Homelessness VS. Houselessness

            When comparing the homeless with the houseless I'd definitely say Reno has a little of both. Homelessness are people who are not immersed in their community, but they may have a fine place to live and houseless who have no place to live and are not aware of their environmental factors. I need to change some of these conditions that Jim Burklo described. He says that homeless people may have a place to live and chose not to live there. I think this is a load of crap. They most likely don't have a house, and if they had a house they would most certainly live there in the winter. It gets cold in Reno in the winter. Burklo might of written this from some warmer urban areas.

            What I noticed about the people without homes in the casino district is that some of them wore things that looked like they might of been nice at one point. Perhaps they once had a good job and lost it. While they had their good job they made poor investments so when the economy crashed they were forced onto the streets. These people are qualified as houseless because they certainly understand the factors that surround them since they held some position that was considered higher in society at a certain point.

            Then I noticed the older homeless people. I start to wonder what their stories are. I feel bad that old people are homeless, but perhaps it is something they are used to and have always dealt with. A lifetime of homelessness is hard to think about. If someone's been on the streets for that long are they really homeless. Do they understand the culture and community that they are immersed in? At a certain point being on the streets has to get to a person. Surviving day to day becomes the overall focus and the community around them is lost. 

Casino District Reno

            Ok so this is an analysis of the casino district and the neighborhoods around them. I checked it out on my bike when I rode to Reno Bike Project today. Don't worry Will I rode slow so I could take everything in and I took an alternate route venturing around some areas I wouldn't necessarily go.

            The last boundary in my mind between Reno's casino district and campus is the sororities on Sierra St. Campus is pretty nice all the way up until there. The grass is green and well kept and there really not any homeless people near campus. There is such a drastic district as I cross this boundary. Things become run down and sort of dreary. The casinos leave that impression because they are kind of sleazy. They make an awful attempt to be classy, but when they are just filled with old people who are overweight and 40 year old women dressed like 20 year olds, they are in fact the opposite of classy. Buildings are run down and need a new paint job giving the streets a grim back drop. Homeless people are at every other corner. They make for amazing photographs even though they dirty up the streets. The raw emotion looks amazing from the lens of a camera. My favorite photo that I ever took was of a homeless man in Reno this summer.

            The values there seem low. Gambling is a very negative thing in my mind. The whole culture that surrounds that is scummy. I guess people who visit occasionally are ok, but if a person frequents the casinos they have a problem. Actually two problems: 1. They have a gambling problem and 2. They are contributing in a negative way to a culture that needs to be revitalized. How to revitalize it? I don't really know. I'd start by getting rid of the odor of cigarettes and cleaning up the streets.

            The fact the casino district was once off limits to students doesn't surprise me at all. In fact, it is still kind of closed off today. Students really don't go there. The college environment is in its own world, unique from any others. This is why people get sucked in and spend years in college. The real world is scary. In this case if the casino district was the real world I wouldn't blame people for staying in college. Luckily Reno has some nicer real world areas just not quite in the same proximity as the Casinos to campus. 

The River

First off I would like to say my legs were pretty shot from a weekend of mountain bike racing so walking downtown actually kind of hurt. My main observation about the river walk is that it is nicer overall than anywhere else in downtown Reno. The nicer looking restaurant are along the river, the nicer stores, and the nicer movie theater. The pathway is nice and the river cool. As I walked with my roommate Tom the cool air radiated off the river reminding me that fall is fast approaching. Side note I'm stoked for fall because that means that winter is almost here. Homeless people are frequent as well as average joes.

            The river walk is well worth the money. It offers a nicer area of Reno to relax and take a family. In fact I saw a couple of families out there, but there is still a decent amount of hobos that hang out near the river. I don't blame them it's a place to score a free bath. I can tell that there has been some detail work put in to the river and it really makes a difference in the vibe. The only issue I have is when I go a few blocks off the ricer it's straight back to trashier Reno. Reno has created something nice by the river and now they must try and elevate the rest of downtown to that level.

            The river is a symbol of life and I think that this makes it a focus for a project such as the river walk. People are drawn there because it is peaceful. A mixture of social classes from rich to homeless. It creates a commonality amongst people. A man was sat there fishing it is really cool to see something like this. Something that is so natural in the middle of a city. 

Nature from the Car

So I wasn't exactly in my neighborhood this weekend. I drove down to Parkfield, CA with the UNR mountain bike team to race so I can reflect on this weekend as related to the blog. I did quite of bit of walking and I was camping so being right in nature really made observations easy.

Making the drive through California was something that really opens your eyes to nature. I saw everything from the mountains to the fields. In the mountains nature is more pristine than anything else. Perhaps having the large trees on either side gives a falsifying sense of nature. In reality I’m still zipping along 80 unable to truly observe everything around me. I’m a passenger being swept through. I have a destination there is no time to walk.

How can I relate this to my local environment? 80 Goes through Reno. How often are people simply just swept through Reno with no time to truly observe what they are around? I bet that this happens all the time just as I was swept through California. As I come home to Nevada I see rivers that are lined with concrete in California. This just seems so unnatural and wrong. This prompt wanted me to talk local but if from Reno to the bay area are so linked this is almost local. Rivers give life to a region. So the life force of our region is a concrete lined piece of shit.

I don’t know what river that was exactly but I do notice that the Truckee River isn’t exactly natural itself. So the major life force of Reno is also semi screwed. Well this is great. If nature is connected with the region then cycling is connected with nature. You can see that cycling is connected with nature. There is nothing more satisfying then a crisp morning ride. It feels natural and it feels right.

I'll post some pics later. 

The further from bed the less comfortable

            One of the many places I walk during the day is to the Joe. By the end of the day the fact that it is uphill from my dorm room in Argenta really starts to get old. I always go across the bridge and then cut by Nye and walk by the gym volleyball plays in on my left then by the Education building on my right then I make my way to the Joe passing by the Knowledge center.

            The differences at night and day are in the vibe. The only similarity that I can think of is the fact that it is still uphill and that pisses me off a little but sometimes. During the day there are so many more people walking by. I always people watch when I go to class during mid day but at night it is completely different.  People are spaced out with stretches where there is nobody. The people that are out travel together. That's smart Reno really isn't the safest place to walk around at night. Got to watch out for people lurking around corners and in bushes. It's amazing how light shapes what we see. The only light that beats down at night dimly glows from street lamps with black in between. Humans don't like the dark. It's unknown. The unknown is scary. I stick to the route most everyone takes which is closest to the street lamps where I can see and the scary thing in the dark can't get me.

            This sets a much creepier vibe than the daytime vibe that I'm used to. It's a little weird. The shadows covering people's faces distance them from you. There are no long boarders flying recklessly through campus and no bikes. Once I cross the bridge back over Virginia the vibe gets better. Being closer to the dorms brings me closer to home. More people are out. Laughter fills the air with groups of people hanging out. A couple bros play football in the grass courtyard between Nye and Canada. I draw this conclusion about night time travel. The further from bed the less comfortable I get. 

From Point to Point

            As I walked through my neighborhood at the University of Nevada I observed the ads all about. Two different types of ads were noticeable. One being the kind that invite me to be a consumer and spend my money on things that really aren't necessary and one that tries to get me to be a better citizen by student participation. We are engulfed in a world of consumerism.

            The ads I see around campus are for the commercial companies that have been brought to campus. I'll focus on Starbucks in this case. The symbol of the mermaid thing on the cup is so embedded in our brains. We immediately know what it stands for and what it means. Is this good or bad? While having brand identification is good in some ways because it create easy ways to identify a product by consumer desire, it has it down side as well. It is as if the brand and the company have got us on a leash to pour money into a giant corporation that will most likely never do anything for us but provide that product.     

            There are other signs on compass that encourage citizenship and involvement. There are banners on how the university is a top tier research university. These are trying to get us to evoke a feeling of pride for our university. If care for our school more, do well, and graduate. We will spread good word of the school and give it a good reputation. From this more students will attend the school to create a larger learning institution increasing the quality of education and the quality of citizens that will emerge from that institution.

            The thing is I can pass all these ads by when I am on campus because of who I am on campus. I am a student who is engulfed in my own work. I don't have time for the consumer ads to suck me in.. 

You should really check out the Reno Bike Project they are a great organization made of a lot of cool young dudes that are genuinely motivated to get people biking.

http://www.renobikeproject.com/

Consumers and Citizens

            As I walked through my neighborhood at the University of Nevada I observed the ads all about. Two different types of ads were noticeable. One being the kind that invite me to be a consumer and spend my money on things that really aren't necessary and one that tries to get me to be a better citizen by student participation. We are engulfed in a world of consumerism.

            The ads I see around campus are for the commercial companies that have been brought to campus. I'll focus on Starbucks in this case. The symbol of the mermaid thing on the cup is so embedded in our brains. We immediately know what it stands for and what it means. Is this good or bad? While having brand identification is good in some ways because it create easy ways to identify a product by consumer desire, it has it down side as well. It is as if the brand and the company have got us on a leash to pour money into a giant corporation that will most likely never do anything for us but provide that product.     

            There are other signs on compass that encourage citizenship and involvement. There are banners on how the university is a top tier research university. These are trying to get us to evoke a feeling of pride for our university. If care for our school more, do well, and graduate. We will spread good word of the school and give it a good reputation. From this more students will attend the school to create a larger learning institution increasing the quality of education and the quality of citizens that will emerge from that institution.

            The thing is I can pass all these ads by when I am on campus because of who I am on campus. I am a student who is engulfed in my own work. I don't have time for the consumer ads to suck me in.. 

Going deeper: a race and gender analysis

            Go deeper. Think about race and gender as far as boundaries of my neighborhood goes. As I walked around I realize that race is something hard for me to analyze. I'm from a small town where it is dominated by white people and the only minorities are Hispanics. We had about 7 black kids at my high school. When I walked around campus I did see that black people tend to hang out with other black people and race does become this boundary that separates us. It is a social way of identification. Race connects people. When I see people hanging out and there are a mixture of races it is new for me to see, and to be honest pretty strange. If I would of grown up in a bigger city maybe I would be used to seeing it.

            As far as gender goes it is a definite boundary between people. I know for a fact that when I see guys with girls together on campus that the guy is socializing in a different way than we would socialize with other males. Now I can only speak for myself because I'm a guy not a girl. I can tell a girls room by the outside of the dorm room. If they have a whiteboard with cute little hand writing I know that is a girl's room. Guy's rooms are distinctly less packed in the dorms. I think it's because we don't try and bring a whole wardrobe. I also think it shows that guys need less to feel comfortable in our environment.  I walked by some guys playing Frisbee. All these guys need for entertainment is a simple disc. Not saying girls never play Frisbee, but I see guys doing this kind of thing way more often. Girls need more. Simple enough haha. I know that I might take some crap for that comment. I can only asses one side of this because I am not a girl, and I don't know how girls behave socially together when guys aren't there. I can only imagine what they do and I often come back to the stereotypical view of cute girls having pillow fights and giggling when they hang out, that or doing makeup. I guess the girls will have to let me know what they really do.            

My Involvement

            How am I a part of the environment around me? As I walk by the dining hall I think about the food shed and everything that surrounds it. After reading Coming into the Food Shed by Jack Kloppenburg, I think about how I eat there regularly and the negative impacts that imported foods can have on the environment. By eating there it is almost as if I am against the local food shed because I am almost 100% positive that the food there does not come from local sources. I want to say that I am pro-local food shed, but if simply say that, but I never reach out to try and make a difference then am I all talk and no walk? I get caught in the rut of the social norm where the easier path is the one I take. I take the faster route on my walk to the Joe rather than taking the scenic longer way by Manzanita Lake. Since it is easier for me to get food from the cafeteria on campus and I have a meal plan I do. I never go out and search for a local farmer's market.

            I look at people surrounded by their friends. I'm not with my friends right now. I don't have as much time as I used to for them. Time is the most valuable thing on Earth. I pack my days trying to fit in all the time I can get to work and hang out with friends. Time is precious. It is the currency of the world and everything revolves around it. Look at the parking passes on campus for example. Those with more money can buy more expensive passes so they can park closer and get places quicker. People without money have to take more time. Time is valuable because life is a onetime deal.

            I purchase a smoothie at the Joe. Sometimes I feel like consumer and a leach. What do I give back to society? I still have my whole life to give back. I'm in training to give back to society right now. After all that is what university study is. They want us to be well crafted citizens to enter the workforce. Once in a worker and a greater contributor to society then I can understand the politics of society that I am in better.. Until then i feel a little helpless and overwhelmed by how complex the politics and mobility of society are.

A walk through my neighborhood.

This is the first of my blog entries for my English 102 class at the University of Nevada, Reno. To my classmates: I'm simply writing what I feel I'll try to throw in some pictures in my entries since I am into photography a little bit.

To my professor: I sure hope this is what I'm supposed to do.

To all others: I don't know how you ended up here but you might as well read a few entries if you have time.

I'm at home for Labor day weekend and it feels great. Never thought I'd miss this place so much. This is my neighborhood. It's a small quiet one. Gardnerville is in a high desert so sagebrush is abundant with tumbleweeds here and there. For my classmates not local to the area Gardnerville is an hour south of Reno. Reno is the valley on the other side of Northlake Tahoe. Gardnerville is the valley on the other side of Southlake Tahoe. It's like Reno but much prettier and a lot smaller. In downtown Gardnerville  there are tall trees; our trees aren't very tall. My neighborhood is still new and on the edge of town with many years to come I can tell by the short trees. I always look at how big the trees are to know how old an area is in Gardnerville. It's not a traditional neighborhood. The houses are spaced apart on 2 acre lots creating empty spaces. The space is noticeable because the neighborhood is not as close in terms of friendliness. We don't have big block parties our anything like that. We rarely visit each other's houses It's not that anyone is really mean. I guess the one guy down the street on the left side with his big ugly white fence is mean, but he is the only one. It's strange how he is mean and his big ugly, white plastic fence is there. It is almost as if he is trying to separate himself because he doesn't like people. His fence matches his character. Ha what character! He has none just like his big ugly white fence. None of the houses are old so none of them have a lot of character. I think that old houses are the only ones with character. New houses are nice but they are just not the same. I feel safe in my neighborhood. I always have ever since I moved into my house in the 2nd grade. I came from Phoenix, AZ so moving to the little town of G-ville was a complete 180 turn for me. Since we are off the main drag I used to always ride my bikes around the streets with my buddies Taylor and Kevin. Taylor lives on my right and Kevin lives on my left. We used to be best friends all the way through about middle school. I never thought I wouldn't be friends with them. It's strange how people just grow apart. There is no tension or anything like that it just happens naturally. In high school I went through my neighborhood to get into town and hang out with friends. I always move though my neighborhood to get somewhere else. Usually to the mountains to ski or mountain bike or on school days I almost always took the same way out. The other ways were too long. I guess time was an important thing in determining my route. The main boundaries of my home are the mountains all around. Nevada is the most mountainous state. That was a quick fact for all of you who don't know that. The mountains on the west stand large and tall and are snowcapped for half the year and the smaller pinenuts are on my east. Job's Peak is the defining peak. Whenever you see pictures of Gardnerville you see that peak. Here is a photo I took from out near my house.This puts me in a valley. My safe little valley where it feels as if nothing can harm me and everything will always be the same ,but I know this just isn't true. They are building a Wal-Mart here so things are already changing. My impressions of the street are full of emotion. I love my neighborhood so much it will be difficult for me to leave and go up to Reno on Monday. It truly feels like a home. I actually really feel like this video I made for the high school talent show fits this topic perfectly. It's entitled From Point A to Point B and  documents how my friends and I always managed to get to the mountains from point A, our homes, to point B ,the mountains. If you want to watch it here it is.

https://vimeo.com/33429691

The Carson Valley Job's peak on far left