August 18, 2009

Our Man in Downtown Oaxaca: The Zocalo

> I’m back from Oaxaca, Mexico, home of 16th-century colonial architecture, seven types of mole sauce, fried ...

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July 31, 2009

There's a river down there?

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 ...

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July 21, 2009

In defense of haberdashery

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 the last days of the Waco Trib pressroom somehow became a forum ...

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June 12, 2009

Hitchcock (and others) at the Hippodrome

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 at the Paramount Theater in Austin. Now the Waco Hippodrome is stepping up to the plate ...

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May 21, 2009

Washington Ave. bridge gets its close-up

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 traffic in the United States." It's a thing of rugged ...

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May 06, 2009

Your SWAG or mine?

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, we’re all swaggers. Is Waco the next Texas boomtown, ...

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April 28, 2009

Decision time for Cameron Park

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 and discuss the "final plans" for the $6.9 million bond-funded renovation. I'll be ...

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April 15, 2009

Revolution (and pollen) in the air

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 should leave it at that, perhaps adding that it was a glorious ...

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April 02, 2009

Zombie madness 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 at RiverSquare. Still, it's possible Mr. McGlasson ...

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March 27, 2009

Let's stir things up

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. A flash mob is a 21st-century phenomenon in which ...

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