Some people wonder if anyone besides the Sneeds live in Hooterville? Apparently, the lack of people in yesterday's photos surprised some folks, if the comments are to be believed.
For instance, there's this,
Hmm, once again, great photos, but no people. Iiiinteresting.--Megan (IIiiintersting? Too much BevMo?),
or this,
-- Merle must be up pretty early in the morning to get pix with no people.--D. Chedwick
or this,
I thought you said people lived in your area?--Coffee Messiah.
Allow me to assure you that people do live here in Hooterville, about a million of them by most counts. You can pretty much stroll quite alone in downtown Hooterville. In the summer anyway.
Downtown is almost exclusively governmental and government-related activity. There is virtually no retail to bring ordinary citizens downtown. Downtown is chock-full of lawyers and bureaucrats, but they are inside their offices or in their cars. They only appear on the street long enough to grab lunch.
I took these pictures at two in the afternoon, which should dispel Ched's 'early to rise' theory. Anyone with the regular amount of sense was inside. Even the homeless guys were sitting in the shade.
The MacArthur Building is about a hundred years old and is among the more interesting structures downtown. It is reminiscent of the Flatiron Building, except that it is much shorter. The building was built as a hotel, but later converted to offices. A large publishing company recently bought the MacArthur and will be renovating the inside of the structure for its operations.
This is the main branch of the public library. I've always wondered if the library was designed to remind us of the MacArthur?
The library is conveniently located in central downtown, where it is easily accessible to the 100 or so permanently homeless folks who call its grounds home. A couple of the usual suspects are visible in the lower left of the photo. Regular library patrons tend to use the various branches of the library, throughout the community, seeing no reason to visit our main branch.
The operation of our library system was recently transferred from the City of Hooterville to the Pima County government. The City had no money to upgrade the system, but apparently the County did. The retirement-eligible employees were allowed to retire on pension from the City and were then hired back into their regular jobs by the County. Isn't government great?
This sculpture graces the front of the downtown library. It is called "Sonora" (the Mexican state which abuts Arizona), by artist David Black. Mr. Black used red to soften the black and white of the library.
Cynical Hootervillians suggested that Black had sold the City a kooky idea that bore no relationship to either Hooterville or Sonora. Some have suggested that his original idea was to put the structure in Akron, where it was to be called, The Snowtire. I cannot confirm that.
If you look in the lower right corner of the page you may catch a glimpse of the rarely seen pedestrians.
This is two shots of our old county courthouse, built in 1928. It is a blend of Southwestern, Mission and Moorish styling. The exterior of the concrete dome is a mosaic of blue tile. It is still in use as a courthouse and as well as containing the Assessor's and County Recorder's offices. Most of the court functions were moved to the new courthouse, a giant square monstrosity, in 1972. I coaxed a few Hootervillians out of their cars to play the role of pedestrian for this photo.
Things in this blog represented to be fact, may or may not actually be true. The writer is frequently wrong, sometimes just full of it, but always judgmental and cranky
The MacArthur Building is about a hundred years old and is among the more interesting structures downtown. It is reminiscent of the Flatiron Building, except that it is much shorter. The building was built as a hotel, but later converted to offices. A large publishing company recently bought the MacArthur and will be renovating the inside of the structure for its operations.
This is the main branch of the public library. I've always wondered if the library was designed to remind us of the MacArthur?
The library is conveniently located in central downtown, where it is easily accessible to the 100 or so permanently homeless folks who call its grounds home. A couple of the usual suspects are visible in the lower left of the photo. Regular library patrons tend to use the various branches of the library, throughout the community, seeing no reason to visit our main branch.
The operation of our library system was recently transferred from the City of Hooterville to the Pima County government. The City had no money to upgrade the system, but apparently the County did. The retirement-eligible employees were allowed to retire on pension from the City and were then hired back into their regular jobs by the County. Isn't government great?
This sculpture graces the front of the downtown library. It is called "Sonora" (the Mexican state which abuts Arizona), by artist David Black. Mr. Black used red to soften the black and white of the library.
Cynical Hootervillians suggested that Black had sold the City a kooky idea that bore no relationship to either Hooterville or Sonora. Some have suggested that his original idea was to put the structure in Akron, where it was to be called, The Snowtire. I cannot confirm that.
If you look in the lower right corner of the page you may catch a glimpse of the rarely seen pedestrians.
This is two shots of our old county courthouse, built in 1928. It is a blend of Southwestern, Mission and Moorish styling. The exterior of the concrete dome is a mosaic of blue tile. It is still in use as a courthouse and as well as containing the Assessor's and County Recorder's offices. Most of the court functions were moved to the new courthouse, a giant square monstrosity, in 1972. I coaxed a few Hootervillians out of their cars to play the role of pedestrian for this photo.
Things in this blog represented to be fact, may or may not actually be true. The writer is frequently wrong, sometimes just full of it, but always judgmental and cranky
10 comments:
Merle, I am an architecture buff and have really been enjoying the virtual tour of "Hooterville." I particularly love the adobe buildings in the previous post. I had never been to the southwest until this past March (I accompanied my SO when he went to Santa Fe on business), and I found myself falling in love with all the adobe buildings. Now I'm thinking that maybe I should put Tucson on my list of places to visit. Hope the Chamber of Commerce there is paying you well.(: )
It must be so strange to live in a place where there are almost no pedestrians. I wonder how you would react to a crowded city like Bombay.
I like the old county courthouse the best. I feel as if these pictures tell me more about the climate than the architecture. Sizzling Hooterville.
:)
That was very accommodating of them.
I know one other person who lives in Hooterville, and she, too, is really SICK of the heat.
So there are at least two of you! Plus Mrs. Sneed makes three. Almost a crowd!
Does anyone try to climb on the sculpture? Our local city has an arts council that is actively working to place sculptures around town, much to the chagrin of serial letters-to-the editor complainers.
Love the courthouse! The "snow tire," not so much...
"It is reminiscent of the Flatiron Building, except that it is much shorter." -- LOL!!!
I guess you need to get a subpoena to get out of the a/c and walk from your car. so the courthouse is a likely place to find people.
It must be strange... Nyack is chock full of people, and NYC is chock chock chock full of people.
The David Black sculpture reminds me of those robot toys (transformers) from the 80's.
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