RENO, Nev. (CN) — Driving around a bend on eastbound Interstate 80 near the California-Nevada border, I suddenly leave behind the alpine forest landscape, with its distant snow-capped peaks. The earth turns brown and the trees shrink. On the twisting road that now hugs the Truckee River the landscape turns to semi-arid shrubs and grasses as I approach Reno.
To this bureau chief, Reno's casino row looks like a miniature version of what downtown Las Vegas might have been had the Strip never been built and that city hadn't felt the need to resurrect its derelict downtown with the Fremont Street Experience. Some of the casinos in Reno appear successful, like the El Dorado, flamboyant in its use of fluorescent pink; others are run down but still open, seemingly stuck in a bygone era. Still others off the main strip are empty shells, with the occasional hopeful sign offering the best steaks in town for a pittance.
Legalized gambling and liberalized divorce laws made Reno the gambling and divorce capitals of the nation in the 1930s. The passage of more liberal divorce laws in other states starting in the 1950s eliminated the need for wannabe divorcees to travel to and reside for a time in Reno.
The exponential growth of the Las Vegas Strip to the south put a dent in Reno's gaming industry. The relaxation of Indian gaming laws in the 1980s, and the proliferation of casinos in California over the past decade — not to mention Internet gambling — further chipped away at the city's share of the pie.
But I'm not a gambler, and I'm not here to write about the gaming industry. I'm here to write about the other Reno, or at least part of it.
Reno, established along with a train depot in 1868, is in the midst of a Reno-ssaince, if you believe the billboards that dotted the eastbound I-80 in California in recent years.
The city's decades-long attempts at economic diversification include the repurposing of old buildings, including the once shuttered train depot-turned-brewery, distillery and watering hole, and the Brasserie St. James, a brewery and restaurant with rustic brick decor and a classic hardwood bar.
Located in the historic Crystal Springs Building in the midtown neighborhood, the brewery once housed an ice plant that in its heyday manufactured 20,000 pounds a day.
In 2009, the city opened Aces Ballpark, now called Greater Nevada Field, on the north bank of the river on the edge of downtown. Home to the Reno Aces minor league baseball team, starting in 2017 the stadium will also welcome Reno 1868 FC, an expansion team in the United Soccer League.
The Marriott hotel chain is currently building a large hotel directly next to the stadium as part of what a bartender at Mello Fellow told me were long-mooted plans to redevelop that stretch of the riverbank.
Just last month the city held a ribbon-cutting ceremony on the new Virginia Street Bridge. Legend has it that when Reno was a divorce destination, newly divorced women would toss their wedding rings from the old bridge into the river.
Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval estimates the factory — quite a coup for northern Nevada when announced in 2014 — will benefit the local economy to the tune of $100 billion over two decades, for which the state reportedly offered the company up to $1.3 billion in tax breaks.
For its part, the newspaper claims the security guards "violently confronted" its two journalists while they took pictures from a hilltop overlooking the factory.
Population: 429,000
Carson City Facts
Lyon County Facts
Named After: Elko, the county seat, which according to legend was named by Central Pacific Railroad superintendent Charles Crocker by adding an "o" to the end of "elk." Crocker is also credited with naming Reno.
Douglas County Facts
Interesting tidbit: Churchill County owns and operates the local telephone carrier, Churchill County Communications
