The crown jewel of a revitalized 4th Street?
Picon had the opportunity to learn from a business owner just what is occurring in and around the CARES campus. The owners of Zamboni Muffler, located on the corner of 4th and East 6th Street are a block from the county’s CARES campus. The campus, which consists of some sprung-steel type structures (which have a limited working life) surrounded by fencing and trash, is according to Commissioner Alexis Hill, a proud accomplishment for the county. In reality, it is a lawless region littered with refuse and human waste. The owners at Zamboni’s claim up to 50 homeless gather under their covered parking lot on weekends. They have called the police and they get little assistance. The last police response ended with, “you need to put up signs” to prevent trespassers.
In reality, this is a common hangout after hours and on weekends. The bus bench in front is often occupied by homeless people. They took our source to an alcove adjacent the front door and the stench of urine was overwhelming. They said they often have to clean up feces.
As if this encroachment into their business is not enough, the homeless set up a BBQ over the weekend. They said the garbage piles up and the only silver lining is that the cities contracted service empties it.
Over the years they have all sorts of illegal acts occurring, including broken windows, vandalism to cars, fights and the destruction of their security cameras. They seem to be at their wits end. In one incident, a homeless couple git into a fight and one of the participants broke the windows out of a van on their property. So they wait, hoping the city will enforce the laws and be responsive to their needs.
Picon thought it appropriate, as the county gets ready to spend $5.1 million dollars of our tax dollars to purchase the land where the CARES campus sits, to report on the issues at the campus. With that purchase, we can assume the liberal policies related to the homeless will fester, and the county will proudly be in charge.
We know that in December 2020, the City of Reno paid $11.58 million dollars for 9.39 acres of land which encompasses the land where the CARES project is. We also know the actions of the City of Reno have contributed to the depressed land values in around E 4th Street. Property owners are beholden to the cities liberal policies, which allow all sorts of quality of life crimes to go unanswered. Who is going to pay a premium for land adjacent a homeless shelter? So why is the county paying a premium for land in a depressed and undesirable area?
As to the CARES campus, consider this:
Why did Washoe County “take over management” of the CARES facility, located in the heart of downtown Reno in September of 2021? There is little doubt that the liberal policing policies of the Reno Police and the Mayors laissez-faire approach to the quality of life crimes all over the city gave rise to this disaster. Instead of owning the crisis, apparently the city was content to punt to the county. We can only guess as to why the county was eager to take this on, maybe it has to do with kingdom building, power, and government funding dollars they can use?
Take the Sheriff, apparently he is responsible for all calls for service at the CARES campus. This campus is NO WHERE NEAR any of the Sheriff’s Office’s normal patrol beats. We are told the Sheriff has only, approximately, forty (40) deputies to cover the whole county. He is authorized for more than 70. This means the deputies you pay for in Cold Springs, Lemmon Valley, Palomino Valley and Washoe Valley are being pulled to the center of Reno to deal with their self-inflicted crisis. Why? There is ZERO proactive policing occurring at the CARES campus. Camping on the sidewalk, refuse everywhere, and rampant drug use all occur right there and on the adjacent street corners. Reno doesn’t have to respond to any of it, because the Sheriff took it all on, with, apparently, no real plan to police it.
The CARES campus, since September 2021, has recorded 10 DEATHS, 35 VIOLENT CRIMES, 2 SEX CRIMES and an ANIMAL ABUSE. These are the crimes where a report was taken, what about the 2700 other calls for service that did not generate a crime report? We would ask the Medical Examiner about the DEATHS, however they have changed their public records policy, to become less transparent.
They have had more than 2700 calls for service since September 2021! The Sheriff’s Office is averaging 2.4 daily calls for service that his staff have to respond to each and every day at this place. Those numbers warrant a substation.
Has one commissioner stood up and said, “enough is enough!”? Reno created this crisis and will they be held to account? Instead, they will vote to approve the expenditure of YOUR tax dollars for overpriced land.
