Best of Northern Nevada 2016

First of all, big thanks to everybody who voted. Your time is valuable, and we appreciate it whenever you choose to spend it with us. We know you have better things to do, and we appreciate you postponing those things long enough to participate in our contest.

Actually, scratch that. Maybe you don’t have better things to do. You love this town. We love this town. You love the whole region—from the beautiful Sierra Nevada to the kitschy old motel signs in downtown Reno, from the local restaurateurs who take themselves way too seriously to the local rock bands who take themselves way too seriously, from the Truckee’s silvery rills to the Virginia Range’s silvery hills, from the ski resorts to the Black Rock Desert, and from Tahoe to Pyramid—you love this place. And so do we.

That’s why we value this contest. It’s a chance to recognize all the people, places and things that make this community easy to love. It’s a chance to praise the barbers, the bartenders, the police officers, the artists, the bookstores, the banks, the parks and the teachers. And what really makes this community the best is that so many people here are willing to take the time to scroll through this sprawling contest in order to honor their friends and neighbors.

And speaking of sprawl, for this year’s special featured section, we chose to focus on neighborhoods. As the population of Northern Nevada has continued to grow in recent years, many of the neighborhoods around the Truckee Meadows have developed new identities and unique characters. We explore the many things that make Northern Nevada’s neighborhoods the best.

Every year, we ask a different local artist to make work for the contest results issue. This year, Jeff “Metal Jeff” Rogers, a talented dude who works in a variety of media, did fantastic work, creating a series of illustrations that look like science fiction book covers and that perfectly capture the spirit of each section of the contest. We’re proud to feature his work.

And big, fireworks-exploding, champagne-popping, noisemaker-blowing congratulations to all the winners! Y’all have worked hard and played hard, and now it’s time to party hard. You’re the best.