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The Dish - 10.2.09
Kelly: I hear the Hilltop Drive power poles are coming down, down, down and should be all done by Oct. 15. Then the palm trees (I know how you love them) will really stand out.
Doni: Well, it’ll be a joy to see Hilltop sans power poles, but you’re right, I’m not a fan of the palms (so to speak). I always thought huge shade trees - like sycamores - would have been a better choice. But the trees are in, so I’ll shut up about them even if I do think they look unhealthy and out of place.
Kelly: Later on, watch for the Hilltop businesses to put together a pre-Christmas event complete with extravagant decorations and traveling bands of Christmas carolers. That could be fun — and pretty. Can’t wait to see it. It’ll probably draw a lot of shoppers. Only 83 shopping days left until Christmas. We better get cracking. Oooh, maybe they should throw a practice party at Halloween, and have a costume parade. And scary floats. I’d camp out for that.
Doni: Are you trying to give me a heart attack? Eighty-three days until Christmas? Eeek.
Kelly: I know. No time to waste. Listen to me talk — She Who Has Been Having a Real Problem With Procrastination Lately is advocating Getting A Move On. Did you notice I got nothing done? I was going to tell you earlier but I’ve been putting it off. … This one story has been hard to get any traction on. People don’t call back, other people don’t want to go on the record, etc. It has clogged the productivity pipeline around here. I fritter away quarter-hours, one after the other. They can stack up into whole afternoons, you know? If I’d just finish the ding-dang story, I could finish everything else jiffy-quick too. See, I know this about my pea-brain - I know what causes my procrastination, and I know how to fix it. But I haven’t.
Doni: You do not have a pea-brain … gosh, especially if you know what causes your procrastination. I wish I knew why I procrastinate. I’m the queen of ADD and some days I feel I just spin my wheels and only accomplish fractions of tasks and never complete a whole thing. So, tell me, tell me, tell me. How do you fix it?
Kelly: Two ways. The first: Just do it. Put my butt in the chair and don’t get up until it’s done. No food, no beverage, no chatting, no tweeting, no Facebook. Mega-focus. In other words, total lockdown imprisonment. The second: Plan an immediate, tempting trip out of town. Nothing motivates me to speed-work like having a clean slate so I can leave. But I haven’t done either. Arrggh.
Doni: No food? No beverage? Are you a sadist, or what?
Kelly: I think you mean a masochist, but as soon as we start chatting S & M, tongues will wag. Like they don’t already. Subject change… You know what I heard recently? That there are 13 medical marijuana dispensaries in Redding right this minute. And another one about to open. Seriously, I don’t know if that number is accurate, but it’s all the buzz. So to speak. They’re popping up like mushrooms. As it were. Ba-dump-bump. I could do this all day. I bet it would never get old. … OK, I won’t. … Anyway, they’re called speakeasies. They’re a huge economic engine. Well, people have always said if we’d just legalize, regulate and tax pot, it would be quite the dollar driver. We might be finding that out. High time. … sorry.
Doni: I’ve long lobbied for the decriminalization of pot. Tax it, make it legal. No more million-dollar SWAT teams hunting down pot growers. Reduced prison populations, all kinds of positive outcomes. But these medical marijuana dispensaries … you’d think there’d be some kind of a limit, like the ABC has on liquor licenses. But not so. Now, it’s like the Wild West.
Kelly: Exactly. They’re calling it the new Gold Rush.
Doni: And by the way — earlier –I meant masochist. But I’m here to tell you — if you make me sit at a computer without food or drink, then you would be a sadist.
Speaking of computers … can you believe the growth in readership on our wonderful “wesite”? Oh, my gosh, the numbers jumped 15 percent from August to September. In August more than 27,000 households were regular anewscafe.com readers. In September we had more than 32,000! Households, Kelly, not just individuals!
Let’s see, how to explain households … well, for example, two people use computers in the Greenberg household, four in the Brewer household, so that’s an average, and if we extrapolate that average to all our readers’ households … course, that’s a bad example because the Greenberg and Brewer households, as well our teamies, are administrators, so we aren’t counted … but still …
Kelly: I get the picture, and I like it. Hey, aren’t you the one who always says she doesn’t like numbers and doesn’t do math? Now you’re finding out why numbers are fun. Better look out, you’ll become a stats geek like me.
Doni: … Oh, wait, one more thing about those readers. They’re viewing anewscafe.com almost 800,000 pageviews a month! How shall we celebrate once we reach 1 million a month?
Kelly: It won’t be long now. We’ll start with champagne. I keep a bottle chilled in the fridge at all times. You have to be prepared to celebrate bubbly news at any given moment. Everybody does, right? Let’s see, maybe we’ll have a contest or a giveaway of something keen. Or we could go skydiving to mark the occasion. Or skim the sky in a hot-air balloon. Tell you what — we’ll ask readers what we should do. They always have spot-on ideas. Speaking of celebrating, happy anniversary to you and Bruce this weekend. What is it, 12 years?
Doni: You’re right. Sunday we’ll have been married 12 years. How did one dozen years zoom by so fast? Quick, somebody tell me how to engage life’s emergency brake. It feels like it should be spring of 2002 or something, but here we are in the fall of 2009 … not that I’m complaining, because it’s my favorite season.
Actually, I learned something interesting recently about Oct. 4 from Lincoln Kaye. He said Sunday is a full moon, plus it’s the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival, the most important day of the year to reunite with everybody you love.
Kelly: Lovely … 10-4 …
Doni: Absolutely no segue here, but you know that story about Jaycee Lee Dugard, the South Lake Tahoe girl who went missing in 1991 and showed up recently after having been kidnapped and kept for 18 years? Guess who’s been retained to represent the now-grown-up woman? McGregor Scott, former Shasta County District Attorney, also former U.S. Attorney General. He’s now in private practice with a law firm. You can read the story here in the Sacramento Bee.
Kelly: I read the creepiest thing - that the bond between Jaycee and her kidnapper was probably formed around a parental dynamic. He provided food and shelter and told her what she could and couldn’t do, and kids instinctively bond to that. More than likely it’s why she didn’t run when she could have. Freaky deaky, huh? It’ll be an interesting case to follow. …
Enough about that. Hey, did I hear right, that the Airpark Cafe might be closing? Did you hear that? Who told us?
Doni: Uh, that’d be the owner, Ezra, who told us the night we hosted Maritime’s first hamburger night. Darn! I hate to see another business close. Customers may mourn, but think how deeply painful it is for the business folks who invest so much time and money and hope into a venture … and then to have to shut the doors. It’s really sad. I wish Ezra all the best.
I have another slightly business-related topic: The Market Street Promenade. As you may recall, I was among the people invited to participate in one of the focus groups. Ostensibly, we were charged with scaring up a name — and maybe a tagline — for what was formerly known as the Downtown Redding Mall. You were invited to participate in that, too, but you had other plans …
Kelly: I had to wash my hair. I mean my dog. I mean my car. Anything but sit through a pointless focus group. Gives me a rash.
Doni: You win the smart test. I should have stayed home and washed a squirrel or something (no dog), too. I must say, from the get-go, Paul Barth, the focus group facilitator, seemed smitten with “Market Street Promenade.” I even mentioned at the time that it felt like we were there just to agree with him. Any focus group facilitator who comes armed with words like Promenade already printed on card stock — as Barth did — is not exactly starting an open discussion with a blank slate. Promenade is a noun — a place where people walk. And promenade is a verb — to describe the way in which people stroll. It’s a fine word. It just didn’t fit our downtown mall, IMHO. In fact, I really hated the title of Market Street Promenade, as did many people in our group. I could kick myself now for not keeping my notes, because I can’t remember what name we did like. But whatever it was, it was more pedestrian … like Market Street Square or Downtown Plaza or something like that. Promenade? To me, it so doesn’t fit. Then there’s the issue of pronunciation. Will people think it rhymes with lemonade or facade? Oh, well. I guess the other focus groups must have loved it. Maybe it’ll grow on me, like the palm trees. … I didn’t ask what you thought of the Market Street Promenade. Well?
Kelly: I don’t feel strongly either way about Promenade. It might catch on. Ask me again in a year. I like what they call the grassy end: Market Street Green.
Doni: OK, I’m marking that in my Google calendar: Oct. 2, 2010 Ask Kelly what she thinks of the Market Street Promenade name. Subject change: I went to my class reunion, and I’m so glad I did. All the high school clique stuff? Gone. All the attempts to impress? Gone. Everyone — except the guy who’s still holding a grudge about a story I wrote about him — was just glad to see one another, and disappointed about those who didn’t make it. This must be the life stage when we’ve all been through so much - and by now nobody has reached this station without suffering loss. And about loss — it was stunning how many people from our class were already dead. I heard about a number of cancer deaths, so it seems appropriate to share this Lewis Black rant today, as nobody but Black could put it. (Warning: He’s - uh - passionate.)
Kelly: That guy can strip the bark off people like nobody else.
Doni: You said it, but that’s one of the reasons I like him.
Moving along, not to beat this to death, but I would like to return to the Market Street Promenade title. Readers, what are your thoughts about the downtown mall’s new name? If you’d been invited to a focus group, what name might you have suggested?
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Argh. What a horribly pretentious name for an area so devoid of life. That entire section of the former mall is the perfect setting for a movie set in the post-apocalyptic age. During the day the zombies hide in those multi-colored buildings because it’s too freakin’ HOT for them to come out. But at night… they roam the Market Street Promenade.
What would I suggest? Tear it up, including the concrete walkways, and put in grass and trees. Or reestablish Market Street right through it again.
(P.S. Doni - someone was mad about a story you wrote about him? Now I”m dying to know who.)
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I kinda like Market Street Promenade. The name reflects the one thing you can do there - walk. In the future, when the economy improves, hopefully we’ll be able to do other things there, like shop. When the trees mature, it will be nice and shady (as opposed to the other kind of shady that it used to be when it had a roof - the creepy kind of shady) which will be nice. It’s a nice link between uptown and lower Market Street on a Friday date night, where you can walk arm in arm with your sweet heart from the Eatery to the Cascade…..
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During the last couple of Art Hops I observed people promenading on the Promenade — I think it works rather nicely. I love the changes — look forward to watching it fill up with merchants, shoppers and diners.
Thanks for the Friday, Dish, ladies.
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I thought promenade is what Fonzie used on his hair.
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Great dish, as always. I kinda like Market Street Promenade. We could always call it Lonely Street (ha ha), or how about The Commons. We could put in gallows for added entertainment. Not cool? ok. Well, whatever it’s called, I also look forward to having it fill up with businesses. It certainly has a lot of potential. I hear there’s a new boutique in the old Schoolhouse Toy Store. Happy weekend, and happy anniversary Doni and Bruce! We celebrate 7 years on Monday.
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Market Street Stroll. Same meaning, less fussy.
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Market Street Walking Place? (Naaa!)
Market Street Meandering Zone (Nope!)
Market Street Skateboard Park (Not exactly)
Rue d’Market Place (too foreign-someone would think it’s RUDE!)
Market Place Square (okay!)
Market Street Circle (hmmm?)
Market Avenue Rectangle (huh?)
Market Street Sans Palms ( says it all)
Oh, I give up!
Maybe just Lonely Street, for now.
By the way I think the Hilltop palms will eventually look great!
Look what they do to Marketfest!
Hey, how about Market Streetfest Promenade and Skateboard Park Zone?
that just rolls off the tongue!
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The saddest part to me about Lewis Black’s “rant” is that so much of the cancer people suffer from is preventable!
Of course, one example of this is smoking. I’ve had to bury several loved ones who were smokers, and died from smoking-related diseases, and it does not become easier.
And as I listened to one Congressional hearing years back, one man testifying said something like this (sorry, I can’t remember exactly):
“Cigarettes (tobacco products?) are the only thing that we sell legally in this country that, when used as intended, results in death.” Wow.
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I’m going to keep calling it what I have since 1963 - Downtown.
It seems to be fighting an uphill battle, whatever it’s called. Sometimes it seems as if The Promenade might win; sometimes it seems as though Derelicts-on-Parade would be more appropriate (I think that’s pronounced Pa-RAHD to sound more upscale).
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What about the Airpark cafe? When is it closing? I just want to get in one more breakfast. Please say it ain’t so me and my family like going in there on Sundays. Our two year old son loves all the Planes!
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Promenade. I hate it. Honestly. I am native Redding, many generations and it galls me how some people who have settled here from other places especially, insist on trying to foist snobbery and fanciness on the normal average people that live here! I too enjoy nice things but for Pete’s sake its the mall! I used to shop at Dickers (when it was the fancy store in town) and It has always been the downtown mall. Why try to obliterate its history? Couldn’t it been just simpler? Downtown square? Downtown green, commons? Something that is easy, accessible. Gee aren’t you glad you asked my opinion??? LOL! Its been driving me nuts since they announced it!
P.S. I have been known to walk out of meetings and/or groups with predetermined outcomes. I detest wasting my time. Kudo’s to you for sticking it out. You are a better woman than me!
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I’m all for people promenading anywhere, but I don’t think it needs to be called the Market Street Promenade. When I first heard the name, I thought they were talking about an event…like we were all going to go promenading every Friday night. I thought that would be great fun, to see neighbors and friends…maybe a little music…oh right, that’s Marketfest.
Seriously, I don’t care what they call it as long as people use the area. I do think it might have made more sense to use the name to reference a place to shop as well as walk. I don’t think I will ever say, “Meet you at the Market Street Promenade,” but if others want to, I’m cool with it. See you there.
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I agree with “pretentious”(Barbara). I agree with “tear up the concrete…more grass and trees” (Barbara) I agree with “the gallows” (Canda) as long as it is usefully employed. The term “Downtown Mall” would still be very useful-after 40 years it has achieved somewhat of an iconic status, albeit not always a positive one. After all, a mall does not necessarily have to be enclosed to qualify as a “mall”. What makes the current label so snooty is the pronouncement I have heard as prom-en-ahhd (as in odd) instead of the more friendly and fun sounding prom-en-aid (as in lemonade). Finally I agree with Barb in that it will probably always be referred to as the Downtown Mall anyway despite the best efforts of some, and I have wasted about enough time on this. And I don’t feel better,either.
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My mom, Carmen Richmond, moved here in 1940 and I was born & raised here. I remember walking down Market Street, shopping with my dear mom at all the local Mom & Pop shops, etc., and watching the two-way traffic passing carefully around the Christmas tree stuck out of a man-hole in the middle of what was also known as “Highway 99!”
Why do we have people with pre-packaged decisions just waiting for imposition? Because, THEY SUCK! Why do we have people wanting to make Redding into something it is not? Perhaps it’s because they’re out-of-touch transplants and their self esteem SUCKS!! Mr. Barth is a far more creative guy than that… tsk, tsk. If he is the decision-maker on this deal - maybe, if he could get more money and an extension on the deadline - he could come up with something far more germane and glowing.
Lewis Black framed things pretty darn well… and I think Barb and Banjo Bill were dead-on and genuine with their accounts. Redding (and Shasta County) has a much more ORIGINAL, deeper, richer history and a culture with great, homegrown-thinkers. Nothing personal, but Mr. Barth’s “Promenade” sounds snooty and just doesn’t sound like something from our ‘home.’ Those glitzy cities that seem glamorized in campaigns hell-bent on SELLING their souls for marketing purposes certainly gain financial benefit when Nordstroms, Victoria Secret and other corporations take hold. But why retread our promising downtown with an un-original hacked name like that? I thought that Viva Downtown Redding was going to promote and protect the originality of our downtown-culture with a local-eye on prosperity…
Why shouldn’t we use Promenade? Well… you know…
IT SUCKS!!
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I personally dont like the name ” Market Street Promenade”. It sounds like the deck level my cabin was on when we went on a cruise. With all the bars going in downtown maybe you can call it the Market Street Stumble. Of all the names given above I like the hybrid of Downtown Commons.
Keep up the good work girls
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Yes, Doni, I don’t care for the palm trees either; still think they look like a bad haircut. Also, I agree with Barb (and others) who don’t especially care for the “promenade”. I would prefer “The Market Street Mall” as the name. I still think there should be a “cover” — for winter and summer. Yes, I remember Dickers (wonderful store). This is Redding, and I will always think of it as Redding, not that city to the South.Oh yes, Doni October 4th has a special meeting for me: my birthday (arrg). Bet my husband hasn’t made a reservation any place, how about you?
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You know, I wasn’t completely taken with it at first, I have to admit. But I haven’t really come across another suggested name that I like better than Promenade, except maybe The Heart of Downtown….but that’s what I’ve been calling the Cascade Theatre block for years. So maybe that one’s taken, but I wouldn’t mind sharing it with a larger area!
I never thought of the name Promenade as pretentious, instead it makes me think of vacations I took in San Blas and Guanajuato, Mexico, and how the townspeople would come out in the evening to promenade in the zocalo. I think Redding really needs more of a social center, a more central gathering place to see and be seen, to congregate and play, and to feel more connected to our community.
I think we came a long way towards achieving that goal of creating a place to promenade with the erection of the Sundial Bridge. It gave people a place to go, and they went! Someday, with a lot of finger crossing, hope and faith (and businesspeople willing to put the dollars into it), the Market Street Promenade could perhaps provide the same opportunity. We just have to put it to good use!
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Doni and Kelly…good dish today. You’re right, California Gold, weed, ganja, will be legal in our lifetime. The golden state has been missing millions in new taxes
for a simple weed that makes people feel good, sleep, increases appitite and does little harm. It also relives pain and increases appitite of chemo treatment.
I never did understand the fuss about marijuana as did other countries who’ve legalized it and I think eventually our country will realize it’s a losing battle.
I, like Kelly. think it’s high time for ganja to be legal.
Doni…I too recently went to my 50th high school reunion and was sadened
by the number of deaths in my class.
But I got on the mike and told them, “I think I’m at the wrong reunion, you people are a bunch of old farts.”
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I work directly across the street from the “Promenade” and it’s a ghost town at almost any hour, let me tell you. I hate the name. It’s a little twee, I think, and it smacks of “People will come and use it just like we name it!” As if it was called “Market Street Square Dance and Hokey Pokey Emporium” Kinda desperate, in my opinion.
But I would love if they called it the Market Street Square Dance and Hokey Pokey Emporium.
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Happy Anniversary to Doni and Bruce! You two are always smiling and laughing, and clearly adore one another. Maybe you can give marriage lessons in your spare time! (Raising our glasses to many more)…
Lyn and Jack
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You mention that other focus groups must have loved it…….not the case! I also sat in on one of the focus groups for the naming (branding) of the old downtown mall area. And with our group, the printed board made its way up for feedback and no one in our group liked it either………he said he’d leave it up and come back to it….. and then went on to more options, many we liked better than “Promenade”…….
I did not keep my notes either, but I do recall that the name “Promenade” was marked off on my notes, not that it mattered as it seemed that he had already had his mind set on his selection. I thought that the names our group agreed on were better than the selected name. ………
Next time I am asked to participate, I hope someone reminds me that my hair, dog, car and squirrel are in need of a good scrubbing!
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Thank you for the great “Dish”. The mall in Washington D.C. is a park. A pedestrian mall is a street closed to cars. The “Downtown Mall” works for me. This could be another “Trinity Lake”, also known as “Clair Engle Lake” situation. A name will take hold and stick.
Oh, and Terry, the sad fact is that people who have never smoked get lung cancer. Children get cancer. People who do everything right (vent their ovens and stoves correctly, don’t smoke or work on automobile brakes or in mines, avoid alcohol, wear hats and sun screen in the summer etc.) still get cancer.
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Terry Reply:
October 5th, 2009 at 12:00 pm
You are Very right!!! Thank you for pointing that out.
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To me? “Promenade” sounds like a rip-off of “Esplanade”. I don’t care for it for the same reasons Doni cited. It sounds too pretentious for little old Redding, California. Something along the lines of “Commons” would better suit…a little more humble & welcoming.
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Happy anniversary, Doni, Bruce. (Tom & I just had our fiftieth.)
How about calling it the “Market Street Breezeway”?
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Market St. Square
Market St. Place
Downtown Market St. Place
Anything but Promenade. Sorry.
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downtown mausoleum,,,,,,,NEVER FORGET!
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Happy Anniversary to Doni & Bruce. Many more years of life and happiness to both of you.
My grandmother told me when I was about 6, as you get older, Christmas comes faster. Didn’t realize what she had imparted until I was in my 40s!
Shame to cut the lovely, beautiful old, cool type trees for palms! Telephone poles gone is good!
The changed name for the old Downtown Mall is as pompous as the changing of the school names to help people feel “cool”, yet who needs it? Doesn’t change what is learned or shopped for on any one day. Other than the Shasta College, there is almost a vast total empty space where no one is Promenading! Nothing wrong with a simple name as Market St. Mall. Or what was wrong with the Downtown Mall. It was used for years.
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Doni and Bruce…HApPy AnniVersarY!!!! 12 Years…wow, you two are truly fit to be tied for many more ! Congrats.
Make it a good day !
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Has anyone seen the town of Windsor, CA??
They have a gorgeous, vibrant downtown called The Village Green”. I like the sound of the Downtown Green since it is a gathering place and Redding is more of a city than a village. In Windsor they have family outdoor movies there in summer, and bands like Market Fest and a Farmer’s Market.
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I think we should all just refer to it as the Downtown Mall, like always. Eventually, the “Promenade” non-sense will fade away.
‘DOWNTOWN MALL’ (yes, a fitting name) …has a nice ring, it’s non-pretentious and makes a hell of a lot more sense.
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