demolishing midtown: eleventh street

i knew it was in the works, but looks like the demolition of the entire south side of eleventh and half of the frontage on piedmont south of eleventh for "mixed-use development" is gonna be sooner rather than later --- including nine formerly single-family houses, one dating to the 1890s but mostly the sweetest little bungalows (ca. 1910) you've ever seen, everything divided into multiple units; a ca. 1920 apartment, probably with twenty or more units; two ca. 1960 red-brick apartments with probably sixteen or more units each --- and a champion red oak on eleventh and a big-ass magnolia at eleventh and piedmont ---

that's probably close to a hundred units of affordable housing in midtown gone ---- and with them a big chunk of midtown's economic and architectural diversity --- in their stead, several hundred "luxury" apartments and "retail" --- the big yellow house on piedmont was a landmark from the days when only hippies, artists, and queers, and maybe an architect or two, thought midtown was cool --- they kept their freak flag flying til the bitter end --- there's still a little of that left here and there in the neighborhood, but not for long . . . . many will rejoice at the news; not me

messed up

vision is so easy to take for granted, until it gets messed up --- the lens replacement for cataracts fifteen years ago was surely one of the great miracles of modern medicine --- now i think one of them is majorly messed up --- have had two sets of (conflicting) opinion over the last six months --- guess i'll be hearing a third this week --- in the meantime, i am from time to time effectively blind in one eye

spring sunday

nice chilly morning in the garden with jwh, then breakfast at babs --- 

spring spring spring

laundry, cleaning house, watering plants, etc., then a fine hike with the guinnett hound at the river --- the trillium decipiens were in full flower --- then with robert for some fine eating at mi cocina

reconstructing midtown

nine projects underway (some nearly done, some just broken ground) within my viewshed --- all will have street-level retail --- a total of over, 2,500 units, probably at least 7,000 extra people ---- at least during the school year, since nearly a quarter of those are being marketed to tech students --- wheeeee!

valley of fire

valley of fire, a state park less than an hour northeast of las vegas, is really purty great --- magnificently scenic god-forsaken wilderness, petroglyphs, and 225-million-year-old petrified logs --- plus wildflowers and historic buildings --- an excellent high-desert primer for robert

bunkhouses built by the ccc in the 1930s

but what kind of asshole scratches its name on centuries-old petroglyphs?

who can complain about anything in the spring?

spring evening in the garden

a productive day at the keyboard, a long skype conversation with a friend i haven't seen in 30 years, and an evening at the atl bot gdn with robert and the tulips makes for a purty good day

an american tragedy

thomas powers' the killing of crazy horse is one of the best biographies i've read --- a white soldier bayoneted him (in the back) but his fellow sioux had way too much to do with it ---  "tragic and transcendent from start to finish," one reviewer wrote, and it really is all that

the crane at p'tree and seventh folds up at night --- it's always a little disconcerting to have one of those looming over the sidewalk

a beautiful part of the world

drove up to sautee-nacoochee this afternoon for "business," but i couldn't help but admire the scenery along the way, nearly wrecking the car gawking at this excellent heap of forsythia

rumored "soft" opening of hardman farm underway --- in any case, you can at least see it from the road --- only in the last year have they removed the privet and crap that had grown up all along the road

a fine, productive spring day --- cherry, redbud, japanese magnolia, and forsythia are in full flower

cruzing 2016

tedcruz.com is a good start ---

and an excellent piece on "the king of the tea partiers"

monday color fix

both of these are first-time reblooms for me --- the red, oh, the red . . . . 

neon!

next to the desert flowers, the neon museum was the best thing about this go-around in vegas --- an hour tour by this twenty-something woman was great --- and that's from someone that generally hates such tours

massive kudos to the people that started salvaging this stuff from the 1990s-on demolition of the old las vegas strip --- north of fremont street, several nice vintage pieces have been installed along n. las vegas blvd, which is where the neon museum is located, in the reinforced-concrete lobby of the la concha (1961) relocated in 2005 --- unfortunately by the time we got there for our 8:30 reservations (required), we had spent too long on fremont street and so i neglected taking images of the structure

if i am not mistaken, this was the oldest of the signs, dating to the early 1930s and from boulder city, i think