Joe Schoenmann

Story Archive

Joe Downtown: Homeless can receive free foot screening, shoes Friday: Thursday, Nov. 21, 2013; Homeless people downtown will get a free foot screening and shoes tomorrow courtesy of two organizations and with the contribution of a local company.
Joe Downtown: Why this giant, burning cube can change your life: Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2013; Scott Cohen thinks if people write down their goals and aspirations, there is a better chance of achieving them. Then, burning those wishes in a giant wooden cube further improves those chances. That public ceremony is set to happen in downtown Las Vegas in March.
Joe Downtown: Where is funding coming from for all this cultural development?: Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2013; Plans to build an art museum, renovate the Reed Whipple Cultural Center and reopen the Huntridge Theatre are all underway. But who will supply the dough?
Joe Downtown: Does coffee shop manager have magic powers?: Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2013; With the holidays on the way, the lights are going up. But the Christmas lights hanging in The Beat coffee shop weren’t on this morning. The boss told the manager to turn them on.
“I can’t; they aren’t working,” she replied. “I’m not magic.”
Joe Downtown Show: Who are all these millennials populating downtown?: Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2013; Millennials are the generation now carrying the banner as we head into the next few decades. They are also a big part of the reason downtown Las Vegas is witnessing a rebirth.
Joe Downtown: No more waiting — Downtown Container Park opens Monday: Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2013; In time for Black Friday shoppers, the Downtown Container Park will open Monday. Downtown Project, which operates the outdoor mall, today confirmed Monday’s soft opening.
Joe Downtown: City to consider liquor license for Downtown Container Park: Monday, Nov. 18, 2013; With time and age restrictions in place, a liquor license for the Downtown Container Park will be up for discussion and a possible vote at Wednesday’s Las Vegas City Council meeting. The issue of alcohol at the outdoor mall — which is expected to open later this month or in December — caused some consternation months back because the mall also features a large playground.
Joe Downtown: Photo exhibit, event to focus on the people of downtown: Monday, Nov. 18, 2013; If you really want to know what’s going on downtown, look no further than its people. A photo exhibit called “Who Is Downtown?” launching Thursday night at Blackbird Studios, 1551 S. Commerce St., is a good starting point.
Joe Downtown: Neighbors say problems returning to Huntridge Circle Park: Friday, Nov. 15, 2013; The city closed Huntridge Circle Park seven years ago after a man was stabbed to death, the result of an argument over a broken sprinkler head.
Joe Downtown: Benefit corporations mix altruistic, profit motives: Thursday, Nov. 14, 2013; Downtown Las Vegas, where young, idealistic business operators are moving into the Arts District and along East Fremont Street, seemed the perfect place to hold an informational powwow about benefit corporations.
Joe Downtown: Assisted living center may be Symphony Park's next tenant: Thursday, Nov. 14, 2013; It isn't an arena, casino/hotel or walk-up, brownstone living units — all ideas once proposed and still dreamed of — but plans for a skilled nursing and assisted living center in Symphony Park are on the table.
Joe Downtown: Coterie manager Hannibal Nisperos brings the real to hip retail: Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2013; "He’s that rare strain of original cool whose personal vibe becomes a statement that others follow in fashion or thought."
Joe Downtown Radio: Two councilmen weigh in on downtown's changes: Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2013; On The Joe Downtown Show I talked to two people from vastly different sections of Las Vegas. One is Ward 3 Councilman Bob Coffin, who has lived downtown for decades. The other is Ward 2 Councilman Bob Beers, who represents a huge swath of land in the western valley.
Joe Downtown: Be careful what you say; downtown street lights could one day listen in on your conversation: Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2013; Streets lights that could be equipped with listening devices, a possibility that is drawing the concern of the ACLU of Nevada, are being tested around City Hall downtown.
Joe Downtown: Copious festivals bring about a Bourbon Street feel: Sunday, Nov. 10, 2013; Downtown — largely East Fremont Street, the Fremont Street Experience and the Arts District — has turned into a center for festivals and events.
Joe Downtown: Veterans to get special concert at Fremont Street Experience: Friday, Nov. 8, 2013; Actor Gary Sinise, who played Lt. Dan Taylor in "Forrest Gump," started the Lt. Dan Band in 2004, has played for and supported wounded veterans ever since and will appear Saturday at the Fremont Street Experience.
Joe Downtown: Shania Twain to kick off annual Great Santa Run: Friday, Nov. 8, 2013; Next month, country music/crossover superstar Shania Twain, a fixture on the Strip, will venture downtown as grand marshal of the Great Santa Run, which returns downtown after several years at Town Square.
Joe Downtown: Competition to raise awareness about consequences of drunken driving: Friday, Nov. 8, 2013; With the number of downtown drinking establishments growing along with the area’s popularity, it’s more than appropriate for a drunken-driving awareness event to be scheduled here next weekend. The second annual Pull The Flag on Drunk Driving Downtown 360 Bowl will be staged starting Friday and ending Sunday on the athletic fields of Las Vegas Academy, 315 S. Seventh St. starting Friday and ending Sunday.
Joe Downtown: How will the Zappos-DTP relationship affect other local businesses?: Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2013; The creation of neo-Downtown as a company town is coming into vogue.
Joe Downtown Radio: How the new TV/film law will help make Las Vegas an even bigger household name: Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2013; How did a little gambling town in the middle of a desert become so well known? Marketing, largely, which includes the dozens of movies and TV shows produced or based here over the past 60 years. Today's guest on the Joe Downtown Show discusses the existing film and TV biz downtown and how he expects it to change with a new law going into effect.
Joe Downtown: Fremont Street bar owners note drop in Friday night patrons: Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2013; Barricades were up and police presence was down, but so was business in several east Fremont Street bars last Friday night. Some say that’s the price of success on the first Friday of the month.
Joe Downtown: CNN’s Anthony Bourdain dropping by The Atomic for season finale: Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2013; Someone’s going to have to start keeping track of all the free publicity being scored by The Atomic, a downtown bar on Fremont Street.
Joe Downtown: Garth Brooks reportedly visiting downtown, meeting Zappos brass: Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2013; It’s still pretty hush-hush and on the down low, but Garth Brooks is coming downtown later this week. Brooks is the country-western, cross-over musician who has sold some 70 million albums in a little more than two decades.
Joe Downtown: Take in ‘Naked Vegas’ to support brain health: Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2013; The Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health will be ground zero for a unique event tonight, bringing people together to drink margaritas, watch “Naked Vegas” and raise money and awareness for the center.
Joe Downtown: Halloween revelers to parade down Fremont Street: Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2013; Another sign that downtown is changing: the 4th Annual Halloween Parade will be held on Fremont Street. It will start in an area that even a year ago few would walk in at night, marching west to the Fremont Street Entertainment District.
Joe Downtown: Housing has to be cheaper for Downtown to be fully realized: Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2013; The Life Is Beautiful Festival made the neighborhood feel like a true city. When will it consistently be like that?
Joe Downtown: Life was Beautiful for more than 62,000 people last weekend: Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2013; More than 62,000 people attended the Life is Beautiful festival over two days last weekend — short of organizers' first estimates by far surpassing their revised estimate.
Joe Downtown Radio: High-rise living in Las Vegas: Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2013; They call some of them “the skylords” of Las Vegas. That is, those who live in one of the three high-rises downtown: Soho, Newport or The Ogden.
Joe Downtown: Against councilman’s wish, Pinches Tacos will stay Pinches Tacos: Tuesday, Oct. 29, 2013; The fight over the name of a Mexican restaurant destined for the Downtown Container Park is over. Pinches Tacos is going to keep its name, despite a Las Vegas councilman’s suggestion to change it.
Joe Downtown: Speakeasy-inspired lounge opening in Las Vegas Arts District: Tuesday, Oct. 29, 2013; A new urban lounge will bring more competition to downtown’s loaded bar scene, but it won’t be located on East Fremont Street, where much of the property is already owned by Downtown Project.
Joe Downtown: Kanye West rumor sends downtown buzzing: Monday, Oct. 28, 2013; The energy level in downtown Las Vegas the night before the Life is Beautiful festival Friday was palpable. Then the voltage got cranked up by the sighting of mega-musician Kanye West, Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh and an entourage wandering through the various festival installations.
Joe Downtown: With only minor glitches, leaders praise Life is Beautiful: Monday, Oct. 28, 2013; Despite a few minor arrests and injuries, city and police officials said Life is Beautiful was successful and that they'd like to see some parts of it become permanent. Over the two-day event, five people were arrested for misdemeanors and three people suffered minor injuries when a roughly 30-foot tower holding streamers tumbled in the wind at the entrance Sunday. Beyond that, however, the festival appeared to be a roaring success.
Joe Downtown: 'We're getting back to our roots,' Wynn says at opening of Downtown Grand: Sunday, Oct. 27, 2013; The opening comes six-and-a-half years after the closure of the Lady Luck, which was gutted by investor CIM Group and converted into the Downtown Grand.
Festivalgoers mostly well-behaved, full of praise for Life is Beautiful: Sunday, Oct. 27, 2013; The inaugural Life is Beautiful festival downtown continued to run smoothly on its second and final day, with an expected 24,000 attendees flocking to the festival grounds to take in dozens of bands, gourmet eateries, art installations and lectures at the weekendlong celebration. However, the day was not completely without incident. One of the towers at the entrance to the festival on 6th Street at Carson Avenue toppled in the wind around 4:45 p.m. No injuries were reported.
Downtown's Life is Beautiful festival off to peaceful start: Saturday, Oct. 26, 2013; The pace of life downtown was unusually mellow Saturday afternoon, the first of the two-day Life is Beautiful festival expected draw some 20,000 per day. Police reported no arrests or citations by 5 p.m. Traffic was a snap. Music filled the streets, the aroma of cooked meat and savory dishes filled the air, and people walked breezily down the streets taking in sights and sounds all too rare for the city’s urban core.
Joe Downtown: Training center will prepare homeless and unemployed for jobs: Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2013; “We take people who are on the path of hopelessness and get them back on the path of hope.”
Joe Downtown Radio: Some people downtown are comfortable being different: Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2013; Joe Schoenmann talks to Bernard Walter, aka Mister Tony, and Darla Lush about life downtown on this week's episode of the "Joe Downtown Show."
Joe Downtown: Downtown Grand guests will be 'encouraged to leave building'; Hsieh covets greater connectivity: Monday, Oct. 21, 2013; Tony Hsieh came off as a modest voice of calm amid former Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman’s outspoken ex-mob-lawyer-turned-mayor persona, as both addressed questions about downtown’s rebirth at a luncheon today.
Joe Downtown: Hotels packed and pricey for inaugural Life is Beautiful festival: Monday, Oct. 21, 2013; With rooms at Fremont Street hotel-casinos going at rates several times higher than normal this weekend, it’s easy to see why operators might be pondering the beauty of life.
Joe Downtown: Artists’ visions bring vibrancy to drab downtown walls: Sunday, Oct. 20, 2013; Work on the first of 14 murals to adorn the walls of various downtown buildings has begun.
Joe Downtown: Revelers on bikes will light up the night for 'Blinking Man' pub ride: Saturday, Oct. 19, 2013; The free ride, which has been described as “Burning Man on wheels,” begins at 7 p.m. at the Huntridge Tavern, 1116 E. Charleston Blvd.
Joe Downtown: Life is Beautiful, but not without a ton of work: Thursday, Oct. 17, 2013; In less than a week, hundreds of musicians, artists, chefs and speakers will start flying into Las Vegas for the downtown Life Is Beautiful festival. See what it takes to put it all together.
Joe Downtown: There's still some grit left among the gentrification: Thursday, Oct. 17, 2013; If you need any more proof that Downtown Las Vegas is still the gritty urban center it’s always been, get a load of this guy — overbearing, no shoes, feet propped up on the table.
Joe Downtown Radio: Jobs, lives changing as downtown redevelopment continues: Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2013; On this episode of Joe Downtown Radio: Metro Capt. Shawn Andersen talks downtown crime and Las Vegas native Shaun Swanson shares his life story.
Joe Downtown: Why aren't there stronger ties between UNLV and Downtown Project?: Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2013; The answer is coming, largely by way of ... Iowa City, Iowa.
Joe Downtown: Owner of closed Neonopolis nightclubs denied access: Monday, Oct. 14, 2013; A judge denied Kelly Murphy access to his closed nightclubs inside Neonopolis today after his lawyer argued that despite being evicted a month ago, Murphy had the right to gain access to his personal property inside. “They should not be able to hold this property hostage,” Murphy's lawyer, Dale Hayes, argued, saying the property “belongs to somebody else that we’re on the hook for.”
Joe Downtown: RTC taking comments on Maryland Parkway transportation plans: Monday, Oct. 14, 2013; The Regional Transportation Commission will have its last round of open houses in two weeks — one of the last chances to provide input on mass-transit proposals for Maryland Parkway, including buses, light rail or street cars.
Joe Downtown: New restaurant ready to take slice of downtown pizza market: Monday, Oct. 14, 2013; Pizza Rock, a new restaurant that will compete for downtown’s pizza dollars, will hold its grand opening Saturday.
Joe Downtown: Las Vegas activist to discuss genetically modified food on Huffington Post: Monday, Oct. 14, 2013; Angie Morelli, an organizer of the March Against Monsanto, which drew some 600 people Saturday morning to downtown Las Vegas, is being interviewed live on the Huffington Post today.
Joe Downtown: New business will help keep things moving in Las Vegas: Friday, Oct. 11, 2013; A company seeking to lift the arduous job of moving into the 21st century is now part of the downtown landscape, hiring “Move Captains” and using a Priceline-like selection model so those moving can find the best deal.