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How Reno has reinvented itself

The 164-foot climbing wall atop the Whitney Peak Hotel in Downtown Reno is a foothold-studded monument to what Reno has become in the last 10 years: new, active, adventurous, and not in any way focused on gambling. From the top you can see out to the Sierra Nevada Mountains, down over the revamped shops along California Avenue in Midtown, and spot people fishing the Truckee River.

But it still stands among the lights of the city’s famous casinos. And it also still has Reno’s familiar cast of characters strolling below.

While Reno is no longer a punchline, this city full of outdoor activities and artists hasn’t eschewed its quirky ethos either. Reno is still Reno, and though an influx of tech money and creatives have made it a place with a culture outside of the casinos, it’s always going to be a little rough around the edges.

When seedy motels transform into cocktail bars

Photo: Estella Reno/Facebook

“I never thought I’d call this place home, but it is,” says the chef pressing cheese into tacos at the counter of Estrella, a tiny gourmet taco shop just off East 4th Street. “And look, now I go duck hunting before work.”

His place of employment sits inside the Jesse hotel, a boutique property separated from downtown by the city’s main bus terminal.

A few years ago, this intersection of East 4th Street and Evans Avenue was the stereotypical picture of neighborhood-next-to-a-bus-terminal, marked by decrepit brick buildings and overgrown streets. Now it serves as the entrance to the city’s brewery row, where The Depot Craft Brewing and Distilling, Lead Dog Brewery, Record Street Brewing, and the Ferino Distillery anchor one of the best two-block brewery tours in America.

East 4th Street is but one of several neighborhoods Reno has refurbished in the past decade. Just across the Truckee River from downtown, you’ll find a stretch of US-395 along California Avenue that was once the main highway into town. It’s still speckled with seedy motels and their bright neon signs, but now those motels host craft beer and cocktail bars, boutique dessert shops, and vintage clothiers. And their drab exteriors are covered in dozens of street murals.

Art Spot Reno offers tours of these murals, where you’ll learn Reno history along with how local artists like Joe C. Rock transformed the area from relic to renaissance.

“People would use these motels to come and get divorced,” says Geralda Miller, the executive director of Art Spot. “We were the quickie divorce capital of America, remember.”

Her tour of over 100 murals weaves us past the Arch Society, a thrift shop and gourmet dessert bar where you can end the night with a raspberry chocolate mousse washed down with a pomegranate Moscow mule. Then there’s Rum, Sugar, Lime, a Caribbean-themed cocktail bar with weekly carnivals. We see Noble Pie Parlor, which was on Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives, and Two Chicks, a healthy breakfast spot.

But we also see history left to remind us that Reno was once a vastly different place.

“See that little burger spot right there?” says Miller as we walk past a squat diner called Beefy’s. “The Rat Pack used to eat there all the time. That was one of the few places that allowed Black people inside, so they’d eat there with Sammy Davis, Jr.”

Tech money and Burning Man fill Reno with artists

Photo: Gchapel/Shutterstock

Reno sits just about three hours, traffic permitting, from San Francisco via I-80. This is one reason why tech startups have migrated over the highway along with some existing giants. Tesla’s Gigafactory sits in nearby Sparks. Which is, not coincidentally, also home to the birthplace of some of Burning Man’s most iconic sculptures.

The Generator, a 35,000-square-foot artists’ co-op, is also the spring and summer studio for artists making large-scale installations for Burning Man, which is held a little over an hour away. It’s run by Jessi Janusee who moved to Reno after stints in Portland and the Bay Area. Janusee found the place to be especially advantageous for artists.

“A bunch of my homies were living here doing the art life and living pretty well,” she says. “They said, ‘You’ll have free space to make your art, and your rent will be like $800 a month, and I was like, dude, sign me up.”

The affordability has drawn a large-but-tight-knit core of artists to Reno, many of whom stay in town once The Burn is over.

“A lot of people that come through in the summer, sometimes they stay and they continue to live here,” Janusee says. “There’s multiple professional artists that live here making large-scale sculptures because of Burning Man for sure.”

Artists are able to thrive, says Janusee, not only because of the supportive community of artists and students at the University of Nevada but also because the new businesses that have moved to Reno create a market for the art.

“Businesses are paying for art every year. We just had a business come in here and ask for a sculpture yesterday,” she says. But she adds that the corporate support has been a double-edged sword.

“There’s definitely less meth and weirdness,” she says. “But it’s hard, because you want it to be cool, and you want people to do well. But then it becomes cool to everyone, and eventually all the artists who made it cool are going to leave.”

To her point, a few days after we visited Generator, the co-op learned their lease would be terminated early.

Cheap thrills abound, both indoors and out

Photo: BENYAPREAW/Shutterstock

Still, funk is still easy to find in Reno. After enjoying a large steak and pizza at Liberty Food and Wine Exchange — which earned chef Mark Estee a James Beard nomination — I sit at a video poker bar at the Cal-Neva, sipping $2 vodka sodas while watching a man in a Vietnam Veterans hat belt out a tone-deaf rendition of “Light my Fire.”

“There’s still some weird shit here, and some old school people who say, hey, we don’t want those Tesla motherfuckers up here,” Estee says to me. His group owns six restaurants around Reno and is one of the largest local players in the game.

“But a lot of those people also work in the restaurants where those Tesla motherfuckers spend their money, so we just kinda need to embrace that but still give that Reno edge.”

I drop another $20 into the video poker machine, and we listen to five or six more singers who’ve definitely got an edge. None are any younger than the vet — or better. All of them are smoking.

“I think Reno’s done a good job of getting new business but keeping it weird,” Estee says. “Like three weekends ago we had a punk rock flea market, 3,000 people showed up three days in a row to buy random punk rock shit. That’s some weird shit.”

Finally, it’s my turn to sing. I opt for “Luck be a Lady” because I’m in a casino. And because I’ve been able to imitate the Sinatra version perfectly since I was 13. I get the loudest smattering of applause of the night before I sit back down.

“But you know what I really love about Reno?” Estee continues. “Literally in the same day I work, I could ski, I could hike. Lake Tahoe is right there. And it’s easy to get in and out, not a lot of traffic.”

Between Estee and my duck hunting chef at Estrella, it was obvious that the great outdoors are what keep so many people here. In addition to the world-class hiking, golf, and skiing of Lake Tahoe half an hour away, Reno’s Mt. Rose ski resort offers the chance for locals to get in a few runs during their lunch break. That kind of instant powder access is almost unheard of in any city outside Salt Lake.

The outdoors aren’t just a natural amenity in Reno either — they may be a key reason why the city is able to maintain its character. Reno’s DNA is made of mountains, deserts, and ranches. And people drawn to that are generally inclined to let a place be weird.

“Reno has this gritty, cowboy, libertarian culture,” says Janusee. “It works out great for artists and weirdos like us, because the heart of the city is, ‘Don’t fuck with me, and I won’t fuck with you.’ There’s a level of respect and autonomy that says, ‘I’m over here shooting my guns with my cows, and you’re over there making your weird sculpture, and that’s cool.’”

Reno has changed, most would say for the better, since the Reno 911! days. But only to upgrade some things that were worn down while still keeping the oddities that make it Reno.

“It’s like if you inherited your grandma’s house,” says Estee. “And in grandma’s house, she had a certain way of doing things, and we didn’t want to lose her… touch. We decided to say fuck it, let’s celebrate grandma’s history. But let’s bring in surround sound TV, let’s get a flatscreen. Let’s put in a brand doorbell, and Sleep Number beds. That’s what I feel like Reno is — it’s grandma’s house, upgraded.”

That description likely won’t be replacing “Biggest Little City in the World” on Reno’s sign anytime soon. But in this city, it still feels accurate.

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CommonPass app for COVID travel

International tourism still hasn’t rebounded despite growing demand, partly due to the difficulty of assessing the health of travelers. Every country has its own health standards and protocols, and health certifications may be written in foreign languages that destination airports are not able to understand or certify. CommonPass, a new digital health pass created by the World Economic Forum and the Commons Project, is set to change that.

CommonPass would create a common, global framework for COVID-19 test results, converting them into a standardized format that can be carried on a mobile device. It would allow destinations to set specific health screening requirements and enforce them by checking the CommonPass. Passengers would carry digital proof of their PCR test or COVID-19 vaccination, which they would then present to the appropriate authorities. The app would allow individuals to access lab results and vaccination records, and then use that information to validate their health status.

If the CommonPass proves successful, it could give countries around the world the confidence to open their borders to international travel, knowing that there is a standardized, global method of certifying passengers’ health status.

The pilot version of CommonPass is currently being trialed by Cathay Pacific Airways and United Airlines on select flights. A full rollout of the app is being planned for the start of 2021.

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Sir David Attenborough and Prince William team up to launch ‘Nobel Prize for environmentalism’

Sir David Attenborough has partnered with Prince William to launch the Earthshot Prize, which they define as the “Nobel Prize for environmentalism.” Together with a council of 11 diverse members, they will be vetting 50 solutions to the world’s most dire environmental problems by 2030, awarding $64.6 million over the course of the decade to those who come up with the best and most innovative ideas. Categories include protecting and restoring nature, cleaning our air, reviving the oceans, building a waste-free world, and fixing the climate.

Prince William told the BBC, “The Earthshot prize is really about harnessing that optimism and that urgency to find some of the world’s solutions to some of the greatest environmental problems.”

During a conversation with BBC Radio 4’s Today Program, the prince explained that the prize is an effort to ensure that the current generation gives our children and grandchildren a planet “in a better state than we found it.”

Anyone is eligible to receive the Earthshot Prize, whether it be individuals, community groups, economists, leaders, governments, banks, cities, or even countries. Nominations for the prize open November 1, 2020, with an annual awards ceremony held in a different city each year. The first will take place in London in the fall of 2021.

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LEGOLAND Master Model Builder

LEGOs are one of those things you never quite grow out of. You might take a 15-year hiatus, but if someone gives you a set of blocks and lets you run wild, you’ll jump right back into it like you’re eight years old again. That’s why this LEGOLAND Discovery Center job is really for everyone. The new LEGOLAND is opening in East Rutherford, New Jersey, in spring 2021, and they need someone to work as a Master Model Builder.

The job listing explains, “The LEGO Master Model Builder is the ultimate Playmaker who is a talented LEGO builder who can make LEGO building fun and educational for our guests. You will lead workshops for the little LEGO builders of the future, LEGO Education classes for schools and groups take ownership of LEGO displays within the attraction, oversee the addition of new displays, and more.”

The new Master Model Builder must be comfortable making media appearances and being in the public eye. It’s also helpful if you have a background in model making, the ability to read drawings and sketches, and experience working with digital programs designed for building complex models. The most important thing, though, is that you have a love of LEGOs.

Later this month, LEGO will choose its final round of applicants, who will then compete in a build-off — a series of timed challenges to test their LEGO-building skills. Whoever wins the build-off will be offered the job.

Applications must be submitted by October 16.

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Longest pedestrian suspension bridge

A new pedestrian suspension bridge is opening 37 miles southeast of Porto, Portugal, and it’s slated to be the world’s longest at 1,692 feet long. The 516 Arouca is certainly not for the faint of heart as it’s located 576 feet above the Paiva River canyon.

The bridge was constructed using steel cables and an open metal grid. It’s suspended between two V-shaped concrete towers and would take a pedestrian from five to 10 minutes to cross. Maybe a bit longer if you stop to admire the stunning views or if the slight swaying slows you down. It doesn’t have a transparent bottom, so walking across will be slightly less terrifying than crossing the latest glass-bottomed bridges in China (also the longest in the world), but you can still see through the open metal grid flooring.

516 Arouca is now expected to open in 2021 — though an exact date hasn’t been set.

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The best road trip from St. Louis th

With most downtown professionals working from home, and capacity restrictions in place for major tourist attractions on the coasts, now is an ideal time for that road trip to the Midwest you’ve been putting off. Indeed, rather than blowing an outrageous amount of money on a mediocre, two-star hotel near the beach or in a New York highrise, a fall trip to the Midwest can provide the often-overlooked culture and ample breathing room that’s generally tough to come by in cities. That’s why we’re proposing a road trip to — and then out of — St. Louis, Missouri, covering everything from museums to urban parks, with no shortage of delicious food along the way.

To follow this itinerary overview, drive to or fly into St. Louis. You’ll need a car because from there, you’ll head either east or west — depending on whether you’d rather cruise Route 66 or visit the world’s largest ball of paint. With flights to St. Louis’ Lambert Airport coming in under $100 and as low as $39 from some cities this fall, there’s never been a better time to visit and explore St. Louis and the surrounding Midwest. Here’s what to see and do.

St. Louis is playing its hand as America’s next great destination city.

Photo: f11photo/Shutterstock

Unlike more densely populated and visited regions, proper social distancing is easy to achieve in the Midwest, even on public transportation. Arrive in St. Louis, Missouri, and you have the option of taking the MetroLink from Lambert Airport or renting a car and parking it, without spending more on parking than on food. A metro ride from the airport will set you back just $4, and a day pass is only $7.50. And the places that tourists tend to visit are still open. If uncomfortable in an Uber or on public transit, the city offers both bike-share and scooter-share programs for moving about the city while your car stays parked.

St. Louis is a city where you can do more for less money and still end up with quality accommodation. The key to getting affordable rates here (and across the Midwest more generally) is to avoid visiting when a major convention or big sporting event is in town — likely not a problem in 2020. With a bit of planning, you can find rates here that you could only find in New York when the weather is below freezing. The Cheshire, a boutique hotel right downtown, has weeknight rates starting at just over $100. Across downtown, the Seven Gables Inn starts just over $150. Both hotels feature a Bavarian aesthetic as pleasing as it is comfortable, calling to mind a landscape much more inclined than that of eastern Missouri.

Congestion and price gouging notwithstanding, many of the things we love about the coastal cities actually have found their way to the Midwest. St. Louis is scheduled to open its first European-style food hall slash public market, City Foundry, this year. In the spirit of Manhattan’s High Line, the Brick Line Greenway will eventually connect Forest Park (larger than Central Park) with the downtown area to the east.

Photo: Imo’s Pizza/Facebook

St. Louis also has its own pizza culture. And you won’t have to stand in line for hours only to shell out $25 for an individual pie. You can’t go more than a few blocks in most parts of St. Louis without seeing an Imo’s. Scoff if you feel the need, but this unique style of pizza made with Provel cheese rather than the traditional mozzarella has made its way to Brooklyn’s Bed Stuy neighborhood and Manhattan’s Lower East Side. St. Louis residents also rave about their gooey butter cake, so be sure to stop by a bakery while in town.

If you make it to Forest Park, stop by the Missouri History Museum — just be sure to reserve your free tickets in advance. Also worth checking out are the repurposed, industrial urban artifacts of the City Museum and century-spanning collection of the St. Louis Art Museum. Exhibits rotate in and out of the city’s larger museums every few months, but its historic landmarks change as well. The Gateway Arch in St. Louis underwent a $30 million renovation in 2018, adding a large park and amphitheater that make for a great afternoon stroll even if you don’t head up the arch.

Head west on the most overlooked stretch of Route 66.

Photo: RozenskiP/Shutterstock

After a few days in the city, it’s time to choose between heading east or heading west. Both proposed options take about three hours each way and can be done as a long day trip but are better with an overnight. While the stretch through the American Southwest gets most of the attention, Route 66 starts in Chicago and passes through the rest of Illinois, Missouri, and Kansas before it cuts through Oklahoma. Some of the most exciting attractions along this historic route are in Missouri between St. Louis and Springfield. First, there’s the famed Ted Drewes ice cream parlor before you even leave town. You may not be able to visit the countries of Cuba or Lebanon right now, but head west towards Springfield and you’ll pass through both Missouri cities along the route. Stop by the Route 66 Museum in Lebanon, spend an hour perusing, and get back on the road.

Springfield’s claim to must-visit status stems from its recognition as the official birthplace of the “Mother Road.” The History Museum on the Square is one of the places that chronicles this near-100-year history. There’s a Route 66 visitor center in this city, as well. With rates as low as $129 this fall, the Walnut Street Inn is an affordable cottage-style lodge in the heart of the city for an easy overnight stay.

Or head east to overindulge in Indianapolis.

Photo: f11photo/Shutterstock

If the eastern route beckons, head a few hours up I-70 into Indiana towards its urban center. Indianapolis is home to some 14,000 Burmese immigrants and, as such, has the highest concentration of Burmese restaurants in the country. The best known of these is Chin Brothers. Stop in for a meal of rice noodle soup and compare it with another Burmese spot on the city’s south side. Elsewhere throughout Indiana, it’s the Hoosier Pie that hooks both visitors and locals. There’s even a Hoosier Pie trail that runs throughout the state, one of the 20 Indiana Foodways Culinary Trails. It’s said that Locally Grown Gardens serves the best in the city, but there’s no shortage of options to put that claim to the test.

Then head further east to Alexandria, Indiana, to see one of the weird roadside attractions that make the Midwest, well, weird. It’s home to the world’s largest ball of paint, and visitors can make an appointment to add their own coat of paint to this legendary roadside attraction, which has grown so large that it now resides in a dedicated barn built especially for the ball.

On the way back to Indy, check into the Ironworks Hotel, a trendy contemporary spot on the north side of the city. Rates run in the high $100s. If you prefer to stay closer to downtown, the Stone Soup Inn runs closer to $100 per night without sacrificing a unique charm.

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Threatened Indigenous land in the US

The history of the United States reneging on its agreement with the Native peoples — of taking away their rights to ancient land on which they’ve lived for multiple centuries simply for commercial or political gains — is a long and sad tale. Tragically, that tale is not yet over. At every turn, the Trump administration seems to see protected land simply as a wasted business opportunity; or, more cynically, as land to be licensed off in exchange for political support. Across the country, Indigenous peoples are fighting to keep their lands safe from exploitation and development.

One ray of hope is that the head of the Bureau of Land Management, which oversees much of this land, was acting without the authority to do so. A US District judge in Montana ruled last month that Acting Director William Perry Pendley served unlawfully for 424 days, since he was reinstated multiple times in a provisional role, when the BLM director must in fact be approved by Congress. The hope is that decisions made during those 424 illegitimate days can be contested in courts and invalidated. The downside is that management of those lands was turned over to the Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt, another pro-business Trump appointee.

What you can do

Below are some of the Native areas that are under threat, followed by some of the Indigenous groups fighting to protect them. As Josh Mogerman at the National Resources Defense Council told Matador via email, “while support for groups like NRDC is deeply appreciated and needed, Indigenous groups are on the front lines of these fights — direct support for their work is essential.”

Beyond supporting native groups like the Indigenous Environmental Network and Honor the Earth — or groups working on specific areas, which we list below — be sure to vote. Voting is critical, since we’ve seen that this administration has attacked native lands more aggressively than any administration in recent years. As the Oak Flat example shows below, Senators and Congresspeople can also shape the fate of these areas, so voting at local and state levels is also key.

Write your elected leaders and let them know how you feel. And do consider supporting groups like the NRDC and Earth Justice that are litigating these often illegal and unconstitutional attacks on Native lands.

Native lands under threat in the US
1. Greater Chaco, New Mexico

Photo: kojihirano/Shutterstock

One of the most endangered areas is the Greater Chaco region, which is “under siege by oil and gas development,” in the words of the NRDC. The Chaco Culture National Historical Park is not just a UNESCO World Heritage site and International Dark Sky Park; the area has been home to the Navajo and Pueblo peoples for hundreds of years.

Although in 2019 the House of Representatives passed the Chaco Cultural Heritage Area Protection Act — which bars new oil and gas development within a 10-mile radius of the historical park — the Republican-controlled Senate has not taken up the issue. The bill also provided for a comment period for the Department of the Interior to consult with tribes before seeking contract proposals. However, that comment period occurred online during the pandemic, which has disproportionately affected Native people. Moreover, many of the affected groups have limited broadband access and could not express their concerns.

In the meantime, the BLM has plowed ahead with plans to allow more fracking in the area, and has leased an astonishing 90 percent of the area for oil and gas exploration — and has utterly ignored the Protection Act’s provision to protect lands within ten miles of the historical park. The Pueblo Action Alliance and the Navajo Nation’s Diné Care group are battling to protect the area.

2. Bears Ears, Utah

Photo: Colin D. Young/Shutterstock

The Trump administration shocked the country when it opened up two million acres of land at Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante monuments to mining and cattle ranching interests — reducing Bears Ears by about 85 percent and the Grand Staircase by around half. The move was the largest undoing of national monument protections in US history and is being heavily litigated since many legal experts believe that the power to rip up national protections lies only with Congress.

Bears Ears is culturally significant for over two dozen pueblos and tribes of the Southwest. From cliff dwellings to rock art, from sweat lodges to tipi rings, the area is rich with important historical treasures, some of which date back thousands of years. However, that hadn’t stopped the BLM from forging ahead with plans to develop the area, and crisscrossing it with roads without any strategies to protect historically important sites that these roads will make much more accessible. This vulnerability will result in further looting and vandalism, heinous acts which are already taking place.

Now the land is under the Department of the Interior’s purview, the DOI is stacking an environmental review board with vested interests that have no regard for protecting it. It’s a disgusting breach of trust to the Native tribes that successfully petitioned the Obama administration for protection of this area. You can donate to the Utah Dine Bikeyah and the Bears Ears Coalition of Hopi, Navajo Nation, Ute Mountain, Pueblo of Zuni, and Ute sovereign tribes.

3. Standing Rock, North Dakota

Photo: Photo Image/Shutterstock

The Standing Rock Sioux, together with other environmentalists and other Indigenous groups, fought the Dakota Access Pipeline for years. Although it was completed in 2017, protests continued and a key environmental permit was revoked. The Army Corps of Engineers is keeping the oil flowing, but the pipeline is being contested in two federal-level cases — and the hope is that it will finally be shuttered and emptied.

Opposition to the pipeline rests on concerns that the project threatens sacred Indigenous land and, moreover, will pollute the local tribe’s water supply from the Missouri River. Many Native tribes see themselves as protectors of the life-giving water supplies from the Missouri and Cannonball rivers, both of which they fear could be affected by the pipeline. The Standing Rock Sioux tribe is still fighting this important battle, and your support — however you can offer it — is welcome.

4. Mauna Kea, Hawaii

Photo: Juergen_Wallstabe/Shutterstock

Native Hawaiians have long been protesting the planned creation of the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) atop 13,800-foot-tall Mauna Kea on the Big Island of Hawaii. The telescope, which would cost in excess of two billion US dollars to build, would be one of the largest telescopes in the world. Mauna Kea — which benefits from high elevation, distance from other light sources, and frequent clear skies — is already the site of 13 telescopes that are used by various international agencies. However, the Kanaka Maoli, the Indigenous people of Hawaii, say the telescope’s huge footprint would desecrate native land. They have been sleeping on lava fields and blocking access to Mauna Kea and have had success in drawing attention to this issue.

For now, construction on the TMT is on hold — even as entities like the Canadian Astronomical Society reaffirm their commitment to seeing it constructed within the next ten years, a position that has drawn a backlash in Canada and Hawaii. Other locations for the TMT are now being considered, and entities that already operate observatories on Mauna Kea, like the University of Hawaii, are seeking public comment on plans for smaller-scale telescopes. You can check out the Protect Mauna a Wākea Instagram account of the Puʻuhonua o Pu’uhuluhulu group for more information on this fight.

5. Oak Flat, Arizona

Photo: Apache Stronghold/Facebook

Indigenous tribes in Arizona have long been fighting to protect their lands. Just two years ago wooden crosses and eagle feathers were destroyed in a hate crime at Chi’Chil’Ba’Goteel, as the area of Oak Flat is called in the Apache language. The hate crime was a foreshadowing of a potentially devastating development: the complete destruction of Oak Flat.

In total disregard of the central place of Oak Flat in Apache religion and culture, the National Forest Service granted operating licenses to Resolution Copper, a mining company jointly owned by the British-Australian companies — which plans to create the largest copper mine in the world. The mine would eventually result in a nearly two-mile-wide crater and pollute the area’s waterways for decades to come.

The British-Australian mining company Rio Tinto has a well-documented history of environmental negligence, and of destroying Aboriginal sites in Australia, but plans for Oak Flat are proceeding apace. The mining companies stand to access billions of dollars worth of copper from the area.

Lest we blame the Trump Administration alone, even Republicans senators who never aligned with the Trump agenda have shown their fealty to corporations over people. Five years ago, it was Arizona Senators Jeff Flake and the late Senator John McCain who snuck a rider into an unrelated bill selling off Oak Flat to the mining companies. But you can do your part to support the Apache Stronghold in its efforts to save this area.

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September 2020 hottest on record

September 2020 was the hottest September on record. This September was 0.09 degrees Fahrenheit hotter than September last year, and this summer also saw record heat for many US cities, with the hottest day ever also occurring in August — 130 degrees in Death Valley. The incomparable temperatures contributed to the devastating fires that are still raging in California.

According to scientists, the temperature increase is a sign that global temperatures are being consistently driven up by human emissions.

Samantha Burgess, the deputy director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service, told the BBC, “Some of these events are extraordinary — although we mustn’t create a false expectation that temperatures will go up year on year. Climate and weather are highly variable. But we predicted that these sort of events would happen, given our effect on the climate.”

September was 1.3 degrees hotter than pre-industrial levels. If global temperatures rise 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels, it will cause major negative effects on the climate.

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Hawaii's Big Island quarantine rule

Hawaii boosted the hopes of potential fall tourists by announcing a quarantine-free reopening on October 15, but now the Big Island is opting out of the scheme.

Under Hawaii’s official guidelines for the “Safe Travels” program, visitors would be given the opportunity to take a pre-travel COVID-19 test (no more than 72 hours prior to departure) to avoid the 14-day quarantine upon arrival in the state. Now Harry Kim, mayor of Hawaii County, has revealed that the Big Island will drop out of the pre-testing program, making visiting the island much more difficult.

Kim believes the risk for infection pre-travel is too high that a single test isn’t satisfactory. The Big Island, as well as other Hawaiian islands, would like to implement two mandatory tests, one no more than 72 hours before departure and one upon arrival. Travelers would have to quarantine until they obtain the result of the second test.

According to Hawaii News Now, Kim said, “One test is not an acceptable risk for the protection of people on Hawaii. I’m trying to come up with a system to see how I can ensure that I will not tap the state’s supply of tests and also address the issues of when they are tested. I wish it was an easy thing to resolve.”

It remains unknown how this decision will impact the scheduled October 15 quarantine-fre reopening of the state.

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Gorgeous airline posters

In the 1960s, commercial flight was taking off. More airlines were offering more destinations on ever larger jets. Personal and business travel quickly became more feasible for more people. The decade was a part of what would come to be known as the golden age of plane travel. It was also the golden age of airline advertising, which sold the idea of an open world in part through high-quality posters.

A new limited-edition collector’s edition of the book Airline Visual Identity 1945-1975 from Callisto Publishers collects some of the most eye catching commercial art from United, Air France, Pan Am, American Airlines, TWA, and others. The book has hundreds of high-quality poster reprints and is hefty in terms of size (12.2 by 16.1 inches), weight (14 pounds), and price ($400-plus). In all, the tome is insight into a time when an airline’s branding materials were closer to what you’d find in the modern art wing of a museum rather than an online pop-up ad.

Left and right: David Klein. Courtesy of Airline Visual Identity 1945-1975.

At the time covered in the book, the industry was highly regulated and there wasn’t much difference in price between the airlines. Instead, each airline stood out by emphasizing the vibe of the destination through posters hung on the walls of travel agent offices and airports. Eye-catching colors, foil printing, and embossed design lured potential fliers in.

Left and right: David Klein. Courtesy of Airline Visual Identity 1945-1975.

The book’s author, Matthias C. Hühne, who is also the owner of Callisto Publishers, chose the period between the post World War II years to 1975 for the strong emphasis that the major airlines put on design at the time. Consumerism was rapidly changing with the rise of modern business branding in the 1950s. In a 2015 New York Times interview, Hühne noted that airlines during this period started to pay attention to how advertising by destination could impact the perception of the brand.

Left: Peter Ewart. Right: Anonymous. Courtesy of Airline Visual Identity 1945-1975.

Prior to the war, commercial flight was limited. The major airlines like Pan Am didn’t face much in terms of competition, and therefore had no pressing need for flashy advertising. Hühne ended the books collection in 1975 because from the latter half of the 1970s onward, television advertisements and technological advancements in flight changed airline print advertising. Additionally, the airline industry in the United States was deregulated, which meant that airlines were competing over price, not appearances and other intangibles.

During the period covered in the book, however, airlines presented themselves as the pathway to an open world largely through posters. Commercial art was going through a shift at the same time. Pop art, minimalism, and conceptual art flourished. Many artists needed to supplement their income, and advertising, led by creative agencies along New York City’s Madison Avenue, provided money and an outlet. Still, the purpose was advertising, not art, and the artist couldn’t be tracked down for some pieces even through Hühne’s extensive research.

Left: David Klein. Right: Raymond Savignac (art direction, Jean Carlu). Courtesy of Airline Visual Identity 1945-1975.

The idea to gather this artwork into one book came to Hühne when he saw a 1950s Air France poster in the late 2000s, he told The New York Times. His interest in airline advertising, and the artists who made the work, only grew from there.

Left: Victor Vasarely. Right: Manfred Bingler. Courtesy of Airline Visual Identity 1945-1975.

Hühne’s collection of works adds context to the era and each major company throughout the book. He cites the dates and artist when available, though sometimes that information is lost to history due to either an artist who requested anonymity, poor corporate record keeping, or other various reasons. The work was also at the time considered very much in the world of commerce, not art, Hühne writes.

Left: Yasse Tabuchi. Right: A. Amspoker. Courtesy of Airline Visual Identity 1945-1975.

“The quality of a poster’s design is sometimes judged by criteria similar to those applied to fine art,” the book reads. “And indeed, many posters are of outstanding artistic merit. However, a poster must be first and foremost an effective advertisement, and therefore its design must serve to attract attention and to strengthen the intended marketing message.”

Left: Anonymous. Right: Joseph Charles Parker and Martin D. Glanzman. Courtesy of Airline Visual Identity 1945-1975.

The book also includes other aspects that defined an airline’s branding, like liveries and brochures. Posters, however, are the striking centerpiece of attention of what Hühne describes in the book as “each airline’s visual language.”

Left: Anonymous. Right: David Klein. Courtesy of Airline Visual Identity 1945-1975.

The resulting work defined some of the most forward facing promotions of each major airline. Light hearted posters with contrasting colors advertised fun in the sun and ideal escapes, while photography gave other posters a sense of realism.

A Pan Am series of posters in the late 1950s by artist Aaron Fine is an early example of what was to come. Fine’s series covered 20 destinations, including Paris, London, Japan, Hawaii, and the rest of Europe. Bright colors and clean lines were the norm throughout the 1960s. An exception was United Airlines, which used “a palate of conservative color schemes and symbols” to create “a reassuring environment for passengers,” Hühne writes.

Left: Stan Galli. Right: David Klein. Courtesy of Airline Visual Identity 1945-1975.

International airlines like Air France, Swissair, Lufthansa, Japan Airlines, and Russia’s Aeroflot are included in the book along with the domestic airlines. Posters intended for the Western audience had similar pop-art touches regardless of where they were produced.

Left: Anonymous. Right: Emil Schulthess, Hans Frei, and Georg Gerster. Courtesy of Airline Visual Identity 1945-1975.

Photography was the other side of the poster design coin. While graphic design often depicted an idealized image of a location for the airlines, photos provided a real inside look. Swissair utilized minimalist photographs like a sun for Japan, an empty beach for the Mediterranean, a palm frond for South America, and an overhead shot of the Amazon rainforest for Brazil. Some of the starkest differences between the photographic approach and the graphic design approach to posters can be seen when you look at the many pop-art images for California travel compared to Swissair’s 1971 photo poster of California fields from above by Emil Schulthess, Hans Frei, and Georg Gerster.

Left: Lufthansa. Right: British Travel. Courtesy of Airline Visual Identity 1945-1975.

It can be hard to imagine an airline putting the same amount of focus on high-brow commercial art today. It’s all about the small details and showing up first (and with the lowest price) in an online search. The coronavirus pandemic has devastated the airline industry as a whole, and it wouldn’t be surprising to see airline identities change for years to come in order to center on cleanliness and safety initiatives.

For the most dedicated travel lover, Airline Visual Identity 1945-1975 offers an escape to a more luxurious time long before people had to pay for their meal or a window seat. And, most importantly, it was a time when airline advertising was as functional as it was aesthetic.

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