Joe Downtown - Las Vegas Sun News

Joe Downtown: Ceremony to honor El Cortez for inclusion on National Register: May 7, 2013; By Joe Schoenmann; One of Downtown Las Vegas’ oldest residents, the El Cortez, will be honored for winning a listing on the National Register of Historic Places. Mayor Carolyn Goodman and Councilman Bob Coffin will headline a ceremony at 4 p.m. Thursday to unveil a commemorative plaque at the hotel/casino. The city's oldest hotel to continuously operate under the same name, the El Cortez became only the second Las Vegas casino on the nation's cultural preservation list in February.

The East Fremont Street district is seen at sunset Wednesday, April 3, 2013.

Joe Downtown: Unannounced First Friday street-closing creates chaos, bar owner says: May 7, 2013; By Joe Schoenmann; “It was ugly” is how one business owner described Friday night in the Fremont East Entertainment District. “It felt dangerous,” said another. And "it" might have been encouraged by the city closing a portion of Fremont Street during and after First Friday activities. The First Friday art show/street fair is one of downtown’s biggest successes, driving 25,000 to 30,000 people to an area near Charleston Boulevard and Main Street on the first Friday night of each month.

Bartender J.C. Kelley pours a couple of sodas about an hour before the doors closed for the final time April 14, 2013, at Gold Spike in Downtown Las Vegas. Gold Spike is reopening Monday, May 6, 2013, as a bar and restaurant.

Joe Downtown: Casino-less Gold Spike opens Monday; old pizza place to get new life: May 3, 2013; By Joe Schoenmann; Less than a month after it closed, the Gold Spike will reopen Monday as a bar and restaurant with a large area once devoted to slot machines now home to games such as pool, darts, Golden Tee video golf and shuffleboard.

Vendors are set up in the Arts Factory parking lot during First Friday in Las Vegas on Friday, October 5, 2012. First Friday celebrated it's tenth anniversary this year.

Joe Downtown: First Friday, by the numbers: May 3, 2013; By Joe Schoenmann; I remember bits and pieces of the first First Friday in downtown. The October 2002 night was chilly. Someone had set up a small table with wine, crackers and cheese inside the Arts Factory. Maybe 200 people, more or less, were there. Unlike today, no food carts or vendors were on the street.

Joe Downtown: Playboy TV brings South American beauties to Atomic, Gold Spike: May 2, 2013; By Joe Schoenmann; Playboy models from Buenos Aires invaded downtown this week, filming Wednesday night for Playboy TV at Atomic Liquors and Thursday afternoon at the Gold Spike. Kent Johns, Atomic owner, said Playboy TV was doing “secret spots” shoots in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Las Vegas.

Due to a power outage in downtown Las Vegas, security at the Regional Justice Center were not able to allow people in Thursday, May 2, 2013.

Joe Downtown: Court hearings off, slots on during power outage: May 2, 2013; By Joe Schoenmann; A nearly hour-long power outage left portions of downtown, including some government buildings and at least two major casinos, in the dark Thursday afternoon.

The festival spirit: Boulder City band Same Sex Mary, performing at a Life Is Beautiful showcase.

Joe Downtown: Life is Beautiful commercial shoot showcases the vibrance of Downtown: May 1, 2013; By Joe Schoenmann; The festival's video will air in early June.

Joe Downtown: How's this for mixology? Stops on pub crawl feature science topics: May 1, 2013; By Joe Schoenmann; The federally funded space shuttle program ended three years ago, a move that opened the door a little wider for private investors to do their own space exploration. David Knight, described as a “filmmaker/investor/entrepreneur” will talk about that Wednesday at the “Las Vegas Science Crawl” that begins at 6 p.m. in the Construction Zone speaker trailer.

Joe Downtown: Developer might act on need for mid-priced apartments downtown: May 1, 2013; By Joe Schoenmann; With downtown Las Vegas about to see an influx of 1,300 Zappos employees in a few months, a major local developer is considering construction of a large, mid-priced residential apartment building a few blocks off Fremont Street.

Joe Downtown: Hollywood titan making commercial for casinos, but what about Vegas movie?: April 29, 2013; By Joe Schoenmann; Imagine playing at a casino where the toss of the dice can land you in a steamy jungle or open a gateway for giant wasps to attack slot junkies.

Patrons hit the bar at Gold Spike on the casino's final day of operations in downtown Las Vegas.

Joe Downtown: Gold Spike to reopen within two weeks, without casino: April 26, 2013; By Joe Schoenmann; With many of its former employees returning, the Gold Spike casino/hotel will reopen within the next two weeks as a restaurant/bar. As expected, the business will open without a casino. And for the time being, hotel operations are shut down.

Joe Downtown: Holding out for alpacas and solar power: April 26, 2013; By Joe Schoenmann; The Las Vegas Sun's embedded downtown reporter does a little eavesdropping and takes a pulse on downtown Las Vegas.

Zappos has a parade with a Llama as their leader as they head to Cashman Field to catch the 51s game, Thursday, April 25, 2013.

Joe Downtown: Like a Pied Piper, llama leads parade of people through streets: April 26, 2013; By Joe Schoenmann; Following a rented llama from The Beat coffeehouse north on Las Vegas Boulevard to Cashman Field, about 100 people took part in the first of what will be a monthly llama parade this summer.

Joe Downtown: Complaints spur effort to change code on building retrofits: April 25, 2013; By Joe Schoenmann; A Las Vegas councilman wants to change a city code that forces developers to spend thousands to retrofit older buildings with energy-saving measures such as window glazing and insulation on cinder-block walls.

Construction crews work Wednesday, March 6, 2013, to build support pylons for the 12-story takeoff tower that will launch riders along the Slotzilla permanent zip line at Fremont Street Experience in downtown Las Vegas. The $11 million attraction is set to open in June.

Joe Downtown: SlotZilla gets its steel legs today: April 25, 2013; By Joe Schoenmann; The scaffolding-supported zip line at the Fremont Street Experience is slowly being transformed into the $11 million SlotZilla, a slot-machine-themed attraction whose metal beams are being put into place today.

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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