Reno Street Audio

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 t...

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 ho...

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 aspira...

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 Ne...

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...

As more and more federal money arrives into Nevada and local coffers in Reno, those seeking to help our struggling neighbors are seizing the moment to reinvigorate long held ideas never tried before locally. At the June Community Homelessness Advisory Board meeting, Eileen Bidwell, representing the One Truckee River non profit, presented the need for a local safe parking program. CHAB members seem...

Catrina Peters, a Washoe County official gave us a tour last week of the new safe camp, which is part of the new multimillion dollar Nevada Cares Campus. At the time of our visit, only 14 people and one cat were reported to be staying at this pilot safe camp so far. In the interview we are told only 50 tents in all will be planned when it moves to the yet to be ready former Governor's Bowl basebal...

Brianna Punsalang once walked into a local store branded as metaphysical looking for some supplies. When employees tried to sell them on a “Tarot for Teens” class, they thought the local shop must not have had a very diverse clientele. Brianna was 30 at the time. Several years later, they are now running Coyote Supply Co. and gave our reporter Rachel Jackson a tour.

As one of the leaders of the Reno-Sparks chapter of the Citizens’ Climate Lobby, a nationwide nonprofit which focuses on creating the political will for environmental progress, Michelle Hamilton brings energy, dedication, and innovation to addressing climate change. “It’s been around since 2010 as a national organization,” explained Hamilton, “and there are three chapters in the Nevada area.” Alon...

Shaved head, painted fingernails, multiple earring that’s Gallo Chingon, the podcaster behind Sucias are my Favorite, a welcome addition to our local landscape. Gallo moved to Reno for a job at Tesla but has since left to begin a life of content creation and exploration of hobbies. He values his time and says he’s out of the rat race for now. In this Our Town Reno podcast episode with Richard Bedn...

We've heard of mutual aid groups and community gardens, so why not combine the two? Patricia Curtis-Ostler is one of the volunteers for a new initiative in a sideyard in downtown Reno. She explains why she’s helping as she does with so many groups in the community. We’ll also hear from Michael Carson, a coordinator of this project. He’ll explain his plan to grow crops for those in need.

This is a podcast rundown of a stop the sweeps protest today June 7th, 2021 in Reno when protestors faced off against police. I’m Nico Colombant the coordinator for the Our Town Reno multimedia initiative. As people chanted, outreach workers started arriving first, speaking to people unhoused laying on the grass at Believe Plaza. I interrupted Erika Minaberry doing a Facebook Live to ask about her...

Wraith is mad an encampment at N Edison and Mill Street is next on the sweeps list in Reno, following the opening of new mega shelter the Nevada Cares Campus. It’s broiling hot and it’s only June second. People here are tired of journalists and cameras. Advocates were hoping they could make this a legal safe camp until the official safe camp opens at the new Nevada Cares Campus but the City of Ren...

At the beginning of summer last year, protests were erupting across the country over a range of issues, including police violence and conditions at Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention centers. Helen Miranda and Ashley Solano decided they needed to do something about it. Being friends since their sophomore year of high school, the two decided to start Project UNITY, a group aimed at...

When we interviewed him, Carl, an Illinois native, had been living in the tent city in Reno for about a month. “We're all sick, we're all struggling. You know, we're all struggling. I mean, you do get some bad seeds up in here, but you know what, we're all pretty much in the same boat.” As notices were handed out up and down railroad tracks in Reno, Carl sat down in an outdoor couch to have a ciga...

As a University of Nevada, Reno graduate student, Alex Muñoz, originally from Barcelona, Spain, plans to study the geography of the developing Governor’s Bowl Park homeless shelter. With a background in cinema and global studies, Muñoz wants his work to have an impact on the community. Muñoz has also implanted himself in the local community’s outreach efforts addressing the needs of our houseless...

Since early February, the Reno Gastro Project, whose stated mission “is to support the local economy while feeding community members facing hunger”, has been purchasing restaurant meals at full price for those most in need. In nearly three months, they have already raised about $16,000 dollars. Susan Abele, the Partners for Fish and Wildlife Nevada State Coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife...

Sana Sana says he's working to bridge the gap between dehumanization and injustices to land and water through hip hop, illustration, and direct action. “I was pretty much born an artist, but I feel like I didn’t really start coming into my own,” said Sana Sana, a local Reno visual and hip hop artist “until I dedicated my art to saying something that was meaningful to the people and for the land.”...

On an early morning by the Wells Avenue bridge, downtown Reno ambassadors roam around on Segways; cops respond to disturbance calls, and two women attempt to clean out their tents in hopes of making the area feel more like home. Ahead of a new Cares campus, this is where people living in tents are being allowed to stay, but that may all change soon, with sweeps being threatened, and police refusin...

With temperatures rising and skies clearing, activist Lily Baran started her day tending to a batch of strawberry seedlings she received from a farm in Dayton, Nevada. Her son Oliver and her dog Champagne are close behind, dodging wasps here and there. Once frost is a threat of the past, the seedlings can be put into the ground to bloom and grow into red delicious berries. For now, they are one of...

Laundry to the People is composed of Ilya Arbatman, Rosie Zuckerman, and Alex Muñoz. The three were connected by Blaize Abuntori of the Reno Burrito Project. While there have been a handful of groups stepping up and providing nutritious food and hygiene kits to the houseless community locally, less attention has been given to other necessities. Seeing this, Laundry to the People stepped in and beg...

For Michael Guymon, being an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) is a career filled with tragedy, bitter realizations, and beautiful moments of brotherhood. Guymon has been an EMT for about three years and six months full time on the streets of Reno. As an EMT, Guymon, a UNR graduate, says he has seen sides of Reno he wished did not exist. “It's (Reno) dirtier than I thought it was going to be. Dru...

Amie Duncan, the founder of Reno Soup for the Soul, started during the COVID-19 pandemic is now looking to Spring 2021, with a new focus on supplies, sandwiches, salads, and street outreach.  As a mother of one and holding down a full time job, Duncan has carved out time in a busy schedule to do what she can to help her unhoused neighbors. Volunteers help in person or can donate via an Amazon wish...

"We're trying to make it livable out here. I mean, my tent is the big one over there and, you know, just it's, I think it's ridiculous. I think it's ridiculous when the cops have to come out here and pull all of us out of here. We're not doing anything wrong, you know, we're trying to live just like they do every day. We're trying to get back on our feet and it's hard." That’s Kelly at Fisherman’s...

Hands of Hope, an ingenious food bank, which charges 10 dollars for nearly 200 dollars worth of groceries twice a week for veterans and community members, is now facing having to move from its Valley Road location in Reno due to rent issues. This after Frank Seve had to take over from his parents, after they were deported back to Western Samoa. Our reporter Richard Bednarski has the story.