Dude you live in Reno.
It's not just a running meme, I've spent a lot of time in Reno, during the blackjack team, when I'd be working on the house, if I was going up and the house was rented.
That downtown area near the Cal-Neva was sketchier than 16th/Mission in SF at it's worst in '96. For some reason we had gone to the Rail City Casino in Sparks, there was word of an exploitable video poker promo or something, we quickly decided that if we played for any reasonable stakes, we'd get rolled before we could get back to the car, and we hightailed it out of there. We pretty much decided - if you have your bankroll with you, valet park at Silver Legacy, Peppermill, Atlantis, or Ascuaga's Nugget, and stick with the plan. We went up for a bowling tourney and the league had got us rooms at some place that appears to no longer exist, The Sands or something like that. I checked in, checked out, went to the Legacy and got a room, the place was full of random homeless dudes who had panhandled a few bucks and were playing penny slots trying to angle a free beer.
Now - last time I was up there, after waiting for like 90 minutes to get a rental car at the Reno Airport while some fellas who whose mental card decks were missing all the aces and face cards and whose mouths were missing several teeth tried to figure out that the Black Chevy Surbuban was for me, I did stop to get a few things at 580 and the Mt Rose Highway. There's a lot of new development there (full disclosure, I hadn't been up there for a while and had no idea they had built 580). I'm not much for McMansions, but it's a pretty nice area, clearly.
Oakland is many times the size of Reno/Sparks. Houses in the Oakland Hills go for many millions, Piedmont, Rockridge, those are very wealthy areas. Downtown is a definitely a jumble, but there's a lot to do, you just need to know how to navigate it. Just like Reno occasionally has some good concerts at the resorts. Sure there are some areas out on MLK that are alsmost as bad as the rougher areas of Sparks.
Quite a bit has changed here in 30 years lol
The worst areas of downtown are around the casinos (including the peppermill and the atlantis to the south), and east 4th street which is currently undergoing some gentrification and a brewery district is going up. They even shut down one of the crappy homeless shelters there, but even still not many areas of town you have to worry about your car being broken into.
The Sands is now the J resort, and Jacobs entertainment is investing a billion dollars cleaning up west 4th street and turning it into the "neon district"
An area of cool shit (with a lot of stuff like downtoan Oakland has) exists in reno now just south of town called Midtown. Walkable, mostly nice area with lots of restaurants and bars and entertainment.
That rental car story is hilarious but could happen anywhere really lol, can't say those places hire the brightest bulbs
The areas off of Mt Rose highway like Montreaux, the cheapest house there is 2 million dollars, even the metro average for a house is 600k, so clearly something has changed since the mid 90's lol... my house is just inside the McCarran loop in the hills and its hard to find a house there for under a mil, and that was considered the outskirts of town when it was built in 1988
There are definitely some less desirable spots full of trailer trash like Sun Valley, but even Sparks has a pretty low crime rate compared to Oakland lol.
And you're right, we typically get good comedians but bands are hit or miss, I did see Smashing Pumpkins two weeks ago at the GSR and had a great time. Never been so close to the stage when I'd see them elsewhere, I was like 10 feet away from the band, god damn they look old lol
RecentNo New Wars! Well, maybe ... by alum74
Let's talk about somethin...
by murphstahoe Recruiting by ILLINICHIEF
This has been bothering m... by Reacher
Total Members: 142