At least no fist fights broke out as the Reno City Council made that historic decision Tuesday to accept Granite Construction’s bid to build the 2.1-mile trench through downtown Reno.
Actually, people rejoiced. Really. When Mayor Jeff Griffin joyously broke the council’s 3-3 vote tie with his loud, proud “Yes!” the mostly pro-trench crowd assembled for the four hours of public comment and debate went wild with standing ovations, cheers and shouts of “Wow!”
Before the vote, Councilwoman Sherrie Doyle told the assembled crowd that she’d received a phone call during the lunch hour from an anonymous “Reverend Smith” threatening that, if she voted for the trench, her 6-year-old daughter would have to endure being teased at school over the years as the trench became a public humiliation. She said police tracked the call to a known trench opponent who admitted that he’d let cohorts use his phone.
Oh, the outrage of Mike Tracy of the Citizens for a Public Train Trench Vote, who led the campaign to get 15,000 signatures on a pro-vote petition.
“That’s a patent lie, Sherrie!” Tracy stood and shouted. After this exchange, a twitching trench supporter sitting within mumbling distance of at least two reporters said, “Watch the media fuck that one up.”
Council members agreed that they’d never been lobbied so strongly. Never has an issue that seemed so simple—build a depressed railway to get trains through downtown—come to stand for so much more. The trench seems to be a focal point for unrepressed Mapes angst and another handy loogie to hawk in the Great Spitting Match between the city and county. It’s embarrassing.
The numbers showing that the city can pay for the project don’t matter to opponents, who don’t believe ’em.
“You’re asking me to trust them?” Tracy spouted, complaining that the railroad’s $17 million contribution isn’t a $17 million contribution because the railroad can spend the money any way it wants.
City staffers say the city can pay off the 40-year bonds and federal loans within 24 years. The average taxpayer won’t even notice that he or she is paying some $10 a year toward the trench as we’ve been paying this money out in a 1/8-cent sales tax for years.
To wrap up the debate, Griffin quoted Theodore Roosevelt’s comments on not paying attention to the opinions of the people, but instead to the interests of the people.
“Sometimes the people’s interests are confused by their opinions,” Griffin paraphrased. When Griffin attended this year’s U.S. Conference of Mayors, other mayors were amazed that this issue had become so huge in Reno. “They said, ‘What do [critics] want to do, leave the tracks there? That’s nuts.’ … Now the debate is over. This is the most gratifying act of my entire life—to put the city on a course that will revolutionize it.”
It’s not all over. The courts will decide if Renoites can vote in November as per Tracy’s petition. Washoe County voters will give their opinions in an advisory vote, as well.
But, for now, let the upheaval of real dirt commence.