http://www.wacotrib.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/communities/Our_Man_Downtown/?cxntfid=blogs_our_man_downtown Downtown dweller and Tribune-Herald city beat reporter J.B. Smith gives a quirky, street-level view of Waco's historic and evolving urban center. J.B. has lived in the central city since moving to Waco in 1997. When he's not covering city hall, environment and immigration issues, he enjoys traveling in Latin America, hiking in Cameron Park, writing songs and playing jazz and blues guitar.If you you use an RSS reader, here is the feed for Our Man Downtown: XML. en-us wemmons@wacotrib.com 2009-08-18T11:14:48-06:00 hourly 1 2000-01-01T12:00+00:00 Downtown dweller and Tribune-Herald city beat reporter J.B. Smith gives a quirky, street-level view of Waco's historic and evolving urban center. J.B. has lived in the central city since moving to Waco in 1997. When he's not covering city hall, environment and immigration issues, he enjoys traveling in Latin America, hiking in Cameron Park, writing songs and playing jazz and blues guitar.If you you use an RSS reader, here is the feed for Our Man Downtown: XML. I’m back from Oaxaca, Mexico, home of 16th-century colonial architecture, seven types of mole sauce, fried grasshoppers and the Western Hemisphere’s worst bus station restroom. Oaxaca, a town of about 300,000 in the southern Mexican highlands, is one of... http://www.wacotrib.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/communities/Our_Man_Downtown/entries/2009/08/18/our_man_in_downtown_oaxaca.html?cxntfid=blogs_our_man_downtown I’m back from Oaxaca, Mexico, home of 16th-century colonial architecture, seven types of mole sauce, fried grasshoppers and the Western Hemisphere’s worst bus station restroom. Oaxaca, a town of about 300,000 in the southern Mexican highlands, is one of... 14360803@http://www.wacotrib.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/communities/Our_Man_Downtown/ 2009-08-18T11:14:48-06:00 http://www.wacotrib.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/communities/Our_Man_Downtown/entries/2009/07/31/theres_a_river_down_there.html?cxntfid=blogs_our_man_downtown After literally turning its back to its river for too long, Waco is starting to turn back to it. As I noted in a story Friday, Lake Brazos is even starting to be used for triathlons and other water recreation.... 14104703@http://www.wacotrib.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/communities/Our_Man_Downtown/ 2009-07-31T18:36:40-06:00 http://www.wacotrib.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/communities/Our_Man_Downtown/entries/2009/07/21/in_defense_of_haberdashery.html?cxntfid=blogs_our_man_downtown I’m learning that a blog is like a trotline. If left unattended too long, the little fish become bait for the bigger ones. Then maybe some snapping turtles come by and make a gory mess of everything. My entry about... 13939103@http://www.wacotrib.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/communities/Our_Man_Downtown/ 2009-07-21T17:45:08-06:00 http://www.wacotrib.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/communities/Our_Man_Downtown/entries/2009/07/03/losing_the_press_room.html?cxntfid=blogs_our_man_downtown It’s the Friday night of an Independence Day weekend and I’m working the cops beat. It’s hot out there still after a 100-degree day, and the crooks have been busy, robbing a check-cashing store owner and an ice cream man.... 13685403@http://www.wacotrib.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/communities/Our_Man_Downtown/ 2009-07-03T22:27:58-06:00 http://www.wacotrib.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/communities/Our_Man_Downtown/entries/2009/06/12/hitchcock_and_others_at_the_hi.html?cxntfid=blogs_our_man_downtown Along with swimming holes, mint juleps and fresh salsa, watching old movies in old movie palaces is one of the primal joys of summer. In my college days I used to catch the likes of Lawrence of Arabia and Casablanca... 13354403@http://www.wacotrib.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/communities/Our_Man_Downtown/ 2009-06-12T15:00:59-06:00 http://www.wacotrib.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/communities/Our_Man_Downtown/entries/2009/05/21/washington_ave_bridge_gets_its.html?cxntfid=blogs_our_man_downtown In any other Texas town of Waco’s size, the Washington Avenue bridge would be considered postcard-worthy. It’s 108 years old, 450 long and it has the unwieldy distinction of being “the longest and oldest single-span truss bridge still open to... 12938403@http://www.wacotrib.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/communities/Our_Man_Downtown/ 2009-05-21T12:08:17-06:00 http://www.wacotrib.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/communities/Our_Man_Downtown/entries/2009/05/06/your_swag_or_mine.html?cxntfid=blogs_our_man_downtown A real estate broker introduced me some years ago to the concept of the SWAG: A scientific wild@$$ guess. By which he meant, Here’s a plausible prediction, just don’t hold me to it. When it comes to predicting population growth,... 12649703@http://www.wacotrib.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/communities/Our_Man_Downtown/ 2009-05-06T21:26:49-06:00 http://www.wacotrib.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/communities/Our_Man_Downtown/entries/2009/04/28/decision_time_for_cameron_park.html?cxntfid=blogs_our_man_downtown Talk about a sense of civic ownership. I could hardly find a seat last night at the Waco Regional Tennis Center, so packed was the room with Cameron Park devotees. A hundred or so had turned out to learn about... 12473603@http://www.wacotrib.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/communities/Our_Man_Downtown/ 2009-04-28T21:53:32-06:00 http://www.wacotrib.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/communities/Our_Man_Downtown/entries/2009/04/15/revolution_and_pollen_in_the_a.html?cxntfid=blogs_our_man_downtown This is not a political blog. So may I say, concerning Wednesday’s Tea Party tax protest, what a fine tradition peaceful political protest is in America and what a fine free-speech venue Heritage Square has shaped up to be. I... 12207803@http://www.wacotrib.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/communities/Our_Man_Downtown/ 2009-04-15T17:36:08-06:00 http://www.wacotrib.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/communities/Our_Man_Downtown/entries/2009/04/02/zombie_madness_downtown.html?cxntfid=blogs_our_man_downtown A late Waco mayor is remembered for saying that downtown Waco was “brain-dead” and was never coming back. Not so well remembered was that the phrase was something like “practically brain-dead,” and that he later recanted, after seeing the progress... 11971303@http://www.wacotrib.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/communities/Our_Man_Downtown/ 2009-04-02T17:23:36-06:00 http://www.wacotrib.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/communities/Our_Man_Downtown/entries/2009/03/27/lets_stir_things_up.html?cxntfid=blogs_our_man_downtown Is your downtown lacking in vim, vigor and vitality? Two words for you, young man: Flash mob. No, this isn’t about organized crime or streaking. In case the authorities are reading this, let me emphasize that I’m not advocating those.... 11859503@http://www.wacotrib.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/communities/Our_Man_Downtown/ 2009-03-27T19:36:01-06:00 http://www.wacotrib.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/communities/Our_Man_Downtown/entries/2009/03/16/downtown_banner_ideas.html?cxntfid=blogs_our_man_downtown It’s been too long, really. Don’t worry, I wasn’t silenced by the powers that be for daring to criticize the secret cultic lamp logo. I’ve just been busy. I got several, ahem, illuminating candidates for replacing the lamppost-on-lamppost logo for... 11591103@http://www.wacotrib.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/communities/Our_Man_Downtown/ 2009-03-16T11:55:47-06:00 http://www.wacotrib.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/communities/Our_Man_Downtown/entries/2009/02/20/the_cult_of_the_lamp_post.html?cxntfid=blogs_our_man_downtown You might say I’m easily amused, but I found myself laughing this week at those “Downtown Waco” banners that hang from lampposts around the central city. You know, the green ones, with the stylized streetlamp on them. The gale-force winds... 11006603@http://www.wacotrib.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/communities/Our_Man_Downtown/ 2009-02-20T11:54:57-06:00 http://www.wacotrib.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/communities/Our_Man_Downtown/entries/2009/02/11/walling_out_waco_on_the_riverw.html?cxntfid=blogs_our_man_downtown The inner city of Waco rarely evokes Robert Frost for me, but I thought I heard the poet’s brusque Yankee brogue this week while I was jogging on the riverwalk. It was not a voice of approval. After six years... 10791003@http://www.wacotrib.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/communities/Our_Man_Downtown/ 2009-02-11T21:49:04-06:00 http://www.wacotrib.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/communities/Our_Man_Downtown/entries/2009/01/22/camels_and_platypuses_in_waco.html?cxntfid=blogs_our_man_downtown This week, the ever-deliberative city council pondered the renaming of Cameron Park East, and then punted the issue back to the Parks Commission for further ponderance. The poor commission had already tried twice before with proposals. Two Rivers — referring... 10249603@http://www.wacotrib.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/communities/Our_Man_Downtown/ 2009-01-22T12:23:09-06:00