“If you were to think in the last couple of years, what do you like … in Carson City the best?” Mayor Lori Bagwell asked at “Coffee and Conversation with the Mayor” on Thursday.
Faith Evans/Nevada Appeal
Mayor Lori Bagwell asked locals to help her pin down Carson City’s successes and challenges at a Chamber of Commerce event Thursday. She’ll be presenting at a Quad County mayor breakfast later this month, and she said she wanted to include community input in her speech.
Overwhelmingly, audience members listed Carson City’s trails, multi-use pathways, and open space among its greatest qualities. Many nodded and hummed agreement that the South Carson Complete Streets Project and Prison Hill trails have been a boon to residents.
Bagwell said that aesthetic outdoor projects that are in the works may help promote the city.
“I really hope that the arches and things like that are starting to become our own Carson City photo ops,” she said, referring to plans to bring historic V&T Railroad Roundhouse arches to Mills Park.
On the flip side, residents and business owners expressed a desire to invest in events spaces and low-cost activities.
“I think we need some more convention space to really hold 250-300 people,” Bagwell said.
She shared an event she helped host over the weekend – a tribute to forgotten Civil War soldiers – had drawn more people than available hotel rooms booked for the event. Ten women had to find willing roommates.
Multiple attendees pressed the issue of the vacant Ormsby House, asking when that space could soon be used.
“I never say no to a meeting on the Ormsby House,” Bagwell joked. She reminded the room that the building is privately owned. She hopes it eventually attracts an ambitious buyer.
Aside from attracting businesses, residents also pressed the issue of investing in street improvements outside the downtown corridor.
One business owner said that she wished she felt more support from the city, either through the Redevelopment Authority or other venues. Her businesses lie just outside the development district.
In response, the mayor said that funding for façade improvements throughout the city either costs business owners more or diverts tax revenue that goes to the school district.
“Difficult, difficult choices. Difficult to explain to the public,” she said. Later, she added, “Is that the best place for me to put that money?”
She referenced a previous “Coffee and Conversation with the Mayor” event – the city has a limited “pie” of funding, and to make one slice bigger means taking away from another slice, unless the city can make the pie bigger.
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