Tag: reno

From Downtown Makeover: Downtown Reno Walk.

If you're looking for fireworks this 4th of July, you have plenty of options this year. The closest one to us, of course, will be in Carson City at Mills Park. After the debacle last year they're going to try again, and hopefully we'll get a full show this time around instead of the shortened mess that was last year's show. The fireworks start around 9:15. There's also a carnival going on at the park all weekend.

If you're not up for Carson City, here are the other options:

• Reno: Rancho San Rafael
• Sparks: Victorian Square
• Virginia City: Mark Twain Park (stay for the brushfires!)
• Truckee: at Donner Lake
• Lake Tahoe has several shows:
  • King’s Beach
  • Tahoe City
  • Incline Village
  • Squaw Valley (laser show)
  • and the big daddy of them all, Star Spangled Fourth at South Lake Tahoe

If you're going to Lake Tahoe, remember that alcohol is banned on most beaches. And they'll be gouging you big time on parking. If you can even find any.

Other Links:
www.nevadaappeal.com/article/20080703/NEWS/221783369/
www.nevadaappeal.com/article/20080703/NEWS/135392171/0/OPINION
blog.travelnevada.com/articles/fourth-of-july-in-reno-tahoe

At the Travel Nevada blog: Rafting down the Truckee River:

Somewhere between us swimming in our raft, getting our bodies bashed against rocks and running into a cove of trees, we decided that we really did buy a cheap boat.

Downtown Reno walk, June 13th.

Downtown Makeover has a photo tour from inside the Montage today. The Montage is one of the biggest construction projects going in downtown Reno right now, the job to turn the old Reno Sahara/Hilton/Golden Phoenix hotel tower into upscale condominiums. And looking at the photos, it seems like they're doing a really good job.

Travel Nevada: Reno River Festival Makes a Splash

The Reno River Festival is taking place this weekend. This is one of the top kayaking competitions in the country, taking place in the Truckee River downtown and the new Whitewater Park. Runs started on Friday afternoon, and the Reno-Tahoe Blog already has photos of the kayakers up on Flickr.

Fun stuff.

Dreaming of public transportation between Carson City and Reno. How likely is a light rail train route between the two cities?

Besides, he said, in cities that have modern light rail, the light rail itself becomes an attraction that draws visitors to the city. So let’s take a journey back to the future. You step on a train (or BRT) in Carson, turn on the laptop, and before you know it you’re in Reno. On Sunday you take the kids on the train to Washoe Valley for a picnic. Tourists arrive at the Reno Amtrak station and take light rail to the interesting, restored, walkable downtown Carson City. Why not? It could happen.

If it wasn't so expensive to lay rails, it might work. But the article refers to the Phoenix light rail, which is coming in with a bill of $1.6 billion for 20 miles of rail. That's lunacy. Why does it have to be so much? And look at the price tag to rebuild the V&T; $50 million and counting. Just to re-lay rails on a route that's already graded. Maybe the difference is that nowadays we're not paying the Chinese a dollar a day to build railroads, but it still seems like these prices are way out of line for what the finished product is.

Here's a movie of the Sacramento light rail system.

The first 18 miles of this cost $176 million in 1987. So why have prices jumped tenfold since then?

Reno has been getting peppered with earthquakes over the last few weeks. They've been small ones, most in the 1-2 range where you can't even feel them. So the story has only been about how many there have been, not how strong they were. But now they're starting to get stronger.

Just today so far there have been about 26 earthquakes, according to the USGS website. And these have been felt. The two big ones were a 4.1 and a 4.2, which is well in the range of what can be felt. Those came just before 4:00 today. Many reports have been coming into the RGJ, all of them talking about shaking desks, falling dishes, and the other details you get with a story about earthquakes. And the undercurrent to all the reports is one of concern: are the earthquakes going to keep getting worse?

Downtownmakeover.com has gone on another Downtown Walk of Reno, looking at the new construction and the folks enjoying the Truckee River. I really enjoy these downtown walks; I think I'll start doing the same thing for Carson City this summer, even though there is far less change happening in downtown Carson. But I want to photograph all the houses on the West Side for Carsonpedia anyway, since I'm building pages for all the historic houses and buildings in town. So why not round up all the photos into downtown walks while I'm at it?

Update: He posted another walk just today.