Joe Downtown - Las Vegas Sun News

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.

Workers install a fabric sheet on a geodesic dome that will become part of the Downtown Container Park near Seventh and Fremont streets.

Joe Downtown: For Container Park's dome, that's a wrap: April 25, 2013; By Joe Schoenmann; The skeleton went up a few weeks ago. Now the fabric dome is in place. Slowly, the Downtown Container Park – which is more of a prefabricated cube-park since the original idea of using shipping containers has been mostly abandoned – is coming together.

Joe Downtown: Siren brings songs to downtown streets: April 25, 2013; By Joe Schoenmann; Vanessa Andrea has been writing and performing songs since she was 12. Her first was an expression of acceptance for her father, then serving time in the California prison system. “Songs have been my key to surviving,” says Andrea, who at 23 sings with the voice of someone much older. She said she has worked since she was 14 to support her family. “It’s gotten me through life, saved my life, really. Dad in prison, mom addicted to drugs. Writing songs helped me get away and communicate what I felt.”

Chris Ramirez, Lola Pictures, is producing an Internet series “on the people making downtown happen.”

Joe Downtown: Internet series to explore 'downtown from the inside': April 24, 2013; By Joe Schoenmann; A local production company today begins filming the antics, thoughts and lives of a handful of downtown residents for an Internet series that shines light on the people behind the area’s transformation from the forsaken to the embraced.

Joe Downtown: Ecomom to relaunch under ownership of Washington-based business: April 24, 2013; By Joe Schoenmann; A Spokane, Wash., e-commerce site has bought the inventory and name of ecomom.com, a Las Vegas-based online company dissolved shortly after co-founder Jody Sherman committed suicide in January.

John O'Donnell, head bartendender, left, and Michael Morton talk during a preview tasting at La Comida, Morton's new restaurant at Sixth and Fremont streets. The restaurant opens this week.

Joe Downtown: Michael Morton likes that his new La Comida restaurant is 'a little off': April 23, 2013; By Joe Schoenmann; The monkey skeleton sign at La Comida, the new Mexican restaurant downtown, isn’t there simply because it’s unique, fun and destined in some distant future to end up in the Neon Museum. A monkey-Mexican connection exists: Mayans, who lived in Mexico, considered monkeys divine creatures. But even Michael Morton, who is opening the restaurant at Sixth and Fremont streets, acknowledges that beyond its historical take, the sign, conceived by his wife, “is a lot of fun.”

Joe Downtown: Festival puts out casting call for filming of promotional spot: April 23, 2013; By Joe Schoenmann; Fremont Street businesses will offer discounted food and drinks Monday night to draw people for the filming of a promotional ad for the upcoming Life Is Beautiful music, food and art festival.

Joe Downtown: Coffee shop owner says deal to open downtown still brewing: April 22, 2013; By Joe Schoenmann; The rumors are true, but you’ll have to wait. Sambalatte, a popular coffee shop in the Boca Park shopping mall, near Rampart and Charleston boulevards, is definitely going to be open somewhere downtown, owner/operator Luiz Claudio Oliveira said.

Joe Downtown: Atomic fusion melds partnership between bar, museum

Joe Downtown: Atomic fusion melds partnership between bar, museum: April 19, 2013; By Joe Schoenmann; The Atomic bar, which has pushed its opening back to sometime in May, has formed a partnership with the National Atomic Testing Museum.

Jon Sterling wants to open Vegas Tech House – his name for the crowdsource-funded house that would be open to startup founders who make their way to Downtown Las Vegas.

Joe Downtown: Crowdfunded Vegas Tech House to offer lodging for techies in transition: April 18, 2013; By Joe Schoenmann; Hoping to add to downtown’s tech startup ecosystem, Jon Sterling wants to buy a house downtown for startup founders as they transition into Las Vegas. To do that, the 34-year-old startup founder and former real estate businessman is doing something he’s never seen: He’s giving himself a month to raise $125,000 in small donations, branding opportunities and other means.

Las Vegas native Michael Bunin, left, says he had an inkling the Kmart "Ship My Pants" spot in which he stars might go viral, and it has with nearly 12 million views on YouTube as of Wednesday, April 17.

Joe Downtown: Vegas-raised actor finds fame in Kmart's 'Ship My Pants' ad: April 18, 2013; By Joe Schoenmann; Las Vegan Michael Bunin has done pretty well as a comedic actor. He’s been in national television ad campaigns, been a regular on a television series, and earlier this month he was in the season premiere of “Mad Men.” But nothing in the Chaparral High School graduate’s career so far is likely to top a 35-second advertisement that first aired a week ago on YouTube and has gone viral with nearly 12 million views so far. It’s an ad for Kmart’s policy of shipping items customers can’t find in the store to their homes for free. It begins with 10 ...

Tony Hsieh will—gasp!—not reopen the Gold Spike as a casino.

Joe Downtown: Tony Hsieh envisions real progress for Las Vegas. How dare he?: April 17, 2013; By Joe Schoenmann; Turning casinos into community? The guy must hate Las Vegas.

Drew O'Bleness, center, identifies a need for change while sharing ideas with fellow classmates participating in their college course "Reimagining Downtown Las Vegas" at Work In Progress in Las Vegas Wednesday, March 20, 2013.

Joe Downtown: Iowa students announce vegan food truck as their downtown project: April 17, 2013; By Joe Schoenmann; After spending spring break here, University of Iowa students in a class that focuses only on downtown Las Vegas have come up with something they believe will enhance the area. The upper-level students who spent spring break here and downtown as part of their classwork are going to introduce a vegan food truck to the downtown landscape.

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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