Arts&Culture

EMPTY RENO

Returning home after living abroad, I’m surprised by how desolate it seems now

by Ben Garrido

From afar, my old house looks the same. It’s still a powdery, medium-blue single story with a white porch out front. There’s still the large, brick patio that stood four feet proud off the rear lawn. Visitors can still enter the property from the normal driveway, at the north extremity, or take the “shortcut” we plowed through the sagebrush by dragging a huge cement ring behind our antique International Harvester. The giant granite boulder to the side still looks like somebody carved it specifically for children to play on.

I come closer and watch as the similarities evaporate. All the Christmas pines planted each January and my mother’s treasured aspens are dead and gone. The lawn has given way to bare dirt, the herb garden now the sterile northeastern border of a dog pen. Paint flakes the size of dinner plates flap against exterior walls, and the roof looks like it has been leaking badly. The two barns towards the south end of the property look considerably more habitable than the house itself. The home that had, five years ago, clung to the solid center of Rancho Haven respectability, has now fallen into near ruin. My former home, sadly, is not a bad metaphor for Reno’s journey through the housing crisis. I recently returned to Reno after spending two years abroad. My sister and I drove by Sierra Marketplace shopping center on the corner of Moana and Virginia. Empty storefront after empty storefront created the illusion of wide eyes, unseeing glass facades broken only by “Prime Property Available” signs. Where there had been grocery stores, launderers and clock repairmen, the large shopping center is now just five or six businesses away from total abandonment.

“God, Reno looks empty,” I said.

“It kind of is,” responded my sister.

She spoke the truth. According to city of Reno statistics, Reno grew 34.5 percent between 1990 and 2000. It grew a further 21.7 percent between 2000 and 2009. Positively bubblicious. Now, according to a 2010 estimate from the state demographer, Nevada lost about 2.6 percent of its population in 2010, with more losses in 2011 and continued shrinkage likely until at least 2013. Nevada has the highest unemployment rate in the United States, and the state is a leader in the nation for foreclosures. Nobody, it seems, came through the housing crunch in worse condition than us.

Foreclosure statistics point to a sharp increase, starting in 2007. The damage centered on the sorts of homes you would expect lower middle class folks to live in, specifically three-bedroom homes. As recently as 2007, the average house sold at around $340,000, this in a county where the average household annual income was only $47,856. Now the average home goes for just over $150,000. It seems like the housing bust cut the knees out from construction workers, truck drivers and nurse’s assistants much more than it did for doctors, lawyers or engineers. Some of them fled back to California, some returned to Mexico, all left something of themselves here in the hills around the Truckee Meadows.

BUST, A MOVE

Mike Inskeep, a tall, red-haired social studies teacher at Cold Springs Middle School, lives on a 10-acre plot in the far northern reaches of Red Rock, a few miles east of the California border. His brown twostory clings to the sand and rock about halfway up the hill. To the west are jagged 7,000-foot peaks, one mountain range east of the Sierra Nevada. To the east a sweeping valley floor and wetlands filled to bursting with frogs, water boatmen and leaches, spreads out like a green and brown Persian carpet. To say this neighborhood has changed seems an understatement. It was not long ago the average home in this area commanded $350,000.

“In Rancho Haven, some of the properties have recently been going for around $40,000 at auction,” Inskeep said. “Some people lost their jobs, went to the bank to refinance and got told no. I know several people who’ve just walked away.”

People who arrived during the property boom often find themselves upside down in North Red Rock. Further, the 45-minute commute to Reno has combined with higher gas prices to severely stress the residents and hollow out entire swaths of residences.

“They have had some fires,” he said. “And there’s just no point in saving the house, places where they’ve got sagebrush growing in the swimming pool.”

Inskeep, a 20-year resident, may himself not be long for Red Rock. He recently bought another house near the University of Nevada, Reno for renting out to college students. Taking up residence there is looking increasingly tempting these days, he said.

“The market is probably bottomed out,” Inskeep said. “But our valley, if gas prices are $5, it’s gonna be hard to get people out there. We’ll never get back where we were.”

Hardy McNew, a 77-year-old retired school teacher, lives in a markedly different kind of neighborhood off Mayberry. There are healthy trees and carefully manicured lawns

as far as the eye can see. Wholesome women in their 40s wear pastel tracksuits, blond ponytails and iPods as they power walk along the sidewalks. Well-groomed dogs bask in the sun, balding men rub wax onto their power boats. McNew makes no mention of moving away. His experience of empty Reno centers on the old Bishop Manogue High School.

McNew retired early the first time around. He had worked as the chief financial officer at a local firm and made “really a lot of money.”

Material needs met, The Sierra Marketplace at the corner of Moana and Virginia streets is nearly deserted. McNew and a friend decided it would be fun to give Manogue “the best English department in Reno.” He sent word to the administration about his availability, mentioned his doctorate and ended up head of the English department. Then, in 2005, they shut down the old school and moved to the current location on South Virginia. The old property, a brick main building with a hardwood basketball gymnasium, a baseball field in the southwestern bowl and a large chapel made from old, incense stained wood, passed into the hands of UNR. Visit now, and all that remains is a women’s athletics facility that’s almost always empty and nearly PHOTOS/AMY BECK indistinguishable from the urban farmland to its east. McNew described his feelings upon driving past the first time. “It was like getting punched in the gut,” he said. “I didn’t want to see it happening. I just imagined the bulldozers. That was 10 years of my life, good years.” The surrounding area has changed as well. Valley Road has gotten quieter, the businesses less plentiful. In this neighborhood, where some of the richest people in the Truckee Meadows used to mix with some of the poorest while picking up their kids, now the poor alone remain. It hardly seems likely that this type of self-segregation will lend itself to urban renewal. Neal Cobb has served on just about every historical society in Reno’s history. Historian of the Reno High Alumni, Washoe County Design and Review Committee, Scenic Nevada Board of Directors, the list goes on. He’s also written books on the Truckee Meadows. He says that Reno was similar to boomtowns like Virginia City, Goldfield and Pioche. “Look at how many people from foreign countries ended up being 49ers,” Cobb said. “It’s the same thing now. It was devastating. We overbuilt. Years back when you had people who could afford to buy houses they were in the trades. The developers were much more conservative during earlier builds you were making it possible for people who couldn’t afford it to buy houses. Anytime there’s a boom there’s also a bust.” Ω

Hardy McNew was a teacher at Bishop Manogue before the school moved to south of town. THE $0 TO MOTOR LEASE. Lease a 2012 MINI Cooper Hardtop with $0 down and $249 per month for 36 months.*

*36-month closed-end lease offered to qualified customers by MINI Financial Services through participating dealers. $0 cash due at signing (based on $0 first month payment, $0 down payment and $0 security deposit. Not all customers will qualify for security deposit waiver). Lease rate and fees based on example of a 2012 MINI Cooper Hardtop with Automatic Transmission with MSRP of $21,450, includes destination and handling charge. Excludes tax, title and dealer fees. Lessee responsible for insurance, excess wear and tear as defined in the lease contract, $0.20/mile over 10,000 miles per year and a disposition fee of $350 at lease end. Purchase option at lease end $14,586. Subject to credit approval. Payment includes capitalized $725 acquisition fee. Offer valid through April 30, 2012. Models pictured in advertisements may be shown with metallic paint and/or additional accessories. Visit your authorized MINI dealer for complete details. **All new MINI Passenger Cars come with MINI No Cost Maintenance standard for the first 3 years or 36,000 miles (whichever comes first), MINI New Passenger Car Limited Warranty standard for 4 years or 50,000 miles (whichever comes first), and 24-hour Roadside Assistance for 4 years/unlimited miles. Plus warranty against rust perforation standard for 12 years/ unlimited miles. All programs begin on the original in-service date. See the MINI Service and Warranty booklet or visit an authorized MINI Dealer for terms, conditions and limitations.©2012 MINI, a division of BMW of North America, LLC. The MINI name, model names and logo are registered trademarks.

Help us celebrate 50 years of jazz ~ 1962-2012!

Always the best in JAZZ — concerts, competitions & clinics!

Thursday, April 26 Grammy©Award Winner Joe Lovano and The Collective

7:30 p.m., Nightingale Concert Hall

Friday, April 27

Festival Competition and Clinics

8 a.m.-6 p.m., University campus The 50th Annivesary of the Reno Jazz Festivalwith Grammy©Award Nominee The Mingus Big Band

7:30 p.m., Lawlor Events Center

Saturday, April 28

Festival Competition and Clinics

8 a.m.-5 p.m., University campus

Festival Showcase and Awards Ceremony

6:30 p.m., Lawlor Events Center

Festival and Ticket Information:

(775) 784-4046 jazz@unr.edu www.unr.edu/rjf

Jazz Fan Pass!

General $60 / Senior $50

Provides entrance to all festival events, call (775) 784-4278 to order. Be a jazz volunteer!

Want to earn a free concert ticket? Be a jazz volunteer! For details call (530) 362-0875 or email jjsteele@unr.edu.

Funded in part by a grant from the Nevada Arts Council, a state agency,; the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency; and the City of Reno.

Sparks Heritage Museum is playing a 22-minute multimedia program, Night of the Titanic, from 1 to 4 p.m. each Saturday in April.

A sinking ship

The Titanic got little notice for 40 years. Then we discovered it. by Dennis Myers

The 1912 sinking of H.M.S. Titanic means more to us than it did to the generation that experienced it. After the sensation of the event and the initial news coverage and investigations died out, it faded from view.

No Hollywood movie was made about it until 1953. When Walter Lord was researching his 1956 book ANight to Remember, he discovered, “From 1913 to 1955, not a single book was published on the subject.” It was Lord’s book, in fact, that brought the Titanic into prominence after decades of obscurity.

Afew years ago, when the James Cameron movie was released, I spent several days researching Nevada links to the sinking. No journalist can read the 1912 news coverage of the disaster without feeling a little unclean. Journalism blew the story badly, rushing into print with rumors, slanders, lies and plain fiction. I suspect that’s one reason why the public lost interest in the story—the news coverage was so bad and was shown by investigations to be so inaccurate that the public began to disbelieve everything they read about Titanic.

The lies lived on, though. In the 1950s, Lord himself was taken in by some of them and 30 years later, he published a second book—The Night Lives On—correcting all the errors he made in the first book, along with errors made by others.

Since the wreck’s discovery, the interest has accelerated, producing book after book, T-shirts, art, posters, ship models, and on and on.

It all shows little sign of abating, and the myths keep multiplying. The movie Titanic is routinely referred to as the second-highest grossing movie of all time, after Cameron’s Avatar. But that’s in 1997 dollars. When adjusted for inflation, Titanic falls back into sixth place.

We have invested the tale with all kinds of portentous meaning.

Surprisingly, local history has been left relatively untouched, though many communities have links to the sinking of which they are unaware.

The husband and the senator

The White Star liner hit the iceberg at about 20 minutes before midnight on April 14, 1912. Soon a cacophony of information was swapped by wireless among Titanic, other ships and landbased stations. The news spread rapidly across the nation.

Former Hamburg, Germany, resident Paul Schabert had been waiting out the Reno residency period for a divorce. His wife was coming to the United States on the Titanic. He departed Reno about the same time the ship left England to meet the ship final details for the divorce could be worked out.

In the District of Columbia, U.S. Sen. William Alden Smith, a Michigan Republican, grasped the importance of the news of the sinking and quickly arranged creation of a special Senate investigating subcommittee. He chaired the panel, and Nevada’s Francis Newlands, a Democrat, was named vice chair. The two men caught a train for New York.

In Reno, people gathered outside the offices of the Nevada State Journal to read bulletins as they arrived. “As the fearful details of the disaster were revealed, they turned away in horror,” the newspaper reported. At the Grand Theatre, bulletins were projected onto a screen before a subdued audience.

Across the nation, newspapers were in a feverish search for someone to blame, based on almost no reliable information. They demonized everyone from women passengers who failed to remain by their husbands’ sides as the ship went down to White Star Line executive Bruce Ismay, who had the gall to survive the sinking. Part of the reason for the Smith/Newlands trip to New York was to make sure Ismay did not sail back to England until he testified in the Senate probe.

Accompanying the senators to New York was a party that included cabinet member Charles Nagel, U.S. Steamship inspection service inspector general George Uhler (who educated the senators on the way) and senate employees to serve subpoenas.

In New York at the Cunard Pier, Smith and Newlands boarded the rescue ship Carpathia, which was disembarking survivors of the Titanic. The senators met with Ismay, who had no objection to testifying. Hearings in the investigation began the next day at the Waldorf Astoria in New York.

Newlands, a progressive and bigot whose ethics were uncertain, had served in Congress since 1893. While in D.C., he was apparently not overburdened by his duties. With Nevada Sen. William Stewart, he spent time helping establish the whites-only community of Chevy Chase in Maryland.

Newlands missed most of the 18 days of hearings, and on the days he showed up, he seldom spoke. When he did speak, his lack of interest in the proceedings meant that his questions were pretty pedestrian, certainly nothing like Smith’s more penetrating probes.

Even when Guglielmo Marconi testified on the confusion of unregulated wireless traffic, Newlands had no questions. When Ismay testified on day 11, Newlands asked some questions about the structure of the ship.

Newlands’was forced to be more active and vocal on day seven—April 25—when the committee broke up into smaller bodies with each of the six senators taking testimony from several witnesses. Newlands questioned four witnesses.

His inactivity cost Newlands some political mileage, because at least one Reno newspaper was filling long columns with transcripts of the hearings, in which he rarely appeared. The hearings ended on May 25, and the committee later issued a report.

As for Paul Schabert, the husband who was on his way to New York to meet with his wife, there was a happy ending amid disaster. Her first name was never given in newspaper reports, but ship records say it was Emma. She was a first class passenger—she stayed in cabin C28—and got into lifeboat number 11.

She was taken on board the Carpathia. When it arrived in New York, Paul Schabert was there to greet his wife.

In the florid prose of the day’s newspapers, “However, the thrilling story of the wreck and the escape of Mrs. Schabert so wrought upon things that when her husband met her after her terrible experience the divorce idea was dropped, and they are now reunited and living in Cincinnati, Ohio.” Ω

A photo of the Senate subcommittee that investigated the Titanicsinking appeared on front pages across the nation. Nevada’s U.S. Sen. Francis Newlands appears here with a numeral 3 under his head.