Baby, it’s all good

Welcome to this week’s Reno News & Review.

My girlfriend, Joy, and I were talking the other night. “Could you have imagined this time last year what this year would be like?” No way.

This year was so full of new experiences and people and tragedies and triumphs and failures that when I think back to what was going on in January of last year, it seems like two years ago. If it weren’t for Facebook and this column, I would have trouble knowing what happened when.

I’m not a big believer in fate, but I do believe that things can happen outside of us to dictate what our lives are going to be like. Call it luck or determination, but some of us get by when it seems like the whole shebang is going up in flames. Reno has had a year like that.

My mom used to say, “It’s an ill wind that blows nobody good.” In other words, almost any bad situation works to somebody’s benefit—the tornado blows somebody’s barn down, but the farmer the next county over gets a bunch of free lumber.

I see what’s going on in Northern Nevada that way—and this is really looking for the bright side. Transient people who can’t get jobs are going to leave. There’s already a huge supply of unoccupied homes here and a just as large shadow inventory.

It’s supply and demand, baby. And someday, when the real estate market hits bottom, our impossibly cheap housing is going to look real attractive to companies that want to start new large operations. These homes, when the rest of the nation has “recovered,” will be the best deal in the country. That may mean new jobs, new technology, a new Reno.

The new Reno is already defining itself. As one example, Northern Nevada’s lamest special events have already been changed beyond recognition, we just haven’t seen how yet. I’m reminded of our RenoGen issue from last year, www.newsreview .com/reno/renogen/content?oid=1897046. On a societal level, death comes before renaissance.

2012 is looking brighter to me, and 2013 is almost blinding.