Revised Claudia Hanson blog posted below. Since I am in Bloomington, IN this weekend, I figured I'd include a little Hoosier pride in this post in honor of it being Homecoming.
*****
Claudia Hanson: Building a Better Reno
Claudia Hanson may be a key player in the changing the face of Reno, but walking into her home, you’d never know it. The house is a warm and inviting place; the sounds of children playing echo from the upstairs and a fire burns in the wood stove. Hanson’s life is not filled with scandal or uproar, but she is a city official who has a story worth telling.
Claudia and her husband, Nate, have called Glenshire, a small community situated on the Truckee River between Truckee and Reno, their home for the past eight years.
Hanson was raised in Marin County, outside of San Francisco. After graduating High School, she attended California Polytechnic in San Luis Obispo, where she studied architecture. Following her graduation from Cal Poly she had a quick stint in the Peace Corps. Upon returning from overseas she started working for the City of Reno and has been there almost consistently ever since.
Claudia began as a Junior Planner working mostly with zoning and special use permits. Over the years, she has seen many changes in her department, most notably in the size of her staff. Like just about every city in the U.S., Reno has faced numerous budget cuts and layoffs have been abundant. When Hanson started she was one of 21 staff members; today, there are only eight.
“Not getting laid off in the past three years,” is one of Hanson’s major accomplishments, she said with a laugh.
Today, her official title is Planning and Engineering Manager. On a given day she proofs and edits staff reports, works on current housing developments, ordinance developments, creates parcels, adjusts boundaries, reviews bonds, secures agreements, and presents staff reports. She is hard working and passionate about her job, a sentiment that is often reiterated by those who are part of Claudia’s life in both a personal and professional capacity.
When speaking to Claudia’s husband, Nate, it is clear that not only is Claudia a committed wife and mother, she also does phenomenal work for the city. Nate is his wife’s biggest fan. “She does one hell of a job. It’s a tough one, he said. The couple celebrated their 12-year wedding anniversary this past year and are very supportive of each others professional endeavors. Nate finds the most interesting aspect of his wife’s career, “her ability to quickly rise into a leadership role.”
Other than not losing her job, Claudia is most proud of the work she has done introducing mixed-used developments to the city.
“It’s good for gentrification, is more centrally located and allows for the less sub-division developments,” she said.
A fairly new concept in the Reno area, mixed-use development is the use of a building, set of buildings, or neighborhood for more than one purpose. Brining more mixed-use areas into downtown Reno could bring many positive changes to the area and make downtown a much more efficient area.
In addition to be a hard worker, another attribute Claudia embodies, which is echoed by her friends, family and co-workers, is her kind nature and gracious tendencies. Claudia’s best friend, Michelle Prestowitz, whom she met at a dinner party in 2003, is a champion of Claudia both personally and professionally. Michele also works in the public sector for the Truckee River Watershed Council. In addition to having children that are the same age, Michele said that she was, “attracted by Claudia’s combination of wit, intellect, enthusiasm for the outdoors, and ability to call it like she sees it.” Michele’s high praise for Claudia continues when she speaks of Claudia’s ability to thrive in a male dominated industry.
Claudia is “just a really impressive person, someone who understand herself and stays true to her values,” Michele said. “Someone you feel can really get things accomplished, but not too big for her britches.”
Donald Naquin worked under Claudia as a landscape architect for the City of Reno until last year, when the time came to cutback on staff the city laid him off. Although Donald is still slightly resentful about his early termination, when he speaks of Claudia, there is a clear change in his tone. During their time working together, Claudia and Donald operated side by side on a wide array of projects, including all the major commercial and industrial projects developed in the city. Some of the well known projects they worked on were the Summit Sierra Shopping Center, ReTrac Land Use, and Cabelas. He still has fond memories of his time working with Claudia that date back to some of their first meetings together.
“When I first met Claudia she and some other planners took the time to put me in a car and take me around the city to look at past, present and future projects, the entire time asking my opinion on what I thought and what I might have done differently to improve the look of the projects,” he said. “As a new employee it made me feel that my opinions would be valued and that I was welcome.”
Even though loosing his job was tough for Donald, he made sure to note that to this day he and Claudia remain great friends.
The last time Claudia was interviewed, she was being questioned by a Reno Gazette Journal reporter about “risqué” strip club signage in downtown Reno. Strip clubs and casinos aside, Claudia is happy to be helping develop Reno in to a thriving city, “as long as there are positive changes being made, I’ll sleep well at night.”
No comments:
Post a Comment