The Future of The Barber Brief

Plus how to keep up with development in Reno for yourself and this week's news.

First off, THANK YOU for voting me Best Local Author & Best Local Activist in the Reno News & Review’s Best of Northern Nevada 2025!

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As we celebrate and commemorate workers of all types this Labor Day, I have some updates regarding one of the primary objects of my own labor, The Barber Brief itself.

As I contemplate enacting some changes, I’ll tell you how to make sure that you remain informed and up to date with respect to local urban development.

After that, I’ll have some previews and updates for the week of September 1, 2025.

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I’ve been thinking a lot about how the Brief can best be of service to you, the readers, while also comprising the kind of writing I’d like to produce, moving forward.

As you may know, I started to publish The Barber Brief in January of 2021, nearly five years ago, because I saw a community need that I believed I could help address.

We were at the time in the midst of the pandemic and its accompanying shutdowns. The city’s Neighborhood Advisory Boards weren’t meeting at all, even virtually. The Redevelopment Agency Advisory Board had been quietly dissolved, with no public explanation. Jacobs Entertainment was buying up parcels, demolishing historic motels, and introducing its proposed Development Agreement with the City—a development agreement that, bizarrely, outlined no specific development plan. The Reno City Council was considering changing ordinances regarding things like Sewer Connection Fee Credits without fully explaining the long-term implications.

In November of 2021 I warned of a full-blown crisis of public process, with City leaders making a slew of unilateral decisions that kept residents on the sidelines.

As someone who has written extensively about Reno’s historical failure to engage in thoughtful and effective long-term planning (with long-lasting consequences), I feared that local residents were being deprived of the information, context, and advance notice required to ensure that City decisions were transparent, inclusive, and in the public interest. And I wanted to help change that, to empower residents to get informed and involved, in order to help reverse the trends of the past.

Readers responded with incredible support, which was amazingly gratifying.

As the Brief began to take up more of my time and energy, I made a few changes.

In February of 2024 I introduced optional paid subscriptions and made a pledge to publish weekly in order to ensure consistent value for subscribers. I began to incorporate detailed previews of upcoming City meetings and workshops, with updates from past meetings and more links to press coverage of relevant topics.

Again, I did this because I saw a need. And I am convinced that public awareness and engagement have improved as a result.

But in the process, the intensive context and analysis I had originally provided began to give way to more compilation of meeting times and agendas and links to outside content. As I wrote a few weeks ago, I began to feel obligated to provide regular previews and updates each week, to guarantee that regular readers wouldn’t miss a meeting or an opportunity to participate in an upcoming public process.

I still saw a need for what I was providing, but the Brief began to feel less and less like something that my background and interests uniquely enable me to offer. I was producing more aggregation than analysis of the events of the present day filtered through my own knowledge and experience.

Fortunately, just in the past few weeks, I’ve surveyed the changing landscape, and believe I see a path forward.

As I’ve been taking stock of how the Brief has evolved over the past 4+ years, I’ve recognized a number of other changes that have made some of my content redundant—specifically the content that outlines what’s coming up and what just happened.

So today, I’d like to share with you the many resources that are now available to you (most of which I’ve mentioned before). These are the sources that I’ve been drawing from in order to compile much of the content that I send you every week. What I’m recommending today is that you take immediate steps to sign up for them yourself.

In other words, it’s time to cut out the middle(wo)man.

These sources are just as accessible to you as they are to me, so I’m handing you the reins. In the meantime, I’m going to take a little time to determine the best way to continue my research, commentary and analysis on this platform and beyond.

I know many of you read the Brief for different types of material, so here’s where you can sign up to receive much of the information, previews, and updates that I’ve been aggregating for you, and have them delivered directly to your email inbox.

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#1 - How to learn what’s coming up at the next Reno City Council meeting:

• The City of Reno sends out an email with a link to the next City Council agenda as soon as it is posted (usually the Thursday or Friday before the meetings, which are held on Wednesdays). To receive those, go to the city’s Newsletters page and sign up for the newsletter called City Council Agendas. I’m not sure if that also gets you the highlights from past meetings; I see that there’s a signup form specifically for the City Council Prelights and Highlights Newsletter here. Sign up for that, and you’ll be sure to get both.

• Within a few weeks of my suggestion that the City of Reno follow the lead of many of its peers in producing a weekly e-newsletter, the City Manager’s office sent out its first edition of “The Reno Report.” I claim absolutely zero credit for this, as it was clearly well underway at the time of my post, but it provides some of what I was calling for the City to do (and some of what I’ve been doing): information about upcoming meetings, events, and opportunities for public engagement with links to agendas, updates, city news and resources, memos sent to the City Council, selected recent planning applications, and more.

  

  The first edition, which you can view here, was delivered on August 25th. It provided links to the August 27th City Council agenda and other content. It linked to the City Manager’s new-ish podcast, “On the Agenda,” which highlights a few items on the next Council agenda and usually covers one topic in depth, with one or two relevant staff members. You can find links to the latest and all past episodes of that podcast here.

  I still think the newsletter should be issued weekly, like the others I found, but it’s a start. I was told there would be a link to it soon on the Newsletters page, but if you don’t see one there, sign up for All News and Updates and you should get it.

NOTE: The city also posts drafts of future Council agendas on its website, about two weeks in advance, but so far there is no newsletter that alerts residents that those have been posted. For that, you have to know to check the webpage “Agenda Memos to the Mayor and Council,” where the draft agenda for the September 10th Reno City Council meeting was posted on August 29th. More on that below.

• Additionally, on August 21, This is Reno provided a preview of the August 27th Council meeting. I hope you will join me in encouraging them to continue to provide these previews. If they do, you can keep up with those, along with their latest articles and editorials, by signing up for their free daily newsletter here.

#2 - How to learn what new development projects are being proposed

• Again, go to the city’s Newsletters page and sign up for the Development Projects newsletter. It’s issued every two weeks and contains information on new applications that require discretionary review. You can find links to the latest and all past Development Project newsletters on the Land Development Projects webpage. Here’s a sample entry from the August 25th edition.

  

  These newsletters are terrific. They include a brief description of the new application and contact information for the applicant’s representative and City staff contact, as well as tentative dates for public hearings related to them (with a lot of advance notice). They also include a link to submit comments.

• While you’re on that same Newsletters page, sign up for the newsletter called Community Development. That one should ensure that you’re kept apprised of potential ordinance changes related to land development.

• Also on the topic of development projects, be sure to sign up for the newsletter corresponding to your City Ward (which you can identify here)—or, if you’re interested, all of them. There’s a quarterly message from the ward’s Councilmember, and you’ll also receive more frequent announcements of other items of relevance to your ward, like upcoming NAB meetings and Community Forums (if they continue to hold those).

#3 - How to find out about other City of Reno meetings

The City’s Reno Report seems to intend to link to the next two weeks of City meetings, but to make sure you’re kept up to date, sign up for the newsletters on topics that interest you, like Arts & Culture, or Parks & Recreation.

#4 - How to find out what happened at prior City meetings

As I mentioned above, you can sign up for the City’s City Council Prelights and Highlights Newsletter here to get a summary of many actions from the most recent meeting (those are also included on the City’s News page here). If you sign up for Press Releases on the Newsletters page, you should receive all of these.

But for the most part, this is where we rely on sound local reporting—not just about past City Council meetings, but meetings of the Planning Commission and other public bodies, as well as other topics not directly connected to a public agenda.

You don’t need me to point out that the landscape of local reporting has changed a great deal. For more than a century, Reno had two daily newspapers, which merged in the mid-1980s to form the Reno Gazette-Journal, whose staff has been decimated over the past few decades. The RGJ’s local government reporter is now funded by the community, making her articles free, so take advantage (and lend your support). You can sign up for the RGJ’s Reno Memo and daily briefs here. And you can purchase a Digital-only or Digital + Print subscription on their website here.

For years, This is Reno has provided the MOST thorough coverage of local government. If I had one overall recommendation for those who wish to keep up with everything happening with local government, it would be to subscribe to This is Reno, which you can do here. Also be sure to sign up for their free daily newsletter here.

I list many other local media and sources of information in my Citizen Guide.

As you survey sites like Facebook, X, Reddit, and NextDoor, you’re sure to notice that more attention than ever is being paid to Reno city government—and that’s a good thing. At the same time, that means more hot takes and opinions than ever before. These days, everyday people like me have many of the same tools and platforms at our disposal as professional journalists. Although I haven’t delved into it myself, AI is helping people of all backgrounds to produce instant summaries and analyses that look very professional and can indeed synthesize material in helpful ways. But without careful and knowledgeable human editing, they can lead us astray.

In this ever-evolving landscape, media literacy is more essential than ever. So make up your mind to be a discerning consumer. It behooves all of us to read much and read widely, but don’t abandon your own critical thinking. Consider the sources of the material you’re ingesting, expect and demand evidence for the claims you hear and read, converse with each other, and think for yourself.

Also worth noting is that we’re heading into an election season for a number of important positions. So be attuned, as well, to the messages you’re getting from political candidates, who naturally are presenting only the well-crafted messages and narratives they want you to hear (and not the ones they don’t).

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So where does that leave The Barber Brief?

I’m not entirely sure. In my mind, the major gap in the swirl of messaging about local development-related topics still appears to be the lack of context provided in relation to major items before they’re considered by the Planning Commission, City Council, or another public body. As in the past, I see that as an area where I can provide some assistance, and I think that if I’m freed from the (self-imposed) obligation to preview each week’s city meetings & such, I can take a bit more time to survey the topics where I think we could all use a little more context, and see what I can do about that.

I’m also interested in connecting today’s proposals, decisions, and actions to what’s happened in the past—and applying some critical attention to the messages we’re being presented with regarding development, especially as local political campaigns start to pick up steam (some candidates are less likely to welcome that than others).

I’ll conclude here with a brief list of previews and updates for the week. Remember, you have a lot of tools and information at your disposal, so take advantage of them! And if you have any thoughts you’d like to share about the future of the Brief, feel free to reply to this (if you’ve received it via email) or write a note in the comments. Thanks!

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City of Reno meetings for the week of September 1, 2025

You can view the week’s Current and Upcoming Meetings here. The Wards 3 and 6 NABs are getting briefed on the proposed childcare zoning amendments, and the Ward 6 NAB will also hear about the ADU ordinance and e-bike safety.

• Tuesday, Sept. 2, 5:30pm - Ward 3 NAB. At City Hall & hybrid. Agenda here.

• Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2pm - Washoe County Stadium Authority Board. Agenda here. (Presentation, discussion, and direction to staff regarding acceptance of Washoe County’s Fiscal Year 2026 Payment for the Baseball Stadium Project)

• Wednesday, Sept. 3, 6pm - Reno Planning Commission. Agenda here.

• Thursday, Sept. 4, 10am - Regional Fire Services Study Board. Agenda here.

• Thursday, Sept. 4, 5:30pm - Ward 6 NAB. At City Hall & hybrid. Agenda here.

NOTE: The draft agenda for the September 10th Reno City Council meeting has been posted here and is slated to include the first reading of the ADU Ordinance as well as Council consideration of whether or not to appeal the Regional Planning Commission’s denial of the StoneGate rezoning request. As explained above, sign up for the City Council Agendas newsletter to receive the final version as soon as it’s posted.

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BRIEF DIGEST: The latest in development & related topics

• The City of Reno’s August 27, 2025 Reno City Council Meeting Highlights

• Reno finance director outlines budget challenges amid economic uncertainty (This is Reno 8/29/25)

• Slow tax payments from state causing budget problems for local governments (This is Reno 8/29/25)

• Reno’s essential workers unable to afford local housing (This is Reno 8/28/25)

• If a federal lands bill doesn’t specify affordable housing, it won’t create any, Titus says (Nevada Current 8/28/25)

• Eldorado quietly begins $24 million update of some hotel rooms (Downtown Makeover 8/27/25)

• Headlines say Vegas is dead. What’s actually going on is more complicated (Nevada Independent 8/31/25)

SPOTLIGHT on Data Centers

• The A.I. Spending Frenzy Is Propping Up the Real Economy, Too (New York Times 8/27/25) The trillions of dollars that tech companies are pouring into new data centers are starting to show up in economic growth. For now, at least.

• Project Blue data center still alive despite Tucson city council rejection (News4Tuscon 8/26/25)

• OPINION: The devil in the ‘datails’ by Devon Reese (RGJ 8/29/25) NOTE: Ward 5 Councilmember Devon Reese just filed a Contribution and Expenses Report for the office of Mayor, City of Reno with the Nevada Secretary of State’s Office on August 27, 2025.

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Be sure to check out my Citizen Guide for helpful resources and links to help anyone become more informed and engaged in issues related to urban development (& more) in Reno.

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You can view this and prior newsletters on my Substack site, subscribe to receive each new edition in your email inbox, and follow the Brief (and contribute to the ongoing conversation) on X, Facebook & Instagram. If you feel inspired to contribute, you may purchase a paid subscription through Substack or contribute via Venmo at @Dr-Alicia-Barber or via check to Alicia Barber at P.O. Box 11955, Reno, NV 89510.