie or make things up. They are so honest all the time, so people kind of get mad at that. For example, I did a story on a sign in a McDonald's that said you can't be here for more than 30 minutes. I was like, ‘Hmm, I wonder if this targets houseless individuals?’ I went down there to interview folks about the sign and I interviewed someone who was staying in the shelter and she totally approved of the sign and she’s like, ‘I’m trying to eat here. I don't want people hanging out for more than 30 minutes.’ Like, totally honest. "
    Former Our Town Reno reporter Lucia Starbuck recently graduated from the University of Nevada, Reno, and began working for other media outlets, including This is Reno and KUNR. Before her departure, she took the time to speak with colleague and fellow Our Town Reno reporter Scott King for a Q&A to share what her experience has been like reporting for our street collective.
    15 min

About Reno Street Audio

From the publisher's feed

With audio postcards from the streets, and inspiring interviews with community activists and heroes of Reno, we address issues of homelessness, the disappearance of public space, gentrification and…