NEws

SILVER CLUB INTERIOR

SparkS property Sold

Marnell Gaming, the latest owner of the Sparks Nugget, has purchased the former Silver Club property across the street.

The Silver Club was originally a casino and a hotel in a separate building on C Street. It closed at midnight on Jan. 10, 2009, after operating under that name for more than a quarter century. It reopened briefly as the Bourbon Square, with the hotel still a part of the property but not operating.

After Bourbon Square closed, the hotel property was sold in 2015 and converted to apartments.

Marnell, which owns several casinos in Clark County, has not announced its plans for the new holding. Also standing empty at the moment is the downtown movie theater multiplex. Both properties have been gutted.

Malkin blaSted

The Reno Gazette-Journal is getting mail asking it to replace columnist Michelle Malkin with a different conservative. It’s a reaction to Malkin’s Sept. 10 column.

In that column, Malkin—daughter of Filipino immigrants—belittles the anxiety experienced by immigrants as a result of Donald Trump’s actions against the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.

“I, I, I. Me, me, me. My bills. My ego. My education. My job. My anxiety,” Malkin wrote. “Since when did DACA become the Depression and Anxiety Cure for Amnestyseekers?”

Malkin then contrasts the needs of immigrants with those of more sympathetic groups—such as those “in uniform who’ve dedicated their lives to defending our nation” or “young people between 16-34 [who] were unemployed last year.”

In one letter published by the Gazette-Journal, Catherine Hancock of Reno wrote, “This newspaper needs to have a variety of opinions, but Michelle Malkin’s rant is an ugly exception, advocating expulsion of a whole group of young people who were brought here involuntarily by their parents. … Please do the responsible thing and find a more rational conservative columnist.”

In a letter to an RG-J editor, a former reporter at the newspaper wrote, “Please consider finding another conservative columnist. Our country is in big trouble as selfdescribed Nazis, KKK, white supremacists, nationalists, etc. are fear mongering and ginning people up. It is very scary. I view Michelle Malkin’s columns as doing the same. We need thoughtful, calming influences.”

In most markets, the column ran with the headline it came with—“There Is No Such Thing As a ‘Deserving DREAMer’”—which was taken from the column’s last line. The RG-J ran a softer headline: “Malkin: The face of the entitled illegal alien.” Local residents looked at displays and chatted with state highway officials at Sparks City Hall.

PHOTO/DENNIS MYERS

Freeway change coming

Information meetings needed more information

“So what did you think, John?” asked one person after a public meeting at Sparks City Hall last week.

His friend responded, “Widening 80 in Sparks is a good idea.”

Another audience member came away with the same reaction: “Getting back to four lanes—that’s excellent.”

Officialdom is seeking public reaction on the environmental implications of a “Spaghetti Bowl Project,” but finding out what that project is may not be easy.

Two public meetings were held at Traner Middle School and Sparks City Hall. Postcards were mailed to locals about the meetings, but the post cards never said what the project is. It was headlined “SPAGHETTI BOWL PROJECT/ Preliminary Design Update.” However, neither project nor designs were described. Rather, the postcard had vague references to “upgrade of the area’s freeway systems” and “preliminary alternative designs.”

Material handed out at the meetings was similarly worded. Goals for the project included non-specific items like this: “Long Term Relief: Develop ultimate project to meet 2040 demands. … Right-of-Way: Minimize displacements. … Safety: Prioritize project based on eliminating /reducing high accident areas. … Operations: Create interchange system fully functional and easily navigable within project limits.” This verbiage was repeated twice in one handout, but repeating it did not make it more intelligible.

Display matter at the meetings was relatively primitive, given that this is 2017. The one-dimensional, multi-color flats might have been used in the 1970s. What information could be discerned from the presentations—such as references to braided ramps and multilevels—cried out for animations, but none were available.

One fact that emerged that pleased participants was that part of the project will be widening of the Nugget bottleneck, which has been a local grievance for many years. Interstate 80 narrows as it passes through downtown Sparks, and this became known as the Nugget bottleneck. That made clear that the “Spaghetti Bowl Project” involved much more than the Spaghetti Bowl, but also made it that much more frustrating to figure out what it does involve.

“I asked some questions, but I didn’t want to sound stupid,” one person told us. “I wanted more from the displays and the handouts than I got.”

Not asking questions at the meetings may have been self-defeating, but it was common. After Nevada Department of Transportation spokespeople made their presentations at the Sparks meeting, they threw it open to questions and got none.

The Spaghetti Bowl was constructed between 1969 and 1971. A major renovation would likely have similar lengthy impact, but no one at the meeting asked about how the impact would be minimized.

NDOT held the meetings not to get reaction to the project itself but to make the public aware of the environmental impact statement that will precede the project. That alone will take more than three years.

“The point of this is, we’re still years away from construction,” said NDOT spokesperson Nick Johnson, the project director, at the Sparks City Hall meeting.

But it is difficult to react to environmental concerns without knowing what the project is.

One community that is concerned about the impact of the project is the Reno-Sparks Indian Colony, adjacent to the Spaghetti Bowl. A statement from Colony Chair Arlan Melendez appears on the colony website:

“For over 100 years, the RenoSparks Indian Colony has worked to improve the quality of life for its Tribal members and to develop a self-sufficient economy. Our tribal members rely on the East Second Street and Glendale Avenue interchange to access their homes and to obtain government and health care services. …The East Second Street, Glendale Avenue interchange provides critical access for customers visiting tribal enterprises and businesses like our smoke shops and Walmart at Three Nations Plaza. Any temporary disruption for businesses during construction activities will negatively impact our tribal government revenues.”

SkepticiSm

The handout did say the project runs on I-80 from Sierra to Pyramid Highway and on 395 from North McCarran Boulevard to Moana Lane.

A website at http://ndotspaghettibowl. com contains more information: “The RenoSparks area is experiencing dramatic population increases. Washoe County is expected to see an increase of over 147,000 people over the next 20 years. The area is seeing a welcome influx of more commercial and industrial enterprises. The Nevada Department of Transportation (NDOT), in preparation for continued population growth, is improving portions along Interstate 80, Interstate 580, and U.S. 395, with particular attention to the I-80/I580 Interchange, also known as the Spaghetti Bowl.

“In addition to these improvements, future traffic projections will be analyzed and infrastructure needs will be identified to take the Reno-Sparks area through the year 2040. Spaghetti Bowl improvements include short-, mid- and long-range projects. NDOT has put plans in place to add more freeway digital message signs advising drivers of upcoming traffic conditions near the Spaghetti Bowl. Long-range projects may include the widening of the freeway and interchange ramps to accommodate increased traffic volumes.” But this does not make it much easier for the public to get an idea of the environmental impact. We attempted without success to reach Johnson for more elaboration. Freeways in the Truckee Meadows are often sources of suspicion, given local history. Besides the

“We’re still Nugget bottleneck, the southern years away from route of the 395 expansion construction.” was changed to accommodate some affluent residents in the

Nick Johnson 1980s. At Huffaker Lane, it

Nevada Dept. of suddenly heads east, missing Transportation the homes of the wealthy in the southwest, and then returns to its former trajectory after the Mt. Rose Highway. If the vagueness in the project materials was intended to keep the project below the radar, it worked. Several local media outlets ran notices of the informational meetings but did not cover the meetings themselves. Ω An official website on the Spaghetti Bowl Project is found at http://ndotspaghettibowl.com

Sign of the times

A worker deals with a cell phone tower on a billboard along U.S. 395 near Glendale Avenue. These towers—or masts, or sites—are often subjects of controversy. Ten years ago this week, the Las Vegas Sun reported, “They are disguised as flagpoles, lampposts and palm trees. They are hidden behind billboards and inside church steeples. And if they haven’t yet, chances are they are coming to a neighborhood near you.”