The Truckee River is looking frighteningly low toward the end of 2021. Our guest for this episode is environmental storyteller and Truckee River expert Kelsey Fitzgerald. She is a graduate of the Reynolds School of Journalism who earned her Master’s degree here in 2015 and started the website truckeeriverguide.org/ The website is a citizen interactive field guide to plants and wildlife along the majestic and rugged Truckee River. She’s also a science writer for the Desert Research Institute.

Biggest Little Streets

The Truckee River Runs Through Us, an Expert's Take

Jake Maynard explains why he joined the anti-sweeps movement in Reno, Nevada, while we go into our archives, a profile of Joane, over 70 and fending for herself. Can't we do better as a society to help the most vulnerable among us?

On Stopping Sweeps and Facing the Constant Threat of Being Swept

What happens when you've lost almost all hope while living on the streets? Why is it that in certain situations it's so difficult to climb that hill again and get back into the job market? Our Town Reno reporters speak to Robert and Ace, the first saying he's waiting for death, and the second from our archives suicidal while unhoused. Our neighbors without stable shelter deserve our close attention and empathy, because who are we if we can't help those among us struggling in our communities?

Losing Hope on the Streets

Contracted private operator Keolis, transportation and city officials have expressed disappointment and frustration bus drivers are back on strike amid ongoing efforts to get a better collective bargaining agreement. Little media attention is given to who these bus drivers are exactly and what led them to pursue the job in the first place. Our reporter Richard Bednarski went to the picket line this week to find out.

RTC Washoe Bus Drivers Renew Strike Action Against Keolis

Too many of our neighbors have had their relatives killed by local law enforcement in situations which could have easily avoided death. At a recent rally, Our Town Reno reporters Gracie Gordon and Rachel Jackson met with the daughter and sister of Johnny Bonta who was killed at the age of 43 by Sparks police four years ago.

A Family in Washoe County Shattered by a Police Killing

In this episode with Richard Bednarski, we look into getting more details on what’s going on at the Nevada Cares Campus and the overall local government plan to help the unhoused. Our guest is Washoe County Commissioner Alexis Hill. She speaks to us as the county is taking over leadership in helping the unhoused regionally from the city of Reno after months and months of negotiations to make that happen. She’s also the new chair of CHAB the community homelessness advisory board. Unlike many others in town, Commissioner Hill always responds to emails and queries for interviews. This is a frank discussion from improving the food at the massive big tent mega shelter to logistics and staff, to renewing contracts and building better partnerships with advocates.

Alexis Hill, Now Leading the Way to Help the Unhoused in Northern Nevada

Being elderly in normal times can lead to acute loneliness. In this new normal of a still surging pandemic and terrible air quality, the loneliness has grown exponentially. Our guest with reporter Richard Bednarski for this week’s podcast episode is Hannah Sweeney, the program director for Seniors in Service. The northern Nevada non profit has been growing a program that combats isolation by giving tablets, wifi and tech training to seniors in need.

Helping Seniors Combat Smoke and COVID Loneliness with Technology

In this bonus episode, we look into the plight of evacuees from the Caldor Fire on the California Nevada border. Despite efforts by firefighters, hundreds of homes have already been destroyed. Reporter Richard Bednarski catches up with evacuees now staying at the Reno Sparks Convention Center amid this climate change crisis we are experiencing full on right now, from bad air quality for those around the fires, to those losing homes destroyed by the rampaging flames.

Forced Evacuees of California's Caldor Fire Cross Over into Nevada

Jessica Castro was unhoused herself and went through devastating trauma but has rebounded. She’s now a powerhouse advocate for those struggling in Reno and northern Nevava, on social media, at City Council meetings and outside the new Nevada Cares campus. She works as a local auditor at a call center, but when she’s off work you’ll usually find her helping others. Several times a week, she distributes hundreds of bottles of water and holds big community meals, providing healthier options than what’s being offered inside. In this episode with reporter Richard Bednarski you'll also hear those she helps and volunteers working by her side.

Jessica Castro, From Unhoused and Surviving Trauma to Helping Others in Reno

Our guest on this episode is Anthony Shafton, a Chicago native, independent scholar and current Reno resident. He’s an author who has written several books including The Nevada They Knew, Robert Caples, Walter Van Tilburg Clark, a double biography about Nevada’s prominent modern painter and novelist of the 20th century. Recently Shafton wrote an oped for Our Town Reno about public art in Reno and how current pursuits might be misguided. He discusses this past, present and future of the Biggest Little City and warns about corporate driven gentrification and homogenization.

Anthony Shafton, an Author Tracking Reno Through Famous Artists and Public Spaces

What's it like for journalists covering the devastating fires and never ending smoke here in the West during a historically bad year? Our guest is one of our current reporters Richard Benarski, who was an intern with the Reno Gazette-Journal this past summer, and whose aspiration is to become a storyteller raising awareness by covering climate change. He’s also from Quincy, California, a town in the thick of it, so he’s been reporting in an area he’s extremely familiar with. In this episode he gives many insights both about the situation, what it's looking like right now and in the weeks ahead, and being a reporter literally thrown into the flames.

Richard Bednarski, Covering Fires and Smoke in the West as a Reporter and Photo Journalist

How can public art become better for Reno and other communities across the United States? Mark Salinas, the senior project manager at Forecast Public Art, recently helped develop a land recognition statement as part of many projects he is working on in the Biggest Little City where he works from. He has also recently worked with a social worker artist empowering the unhoused after they get into housing in Atlanta, as well as with a major community bridge park in development Washington, D.C. On this episode with Our Town Reno coordinator Nico Colombant, Salinas discusses Reno's Space Whale, electrical boxes, Jacobs Entertainment art, the Locomotion plaza and how to get grants and community engagement among several public art related topics.

Making Public Art More Equitable and Better for Communities

Danielle Barrineau went from tying herself up in garbage bags to stay warm and hidden while living on the streets in Reno and addicted to heroin, to now being housed with her daughter and helping others. She recently spoke up at City Hall to stop the sweeps. She has plenty of insights from her own experiences and her current work as a peer recovery specialist. She also shares her dreams and aspirations for herself, for Reno, for the world and her daughter.

Danielle Barrineau, from Homeless, Addicted to Heroin, Trafficked while Pregnant to Housed and on the Mend

It was the start of the pandemic. It was the beginning of the end of the Record Street shelter in downtown Reno. It was before the Nevada Cares Campus. It was chaotic, it was frightening. The Reno Events Center was opened for those without shelter. Staff were screaming, yelling instructions, while the rest of the city was empty. This historical audio piece was first run as part of a series with Nevada Humanities, now replayed on your podcast here.

How the Pandemic Affected the Unhoused

This week we’re reissuing part of a previous episode but on its own to never forget. This month in July marked eight years since Iraq war veteran Kenneth Stafford, a 27 year old father of three girls, was cornered, gunned down and killed by local police while he was going through a difficult time. At a recent protest reporter Gracie Gordon met with his mother Terry Colgrove and his sister Courtney Henderson. They explained how he was on military leave on that fateful tragic day. He had just traveled down to the area from Washington. He was dealing with PTSD and stress related to a pending court case. He had gotten a shotgun from someone to protect himself. When his family called for help, instead of a mental health worker, it was police who came out firing. On this Our Town Reno podcast episode, his mother describing the days and then seconds leading up to his killing.

Never Forget: Kenneth Stafford, A Black Soldier Killed by Reno and Sparks Police in northern Nevada

This is Biggest Little Streets audio street chronicles, a podcast by Our Town Reno. We address issues of homelessness, the disappearance of public space and the value of helping each other out. We do live reporting, micro storytelling and spoken word. As we face an affordable housing crisis, what happens to our most vulnerable?

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