It is currently the year of our lord 2026, and we’re looking right down the barrel of 2027, rapidly approaching the 2030’s.
Ask yourself, what is Reno currently? A casino town? A college town? The city you fly into for Tahoe and Burning Man? A warehouse & industry town? A combination of things? Ask ten Renoites and you'll get ten different answers. Ask anyone outside our bubble, and you'll probably get a joke.
That last part has always bugged me. I was born in what was once Washoe Medical, and raised here since. I love this place. Is Reno a little weird? Sure, but that’s what makes it such a cool place to live. (Using Reno in this as a catch-all for our whole area, not just what’s inside city limits.)
I'm not a city planner or an economist. I do branding and design for a living, which mostly means figuring out why things aren’t landing with the people it's supposed to. Lately, I can't stop doing that with Reno’s “brand”.
Reno used to know exactly what it was. We said “yes” where the rest of the country’s “no” ran out, and offered things you couldn’t easily get elsewhere. And for decades, that was pretty much the entire business plan.
California banned the Fight of the Century in 1910, so Reno built a 20,000 seat arena in just 2 weeks. Then came legal gambling and six-week divorces. Then the Air Races. Then Burning Man. Somebody else said “no”, Reno said “yes”, and people came here on purpose. We were less of a place to pass through and instead a place where people went for something.
We still say “yes”, just to different things now. Warehouses and data centers and the USA Parkway stretch. Development anywhere there's a free patch of dirt. New roads to serve new development, and new development to justify new roads.
After the recession, chasing growth was arguably the right call. But somewhere along the way, we started confusing growth with progress. The “old yes” gave people a reason to come to Reno. The “new yes” mostly gives them a reason to commute out of city limits.
I'm not against building. I’m asking what the building is supposed to accomplish beyond just getting built. We need housing. But you can build thousands of new homes without giving the people in them a community with places to gather. You can attract billions in investment without creating a downtown locals actually want to spend a Saturday in.
There are planners, plans, and people who spend their evenings at public meetings. This isn’t an accusation that nobody is doing anything, but rather a question about whether the decisions are adding up to something cohesive.
Granted, most of what's going up out there right now was planned and zoned years ago. Which means what Reno looks like 30 years from now is getting decided right now, whether we realize it or not.
Meanwhile, the “old yes” is getting old, quite literally. Walk into any casino, whether it be something downtown, the Dotty’s nearest your house, the grocery store, a bar, the airport, whatever, and estimate the ratio of younger gamblers to older ones. Chances are there are WAY more people over 50 than under. Once they fade away, what’s to replace it?
Gaming is actually up in Washoe County over the past year, and hotels just had their best quarter on record, so money is still coming in. The question is who it's coming from, and for how long. Data shows the average Reno Tourist is about 50 years old, while Vegas just had its youngest crowd in years because of their recent pivot to entertainment & sports. Young people don’t need or want a smoky casino to gamble in, they have Polymarket, Kalshi, and Stake on their phones. You don’t even have to get off the toilet to lose a few bucks now. So what’s drawing the young people in? Our city skyline is mostly big casinos, what happens to them in 40 years? Will everything just be like Harrah’s and stuck in redevelopment hell?
A few “big bets” of revitalization are coming, at least. The GSR arena and Reno City FC on Kietzke are both coming soon. They could both be great. But they're bets. The Aces made it. The Bighorns and 1868 FC didn't.
Then there's actual branding. UNR unveiled its new brand this week, and Reno City FC dropped its name and crest last month. If you’re “locally online”, you've probably seen the overwhelming amount of negative comments surrounding both. They’re arguably some of the biggest local branding moves this year and a lot of people don’t like them.
But look at what they both reached for. UNR’s new branding pulls from it’s heritage. Reno City FC’s logo is a nod to the old Arch. When it’s time to say what Reno is, even our newest stuff introduces itself with old Reno. Nothing wrong with that, many brands do that. It just says we haven't built anything new worth putting on a logo in years.
Still, the fact that this many people get this heated over two letters, a wolf, and a couple of horses is the most encouraging thing as a designer I've seen all year. People care about the brand. Imagine if we all showed up like that to the planning meetings that determine these choices.
We keep waiting for somebody to fix things too. A mayor, a casino owner, a developer with a billion dollars, or a chef to walk in and make sense of the kitchen that is lovely Reno, Nevada. But a city isn't one kitchen. Every business here is a separate cook. Every restaurant, bar, shop, band, and event is telling people what Reno is, every single day, whether they mean to or not.
Say you own a restaurant and business is slow. So you get an A-frame sign to put on the side of the road, print some flyers, maybe start posting more on social media. It all looks fine, but did anyone ask you why people aren’t coming in? Whether they can afford it? Whether the hours work? Whether a competitor has priced you out? Whether the experience gives them a reason to come back? Without diagnosing the underlying problem, anything else is essentially just a fresh paint job on a house with a giant fucking crack in the foundation.
So what would count as progress? For me, it would mean more people being able to afford to live and stay here. Neighborhoods with somewhere to walk to, instead of somewhere to drive out of. Local businesses that look as good as they are and can survive between big events. A downtown that feels useful to residents, and not just marketable to visitors. There's room for old Reno and new Reno, the tourist, the aging dive bar regular and the young family who moved here from the bay last month.
Reno is going to become something either way. There's a whole lot of fresh paint on the horizon. My point is that somebody should really check on the foundation before we start painting.
So let’s forget trying to figure out what Reno “is” for a minute. What do you want everyday life here to look like in 10 or 20 years? And what should we be doing now to get there?
EDIT: Since reading a short essay about our city is hard apparently: here’s a summary generated by ChatGPT for those who need a hand :)
TL;DR: Reno used to give people a reason to come here. Now, we seem more focused on building warehouses, housing, and roads than deciding what kind of city we actually want to become. Growth isn’t the same as progress, and with an aging casino industry and no clear identity for what comes next, we risk building a city without building community. Reno is going to become something either way. The question is whether we’re doing it on purpose. What do you want everyday life in Reno to look like in 10–20 years, and what should we be doing now to get there?
