City of Reno's Survey: Take it!

The City of Reno is conducting a community survey to better understand the needs and priorities of residents. They need to know your sexual orientation to better govern?

Congratulations. The City of Reno has unveiled its latest performance art piece: a citizen feedback survey carefully engineered to gather the information the city wants to feature, not what is truly concerning to residents.

This City of Reno survey is the municipal equivalent of asking "how are you?" while already walking away.

Reno officials have mastered the art of claiming "residents don't care" while ensuring exactly that outcome. Their latest online survey represents strategic disengagement disguised as outreach. It isn’t that citizens aren’t engaged, but instead the city doesn’t want citizens engaged and this survey is a perfect example.

This calculated approach allows them to check the public engagement box without the inconvenience of actually incorporating citizen feedback. It's a self-fulfilling prophecy: design a process guaranteed to fail, then cite that failure as evidence that residents are apathetic.

The survey isn't designed to capture meaningful input—it's crafted to create the illusion of listening. City officials can now proudly declare "we asked residents" while implementing whatever plans were decided months ago.

Vice-Mayor/Councilmember Kathleen Taylor doesn’t want to hear from her residents with the cancellation of the April NAB meeting.

The city doesn’t want community feedback which is evidenced by their constant cancellation of Neighborhood Advisory Board meetings. Real community engagement requires difficult conversations, unexpected feedback, and sometimes changing course. This survey offers none of that, just the comfortable fiction that your voice matters.

Will Councilmember Devon Reese ever care to have a Ward 5 Neighborhood Advisory Board Meeting? He could ask his constituents if they want him to run for mayor.