The Urban Market project, in planning for a piece of underutilized land in in the downtown Reno redevelopment district, is progressing well with the commitment of a dozen retail and restaurant tenants, according to a story in the Reno Gazette-Journal.

The market has been designed using an open plaza concept, where tenants will face a central pedestrian space that will be available for use for farmers markets, festivals and other events. It is located on West Street between First and Second streets, and is slated to open in October.

The fifth-annual Reno River Festival was the best one yet, with record attendance estimated at nearly 40,000. Spectators spent the weekend at Reno’s Truckee River Whitewater Park, watching amateur and professional kayakers compete for prize money and bragging rights. Music, food, vendors and some new land-based events, combined with great weather to make this year’s festival a great kickoff to summer in Reno-Tahoe.

Downtown Reno is in the midst of an urban renaissance that includes public works projects like the Truckee River Whitewater Park, renovation of the Reno Post Office into a retail plaza, and construction of a train trench cover that will create a pedestrian center.

Downtown Makeover, a local blog about all things downtown, chronicles many of the projects with artists renderings and interviews with the principals involved in the developments. Check it out, and get a peak into the changing face of downtown Reno.

-Jim Scripps

YouTube, MySpace, Google, Blip.tv and Veoh

Earlier this month, the Reno-Tahoe gang got the chance to go Backcountry skiing on Mt. Tallac.

One of Lake Tahoe’s premier backcountry destinations, Tallac offers a strenuous 3,200-foot ascent, epic views of the Lake Tahoe basin and a thrilling descent.

Check out the Reno-Tahoe YouTube channel for other Reno-Tahoe videos.Thanks to photographer Justin Cash (who was on the hill with the editorial team from Backcountry Magazine) for throwing a couple photos our way.

-Jim Scripps

We’ve recently added a bunch of pics to the Reno-Tahoe Flickr site, so check out this slide show or click through to view them online. We’re always looking for new photos that showcase the best of Reno-Tahoe, so if you have some good ones we’d love to have them as part of our photo stream.

- Jim Scripps

The years-long struggle to bring a Triple A minor league baseball to Reno came one step closer to becoming reality this week with groundbreaking for a new baseball stadium and retail complex that will eventually be home to a development team for the Arizona Diamondbacks major league franchise. The team, formerly named the Tucson Sidewinders, will relocate to Reno with the first pitch slated to be thrown in April, 2009.

Developers, local officials and team executives rolled out the red carpet at the site, hosting a crowd of 300 future fans and setting up a faux ball field with the promise that when the real field is finished next year, baseball fans will come - as many as 500,000 attendees over the course of 72 home games, said Stuart Katzoff, owner of SK Baseball, the partnership behind the project.

Plans for a baseball franchise add to the excitement of the urban renewal that has brought downtown Reno a new Riverwalk district, a whitewater kayak park, luxury condominiums, and top-shelf bars and restaurants, to add to existing gaming attractions. As part of the 6.5-acre stadium development, plans include a shopping plaza, giving visitors another reason to make their way downtown.

What others are saying:

To see another rendering of the proposed development, visit Reno’s Downtown Makeover site here

Reno’s downtown baseball stadium district (Reno and its Discontents)

Reno: baseball groundbreaking (The Urban Blog)

New Triple A team will be D-Backs affiliate, Big turnout for stadium groundbreaking (Reno Gazette-Journal)
Reno Baseball Website!!!

- Jim Scripps

Though there are some hart core paddlers who get out in the at night in the dead of winter storms, the good stuff is coming this spring. The above average snow pack and full reservoirs up-stream are going to make for an awesome Kayaking season. Maybe this will be the year I finally get into it.

This video from X-Terra Planet should get your blood moving as the days get longer and and the snow starts melting…

-MTB

Reports of amazing winter weather are coming in from all over Reno-Tahoe. Our first hand investigators confirm EPIC powder everywhere you turn! And the powder on the ground is being rapidly covered by even more POWDER!!!!!

• “I can’t believe how hard it’s snowing right now,” said Alpine Meadows spokeswoman Rachael Woods. “This kind of snowfall definitely sets up the Sierra for great spring skiing conditions and really helps with our water situation.”
• “Everybody’s ready to ski,” Kauffman said. “They missed out last year, and this last Saturday and Sunday were excellent. The snow is very deep, powdery dry, like Colorado and Utah,” Kauffman added. “We don’t get that too often.”
• “We did get hammered up here,” said Greg Murtha, spokesman for the resort [Sugarbowl], which has 71 inches of snow at its base, 104 on top. “It was hard to tell when one storm stopped and the next one started.”

Lake Tahoe Is looking prime for White Christmas adventures for Locals and Travelers. Our reporters on the front lines are calling in data as we speak: over a foot in the last 24 hours @ Squaw Valley. More coming down!!!”

So you’re sitting in your cozy office in East Whereversville USA and want to know if this is the weekend to hike, fly or drive out to Tahoe for some rip roaring skiing or snowboarding. But you’re worried that your trip will be ruined by LACK of nasty, cold, stormy weather with HEAVY snow followed by STUNNING bluebird views of the lake…

Well never fear, here are some links to make it easy for you to pick a day when the heavy snow falls, and you can wake up and rip sick powder face-shots in the sun!

• Weather.com: easy to read and lots of good tools.
• Noaa.gov: kinda techy, but you can get storm animations. this is where local TV and most websites get their data.
• Snotel: A network of automated weather and snow monitors around the country. Marlette Lake is a few feet above Tahoe on the East Shore.
• TahoeCam: see current weather conditions all over Tahoe!
• MagnifEYE: Want to SEE the traffic, snowcover (or lack thereof) on I-80 before you head up to the lake? Check out the Kingvale pic…

-MTB