Sunday Morning Tidbits

Springfield, IL - Brad - Sunday, March 26th, 2006 : goo

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Took these while riding around downtown. It's nice and peaceful on Sundays, most of the people around are going to the Abraham Lincoln sites, so not as many idiots driving around.

These have been up for about 2 months. They are city run cameras (twelve total) located on 5th St. at Washington, Adams and Monroe. Intended to prevent crime in the area, the biggest problems were vandalism (some broken flower pots) and apparently people peeing on the sidewalk and streets. I wonder if I can get a picture of me taking my picture from them?

I always liked the way this building looked and finally decided to get a shot. To the left are the St. Nicholas apartments which is a really old hotel. I'm still not sure if that section of building over the alley connects the two or not. That would be kind of cool.

I was going to use this sign as the foreground for the alley shot before I entered. Then I noticed behind the JOE writing, "You Must Enter", nice little touch to the sign. Looks like Joe also got the sign at the bottom right.

Noticed this same graffiti around several spots on the same block, so I figured it earned a picture for persistence. "TONE" & "DIGZ".

The Hilton hotel in the background, also known as "The Prarie Dick" and a few other dirty nicknames, for it's interesting shape. To my immediate right is the Lincoln Square Apartments, there is a pool in the courtyard area in the middle of the building, not visible except from the air or from apartments that actually surround it. This alley runs most of length of downtown between Monroe and Adams.

It's always fun to walk down it and see what or who I find. About 20 feet behind me is a homeless guy digging through a dumpster which isn't uncommon. Sometimes when I'm walking around skateboarding at night I'll find them sleeping along the side, still spooks me when I don't see them until I am right next to them and I hear a cough or something.

This is visible in the above picture on the left. Upon further examination I found the whole setup quite interesting. The obvious is the stairs that don't meet up to the door anymore. Then judging by the much newer looking bricks, it looks like the whole door frame was either installed or replaced since the building was built, this does a lot of good now. Oh, and the boarded and shuttered up openings with padlocked gating over them is a nice touch.

The smell of popcorn lingered in the alley around this block which was a nice change from what you often smell back there.

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