Recently, Reno Gazette Journal reported that Reno scored third place in LinkedIn’s list of “Cities on the Rise,” which ranks U.S. metropolitan areas by their strong markets for job and career growth, business friendliness and industrial expansion. This may be surprising to those whose perception of Reno still stems from TV shows like Reno 911 and memories of Reno’s casino-dominated past, but it’s no surprise to long-time Renoites paying attention to the growth and changes to the area.
North Reno and Sparks have become busy hubs for logistics; University of Nevada, Reno (UNR) and Downtown have a startup culture and strong engineering focus; offices and business parks are full throughout South Reno; and the I-80 Eastbound route is notorious for commuter traffic bringing thousands of people to Tesla, Panasonic, the Walmart Distribution Center, Redwood Materials and dozens of data centers and other industrial areas along the technology corridor of Highway 395.
Love it or hate it, Reno is a technology and manufacturing hub, in many ways an extension of the Bay Area, but without the California baggage. Reno still has lower taxes, lower housing prices, less traffic, easier access to the outdoors and more space to spread out.
Nevada is one of those states that's difficult to pin down. Even while Reno is culturally akin to much of California, you won’t see Nevadans voting for higher taxes or more restrictions on their freedom. And because the overall attitude does not involve distrust of industry and technology, this has paved the way for large businesses to expand into the region, bringing jobs and a more educated workforce.
Photo: The Burning Man Project takes place in Nevada because of the state’s lax, live-and-let-live attitude. In fact, Burning Man is known for being an annual getaway for many tech industry CEOs from the Bay Area.
Some old-timers miss the old casino scene of the 1990s. They also long for the Reno housing prices of the past, but prices have gone up everywhere, not just in Reno.
And it’s true that the old Reno had a much more vibrant downtown when the casinos were packed and tourism was the main industry. However, the gaming industry did not benefit society much and was an unsustainable economic base for a mid-sized city without Vegas’s glitz and glam.
As regulations on casinos and Internet gambling loosened up in other regions, bringing casinos online in neighboring states such as California, Oregon and Idaho, Reno realized it wasn’t going to have a monopoly on the gaming industry anyway, so the city government made a wise decision to invite businesses to the region, offering huge tax breaks, infrastructure and (at the time) a relatively low-wage workforce with ample, cheap housing.
This led to the Reno of today – the one of craft breweries where tech bros hang out and bounce ideas off each other in bustling midtown bars and eateries. It also led, indirectly, to the decline of downtown Reno as the peripheries become more appealing to the higher-educated population, as gambling lost its cultural cachet, and as the city’s live-and-let-live attitude had one big downside that the city’s government could not tackle: homelessness. Today, Reno has a bright economic future, but its Downtown is still suffering, even if Midtown, Old Southwest and South Reno have never been better places to live.
Tech jobs mean higher incomes. The biggest benefit of Reno’s tech growth has been the career opportunities for locals and newcomers. And if you work in tech or want to get involved in tech startups, there are dozens of meetups related to technology and lots of jobs at the tech and manufacturing companies in the area. There are also the indirect benefits such as nicer coffee bars and the huge diversity of top-quality restaurants throughout town.
One other benefit to Reno's up-and-coming tech scene is that University of Nevada, Reno (UNR) has really improved in the rankings and is on its way to becoming a top-tier university around the country.
While Vegas remains saddled to the gaming industry, Reno has become a true tech-first city, and you see it in small ways – in the cars people drive (many are electric) and in the welcoming attitude of most residents to people of all walks of life and all opinions.
Big Tech is not without its downsides, though, as the steady rise in housing prices has not ceased in Reno due to the increased employment opportunities. Reno will never be California, though. The culture here does not favor restrictions on people’s freedoms, whether economic or social. It could be something about the desert that makes people like that — the openness and the vastness of it — or it could be that Nevada is still a cowboy state deep down.
Whatever the future holds, Reno is booming economically and is less affected by temporary swings in the tourism market. It’s a regional jobs hub, and (in my humble opinion) it’s a much more attractive place to live than neighboring Sacramento (and perhaps even Boise and Salt Lake), where costs are roughly the same without the thriving Reno job market and lack of state income tax.
If you work in tech and are paying attention to the industry, don’t even think about the old stereotypes about Reno, because Reno today is a completely different world.
The opinions in this article are those of the author and not RenoTahoeCarson.com.
About the Author Dan Bablinskas
Dan Bablinskas is a relentlessly curious person with a passion for travel, foreign languages, affordable food and lodgings, well-fashioned cappuccinos and refreshing craft brews. After receiving his bachelor’s degree in creative writing, he traveled through Europe and South America while working as an English teacher and travel blogger. After trying a number of different careers, he settled into technical and content writing for his day job. In his spare time, he enjoys exploring the Reno-Tahoe area by foot, car, bike and ski. He lives in Reno with his wife and two kids. 
