The future falls behind

Welcome to this week's Reno News & Review.

Our Fatal Encounters project continues to get national attention. Just this week, the Washington Post did a pretty good write-up on it: http://wapo.st/1lPLQPV. I know you're probably bored reading about what media outlets outside this area are doing with our little efforts, but I'm kind of obligated to mention it. There's still a pretty good one I'm hanging fire on, but I don't want to raise anyone's expectations.

We've not had what you'd call a slow news day in Reno in quite some time—Tesla, two fatal police encounters, a flame-up at the children's museum, accusations at the school board, my new lizard died. It's a good thing I went into the weekly newspaper business so I don't have to break the news.

I'm torn about this Tesla deal. Once again, as we have so many times before, our state has bent over and spread its cheeks to a major industry. Nevada has a long history as a colonial subsidiary of mining, railroads, corporate owned casinos, foreign mining interests, and now the tech industry. I can only imagine that Tesla believes it can import the educated talent to run this enterprise because this deal has once again undercut our children's future. But hey, at least your kid will be able to wait tables for the factory workers, because even at their most mediocre, they're going to be among the top jobs in Reno. My kid will be OK. Hopefully, he'll see the world and get a decent post-high school education before he decides where he wants to put down roots.

As far as Reno at large, I can't imagine the next few years are going to be horrible for us middle-life folks who own homes. You know the sudden influx of people is going to jack up rent and housing prices and rev up that construction bubble blowing machine. That'll be good for many of us, for various reasons. I, for one, am happy that I put the solar panels and the electric car charging station in my garage. Kind of makes me feel like I was ahead of the curve.