http://www.nbcnews.com/id/26776283/

While the popularity of the Truckee River Walk is a good and beneficial result of the beautification project, many problems that the city of Reno sought to rectify have still not been addressed. One of the chief complaints about the downtown area, after the beatification project had been completed, was the amount of homeless men and women that still loitered around the river walk’s restaurants and parks. Although the beautification project was well underway in the mid 90’s, it was not until 2006 that the city of Reno started addressing the homeless community in Reno. Even today, as the sun goes down, you can always find groups of homeless men and women wandering back to the parks to sleep for the night. The renovation of Reno’s downtown area d is ongoing, but there are more and more calls for the city of Reno to do more to address the problem of homelessness. Are the RWMA’s donations and funding really being well spent on this short-term beautification program? Or should the city consider putting money towards more social welfare programs? Looking at the issue from the perspective of a tourist, a one time visitor to the area may not be able to appreciate aesthetic improvements when the city’s poverty problem is so apparent.  Any city’s aesthetics are sure to be negated by the presence of a much more serious social issue. While in recent years there has been less of a focus on the beautification project and more investment in programs to help the homeless, it is clear that the continuous nature of this beautification project needs to be reconsidered in order to effectively address larger social issues within the central Reno area.