Empty!

Empty store fronts are 1) surprising in our boom town atmosphere and 2) usually don't last long. Of course, the prime corner of Montezuma and Gurley couldn't have stayed empty after the Christian Corner moved and, in truth, it hasn't. A real estate firm is busy remodeling the premise for its street-side office. As far as I am concerned, it might as well be empty; RE offices don't add anything to the street ambiance. Too bad the plans for a bookstore/social center/coffee house fell through!

More perplexing, we have a strip along West Gurley that is fast emptying out, with no announcements of what happens next. By me, Breunner's (above) looks to be far more suitable as a big restaurant or night spot than as the furniture store it's been all these years. I was always surprised by a retail operation with such a cave-like entrance and lack of show windows. Plenty of parking, however.

The natural foods store down the street now sits empty. Rumor has a restaurant as the likely tenant, which certainly would pick up business along the McCormick Street "art district." Too bad the old commercial, wooden refrigerators got sold along with other fixtures. The building, which I believe has been a food store for much of its history, has a splendid tin ceiling.

And, smack dab between the buildings above is the McIlvain dealership, no doubt still in probate. Another local rumor says that the building was offered to the Sharlot Hall Museum across the street at one point, but turned down. Too bad, if so. Again, plenty of parking.

But here's the granddaddy of all empty Prescott retail space -- the old Fry's shopping center. It's been vacant since Fry's bought out Smith's & moved to its present location on Fair Street how many years ago? There was a big flurry of remodelling activity last winter, yet all but one of the stores (and a theater) remain E-M-P-T-Y. Strange. We all know who belongs in that supermarket space, don't we!

Note: If you want to get a taste of the Bluegrass Festival at the Square this weekend, click on over to Oddball Observations who took pictures at two outdoor events this weekend. Catalyst, who operates the site, even offers music to match.

Lively Streets 2 - Foodservice Al Fresco

The rains are beginning to thin out ... the clouds are fewer ... and the days are growing both sunnier and crisp. A great combination for outdoor dining or just coffee-and. I'd guess we have a good month to enjoy our food al fresco up here in the mountains.


The outdoor creekside dining offered by El Gato Azul is delightful. For years, a non-food business occupied what I always envisioned as a prime restaurant location; it seemed a pity that the neat little yard next to Granite Creek was not used for pleasure.


Streetside food -- even a simple ice cream cone -- helps keep streets lively and thus safer and more entertaining. There's nothing like watching the passing parade of pedestrians. It's one of the secrets of Continental European charm; it surely has taken a long time to become fixture in our semi-Puritan world.

But then we're a offshoot of the English culture, which was never big on sidewalk cafes. Besides, American city fathers are more inclined to give space to autos than to walkways.


Today, even our local Thai take-out over on Goodwin at the Park Plaza has added a couple of tables and chairs to keep customers happy.


You can enjoy your coffee and a paper up the hill on Gurley at the Apple Pan or over on Cortez Street (below).



Maybe the anti-smoking crusade is part of the reason for the increasing popularity of outside tables and chairs. For example, this cast-cement table at the title company at Gurley and Grove is a hang-out for smokers as well as for brown-baggers.


Outdoor seating seems almost always to be a winner -- except at this setting on Montezuma. Hugo's customers overwhelmingly prefer the picnic tables out back. But it's still outdoors!

Lively Streets 1: Signs

As one who walks, I find the liveliness of the street is an essential part of life in a city, even a small one. I'm a partisan of a lady named Jane Jacobs, who wrote The Death and Life of Great American Cities way back in the late 60s. She was the scourge of grand urban redevelopment schemes, planners, many architects, and most city officials. Her point of view was that:

The city is like a living being that is born, grows, matures, decays and can revive. The elements of the city, "the people, streets, parks, neighborhoods, the government, the economy," cannot exist without one another and are, like the organs of the human body, connected with each other.

In this evolutionary approach streets play an important role: they are the lifeblood where urban dwellers meet each other and where trade and commercial activities take place. The street is the scene a "sidewalk ballet," according to Jacobs, which determines the security, social cohesion and economic development of cities. From this perspective, even taking out the garbage or having a talk with a passer-by is a deed of dramatic expression. These every day acts make a city into a vital city.


Frankly, she wouldn't have had any truck with city officials who get uptight about signs hung on light poles, looking for lost cats & dogs or announcing the discovery of same. Or promoting a rock concert. Or a civic meeting. Or a book. Whatever.


I love these signs. I read them. I wonder if the cat was ever found. I am tempted to visit the yard sale or the open house. Buy the book. The signs announce that Things Are Happening in the neighborhood, that it isn't dead yet.


Similarly, street signs in front of businesses (usually on tourist weekends only) give you a taste of what you might find inside -- without having to make a commitment.

(Sometimes they even match the yellow SUV parked in front! I'm having a great run of colorful vehicles, as you may have noticed.)



I certainly agree that signs on the streets are neither tidy nor orderly. That's the point, according to Jacobs, who says you can't plan a wonderful street-scape, but must let it grow. Let's face it -- we're damned lucky here in Prescott to have a downtown -- though we have to thank the tourists and merchants, not the developers.

(I suspect she would have questioned the wisdom of banning smoking in bars in a tourist town, by the way. I wonder if those local folk who voted for the ban were secret tidiers voting to destroy downtown -- they certainly aren't out in their numbers to patronize Whiskey Row saloons. Anybody out there got current numbers?)


Yes, things tend to be a little messy in a proper city. But then uptight tidy and orderly is for cemeteries.

Note: the comments about Jane Jacobs were from an article by Gert-Jan Hospers at the Preservenet site.

Scenes from the Alley 5: Wayside Tea Table?

Or, perhaps, beer. Or, more likely, one of those isotonic drinks. Whatever.

I guess that it won't be needed today, what with the smokey cloud cover. But any time during the past hot week, I would have been happy to come across this comfy, shady spot while out walking. (Which I don't do during the heat of the day, thank you!)

Furthermore, it's just two and a half blocks from the Square. And it borders Granite Creek.

My guess is that this oasis was created by the people over at the Quixote car repair place on the alley which leads up to the Sam Hill Warehouse. They have more of the ubiquitous white plastic chairs across the way, but in the sun. Plopping into one of those chairs wouldn't be as comfortably anonymous as sitting by the creekside!