"Haunted by Waters" — Reno’s Riverfront Reality Under Devon Reese

Reese and his team can spin almost anything just call the Nevada Commission on Ethics - he’s spinning them right now and might let him avoid any meaningful disciplinary action. Wouldn’t that make the Nevada Commission on Ethics - well unethical.

In A River Runs Through It, the line “I am haunted by waters” speaks to beauty, memory, and loss. Under Devon Reese’s mayoral campaign, the Truckee River has taken on a far less poetic role: haunted not by nostalgia, but by neglect.

Reese, who now poses as the river’s great protector, has presided over years in which the Truckee became the city’s restroom of last resort. Residents don’t need campaign slogans — they need to be able to walk by the river without dodging human waste. Yet here’s Reese, standing riverside for campaign photos, hoping the public forgets what really flows downstream.

And it’s not just the river. On housing, Reese is busy converting “affordable housing solutions” into “short-term rental profits.” At the very moment residents pleaded with the Reno City Council not to turn ADUs into neighborhood hotels, Reese voted the other way — effectively transforming family neighborhoods into mini-Sheratons.

Of course, his own home in Somersett is safe. Protected by HOA covenants, Reese’s neighborhood doesn’t have to worry about ADUs sprouting into Airbnbs. That inconvenience is reserved for everyone else.

So when Reese waxes poetic about “a Reno that is safe, affordable, and full of opportunity,” the reality is hard to ignore: safe for him, profitable for developers, and haunted — truly haunted — by waters that have borne the brunt of his failed policies.

For residents, the line isn’t “I am haunted by waters.” It’s “We are haunted by Reese.”