Possible Uses for Old CitiCenter Site, Including UNR School of Arts
In the next City Council Meeting on Wednesday the 9th, the council will discuss and give direction to staff regarding the Old Regional Transportation Commission (RTC) Citicenter Site and potential uses, including the School of Art at the University of Nevada, Reno. It would be pretty cool if UNR utilized this space, bringing more students to the interior portions of downtown.
Bowling Stadium Ideas
The State Legislature approved Assembly Bill 376 in the 2011 Session imposing a surcharge of $2 per night for the rental of hotel rooms in the Reno downtown district. The surcharge began on passage of the bill and has collected approximately $333,000 through August 31, 2011. This funding must be used solely to pay the cost of improving and maintaining publicly owned facilities for tourism and entertainment in the district and cannot be transferred to any other fund or account or used for any other purpose.
On September 9, 2011 the Reno City Council established a subcommittee to discuss the best way to implement these funds. They decided to hire Worth Group to perform design and construction administration for a Women’s Hall of Fame Museum and to conduct master planning, concept design and a feasibility study to remodel the existing National Bowling Stadium. The feasibility study and design improvements are to be conducted in coordination with the Reno-Sparks Convention and Visitors Authority and the United States Bowling Congress.
1. The design and construction administration of the Women’s Hall of Fame Museum is time sensitive with a desired completion date of the project by mid-April 2012 to coincide with the beginning of the Women’s Bowling Tournament.
2. The feasibility project includes the master planning and concept design of the National Bowling Stadium and the creation of the overall concept design, floor plan options and potential costs.
This includes architectural renderings and animation to communicate the exterior design/brand, the general massing of the building components and the site circulation of the Project.
Financial Implications: For fiscal year 2011 the impact will be a total of $110,900 of room tax surcharge for the two agreements, and related expenses. You can read the full details in this staff report starting at page 242.
Virginia Street Bridge (Nov 16 City Council Meeting)
It seems like we have been talking about replacing this dang bridge for five years now. On November 16 the city council will review the final design options based on public input and Jacobs Engineering. Some of the options will be movable (i.e. draw bridge or rising bridge) and fixed options. You can open this PDF Document which will explain the different options and bridge types. You can also visit the VSBR web site to learn about the various options.
Isn't it bad enough that we get charged a "resort fee" at hotels, and now they're getting charged $2 to subsidize the Bowling Stadium remodel. The hotels will just pass the fee on to customers, so it's actually all Reno tourists subsidizing the Bowling Stadium and most of them are not even allowed to use it! They argue that the Bowling Stadium attracts tourists, yet for the last 20 years, tourism has dropped in Reno while the other private sector industries like technology have been growing (up until the Recession). So basically, every business in Reno is subsidizing the failing tourism and gaming business. Talk about the 99% subsidizing the 1%. Why don't the 99% of business owners in Reno revolt and fight Cashell and the old dying casino-tourism industrial complex in Reno.