Reno Renaissance

I finally made it out to Reno last weekend for a little gambling, drinking and general carousing with my brother. Although we usually stay at the Peppermill, which is on the outskirts, the town was packed and we had to make reservations at the Siena, which is located downtown on the Truckee River. (I can’t recommend the hotel due to the surliness of John, a bitter front desk assistant.) We took advantage of our location and spent a great deal of time walking around, bar hopping and checking out the many new businesses, civic parks and “Riverwalk” district. To say the least, the condition of the city is a revelation.

Old school Reno has always been a favorite of mine. I’ve enjoyed the brutal conditions of the downtown area for as long as I can remember: the bums, lowlifes, hustlers, prostitutes, dilapidated hotel-casinos, four hundred dollar a month apartments, neglected streets and destitute bars. It sometimes struck me as hard to believe the place could exist in such a condition. However every time the city fathers or some new investor or developer tried to clean the place up Reno resisted, sticking to its anachronistic, myopic ways. And in this respect it always remained real, that much could be counted on. Now it may have been, to many people, really awful, a terrible place to take a family or a woman you were interested in sleeping with. But it was real.

Things are changing in downtown Reno. My brother observed that the place has improved by thirty percent in the last five years. And I think this estimation is just about right. There are less seedy characters and run down dives, more renovated condominiums and hotels, a whole slew of improved drinking and dining options and civic spaces that actually do the town proud. Also, there is a heavy police presence, which seems to keep everything in line.

We had consumed six or seven drinks and were just beginning to feel our groove when my brother suggested we go into “Doc Holidays,” a bar on East Second Street that I had somehow never been inside. “You’ll find plenty of characters in there,” he informed me. “This place is super run-down.” Upon entering, however, he was shocked to see that the whole interior had been renovated. The joint was actually respectable. It had flat screen televisions, an internet jukebox, historic photographs, a pool table with clean, fresh felt and respectable patrons. He was dumbfounded. Chris, the bartender, informed us sadly, “Everything’s changing around here. Pretty soon there’ll be none of the old Reno left.”

And of course this is the catch. “Progress” requires giving up the thing you had in the past. The vast majority of people wouldn’t bat an eye at seeing downtown Reno give up its squalidness. But there are many of us who love Reno the way it was and mostly still is, because it’s a singularity and its authenticity is beyond question. But the times they are a changin’. So my advice to you is get on up to Reno for a weekend. Drink ninety-nine cent well drinks at the Sands Regency. Eat $3.99 steak and eggs at the Cal-Neva. Smoke cigarettes indoors and marvel at how nobody complains. Because it may not last that much longer, and once it’s gone, it is truly gone for good.