Editorial in RGJ!

I woke this morning to a text telling me to check the RGJ Voices section-here’s what I found:

Don’t let neighborly dispute threaten important venture
RGJ, Editorial, 5/29

For years we’ve heard the complaint from teenagers and young adults: There’s nothing for us to do in the Truckee Meadows. This is a community, they’ve said, that caters to adults with gambling, drinking and other adult entertainment; what’s there for us to do?

The standard response has been: Quit complaining and do something about it yourselves. Well, that’s exactly what a group of Reno-area youngsters has done in creating the Holland Project, an all-ages venue for a variety of artistic endeavors, as well as classes and community forums. In the process, they’ve given a new life to a dark, dingy, unused warehouse, owned by the city, along the Union Pacific Railroad tracks at Keystone Avenue. The site is considered temporary; organizers will be looking for a permanent site in the coming months. Business matters for the Holland Project are handled by a board of business, government and arts leaders, but the other decisions are being made by a coordinating board.

It is exactly the kind of hands-on, self-reliant project that you would want the community’s youth to be involved in.
Not only will it provide a venue for concerts, plays and other events, but it will also provide them with valuable lessons in life that will help them succeed as community-minded adults. Life lesson No. 1 may well be how to get along with their neighbors, a lesson many of us could use in our modern, detached neighborhoods.

Only recently opened, the Holland Project already is embroiled in a dispute with a neighbor, a dispute that has gotten hotter in recent weeks as police were called out to the project to deal with a noise complaint. Adults know well how arguments of this type in a neighborhood can escalate quickly, eventually doing irreparable damage to relationships. It’s critical that the youth involved in the project learn it, too. It would be unfortunate if this dispute were to hurt the Holland Project before it has had time to find its footing.

Rather than law enforcement, the two sides need a moderator, someone who can help them find an acceptable middle ground that will allow the project to thrive without hurting the quality of life of those who live nearby. Without some accommodation, positions will harden on both sides and the anger will only increase, eventually making reconciliation difficult, if not impossible.

The Holland Project is too important to the community to allow that to happen. The city should step in and help the two sides figure out how they can be good neighbors. –RGJ.

First, thank you. I don’t know who wrote this, but it sure means a lot, and gets right to the crux of the issue. We would love to work with the neighbor, and find an acceptable balance for each of us–and if we continue to get support from all sides of this and be strong, but open, then we’ll get there. Thank you for your support, for your kind and strong words–and for your guidance. We need voices of calm and reason sometimes, and I think this editorial resonates with both.