She's journeyed across the world -- even the seventh continent -- but settled in Reno because this city speaks to her soul.
Stop by the Reno Public Market’s the west entrance, and three friendly faces greet you: Peggy the blind pug, Bill the female German Shepherd named after Bill Withers, and MidTown Reno executive director Jaime Chapman.
But Chapman doesn’t like to call herself an ‘executive director.’ She says she’s the ‘maestro’ of midtown, conducting the orchestra of businesses and events that attract people to the area.
“Executive director is so pretentious, right?” she joked with 2 News Nevada, sitting in the MidTown Reno Welcome Center with Peggy in her lap. “It just didn’t feel like me or Midtown.”
Chapman moved to Reno seven years ago after making the pilgrimage to Burning Man and falling in love with the Biggest Little City. With her, she brought a business model entirely new to Reno: a bike taxi service, known as Pineapple Pedicabs.
She says hitting the pavement on her third day in town was overwhelming.
Despite the day-one nerves, her dedication to pedaling visitors across every corner of Downtown and Midtown earned her something valuable: name-recognition, and eventually, an opportunity to join the MidTown Reno board.
Today, she’s in charge of some local- and visitor-favorite events, like Dancing in the Streets and Glowing in the Streets. And right now, she’s working getting funding for a new project: pop-up parks.
"I'm working with a turf person that's going to lay down turf in an alley,” she said. “It’ll be closed, and we'll turn it into a temporary park in Midtown that people can activate however they want."
Whether it’s lounging in the grass, playing a lawn game, or just sipping a drink from a nearby business, Chapman says she’s excited to collect data on how people decide to use the space.
Visitors might even catch her stopping by with Peggy and Bill.
Playing with Peggy and Bill outside the Reno Public Market, Chapman explained that she named her female German Shepherd after Bill Withers because she adopted her from a kill shelter the day that Bill Withers passed. Bill’s collar reads, “ain’t no sunshine when she’s gone.”