Mayor Schieve's Road Takeover Plan: Addressing Crashes or Dodging Responsibility?
KRNV’s post on February 21, 2025.
At the February 26, 2025 Reno City Council meeting there is a McCarran Blvd. safety presentation and agenda item. In the interest of true transparency can we have a record of how many tickets the City of Reno Police Department have issued at this intersection in the last 36-months? Picon often uses this route and rarely sees a RPD presence, except when there is an accident.
We agree with the residents who mentioned the speed cars are going, especially coming down McCarran towards Plumb Lane and Mayberry Drive. How about a good old speed trap City of Reno?
Mayor Hillary Schieve's push to take control of a local road plagued by accidents may seem like a straightforward safety measure, but the full picture is far more complex.
The increasing number of crashes is certainly concerning, but there's an elephant in the room: Reno's own aggressive development policies have dramatically changed the area's traffic patterns. Under Schieve's administration, virtually every available parcel within the McCarran loop has been approved for development in response to the housing crisis. This development surge has fundamentally transformed once-quiet stretches of road into busy thoroughfares without proportional infrastructure improvements.
The city has essentially created a perfect storm: more residents, more vehicles, more congestion, and inadequate road infrastructure to handle it all. Now, instead of acknowledging this connection, the proposed solution is to simply take over the road. Just think Lakeridge Tennis Club and Rancharrah.
If the city gains control, will they actually implement meaningful safety improvements, or is this just a way to consolidate authority without addressing the root causes? The development-at-all-costs approach has already strained local infrastructure beyond its capacity.
Agenda Item D.5 at the February 26, 2025 Reno City Council Meeting.
Rather than trading one problematic situation for another, perhaps a more balanced approach is needed—one that honestly acknowledges the role that rapid, dense development has played in creating these safety issues while implementing genuine solutions that don't just shift responsibility.
Shouldn’t the City of Reno have had a plan during the last ten years Schieve has been mayor? Maybe a conversation? How about an admission that our city roads have become an issue.
The question isn't simply whether the city should control this road, but whether Reno's leadership is ready to take responsibility for how their development policies have contributed to the very safety problems they now claim to want to solve.