BARBWIRE by ANDREW BARBANO Pirate Laureate of the High Desert Outback of the American Dream The Barbwire Molly Ivins Memorial Columniator Hall of Flames

Barbwire Archives

This week celebrates anniversaries of impossibilities.

• Man on the moon in 1969 (despite what conspiracy theorists allege).
• The great New York City blackout of 1977 (and the huge spike in the northeastern birthrate nine months later, which "Great Expectations" baby boom bible author Landon Y. Jones debunked regarding the historic 1965 event [NYTimes 7-18-2019]).
• And the election of Reno Mayor Barbara Bennett in 1979 after she convinced the city council to vote for rent control.

Last week came word that the median stick-built home in Reno-Sparks has topped $400,000 for the first time. (Reno Gazette-Journal 7-13-2019) .That means half the conventional freestanding homes in Washoe County cost more than $400k. The bad news is that apartment vacancies have fallen to a six-year low of about three percent here in Tesla Valhalla.

The Barbwire never forgets

The opening of the MGM Grand (now the Grand Sierra-Reno) in 1978 spawned uncontrolled growth like today. Six new casino properties opened within a few months of each other. People flocked to the boomtown from everywhere. White and blue collar workers pitched tents by the river. (I still have the film.) Rents skyrocketed — if you could find a place at all.

Speculators from California were driving around with suitcases full of cash or cashier's checks, snapping up any property at any price.

No less than Bill Harrah hisself wondered how many casinos this area could handle. The prescient Harrah died on a Mayo Clinic operating table that same year. Not long thereafter, six clubs had closed, a painful push.

Not only were apartment landlords gouging like today (see Rentvolution.org/) but mobile home dwellers had it worse, if that's imaginable. You can pick up your stuff if evicted from an apartment. Alas, there is nothing mobile about a mobile home. Barbara Bennett's mobile home park landlord skyrocketed her rent not long after she became mayor. Not enough rate of return on his precious investment, or so he said.

Mobile home salesmen were bribing park owners to evict their tenants. "A space is worth a deal," one dealer said. (He eventually moved to a non-mobile home. Prison.)

Today, tenants can still be evicted at landlord whim although a few Band-Aids were passed by this year's legislature.

The short grandma with the smoky voice and little yellow Volkswagen Beetle started to organize. She created such a groundswell that the Reno City Council had to listen.

"We can't wait any longer," Bennett said. "We've had it up to our ears with a system which not only permits but actually encourages gouging."

She added that mobile home owners were unable to acquire any of the few available spaces unless they were willing to pay $500 to $1,500 as a "reward." Entrance or exit fees are illegal, but "People are desperate. The charge is often hidden and they are fearful of eviction if they file a complaint, so they pay it," she stated. [Nevada State Journal 11-4-1978]

As I reported earlier this year, some apartment landlords charge $50 to $75 per potential occupant to run background checks which cost them about a dollar each. I know one couple that lost $500 before finding a small apartment. [Barbwire 3-20-2019]

I was at Reno City Hall on Nov. 13, 1978, when a very business-oriented council voted for "rent justification." Mayor Bruno Menicucci voted against it with Councilmember Bill Granata absent. [Reno Evening Gazette 11-14-1978]

Like today, city officials denied having the legal authority to place any kind of leash on the voracious dogs. Future Washoe District Judge Mark Handelsman drafted a "rent justification" ordinance. If availabilities dropped below five percent, an independent board would demand documentation of actual increased costs before rents could be raised.

Then the council made a fatal mistake and forwarded the ordinance to Washoe District Court for "judicial review" before implementation.

After approving rent control, the council was able to backtrack by relying on the little used 1969 "Judicial Confirmation Law" to punt to the court. (Gazette and Journal, 12-16-1978)

Back in the rule of law era, people still followed the now-defunct US Constitution which mandates that courts rule on actual cases. Non-binding legal opinions are the function of other branches of government.

A "petition for judicial confirmation" was filed on December 14, 1978. A copy of the proposed rent justification ordinance and the minutes of the Nov. 13 council meeting were attached as exhibits. (Gazette and Journal 12-16-1978)

In February of 1979, Judge James Guinan bounced the request and rent control died a hard death with it.

Guinan ruled that the court could not render such an opinion. (Nevada State Journal 2-27-1979)

On Feb. 26, 1979, the Reno City Council deadlocked 3-3 (with Councilmember Ed Oaks absent) on moving the ordinance forward notwithstanding the lack of court guidance. They then punted to the legislature which was then in session.

" 'We're being shuffled off to the Legislature,' Barbara Bennet said, adding 'If you want to find a way to deal with this problem, you can.' " [Reno Evening Gazette 2-27-2019]

As in 2019 and 2017, the 1979 legislature did nothing to mitigate landlord profit-gouging. Happy 40th Anniversary.

In 1980, attorney and Assemblymember Bob Barengo, D-Reno, told a legislative subcommittee that he believed "local governments already have the authority to control rents in emergency situations."

Current law appears to agree. (Nevada Revised Statutes 244.143 and 244.146[b] and [c])

Barengo's interim subcommittee voted on April 18, 1980, to recommend that "the 1981 legislature clearly state that counties and cities have authority to establish rent controls." (UPI/Reno Gazette-Journal, 4-19-1980)

Barengo was elected Assembly Speaker for the 1981 legislative session.

Bennett was not without success. Washoe District Judge Peter Breen stopped a notorious LA doctor from skyrocketing rents in an attempt to empty his Verdi riverfront mobile home park so he could build condos. Breen termed it innovative "judicial rent control," noting that the tenants would be deprived of the substantial improvements they made to the property. [Reno Evening Gazette 2-19-1979]

That took balls. The Sparks City Council even passed the area's first apartment-to-condo conversion regulation in 1980. In 1982, Clark County Commissioner Manny Cortez (father of Democratic U.S. Sen. Catherine Cortez-Masto) endorsed passage of a rent justification law. (Las Vegas Review-Journal 6-10-1982)

Sparks City Councilmember Valdo Renucci endorsed Bennett's rent justification idea. "If it was legal, I would be in favor of something like this," he stated. [Nevada State Journal 11-15-1978]

Barbara Bennett entered a multi-candidate primary in May of 1979. Prior to that, mayors were elected among councilmembers. She beat two council  incumbents in an eight-way contest, finishing second to then-Mayor Bruno Menicucci by just 93 votes [AP/North Las Vegas Valley Times 5-9-1979] and defeating him a month later in the biggest upset in Reno political history.

The late great Barbara was the only mayor named to the Reno Gazette-Journal's "100 who made a difference in the 20th Century" list in 1999. A downtown Reno park bears her name.

Time for a fitting anniversary celebration at city hall. Volunteers needed. Contact me.

HAVING IT BOTH WAYS. By mid-century, the Reno Evening Gazette and Nevada State Journal had the same ownership but retained separate editorial staffs. The Gazette's longtime lineage was conservative Republican. The Journal leaned moderate Democrat. On Nov. 20, 1978, the Gazette endorsed Bennett's temporary rent justification proposal. The Journal got around to opposing it on Feb. 3, 1980. Go figger.

POETIC JUSTICE DEPT. Two wealthy local landlords were among the worst of Barbara Bennett's many foes. Both went bankrupt and died as men of humble means.

The game's afoot. The quest for justice abides. Stay tuned.

¡Sí se puede!
___________________

Peruse the Underbelly of the News —> Subscribe to Barbwire Confidential

For all the news you never knew you needed to know 'til now: Tell your friends and friendly enemies to subscribe to Barbwire Confidential for warm laughter, cheap thrills, hot scoops and occasional cold logic at BallotBoxing.US/ Cheap at twice the price. (Hush Hush!)

BLACK LIKE ME 2119: The problem as solution
Barbwire by Andrea Luigi Barbáno / Expanded from the 2-13-2019 Sparks Tribune / Updated 2-14 and 2-16-2019
Breaking News —> Culinary Union defeats decert at Circus Circus Reno
Dear Readers: The above column served as the conclusion of remarks I submitted before the "Tahoe Talks: Racism in America" symposium at the Incline Village, Nev., Library on February 12, 2019. So you might want to read "FADE TO BLACK" before you read "Black Like Me 2119".

	Triangle Shirtwaist Factory owners Max Blank and Isaac Harris. Is not Mr. Harris eerily familiar to television junkies?
From the Emmy-winning opening slate of the blockbuster "Cheers" television series. Combined with its "Frasier" spinoff, it lasted 20 years.	The "shirtwaist kings" immigrated from Russia and made a fortune manufacturing "Gibson Girl"-style blouses. (Photo, "The American Experience"/PBS)	The Emmy-winning opening slate of the "Cheers" television series before the "slate" of creators is superimposed. Looks like Mr. Harris' dead ringer (at left) is having a bloody good time.

"Who ya gonna believe, me or your own eyes?" — Chico Marx disguised as Groucho Marx in "Duck Soup" (1933)
Back to the story of the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist holocaust

Triangle tragedy recalled as requiem "The Fire in My Mouth," a new oratorio by Pulitzer honoree Julia Wolfe, premiered with the New York Philharmonic Jan. 24 By Michael Cooper / The New York Times 1-23-2019

SITE NAVIGATION TIPS: When all else fails, read the instructions (A favorite John Hanks aphorism I've been using for decades)

NevadaLabor.com | U-News | Bulletins + Almanac Casinos Out of Politics (COP) | Sen. Joe Neal Guinn Watch | Deciding Factors | BallotBoxing.US DoctorLawyerWatch.com | Barbwire Oilogopoly Archive Barbwire Nevada Corporate Welfare Archive The Barbwire Molly Ivins Memorial Columniator Hall of Flames Annual César Chávez Celebration War Rooms: Banks, Cabbies, Cabela's/cabellyup, Cable TV, Cancer Kids/Mining, Energy, Food, Health Care, Resurge.TV/consumers, Starbucks, Wal-Mart We Don't Need No Education Search this site | In Search Of...

Barbwire Archives

Copyright © 1982-2019 Andrew Barbano

Andrew Barbano is a 50-year Nevadan, editor of NevadaLabor.com and SenJoeNeal.org; and former chair of the City of Reno's Citizens Cable Compliance Committee. He is the executive producer of Nevada's annual César Chávez Day celebration and serves as first vice-president and political action chair of the Reno-Sparks NAACP. As always, his opinions are strictly his own. E-mail barbano@frontpage.reno.nv.us.

Barbwire by Barbano moved to Nevada's Daily Sparks Tribune on Aug. 12, 1988, and has originated in them parts ever since.
Whom to blame: How a hall-of-famer's hunch birthed the Barbwire in August of 1987
Tempus fugit.

Betty J. Barbano 2-7-1941 / 12-27-2005

Get ahead of corporate-influenced news—>Subscribe to Barbwire Confidential

Site composed and maintained by Deciding Factors, CWA 9413 signatory

Comments and suggestions appreciated. Sign up for news and bulletins