Yes, I've been AWOL for way too long, but I hope to be back in a few weeks. I had to stop blogging for a while because I started teaching journalism part-time and it squeezed all of the spare time from my life. Also, I have this real job, which you may know about. I appreciate all of my followers, however frustrated I may have left them.

Stick a fork in this blog. Cause it's dun.

HELLOOOOOO Is anybody home?
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OK, so I'll just take up where JayBee left off-

Back from Mexico, blah blah blah, Waco downtown is cool but underutilized, underdeveloped, underfed whatever blah blah blah.
Damn this blogging is harder than it looks so nevermind.

I second Bear78's motion. It's been fun, etc., etc., but it looks like "Our Man's" blogging experiment has run its course. All those in favor, respond by saying nothing for 3 months.

As much as I like JB, this thread was begun 8/18. I think it's time for him to retire this blog-apparently the new owner has other plans for him. No sense in leaving material this stale on a blog.

We wish you well.

Where is "Our Man Downtown?"
I haven't seen any articles in awhile.
I miss them.

Just want to add to the conversation that regarding all of the little stands & crafts that are street-side in the zocalos in Mexican cities are not dependent on tourists. The Mexicans who live in the cities are the ones going downtown & buying tacos, fresh made fruit drinks, etc. Tourists are not required to sustain these ventures. (The fancy artisan shops are a different story).

Eight mentions of alky-hall. Hmm. Maybe ol' J.B. has been visiting those places and is too plastered to write his blog. Say it ain't so, J.B.. (Kidding. We love ya, J.B.) <><

We miss you, J.B. Lots of stuff going on downtown that I've noticed since you last posted:

* That "Gilligan's" place next to Fred and Wally's (downtown Waco's first head shop, hooray!) It's also the newest entrant in the "bad downtown Waco paint jobs contest," along with that "A Automotive" place at 11th and Franklin.
* Downtown Waco now has a "Hookah Bar" (in the Baha/Club Fusion/Club Jaguarr location on 4th Street). Really. How trendy!
* Another new bar, Trojan Cork & Keg, in River Square, by Spice. In the old Malone's/Bogart's location.
* "Blue Dot" tanning salon/spa/whatever on 8th near the Hippodrome.
* Some semblance of renovation appears to have begun on Tom Chase's over-30-Irish pub in the Barnett building.
* Michael Wray: What's up with that?
* Wells Fargo has opened
* Heritage Quarters has opened. I find myself wondering how downtown Waco business have been affected (substantially?), or are Baylor kids really just commuting to campus?
* Hotel Indigo construction continues. Seems like it's taking them forever.
* That art gallery opened on Austin Ave. Anyone been? I haven't, yet.
* Your new owners are going to redevelop a block on Washington. Strong support from me -- not so much the dogs writing columns, though.
* Balcones Distillery: Coolest location in downtown Waco, for reals. Everyone should drive by and check it out (if you can find it)
* Trix Club has a TABC notice up at a building at 1609 Franklin (old Cen-Tex Appliance place, I think). Interesting.
* Monarca's closed awhile back (I think it was a TABC problem, according to what I remember seeing on the state site). That's too bad. It was fairly popular, I think.
* Nearby, though, there's a new place called "Big Al's" up on 18th and Franklin that seems to draw a crowd several nights a week. Another new bar nearby, we've got "Emilio's Sports Bar" on 18th near Washington

Looking forward to any inside nuggets you could throw us on this (and other stuff I haven't noticed yet). Be well sir.

Where, oh where, has our little JB gone? Where, oh where can he be?
With his goofy little hat, and his crisp little beard...
missing the blog in fact are we

I've had friends say that it is worth the travel but if I'm going out of the country,
I'm going to Wales first! But thank you for enlightening me to another possible trip.
Unfortunately, it will be 2013 before I get there as I'm going to Wales and Germany first and then Washington State.

The photos make it all seem surreal.

Your take on things is a breath of fresh air and I do believe you might fill John Young's shoes one day. Heavens knows your the closest in the newsroom at the moment...

"Something is ‘terribly’ wrong in/with/about Waco!!"

Well, obviously it's too much available parking.

Here's the problem with Waco in a nutshell:

1. Jews don't recognize Jesus as the Messiah.
2. Muslims don't recognize the sovereignty of Israel.
3. Baptists don't recognize each other in a liquor store.

There are so many comments here, I really do not know what to say/write. But a Reporter(J B. Smith) has to go elsewhere to spend a Vacation dum-founds me!! Like some of you have written, After all of the things I've mentioned about the City/Mayor/Manager spending/wasting money on, I'm glad a few of you have the good suggestions/comments about how 'much' We 'actually' have here in Waco to show/see. All kinds of points-of-interest'! History(Suspension Bridge, Court House,Ft. Fisher, Civil war Cemetary, Alico Building, Roosevelt Hotel,Cameron Park,Lake Brazos,Lake Waco, Many Historic Houses, Antique Stores,etc., etc. It seems as though the City/Mayor/Manager have gotten so tied up in the mickey-mouse stuff, that "They can't see the Forrest for the Trees". And I noticed our area Town of Killeen now has 111,000 Population(and I'm very proud for them), but Something is 'terribly' wrong in/with/about Waco!!

Would love to send your 9/13 Brazos Living article "Cloud-walking in Mexico" to a friend. Is it not online anywhere?

Easy on *Otis*. He never met a problem he couldn't drink away. <><

I see it all verrrry clearly now. JB has been down by the tracks doing "extensive research" on the new whiskey distillery here in town.

His hat is probably as crumpled up as Otis Campbell's.

What happened to all the blog writers for this website? Why does it take them a month (or more) to write a new entry?

What happened at the TIF mtg today?

*...where oh where are you tonite, why did you leave us here all alone?... we've searched the world over and thought we'd found a true writer, but you met another and *thppp* you were gone!!! <><

A video was placed at my steps during the dark hours. It showed *J.B.* cross-legged on the ground surrounded by what look like Oaxacans sipping coffee. Matter of fact, they look like *happy* Oaxacans.

*J.B.* is *NOT* hatless. They left him some dignity. He's wearing a giant Mexican sombrero. The lead bad guy says it must be $25 or the rest of his beard (which now looks half gone) will be shaved off...oh, the humanity...<><

Now I'm worried. My cousin was once captured by the Oaxacan El Filtrators, and let me tell you, he lost more than his fancy hat during the affair.

But what worries me most is the story in the Monday edition about McLennan County deputies patrolling the downtown streets at night...and the story was written by TOMMY WITHERSPOON!!!

What has become of our poor, lost little hatless Man Downtown?

Just an update: I received a call from the *Oaxacan El Filtrators* and they upped their price on J.B.'s retrieval. They now are demanding $25!! I told the caller that we readers like J.B., but the ransom was too steep. Got hung up on. <><

I am beginning to believe that *J.B.* is still in Mexico, maybe kidnapped for ransom. No one has heard hide nor hair from him. I've got twelve bucks...want to help -- he needs us.

Go Bears!!! <><

I like seeing the people on the zocalo in your picture.

Take all the people out and you have a near exact replica of Austin Avenue after they concreted it over in 1968. I sure hope everyone has learned from their past mistakes. I guess we'll see soon.

Well, I think the hat is groovy....!

I'm the Chief Harassment Officer (CHO) for a major international corporation, and like KDF, I to resent being characterized as a mere heckler.

I make more money heckling in one day than peons like "uh-oh" will earn in a lifetime.

*uhoh*, I take offense to being called a *heckler*! I've *heckled* most of my life, and should receive *heckler funds*. As a matter of fact, the president's *Stimulus Plan* should be sending me money for *heckling* the Plan during its inception, and hereon thereafter. <><
(Just playin')

POST A NEW COMMENT OR THE HECKLERS WILL COME BACK

*El Diablo*, that was no elevator...that was me climbing to the top after some Oaxacan coffee!! <><

Adolescence, El D - crap! I should have known you were too sharp to be my age! I think the two mailboxes you mention are one and the same.

Those Oaxacan optical illusions were fun, though!

Yes I do remember a giant mailbox out there. I also recall a mailbox that was as high as a flag pole.

There’s also the underground house built into a hill that had a garden on the roof, and another house by the lake that was made of concrete.

One of the best optical illusions around was the old KWTX tower on Bosque that, if you drove down the right street, looked like there was an elevator car rising to the top.

I’d like to thank the coffee farmers of Oaxaca for providing me with a strange and memorable adolescence.

Mexico is violent! Didn't you see JB *killin'* that beer!!! <><

JB, your new pic looks cool, but you don't look like the same person. It looks like you were having a great time, though. I agree that Mexico is a beautiful, fun place, but the drug and violence situation is unsettling. The idea of retiring in the interior is somewhat appealing, though.

And so, El D, as you were destroying the Oaxacan crops in your youthful heyday, did you ever find the giant mailbox in Robinson (circa mid to late 1970s) strangely entertaining? This could be a uniquely Baylor reference, but somehow, I think you may know of it.

Hey, JB. I think I just saw your little brother on the Waco City Cable Channel. It was a show about how the newspaper operates. The guy had a lot of hair on top of his head, and his computer monitor was about the size of a Volkswagon.

Maybe they should send somebody out to do an update.

In truth, *Juan*, I went to Vanguard, fell behind a year, then graduated WHS in 1980. So I was a junior and senior at WHS on 19th. <><

Oh, *Juan*, is that you?? Yes, many cups of coffee, along with a dozen donuts, fried chicken, and anything else we had the munchies -- were hungry for. Yes, I do remember you, *Juan*. You were a solid man with a great hunger for many foods. <><

"ouido" is a spanish word meaning "cafe latte mocha foofoo" -- so I was just saying that you and I might have had a cup of coffee together back in high school. in italy.

What are you talking about, *EL Diablo*??? "Weed??" I've been talking about Oaxacan coffee!!! What is *weed*?

Like my old buddy Mark used to say, back when we were destroying the crops of Oaxaca, "A friend with weed is a friend, indeed."

KDF, are you sure we weren't friends back in the old days?

*David*, I was a plank-owner (first year student) of Vanguard in 1973. It was, and still is a great school. I am sure it has gotten better and better through the years. And it is a secular school. <><

Gus, I will take a closer look at Vanguard thank you. I had always heard it was a christian school but poking through their web site it looks like they're focused on academics which is quite positive. Thanks for the heads up!

*E D*. Good way to treat your *friend*! LOL <><

Nice choice of a word, JB. “Pithy” I mean. What with the headwear discussion and all.

Speaking of towns with a lively heart, New Braunfels has a thriving little town center. Even has a traffic circle. Restaurants, shops, lawyers, etc.

Lots of stuff happens there at the gazebo. Even a KKK rally once when I inadvertently insulted a bigot and almost had a mob follow me home. So I went to my friend’s house.

True, Senor Diablo -- we should all be more concise, in the same way that a lot of us could stand to be more thin. Neither goal is all that easy. More important than being pithy is having something interesting to say in the first place, and saying it in a civilized way. By that standard, I think we're doing pretty well here.

David, I appreciate your concern about religious schools, but I wouldn't count on your kids getting a whole lot less indoctrination at a suburban public school than they do at, say, St. Paul's. Are there no secular private options for elementary school in Waco? As others have pointed out, as they get up in school, Vanguard is a good secular option.

Cool hat JB. With Massuh Robinson controling the Trib. now, you will make a great looking "Oberseer". Hurry up and get your horse,whip, and shotgun, the cotton's almost ready to be picked.

I agree with *El Diablo*. I read the article, then the blog posts. Reading another column on a column can be a little disturbing. <><

Good job, Ron!

Now try to apply that to the rest of your posts.

Well, I guess if people quit reading because of a long comment, they really aren't interested in the first place. They just like to read their own sound bites.

Ron, I agree. There is a lot of natural beauty here, not on the scale of Boulder, CO or some of those other places but it is pretty good. Cameron Park is a real treasure. Likewise, I do agree that the problem is a lot of shoddy development most obvious along I35's frontage.

Sad part is there isn't really anything you can do about it. Once a shoddy neighborhood has been built, you can't undo it.

Just a bit of advice for blog posters -- follow the KISS principle (Keep It Short, Stupid).

Rambling on and on does one thing: makes people quit reading.

Succinctly make your point and move on.

Ah, Oaxacan, I mean Oaxaca. Great place, great farming. I agree with *mark*, they used to have great exports. <><

I disagree with Waco not having natural beauty. Just like any other parts of Texas, its natural beauty is unique. Waco proper is actually built along a high ridge that runs from the Brazos River to just past Woodway to the North Bosque. Lake Waco sets on the bottom of the western side of the ridge with downtown setting on the bottom of the eastern side. It is difficult to see from the ground, but from the top floor at the old Hillcrest Medical Tower you can see it very well. Waco also sets in a forest. Not an East Texas forest, but a forest of Live Oaks, Cedar, and various other species of trees. This is a natural forest not man-made. The only problem with Waco's natural beauty is that it is obscured by some shoddy development, bad planning, and failure to use the natural beauty of this area to enhance development. The city is locking down Cameron Park so severely no one can enjoy it any more. They even wanted to pave the bike trails. Well, that is a sure fire way to kill one of the best mountain biking areas in the country.

I have no problem with private colleges, religious or not. But, Waco has to rise above that. While colleges are important, it is not the end all to a successful city. Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston all have private colleges, but you do not see them stiffling development because of it. Baylor has a good reputation for preparing students for the outside world. But, in actuality they are preparing students for the world outside of Waco. Now, that hurts. Very few graduates stay here to pursue any kind of career.

That brings us to population and jobs. By today's standards Waco is small. Even with 150,000 people it is still small. To grow Waco, the city is going to have to shoot for 500,000 to be considered large. By tomorrow's standards, 500,000 will not be enough. To survive, Waco must bring in more high paying jobs to keep a skilled workforce here. It is not that Waco is not producing skilled labor. That labor is going elsewhere to make a living. The city cannot keep all their hopes in one basket like they are doing again. There is no guarantee that L-3 or Space X will be here 5 or 10 years from now. The Air Force Base left, General Tire left, Word Record left and that hurt. We cannot survive another loss like that without someone to fill in the gaps. No matter how you look at it, good jobs make the world go 'round.

Well, I doubt if I will see Lake Brazos hopes fulfilled in my life. It has always had promise but no takers who were comitted to the long term.

Tourism to a degree is possible. A lot of people want to get out of the big city for a little while. Some actually want to come here to relax for a week or two. Waco's poor image needs changing in the worst way. One of the last written comments I read was that downtown Waco is nice but old. There is not much going on there any more.

I will let whose are left after me see if any of this stuff really happens.

*Un-shoddy* the *shoddy*!!! Almost sounds like a song. <><

To the guy who said all private schools are religious- you are mistaken. Vanguard College Prep is a secular school in Waco and is an excellent private school.

Gus: The problem I have with the private schools is they are all religious schools. I have nothing against religious people, whatever makes you happy, but I don't want my kids raised in with religious instruction of a specific group as the cornerstone of their education.

I do agree, Baylor, L3, SpaceX are good companies with good white collar jobs.

I did see on here the other day that Spenco hired a new marketing manager from Houston for 60k. I saw someone blow up over that "high paying" job. This made me do a combination of laughing and crying... 60k to be a marketing manager for a national medical product company (the laughing part, this should be a 100k+ job), and crying that someone was screaming that it was a "high paying" job. Yes, 60k is a good solid income, but someone at that level of a national product company should be a few notches higher on the pay scale.

Likewise, I can see the flip side of this argument. The labor pool here sucks and the colleges don't seem to care. I tried working with Baylor, TSTC and MCC to get software developer graduates and I got nothing from them except one referral from MCC after weeks of badgering.

So on one hand, you might think the trick is keeping the college kids from leaving by having jobs here, the other side of the coin is why would you open a business here that needs bachelor/master degree folks when there isn't a competitive marketplace worth of them looking for a job here?

Its a chicken and egg problem and part of the basis as to why I said our population is going to need to about double before the number of white collar jobs mushrooms. In the meantime, the best companies to locate here are the ones that benefit from our low labor/property costs.

The only ways you can shortcut your way to being a small town with a lot of white collar jobs is:
-Place of great natural beauty (Smart people want to be there) Examples: Boulder, CO; Park City, UT; Monterrey, CA)
-Place of great culture (Art/Music/"Scene") Examples: Sonoma, CA; Santa Fe, NM; Used to be Tucson before the population exploded

I'd be interested if you could point to cities with 100k-ish population with a lot of white collar jobs that doesn't meet one of those two criteria. Since we don't have it, all we can wait for is the population size to catch up to support it :)

Good discussion, folks.

David, Waco has some very good private schools that are pretty darned cheap compared to similar schools in larger cities.

As they do in most central cities, families moving into Waco proper neighborhoods will generally just have to view private school tuition as part and parcel of the trade-offs between being in the city or the 'burbs. But Waco's good and affordable private schools make that pill easier to swallow than it is in lots of places.

Regarding white collar jobs, L-3 and Baylor are our best assets along that line right now. We've actually got a surprising amount of aero-tech (pardon the mangled parlance) with Space X and others also in the area. I would be curious to know in what sector the Chamber folks think it would be easiest for Waco to grow more good white-collar, professional jobs and what they are doing towards that end.

Getting a critical mass of Baylor kids into downtown is going to be nice and help support restaurants and retail, but if you want to really get the machine cranking you need to add more high-paying jobs.

David,

Good discussion...great points all.

AND Waco does have Baylor U., which attracts outside dollars that many other similar downs don't have.

Looking forward to seeing what the future holds for Waco.

Skeeter: I agree Waco isn't well suited to becoming a tourist economy. It can, however, be one part of an overall picture of success. We've got a lot of cool stuff here that you won't find other places. Homestead Heritage is amazing-and worth making the drive from Dallas/Austin for along with a world class zoo. If the downtown riverwalk concept ever gets developed I think it can be a good boost to tourism.

As far as developing the Waco economy, look at what we have: A near limitless supply of cheap labor, very low property values and a location that is central to the major cities of Texas. You mix those three things together and Waco is the perfect location of any business that needs cheap labor and produces specialty products that need to reach the major Texas markets which not being mass scale enough to have a separate plant in each major Texas city. So yes, sadly, with the cards we're dealt right now we'll have to keep building chicken plucking plants until our population gets closer to a quarter million in city limits before the white collar jobs really develop. The only cities with a low pop/high white collar job are in expensive places of tremendous natural beauty.

As for new urbanism, our developing econ, and our downtown. Most of the plans floated so far use downtown pretty well. The caveat I'd put on that is none of the plans make decent use of shared public gathering space (They focus on creating large paved areas with some kind of monument which is a giant bag of fail for living--the antithesis of what JB was highlighting as what makes Oaxaca awesome... you wouldn't meet a friend for drinks at freedom square...) and none of the address the schools problem. I'd move downtown right now but don't want my kids in Waco schools, so here I sit, stuck in suburban Woodway.

jb,

Tourism is NOT a bad thing, and didn't mean to imply that it was. However, it is a limited resource, for which there thousands of "Wacos" around competing for those finite tourism dollars...many of which have natural advantages over Waco (natural beauty, weather, historical significance, etc.). If our downtown becomes a tourism magnet, fantastic. Without that, however, the downtown needs to work under a different value proposition...a good place to conduct business profitably (something that I believe is more "do-able" than becoming a tourist destination).

I've never been to Oaxaca personally, but back in the 70's I got to experience many of their "exports".

Like you, I love Oaxaca. I think you described it really well -- both the positives and the areas for concern. Thanks for a thoughtful story about a special place.

Skeeter, you raise a good point, and one I've thought some about. In some sense the low standard of living of Mexico helps sustain the scene I describe, and as another commenter noted, it's a pedestrian scene because not many people can afford cars.

But I'm not sure I get your objection about the "artificial" economy of tourism. You say that without the tourists, the vendors probably couldn't survive, and tourism brings in money from the outside. Aren't those good things? Bringing in outside money is the point of every economic development program I've ever known. In this case, tourism has caused the development of indigenous crafts to the point that there are whole villages dedicated to weaving, traditional black pottery or little wooden animals. There are hundreds of such craftsmen, and many own their own businesses.

As for those vendors on the zocalo: We may think it's an awful shame that young barefoot children are out on the streets selling trinkets. My Oaxaca friend, now a Baylor economics instructor, grew up shining shoes on that zocalo. As he sees it, those kids are learning business skills at an early age.

I think examples like this also refute the populist argument that New Urbanism -- creating dense, walkable urban areas -- is an elitist game. In fact, it's how most of the world lives. And communities that have developed along those lines often are appealing vacation destinations. Is that a bad thing?

Check this out: (click here)

The talk is basically about "Places worth caring about". How to design places people WANT to be and where people can live their lives happily.

Humans are basically social creatures and we like going places where other people are even if we don't talk to them. Think about it; you and your sig other decide to "go out" to a movie. You don't care which one, you just want to "go out" to a movie. Nevermind you have 200 channels at home on your HD home theater, but seeing a movie in a communal setting is what is desired.

The casual going out, sense of community, sense of place is centered around living in a place where you walk downstairs and have a coffee in a plaza with your neighbors, see whatever tourists are around, gossip, whatever. In modern suburbia you don't have any of that.

You don't know your neighbors and if you do you don't talk with them on a regular basis because you're both sheltered in your individually wrapped single serving castle. We live in soulless communities with no gathering space; places not worth caring about.

Careful romanticizing those positives that you saw, without considering the negatives. All those vendors in that square? They probably aren't making a living income, but just enough of an income for survival. And without all the tourists, they probably aren't even surviving.

Areas that are tourism dependent are artificial (money from the outside must be brought in to keep the area afloat), and aren't terribly useful for designing a community that has to actually be self-supporting.

While I do enjoy visiting other countries, importing their standards and life styles to the U.S. may be quaint, but I doubt the U.S. will revert to the Mexican or European City's Central Plaza Style in the center of our towns & cities. Downtown Waco's appeal dwindled in the Mid 1960s....with the developers' plans to move families to suburbia with Large Shopping Malls....It worked.....and I don't see it changing anytime soon regardless of what cities try.

Of course the U.S. has been trying Nation Building in other country's since the 1950s, it hasn't and isn't going to work for the same reason as trying to import their life styles into the U.S.

We are all in the family of man, but we look at things differently based on our individual environments, customs and mores where we grew up.

Humans, as a whole, resist change, because it takes them out of their comfort zone. It scares them mainly due to the unknown factors which are often preceived to drastically effect their lifestyle.....basically, change creates the question "What will the change cost me?". The fewer the details concerning the change, the greater the resistance becomes.

You've got almost an Amish Mexican look going on.

Jedediah Bolillo Smith.

Apples, if you can name those Hopkins County hamlets, you must know I got my farm-raising in Sulphur Bluff. It's never completely escaped me.

The hat's from Oaxaca, special for this post.

YES! NEW HAT PIC

and now your facial hair makes you look like a young ernest hemingway

Interesting story as usual from the Trib's best. I think, though, the lamentations about Waco's sidewalks are a little much.

I'd bet that the ratio of Mexican citizens who own automobiles is much lower than the ratio of Americans who own automobiles. Why is that important? Because a pedestrian society will place more emphasis on sidewalks as its core means for getting around, while a society dependent on the auto will put more emphasis on streets.


As for the photo, I'm all for the original. This one makes you look more like a farmer fresh out of Tira ... or maybe Brashear, but not downtown Waco.

the new hat picture killed me, great stuff JB