RFI: Reno NV area

[luckyman]

OK, my research for places to land when I can bail out of California has accelerated. In 1st place right now is the Reno NV area. Boise, Spokane, and Colorado Springs are/were the other contenders. While I could live a mile away from my nearest neighbor, my wife has turned into a city girl and needs to live within an hour of a city of at least 100,000 people, and needs to be able to see neighbors from our house.

Reno scares me as rapidly turning into another California, but then so do most other areas that would work for both my wife and I. And Reno has the hyoooge advantage of being within a pretty easy drive of the bay area, so our kids (and grandkids) could come visit us any long weekend. We went to Reno again last weekend to check it out again, and while in theory I probably like both Boise and Colorado Springs a little better, the grandkid situation tilts things a little in favor of Reno for me, and very much in favor for SWMBO.

So, what advice and knowledge do y'all have for me? Any and all comments about Reno are welcome: What to expect, neighborhoods (currently leaning towards Sparks / Spanish Springs area, with Hidden Valley and the hills of Damonte Ranch also under consideration), what to avoid, restaurants and things to do, good gun stores and ranges, anything. We don't golf and don't really gamble; we love to travel, we like to walk and hike and I like to bike ride but only away from cars, we like ballroom dancing, and we like all kinds of food. I love feeling a part of something but don't make friends easily, my wife can pick up friends just walking through an airport

[Mark D]

I'll be watching this thread closely, as I'm in similar position. Here's the very general info I've learned from speaking to folks with experience in those locations.

• Reno NV area: Although Reno has become much more liberal, Nevadan's still embrace a "live and let live" attitude, according to my friend who lives in NV. He retired to a spot near Carson City, and he likes it a lot. I'm inclined to look there instead of Reno or Sparks.
• Boise: Becoming much more liberal.
• Spokane: Becoming much more liberal.
• Colorado Springs: Heavy military presence, a conservative area within a state that is rapidly becoming more liberal. My cousins love it.

Looking forward to hearing from people with more knowledge.

[Tony Mayer]

OK, my research for places to land when I can bail out of California has accelerated. In 1st place right now is the Reno NV area. Boise, Spokane, and Colorado Springs are/were the other contenders. While I could live a mile away from my nearest neighbor, my wife has turned into a city girl and needs to live within an hour of a city of at least 100,000 people, and needs to be able to see neighbors from our house.

Reno scares me as rapidly turning into another California, but then so do most other areas that would work for both my wife and I. And Reno has the hyoooge advantage of being within a pretty easy drive of the bay area, so our kids (and grandkids) could come visit us any long weekend. We went to Reno again last weekend to check it out again, and while in theory I probably like both Boise and Colorado Springs a little better, the grandkid situation tilts things a little in favor of Reno for me, and very much in favor for SWMBO.

So, what advice and knowledge do y'all have for me? Any and all comments about Reno are welcome: What to expect, neighborhoods (currently leaning towards Sparks / Spanish Springs area, with Hidden Valley and the hills of Damonte Ranch also under consideration), what to avoid, restaurants and things to do, good gun stores and ranges, anything. We don't golf and don't really gamble; we love to travel, we like to walk and hike and I like to bike ride but only away from cars, we like ballroom dancing, and we like all kinds of food. I love feeling a part of something but don't make friends easily, my wife can pick up friends just walking through an airport

lucky man, I will get back with you on this tonight when I have some time to get thoughts together.

[TNK]

I have lived here for a long time, since the Reagan Administration. I have nothing good to say about Reno. It is like living in a third world country: If you have a lot of money, you will be fine. If you are middle class or working class, you are about to be priced out by high rents, expensive houses, and shitty jobs that pay not enough to live here. Meanwhile, the Democrats have taken over the state government and promise more CA-style gun control in the 2019 Legislature. If anyone really wants to escape the poison of CA, I suggest he move to the South.

[TheNewbie]

Just don't go to Piggly Wiggly in Reno.

[Tony Mayer]

OK, my research for places to land when I can bail out of California has accelerated. In 1st place right now is the Reno NV area. Boise, Spokane, and Colorado Springs are/were the other contenders. While I could live a mile away from my nearest neighbor, my wife has turned into a city girl and needs to live within an hour of a city of at least 100,000 people, and needs to be able to see neighbors from our house.

Reno scares me as rapidly turning into another California, but then so do most other areas that would work for both my wife and I. And Reno has the hyoooge advantage of being within a pretty easy drive of the bay area, so our kids (and grandkids) could come visit us any long weekend. We went to Reno again last weekend to check it out again, and while in theory I probably like both Boise and Colorado Springs a little better, the grandkid situation tilts things a little in favor of Reno for me, and very much in favor for SWMBO.

So, what advice and knowledge do y'all have for me? Any and all comments about Reno are welcome: What to expect, neighborhoods (currently leaning towards Sparks / Spanish Springs area, with Hidden Valley and the hills of Damonte Ranch also under consideration), what to avoid, restaurants and things to do, good gun stores and ranges, anything. We don't golf and don't really gamble; we love to travel, we like to walk and hike and I like to bike ride but only away from cars, we like ballroom dancing, and we like all kinds of food. I love feeling a part of something but don't make friends easily, my wife can pick up friends just walking through an airport

lucky man, here is my opinion on Reno. Yes, it is becoming a bit more liberal than I like, but not sure if anywhere in the west is going to be any different, Utah maybe?? I have lived here (grew up in Carson City(30 miles south), moved here when I was 25ish and been here ever since) 49 years more or less. Here is my take.

I love it! You can drive an hour and be in the Sierra's skiing, or at Lake Tahoe, maybe the prettiest lake on the planet. Lots of hiking, camping outdoorsy stuff.
Yet at the same time, you can have big city type stuff. Lots of shopping, nice restaurants (really good steakhouses!) golf courses, nightlife!!

You can drive a half hour and be in the desert shooting (impossible in Cali)

Neighborhoods. I have been in the North Valleys' (Stead) for the last 5 years and love it. Have lived in south Reno, Sparks, Washoe Valley, still like North Valley's the best. Seem to get the best bang for your buck with houses there. Hidden Valley is nice, Sparks is great and where my shop is, not a fan of Spanish Springs. Traffic blows in Spanish Springs when your headed in to work. Damonte Ranch is great but pricey. Everything has gone up here in price, with tons of construction happening. It will probably slow down at some point, always seems to run in cycles.

Always something going on in town in the summer. Rib cook off is the BEST!! Hot august nights, street vibrations, Italian festival, chicken wing festival, all kinds of stuff!!

Politics are turning more liberal, especially this election. But like everything else, it runs in cycles, and not sure any of it will ever really change regardless who is in office. They all suck!!

I guess I am a little biased as it's been my home ( or at least this area if not Reno specifically) my entire life and I see no reason to leave.

Let me know if you want to know something more specific.

[luckyman]

I have lived here for a long time, since the Reagan Administration. I have nothing good to say about Reno. It is like living in a third world country: If you have a lot of money, you will be fine. If you are middle class or working class, you are about to be priced out by high rents, expensive houses, and shitty jobs that pay not enough to live here. Meanwhile, the Democrats have taken over the state government and promise more CA-style gun control in the 2019 Legislature. If anyone really wants to escape the poison of CA, I suggest he move to the South.

TNK I hear you. But looking around at cities that are really nice and therefore starting to grow rapidly, I'm realizing that's somewhat the way of the world. Fast-growing successful cities seem to attract liberals bailing out of large cities that grew successfully and then are suffer the consequences of that growth and liberal politics.

That actually pretty much describes me except for the liberal part. I moved to California back in the mid-eighties. California has been very good to me except for it turning liberal. I've taken it as long as i can stand, now need to get out to someplace better. But my frame of reference includes silicon valley and SoCal bank accounts, housing prices, and traffic jams. So in comparison the Reno area looks great to me, and I'm just about ready to add to your problems (except for I will be voting conservative/libertarian-ish).
My take is anyone in a small nice city needs to own a house. At least that way if where they live starts to become a large city they won't get priced out, and can at least financially benefit in some respects. And timing matters; if one is just starting out, or trying to recover from a setback like a divorce or a myriad of other things not necessarily their fault, they might get a reminder of the "life isn't fair" lesson, which sucks.

[luckyman]

lucky man, here is my opinion on Reno. Yes, it is becoming a bit more liberal than I like, but not sure if anywhere in the west is going to be any different, Utah maybe?? I have lived here (grew up in Carson City(30 miles south), moved here when I was 25ish and been here ever since) 49 years more or less. Here is my take.

I love it! You can drive an hour and be in the Sierra's skiing, or at Lake Tahoe, maybe the prettiest lake on the planet. Lots of hiking, camping outdoorsy stuff.
Yet at the same time, you can have big city type stuff. Lots of shopping, nice restaurants (really good steakhouses!) golf courses, nightlife!!

You can drive a half hour and be in the desert shooting (impossible in Cali)

Neighborhoods. I have been in the North Valleys' (Stead) for the last 5 years and love it. Have lived in south Reno, Sparks, Washoe Valley, still like North Valley's the best. Seem to get the best bang for your buck with houses there. Hidden Valley is nice, Sparks is great and where my shop is, not a fan of Spanish Springs. Traffic blows in Spanish Springs when your headed in to work. Damonte Ranch is great but pricey. Everything has gone up here in price, with tons of construction happening. It will probably slow down at some point, always seems to run in cycles.

Always something going on in town in the summer. Rib cook off is the BEST!! Hot august nights, street vibrations, Italian festival, chicken wing festival, all kinds of stuff!!

Politics are turning more liberal, especially this election. But like everything else, it runs in cycles, and not sure any of it will ever really change regardless who is in office. They all suck!!

I guess I am a little biased as it's been my home ( or at least this area if not Reno specifically) my entire life and I see no reason to leave.

Let me know if you want to know something more specific.

Thanks Tony. It's great to hear feedback from someone I trust. I wasn't all that excited about the main "Casino row" area in downtown Reno when I visited the other weekend, so good to get reminded of some of the advantages I didn't see. I liked 'most everything else in the Reno area besides that, but that definitely left a bit of a discouraging impression, compared to the downtown areas in Boise and Spokane for example. Walking from our (very inexpensive) room in the Silver Legacy past all the smoking gamblers and then out through all the homeless people on Virginia street wasn't great. I'm used to homeless people, but there didn't seem to be many non-homeless people in that stretch of the street. But man, you can get to a wonderful variety of outdoors stuff within an hour of Reno, and everything outside of that one part of the city seemed really nice.



"You can drive a half hour and be in the desert shooting (impossible in Cali) "
I can't even imagine this!!! I mean, I can imagine going shooting in the mountains of West Virginia where I grew up, but you have built-in backstops everywhere. How do you make sure some idiot is going to walk out past where you are shooting if you are off the road in the desert? Do you just depend on nobody else being there?

[Tony Mayer]

Thanks Tony. It's great to hear feedback from someone I trust. I wasn't all that excited about the main "Casino row" area in downtown Reno when I visited the other weekend, so good to get reminded of some of the advantages I didn't see. I liked 'most everything else in the Reno area besides that, but that definitely left a bit of a discouraging impression, compared to the downtown areas in Boise and Spokane for example. Walking from our (very inexpensive) room in the Silver Legacy past all the smoking gamblers and then out through all the homeless people on Virginia street wasn't great. I'm used to homeless people, but there didn't seem to be many non-homeless people in that stretch of the street. But man, you can get to a wonderful variety of outdoors stuff within an hour of Reno, and everything outside of that one part of the city seemed really nice.



"You can drive a half hour and be in the desert shooting (impossible in Cali) "
I can't even imagine this!!! I mean, I can imagine going shooting in the mountains of West Virginia where I grew up, but you have built-in backstops everywhere. How do you make sure some idiot is going to walk out past where you are shooting if you are off the road in the desert? Do you just depend on nobody else being there?

luckyman, it's wide open country and you can see anyone coming for miles. I usually make sure I have some form of a hill as my back stop. You do have to make sure you are outside the red zone. inside the Red zone is illegal to discharge firearms. Thanks

[TNK]

Although it is not easy for me, I will say a few good things about Reno. Nevada's gun laws, for now, are not bad. We have shall-issue concealed carry. The Reno area has 2 active indoor ranges, and there are several gun clubs in the area for different types of shooting sports. There are 2 outdoor ranges that often host these events. You can buy silencers and other tax stamp items. Also, because the Reno-Carson area is like a big small town, you can get involved in politics here easily and meet important people in politics and business. The 2019 Legislature will be a challenge for gun owners and law-abiding citizens. But it is possible to get involved, if you can handle the politicking.

On the down side, street crime is a problem here. Perhaps because the area is not large, normal criminal events jump out more, but I was born and raised in Los Angeles. The whole time time I lived there I never witnessed street crime. But once I moved to Reno, I did and continue to do so. I know one senior citizen, from a place I once worked at, whose husband was beaten into a coma by muggers. Yes, it is one thing to say "life isn't fair," but when you know personally how quickly and brutally the strong will prey upon the weak for no reason but their own sadistic pleasure, well, it sucks. The government does not care. Nobody is going to help you. But if you fight back, look at the case of Wayne Burgarello, it will cost you everything to save yourself.