Tag: carsoncity

Back in August, when the Galaxy Theaters opened at the Casino Fandango, I had this to say about Carson City's existing theater, the Northgate Movies 10.

Or, what I think might happen is they could go the discount route, showing second-run movies for a couple of bucks. When you go to a theater like that you expect it to be crappy and run down; Northgate definitely fits the bill.

I was pretty sure about my prediction. It would either do that or close. But Lord, I didn't expect it to happen so fast. I was driving by yesterday, and saw this on the marquee.

"Closed for renovation. Oct 8th - Oct 11th. Reopens Oct 12th. All tickets 1 dollar."

That makes it two months after the opening of the Galaxy Theaters before they had to do the desperation move. Maybe they already had a contingency plan in place. Or maybe their customer numbers had dwindled down to single digits over the last two months, forcing their hand. Either way, this marks the first discount movie house in Carson City since the Cinema 50 closed in the late 1990s. I'm sure this will bump up their numbers, especially with the teenagers.

I'm also curious what kind of "renovations" only take four days. Scraping the gum off the screens?

Sam Broyles posted this photograph, one of the Carson City classics that you see all over the place. It shows a group of people clustered around the train tracks on Washington Street, waiting at the depot for an arriving train. In the background you can see the Safeway that used to sit where the City Center Motel is now, and on the site of the Washington Street Station is a curio shop. Sam wondered in his caption why all the people were waiting for the train. It looks like quite a party, Sam noted, with the presence of a photographer and a brass band. He guessed that it was a War Bonds rally, with wartime celebrities arriving by train to drum up business for war bonds. Sam's close, but he's off by a few years. It is related to the War, though, in a roundabout way. The date is February 23, 1949, and this celebration actually marks the arrival in Carson City of the Merci Boxcar, on the last leg of its trip from France.

The Merci Boxcars were part of the French Gratitude Train, an endeavor by the people of France to say thank you to the United States, both for our accomplishments during WWII and our postwar relief efforts of that battered country. 49 of these boxcars were sent around the French countryside, one for each state plus Washington DC, and at each village they made a stop to be filled up with gifts by the citizens of France. Toys, jewelry, paintings, and thank-you letters were stuffed into these cars, collected from all over France, and then the whole train was shipped across the Atlantic so the boxcars could be distributed to their respective state capitals. The crowd here is gathered to see the Nevada boxcar be pulled into town by V&T Engine #26. Another, more obscure photo shows the same scene minutes later, after the train has arrived and the crowd swarmed the tracks.

The Merci Boxcar is visible, mounted on the third car back behind the engine. Today the boxcar has been restored and is on display at the Nevada State Railroad Museum.

So it looks like work is finally starting on the next section of the Carson City Freeway. It has been 20 months since the first section opened in February of 2006. That's 20 months where they could have been working on the freeway, but they weren't. 20 months of wasted time. The Empire State Building was built in 15 months.

So this next section of the freeway will just travel across the Lompa Ranch from Hwy 50 to Fairview Drive, with an underpass at Fifth Street but no interchange. A straight shot across flat ground, less than two miles all together. For this amount of work it's going to take them nearly two years to build. 350 working days, they estimate. Then the next section of the freeway isn't going to even get started until this section is finished. This stop and start method is such a ludicrous way of building the freeway, but they seem to be proud of it.

Plus, how fantastic is it that they're starting work in October, so they'll get about three weeks on the job before it snows and they have to stop for the winter? Sometimes I think they want us to hate them.

So, two things about this photograph. First, a big thank you to Doppelgangers for ridding Carson City of that putrid turquoise facade that used to hang off of the Lucky Spur building. We've been living with that for the last two years with Stew's, and it was so great to drive by yesterday and see that it's been painted. Not that yellow would have been my first choice, but I've got to say that if I was forced to go with yellow, this is probably the best shade I could have picked.

Second thing, it's sad to see the old Lucky Spur lettering come down from the sign. That was one thing that Stew's did; even with the turquoise, they still kept the sign reading "Lucky Spur" as a nod to the building's past. Now it's gone, replaced with the "Doppelgangers" lettering that barely fits onto the sign. I guess it is confusing to have a sign that says "Lucky Spur" on your business when your business is not, in fact, named "Lucky Spur". And at some point history has to be just that, history, and you have to say goodbye to the past. So goodbye Lucky Spur, hello Doppelgangers. Next you can do something about that sandblasted brick along Proctor Street. Maybe a nice mural.

So late last week all three of the Albertson's supermarkets in town shut their doors for a day or two, and when they reopened they were sporting a new name inside and out - Save Mart. Apparently this deal has been in the works since February, but of course I knew nothing of it because I've been letting my papers pile up instead of reading them. Thank goodness for the Nevada Appeal's RSS feeds, or I wouldn't get any news at all.

I'm going to have to give it some time to see if this is a good thing or a bad thing. because first of all, the name is putting me off. Save Mart sounds like some kind of bastard union between Pic 'N' Save and KMart. Seems like it would have been better to revive the old Lucky's brand, which was also purchased as part of the Albertson's deal, and open the stores under that name. Apparently they're doing this in the Bay Area, but not here. Lucky's has a history in Carson City, at least for those of us who have been around long enough to remember the old store out where the freeway sits now.

Of course the Albertson's name goes way back in Carson City too. Before we had the three stores we have now there was one, located in the Silver City Mall at Carson and Fairview. Office Depot is in the building now, which was actually the only part of the Silver City Mall that wasn't demolished. And speaking of the Silver City Mall, apparently the SavOn in the parking lot there being rebranded as CVS was part of this deal too. That SavOn originally was located right next door to the old Albertson's, where PetSmart is now, and it was called Osco Drug way back when. But Osco became SavOn, SavOn moved to the corner, and now SaveMart/CVS has bought Albertson's/SavOn and renamed them all. And this is probably more than you wanted to know about the sordid history of Carson City's supermarkets. Hey, remember when there was a Safeway downtown?

So the other big deal that SaveMart is bragging about is the fact their their stores don't have any club cards, and so you'll notice an instant decrease in price when you go shopping there. They have signs all over the place, comparing the Alberton's price to the SaveMart price, and showing you how much you'll save. But I bet they're comparing the Albertson's regular price to theirs, not the club card price. Plus, Albertson's only started using club cards a few years ago, so it's not like they've been around forever and SaveMart is now toppling a regime.

So the era of SaveMart has begun, and time will tell if our lives change for the better or for the worse. Albertson's was always fourth on my list of supermarkets anyway. I only went there if the items I was looking for weren't carried at Trader Joe's, if I didn't want to tackle Wal*Mart that day, and if Raley's was too expensive. So, less than once a month. I don't think this change will affect me. Except that the SaveMart logo is a lot uglier than the Albertson's one, and now I have to look at it everyday.

And for god's sake, you've been open two days. Fix those burned-out bulbs.

This fall a lot of critters have been coming down from the hills to feed in our backyard at work. Usually you see them on the weekend because they know there is nobody around. But if they're desperate enough, you see them during the week, during office hours.

Mostly you see deer, but over the last few weeks I've spotted raccoons, and the creature in the last photograph, which is probably the most ferocious of all of them.

Some time ago I was expressing how desperately I hoped they would get rid of the turquoise on the old Lucky Spur building as it underwent its transformation into Doppelgangers Bar and Grill. Well, I got half my wish. The turquoise on Carson Street still remains, but it has been banished from the side entrance and sign on Proctor Street.

Doppelgangers opened this month, but I haven't had a chance to try out the food yet. I only ate at Stew's once, and I can remember it was kind of a grim experience. Hopefully things are better with the new owners. You also can see from this photo that the most abused sign in Carson has gotten yet another facelift. This time it shed the turquoise, and the Stew's lettering, and now just barely manages to squeeze in the word "Doppelgangers".

Also today comes the news that Alan Adams, who owns Doppelgangers and also the Carson Nugget, has bought the old Stewart Title building directly to the south across Proctor Street from the Lucky Spur. Adams says he has no idea what he's going to do with the building yet, but please please please let it involve some major remodeling and a facelift. Because damn:

These diamonds haunt my nightmares.

This building was put up in 1962 as Security National Bank, and a comtemporary newspaper article praises it as being "modern in every respect." But remember, this is the 1960s we're talking about, when "modern" was a synonym of "ass-ugly". If Alan Adams can be the one to make those diamonds go away, he will be the town hero.

Here's what was at that corner before the bank.

The Eagle Market and Tim's Liquor House shared the corner building. Next door is Sprouse-Reitz, which moved from downtown into the Carson Mall before closing completely in the 1990s.

This morning it was not a house they were moving down Stewart Street, but a garage.

Construction on the new sanctuary for the First Presbyterian Church, at King and Division Streets, is humming right along. Here they are putting in the new roof trusses.

I feel like I'm missing out. I'm in Carson City tonight, working late, and there's some kind of fireworks show going on to the north of me. I can just barely see it through the trees. Fireworks are pretty rare outside of the 4th of July; anyone have any idea what this show is for?