The fall of downtown discontent

They don’t like to complain. Reno’s shop owners love working downtown in the arts and commerce district. They feel safe there. New streetlights ward off the darkness. And the city-owned parking garage at First and Sierra streets sports working security cameras. Though its maintenance isn’t perfect, the garage is being kept clean.

There’s the Sierra Spirit bus cruising through downtown at short, regular intervals. And new businesses are offering a bit more variety—like 100 North Sierra Street Antiques and Cavanaugh’s, a classy furniture store a couple doors down from Esoteric Coffee House.

But for some small-business folk, sales were down a bit this summer. That’s due to the economy and a slow, cool spring that didn’t exactly draw hordes of customers downtown early in the season, said Pamela Bobay of the River Gallery.

Even that wouldn’t be such a huge issue if it weren’t thatshop owners recently heard they may be paying more for customers’ parking in the city-owned Parking Gallery. The River Gallery pays 35 cents per hour for each customer’s parking stub it validates. That cost could go up to $1 per hour, Bobay said.

“We are still a redevelopment area,” Bobay said. “We’re going into a difficult season. Tripling this cost is going to be harmful.”

Each downtown business has a slightly different parking arrangement with the city. Century Riverside Theater, for example, can offer free parking at the Parking Gallery to movie-goers for as long as the theater is in business. That was part of the incentive to get the theater built along the river.

And, yes, the city likes to brag that the theater is doing well. But that doesn’t necessarily translate to lots of business for other stores. It doesn’t mean that the job of downtown redevelopment is by any means complete.

“The theater patrons don’t walk by every store,” she said. “Just because there’s a good anchor here doesn’t mean more people are shopping and browsing other stores.”

A couple blocks away from where I spoke with Bobay at the gallery, heavy machinery crafted faux rapids for the Truckee River’s kayak park. Bobay expressed enthusiasm about the project. But the park won’t open until next year.

She’s also excited about the growing number of people coming downtown for events such as the Wine Walks. (A Wine Walk is being held 2 to 5 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 6, downtown in conjunction with the Great Reno Balloon Festival.) And everyone loves to see skaters gracing the ice at the Rink by the River.

But more diversity is needed to get people downtown all winter long. Another restaurant or two would help. Something to create a downtown experience that might include dining, catching a movie—and shopping, too. The city has wasted too much time pursuing lost causes, Bobay said. City leaders will make an exclusive deal with a business, give the business 90 days to come up with a plan, then extend the deal when no plan ends up on the table.

“They need to shorten those [negotiation] periods, build a fire under everyone and move on it,” Bobay said.

She suspects that many businesses want to move downtown, but they fear the risks.

“The entrepreneurial spirit is there, and it draws us,” Bobay said. “But this area has so much yet to do.”

Bobay has done her share to see downtown redevelopment become a reality. She’s served on the city manager’s task force and the Downtown Improvement Association. She’s been part of the city’s financial advisory board. Still, she worries that some Reno leaders don’t understand the struggles businesses face downtown.

“There is fear this year,” she said. “And you get mad at having the [parking] rates raised. Does anyone really understand the dynamics down here? … It’s like the city wants to call [redevelopment] done when it’s barely started.”