Park Lane clock moving back downtown

The deal is done for the old clock to move back downtown where it originally came from, although city officials are not quite sure where to put it yet. Cashell wants to put it at the 10 North Virginia site but Skip Leedy is concerned it might get in the way of coming construction. Since Virginia Street’s sidewalks were widened all the way up to 4th Street, perhaps it would fit anywhere along Virginia St.

A day downtown at the Truckee River

I hope the City Council/Staff were downtown today to see the amazing fruits of their hard work. If not, here are some pics Dave Aiazzi had asked some commenters in a previous post what the Council should do post-Kings Inn if they had the money now to do something, and one commenter mentioned building the second River park and connecting low-flow channel for innertubers to float down. I’d have to agree.

State Street Buildings Completely Demolished

Based on a commenter’s tip, I went down to investigate the State Street project site. It’s definitely demo’d, gone, nothing left. I thought for sure based on their renderings they were going to save the red brick building and add onto it, however when you look at the pics below, it’s easy to see that’s not in the cards. I hope the lot doesn’t remain empty for months or years. It seems like they have a plan and design in place though.

Power of the Bagpiper

It’s 8:00 p.m. I walk up to Little Bangla to get some much needed chips and dip for a little pre-Memorial Day gathering, and I hear bagpipes playing from Ceol’s across the street. The place is packed, no parking anywhere. So then the bag-piper, for whatever reason, came outside, bagpipes blaring good ole Irish cheer. What was funny was two different sets of tourists wandering around Virginia Street with nothing to do seemingly became hypnotized by the music, and followed the bagpiper back into Ceol’s like hypnotized little mice following a flutist. It was the oddest, weirdest thing I’ve ever seen. Cool bar!

Details on Thursday Council Retreat

At a ‘retreat’ at the California Building yesterday, the city council accomplished some major discussion. The Council really seem productive when they do these retreats, maybe we should send them on one every other month. Anyway, their first item of discussion was getting our police officers out of the 60-year-old building on 2nd street, and are now pondering building one large police station as opposed to 3 smaller ones. It would cost less.
Also, Cashell is tired of the city being criticized for over-studying certain things. I hope he isn’t referring to the ReTRAC Master Plan, because I like the idea of having a guidebook on how to develop the 115+ acres along the trench.
A new multi-faceted way to communicate with the public will be rolled out this summer, which includes calendars, council meeting results, the cable access channel and more.
Here’s a bit of news regarding our ole yellow pal on Third Street; the Kings Inn came up at the meeting, and could be the first major test of the city’s new laws to deal with blight. I don’t need to mention how fugly this building is, it seems to get worse every day, with broken windows, pigeon poop and various pieces falling off the building.
Under new city ordinances, the city could board up the windows and clean up the property if the owners don’t, putting a lien on the property. Mark Lewis said such an effort would test how the relatively new city ordinances will work. Do it do it do it! Also unknown as the fate of the foreclosure process on the Kings Inn.

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