Reno officials accused of classifying homeless as blight after removing downtown benches

A News 4/Fox 11 reporter took that question to Matt Brown with the City of Reno. He said the city classified the area as blight rather than the people who frequent the park. Brown said, "the definition of blight is very open ended, broad, pretty general. I think the way to think of blight is you sort of know what it is when you see it."

When asked how the benches qualify as blight, Brown said, "the benches used to serve a purpose and that was because the sight used to be a bus station. So the purpose of those benches no longer applied."

Although Brown said the benches no longer serve the purpose, the city only renovated half of the planters in the area. 68 benches and 17 empty planters still remain on the other half of the park and Brown said the city does not have plans to remove any more benches.

Some are also asking why the city did not hold a public hearing about the bench removal project. In a statement, Brown said, "the overall project cost was minimal enough that it did not require a public hearing."