The Ride To Reno,dogs & Best Digs

[xtranaut]

Greatbasin said - Nevada has been an economic colony of California since the Comstock.

I can see that but now in such a consumer, tax based, migratory way that it obvioously adversely effects the way of life for the person who resides in Reno based on his "Reno" income - not his California prosperity.

SPARKS72 - I have decided that you can never do too much rersearch on a place. I have a home in TN that I am maintaining while on a two year contract
to work in Reno so it is dificult for me to enjoy some of the finer things this place has to offer.

POWER is outrageous here. Water is equally. I find grocery costs to be about the same as most other places I have lived but to be so close to California and Idaho.....produce is not very impressive here nor is there a variety of lots of vegetables. Shopping Raleys, Scolari's and Safeway
and only moderate differences in all.

GAS s still higher than the national average by 20 cents plus tax.

You seem to be getting a great deal on an apartment. I have two big dogs so I have more of a problem finding places to rent. Living on the edge of the NW foothills offers me room for my dogs - to walk them but I pay for this in dust, wind, and more snow and ice.

As a rental, this home is nice but the asking price is laughable. Half a mil for a 1500 sq ft home in miles of sardine packed homes where they have deed restrictions of leaving your garage door cracked!

I would like to know the names of the people who got rich off passing on this! Here is a state where the growth makes a dramatic impact on natural resources. The cost and the issue of the future of water in this state at the front of every bad decision to allow greedy development and unbridled growth in a place like Reno... Florida has a water crisis but you wouldn't know it....but this is, after all, the dryest state in America and it is the desert so I have to really think about the big picture anyway before I buy anything -- even if were reasonable to live here, I think it would have to have wheels on it before I would consider it a prudent move. We tend to look at everything on the surface in this country as if it had the depth of a postcard. This is a pretty postcard but a very fragile one.

I think I will ride the rent scene out for my duration here and let the Californians create another miserable place like the one they left. Portola is a destination for this weekend though. Have a great stay in Reno!

[Imascot]

Xtranaut:: Hope you are setttling here in Reno now that you've been here a few weeks!! I've been here 20 years and looking for a semi-retirement place and considering East Tennessee-articulary around Maryville and surrounding cities. We live in south Reno and are dismayed at the way our 'home' town has changd-particularly in the last 5-10 years. We are looking at selling our home and packing up and heading out. Having said that though, there's a lot of things to do here in northern Nevada, from golfing to fishing, hiking and all the wonders that Lake Tahoe has to offer. I'm really interested though: did you find Chattanooga was 'old boy network' or do you think that is the way all Tennessee is? We are attracted to TN because of the friendliness of people, the lakes, the less expensive lifestyle, and the scenery and reading some of the posts on the TN forum, a lot of people substantiate that theory. I'd like to hear your input Xtranaut and also if you and your wife were glad you moved to NV.

Imascot

[xtranaut]

Imascot,

No matter where you are from, when you leave it you will miss it. I have accepted that and even so, it is hard to deal with in many ways.

I am sure that you have done your homework about Tennessee if you are thinking about specifically moving to Maryville. That is a great area. In fact, not to brag, but there are not many areas of Tennesee that aren't attractive places to live.

Thie first thing about Tennessee that will hit you is the hunmidity and dampness. Unlike here, there is no shortage of water and the TVA has utilized those resources well for a well-powered state - although, no longer the cheap bargain it was.

Like here, hiking and fishing are abundant as is hunting. I am not a fan of hunting but it's obvious that the state is teaming with wildlife.

YES -- it is a good old boy network. I will say this. If you can work with your hands, you can earn money. If you in that category I call the genera labor pool that stretches from services to sales to semi-professional, then good luck. Cousins may not marry as much as the stories go but they DO hire each other.

My wife is at the director level of her medical profession. She has credentials
that are stellar. She made it clear when interviewing for jobs that were levels below her accomplishment that she was willing to do the job for which she was over-qualified because we wanted to live there. After eight months of
being "tickled" by every hospital within 50 miles, she contacted a local recruiter that was considered the long-time expert and most connected in that area. The woman told her that ALL of Tennessee is like this and that is compounded by the fact that corporations save lots of money by promoting from within. They also believe that they receive more loyalty and more productive results when they promote up - EVEN IF THE CHOICES FROM WITHIN ARE NOT QUALIFIED TO DO THE WORK.

Chattanooga is limited in employment anyway ust by the nature of it's limited economy. Families I have known, grew up with, and never wanted to leave, are working multiple jobs in order to stay where they love.

Chattanooga was an industrial town when I grew up - foundaries and iron works. The town was a blanket of brown haze. They told the mills to clean up the air and water or leave. They left. Now, there is a sprinkle of engineering companies and some light manufacturing. Toyota is probably moving there soon at a site east of town toward Cleveland. There is lots of OLD SOUTHERN money there. THis kept the town "closed" for years. They didn't want growth so they almost shut down but for Blue Cross, TVA and a handful of other insurance companies. This is also the home to Chattam drugs and Krystal Hamburgers.

A few very greedy "new money" politicans lines their pockets on development deals that, by appearances, revitalized the city. Recently elected Senator, Bob Corker, a former Mayor, is one of those shifty, Tennessee soft-talkers, you have to watch out for. He did nothing but make deals that made him rich while he was in office.

I am in the media and I know everyone in town but I have been gone since I was 18. I am now 59. If I wanted to go back and start at zero, I could get a job in my profession. I have applied for numerous jobs with the city but the nepestism there is extreme.

If you have any specific questions about areas, just ask. I have owned land
near Monteagle and currently have a house on Signal Mountain that my wife and I are headed back to. Only two months in Reno and we are headed back the first of April!!

Reno is far too expensive for an economy that is supported by gambling casinos and fullfillment centers and prices here shot through the moon because Californians will pay the price. These people are so used to paying double and triple for everything, they think Reno is a bargain when they come here and buy a 1500 sq ft. tract house in a crowded subdivision for 600k!!
THAT WILL BUY YOU A MANSION WITH A MOUNTAIN VIEW IN CHATTANOOGA!

And I would neve maliciously put someone else's home down, but the only thing attractive about RENO is California. When you cross that line on 80, it's like you are back on the planet in the most gorgeous example of a reason to live on Earth there is.... oddly, except for Tahoe and Truckee-thereabouts -- prices start to actually get more sensible.

RENO is a little too much dirt and wind for me...and way not enough water
for the population growth that is rapidly increasing. This area is prime for a melt-down - especially, if you believe in global warming.

I am a bit of a survivalist and I left FLORIDA after 30 years because of this reason, coastal ocean levels rising and stronger hurricanes. But the main reason is that the resources were already being strainned twenty years ago, yet the growth is unmanagable. Used to, people came there to retire in the sun, they they come to commit suicide.

No doubt, housing prices shot through the roof but the housing boom wasn't the result of boomers retiring and relocating... That was the excuse to get
everyone in this country to open up their bank accounts and spend to fuel
a not-so-hot economy in a country that has a 4 trillion dollar deficit and should be declaring bankruptcy. My point is not as much a political statement as it is common sense --- there are many things that we do not understand and will never be told the truth about. I choose to be in the safest place I can think of to avoid most of the effects. It is a relatively safe place, a good place to raise kids, to be in harmony with nature, clean water, clean air, rich soil, like Nevada, no income taxes, and an extremely reasonabe cost of living
in comparison to lots of other less attractive places.

Let me know when you plan to leave, what you do and what it is that you are looking for. I know the state and anywhere you go, you will be making a move that you will never regret. According to what your financial needs are,
that will determine where you need to be.

[jwaters943]

Not to sound rude, but did you even do any serious research before moving to Reno? This is a desert. Obviously that doesn't appeal to you, but you should have known that before hand. In addition, the housing prices should have been pretty clear to you before you moved here as well.

You strike me as the type of person who makes rash decisions. From moving to a place you appear to know little about, no matter what you claim, to proclaiming our Mayor, Bob Cashell, is an idiot. You've been here 2 months! You have no clue. This Mayor has done more to turn things around, particularly downtown where it is most needed, than any Mayor in recent history. His desire to raise the sales tax even though voters clearly showed they didn't want a tax increase isn't likely to win him many fans, but you need to do your research on the many good things he has done before you label him an idiot.

[xtranaut]

Jwaters, I am used to rude. I stuck it out here for two months and the only relief I got from the droll conservative attitude of this place was to go anywhere accross the California line.

Way back in my posts from Tennessee, when I as seeking information about the Reno area, you can see that I asked all the appropriate questions and I felt that I got honest answers.

I am not entriely a stranger to this area. In the late 70s, I lived in Sacramento. I know the Sierras and know that Reno is high desert and now I have confirmed that it is very much what living on the moon must be like.

It is difficult to make decisions from afar - especially when the prospect of employment stands in front of everything. MY decision to move here was mostly based on that, but also the close proximity of Reno to Sac and SF and all the quaint destinations in between.

It is logical for you to either assume that I must have either been stupid and made this move hastily without sufficient information or that I did the best I could do to prepare and gave it a shot. The later would be accurate.

Nevertheless, how can one rationally disagree that housing prices are grossly disproportionate to Reno income and that the so called improvements of any politican in this town are attractive mostly to people who are NOT from here.The whole menu is designed for second homers, investors, retirees, golfers, and downsizing Californians and the biggest draw isn't climate - it's no tax, corporate laws, and banking privacy.

While Reno's MEDIAN FAMILY HOUSEHOLD INCOME approaches 50k, most of that is at the lower end because there are not many white collar ops here. That impressive higher than average median number shrinks fast when you factor the ridiculous cost of housing. The average new home is now touching 500k- and that is for typically 1500sqft with some ammenities, on a lot consumed by the house, six feet from the next house.

In Tennessee, I have a 2700 sqft home on three acres surrounded by a creek that is sitting in the middle of miles of other forested land I freely use as my own but don't pay taxes on! I live in a cove on the side of a monutainwhere there are twleve houses on my street. This house was four years old when I bought it. I paid a third of what you would pay for such a house in Reno and my taxes are a thousand bucks in an income tax free state.

This was only for examples sake now. I don't want my secret opened to the world and get you gold rush decendants rushing to my sanctuary to stake claims. :>)

The better points of RENO are that it takes no time at all to get anywhere UNLESS you live north on 395 or MUST take 80 to that nightmare of a bottlneck at 395. It is also fairly easy to locate anything and Reno is safer than you would think, being a town built around gambling tourism, and infamous legal brothels. The contrast to that, is that this place is more conservative than one would also imagine and elected a Republican governor.

Reno is like living in a postcard and the town is pretty clean but my wife and I are pretty vibratory people and usually pick up on the soul of a place very easily. I have to be honest - we don't feel a pulse in this place but there is something very soulful about Tahoe and towns like Nevada City.

As for Cashell. I met him once and only had a brief conversation. He strikes me as the same sort of "dress it up wth your money" as (now) Senator Bob Corker did for Chattanooga Tennessee, in his term as Major.

In fact, Mr. Corker used his office to buy land and buildings and award contracts to his own companies and friends. He taxed the ciiizens for things they clearly told him they DID NOT want or need. He took an estuary-golf course (that he owned) and sold this sensitve wetland and wildlife area to WAL-MART --- but spent no money on improving the roads to better bad traffic situations that developed as the result of it. He became a very rich man in that term and sucked up to the Tennessee Republican Party and bought the election. Mr. Cashell probably has those political aspirations of running a bigger show so he must produce examples of progress -- a word that needs to be held under public scrutiny when spoken by any politician. After all, we elect them to serve our better interests - not theirs.

And in the careful management of growth here in the high, dry desert, what does Mr. Cashell say about water? There is less and less of it here but you wouldn't know that with all the rambling construction everywhere. There isn't even a mandate to xeriscape all areas residential, city right of way, or business -- not to speak prohibiting mainataing healthy green golf courses.

Nevada has a water crisis that isn't paid too mch attention except by scientists. Politicans are too busy making "progress" by mowing down foothills to build clusters of sardine can houses that sell for three times what they cost to bild --- without regard for intrusion into natiuraL beauty, water, wildlife, mproved and new sanitation facilities.

This is the stuff you don't see much of before you decide to come to another far off place...all that questionable stuff that means a lot.

So, I came, I saw and I am leaving. One more experience wiser, I head back to the gentle, sweet south where I was instrumental in the recall of a number of politicans who tougt they had the privilage of making deals out of the sunshine...one of them was a mayor who wanted to bring density and development to our historical, pristine, Signal Mountain. PROGRESS to the people was removing his ass from his office, along with three others. They'll be more. For some reason, these guys want everything to look the same and bring all the problems with it.... How did Joni mitchell put it...

THEY PAVED PARADISE AND PUT UP A PARKING LOT.

Adios, Nevada!

[Imascot]

I sent you a PM re Tennessee

[greatbasinguide]

In the ranking of towns, it is very difficult to find anything good to say about Sacramento other than you can get out of town quickly, flat, hot, boring. Whereas Reno actually has a lot going for it, comparatively.

If one plans to move to Reno and one does not have a pickup or jeep or dirt bike or Subaru with a yuppie bucket with bike and ski racks, you may actually be happier in Sacramento.