Joe Downtown - Las Vegas Sun News

Ed Fuentes sees similarities between Downtown Vegas and LA—starting with street art.

Joe Downtown: Photographer sees parallels between Downtown Las Vegas and LA: June 5, 2013; By Joe Schoenmann; Ed Fuentes recognized something familiar in the Downtown Las Vegas renaissance.

The Huntridge marquee is shown Wednesday, May 15, 2013.

Joe Downtown: Group seeking public donations to keep Huntridge renovation plans alive: June 5, 2013; By Joe Schoenmann; The fate of historic Huntridge Theater will become clear in just a few short weeks. And depending on support from locals, the 69-year-old theater will either be on its way toward resurrection or the wrecking ball.

Councilman Bob Coffin and Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman use one of the city's new electronic, solar powered parking meters for the benefit of cameras during a news conference to publicize them Tuesday, June 4, 2013.

Joe Downtown: City begins installing customer-friendly parking meters: June 4, 2013; By Joe Schoenmann; For commuters lacking coins, the city has found a way to swipe parking fees – one credit or debit card at a time. Installation began Tuesday on the first of 233 multibay parking meters that can accept coins, debit and credit cards.

Brandon Flowers of The Killers sings at Cosmopolitan's Chelsea during the first of two homecoming shows on New Year's Eve weekend.

Joe Downtown: The Killers, Imagine Dragons and Beck grace Life Is Beautiful festival lineup: June 3, 2013; By Joe Schoenmann; Las Vegas-bred The Killers, Beck and Kings of Leon, plus, recent breakout Las Vegas indie band Imagine Dragons headline a list of 33 rock artists signed to play during the two-day Life Is Beautiful festival in Downtown Las Vegas this October.

A scene from Krave during its days at its Planet Hollywood digs.

Joe Downtown: Prospective employees turn out for Krave Massive's open call: June 3, 2013; By Joe Schoenmann; On schedule to open its first phase on June 15, Krave Massive in downtown Las Vegas staged an open call for job applicants Monday afternoon, receiving about 100 applications within the first hour.

"Clark," a 33-year-old homeless man, has moved to eastern Fremont Street, because “there’s less competition" panhandling for assistance.

Joe Downtown: Where have all the homeless gone?: June 3, 2013; By Joe Schoenmann; What’s odd about the man sitting on Fremont Street near the former mayor’s neon martini glass sculpture on the street’s median isn’t that "Clark" is homeless. East Fremont has long been a hovering ground for many of downtown Las Vegas’ homeless people. The area is changing, however.

Jen McCabe, McCabe sees 3-D printing as a wide-open frontier and wants to bring the new technology to everyday Las Vegans.

Joe Downtown: Entrepreneur sees future in 3-D printing: May 31, 2013; By Joe Schoenmann; After 18 months at Romotive, the smartphone-robot company that began in Las Vegas then moved to Silicon Valley, Jen McCabe immediately began working on plans for Fabbed Labs, a downtown 3-D printing venture.

Got a question or gripe about Downtown Project? Send it to Joe.

Joe Downtown: Downtown Project answers your questions: May 29, 2013; By Joe Schoenmann; To address the gripes and allay fears, Downtown Project responds.

Donny "Skyy" Squires inside the "Magic Jukebox" bus, Tuesday, May 28, 2013.

Joe Downtown: Bus-driving vagabond helps needy by raising money one signature at a time: May 29, 2013; By Joe Schoenmann; In all of his travels over the past two years, Donny Squires can honestly say he hasn’t driven his multimarkered, former school bus into any city quite like Las Vegas. His 1963 Blue Bird bus — with the shell of a Volkswagen van welded on top and the faces of Shaggy, Scooby and the other kids from the Mystery Machine painted in the van’s windows — has been parked for about a week in downtown Las Vegas.

Joe Downtown: Smith Center pedestrian bridge adds another piece to downtown puzzle: May 28, 2013; By Joe Schoenmann; The Smith Center pedestrian bridge will be christened Wednesday morning by city leaders. Funding for the $4.5 million bridge, which spans the Union Pacific railroad tracks, comes from three sources: $500,000 from the Federal Highway Administration; $3.6 million from the federal Congestion Mitigation Air Quality fund; and $400,000 from the city’s general fund.

Zappos executive Fred Mossler, left, actor Ashton Kutcher, center, and Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh pause Thursday afternoon outside the Construction Zone speaker trailer near Seventh and Fremont streets. Hsieh was giving Kutcher a tour of many of the Downtown Project undertakings in the Fremont East Entertainment District.

Joe Downtown: Tony Hsieh leads Ashton Kutcher on downtown tour: May 23, 2013; By Joe Schoenmann; Actor Ashton Kutcher ate Thursday afternoon at Eat restaurant and toured some of the many Downtown Project undertakings in the Fremont East Entertainment District.

An artist's rendering of the PublicUs restaurant, which is scheduled to open later this summer at 1126 Fremont St.

Joe Downtown: Restaurant serving 'Fresh American' coming to East Village: May 23, 2013; By Joe Schoenmann; With an opening expected in July or August, work on a new restaurant in an area of the city’s “East Village" is about to begin. Armed with roughly $75,000 in grants from the city Redevelopment Agency, owner Nicholas Akiona will be moving his PublicUs restaurant into space formerly occupied by Philly Steak Express, 1126 Fremont St.

Joe Downtown: Does Starbucks herald 'arrival' of East Fremont?: May 23, 2013; By Joe Schoenmann; An unthinkable move just a few years ago may become a reality. Though four Starbucks coffee retailers already exist downtown, none exists in the Fremont East Entertainment District. That might soon change.

Scot Rutledge is leaving Las Vegas after leading the Nevada Conservation League since 2006.

Joe Downtown: Challenges daunting but foundation solid for conservation league, departing official says: May 21, 2013; By Joe Schoenmann; As Scot Rutledge prepares to leave Las Vegas after seven years heading the Nevada Conservation League, he has to take some pride in how far his organization has come since he took the reins. At the same time, he admits the environmental challenges facing his organization and the state are daunting. One of the biggest, he predicts, will be if and when the state starts to deal with climate changes brought on by global warming.

Joe Downtown: Local Motors CEO visits Las Vegas: May 20, 2013; By Joe Schoenmann; One of the newest businesses to gain support from VegasTechFund is Local Motors. Founded five years ago, Local Motors uses crowdsourcing to help in the design of a car, motorcycle or other type of vehicle. John Rogers Jr., president and CEO, last week was in downtown Las Vegas, where VegasTechFund is headquartered. The fund is a tech investment group whose partners include Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh.

Joe Schoenmann doesn’t just cover downtown, he lives and works there. Schoenmann is Greenspun Media Group’s embedded downtown journalist, working from an office in the Emergency Arts complex.

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