Sunday, December 2, 2018

About Town 12/2/18

This week's photos from around Columbia...
(Click/tap on photos for larger, clearer images.)



"The Returned Soldier" at Locust Street Park
Some folks incorrectly call this statue "The Unknown Soldier."

The statue of a World War I doughboy commemorates "the patriotic spirit, valor and heroism" of local participants in America's wars, but the sculptor slipped in an anti-war message by showing some effects of war: the head wound and the thousand-yard stare.

 
So, who does what here?

Nobody home again?

Garland-festooned wrought-iron fence on South 2nd

And a little further down the block - these guys are ready for the season.

Here's a close-up of one of them.



A new sign at the traffic lights at Front and Walnut

These guys were working on the lights there this week.

Apparently synchronizing them

Yep, red on one side of the tracks, yellow on the other

Believe it or not it works better this way by helping to keep vehicles from getting stranded on the tracks.

Yellow hearse

Notice the sign on the hearse. The vehicle has reached its destination.

Saviors don't abide by earthly laws. They sometimes ignore permits and HARB rules, too.

Mausoleum at Holy Trinity Cemetery

Androgynous angel with cloud emanating from its hand

MOOSE!

Blocking the 300 block of Cherry
(Submitted photo)

Tree all agleam on Chestnut

A closer look

Wreath on historic door on the 500 block of Walnut

Rube Goldberg was here!
What could possibly go wrong?

Watching the watcher watching

"Money, so they say
Is the root of all evil today
But if you ask for a raise it's no surprise that they're
Giving none away, away, away"
- "Money" by Pink Floyd

Looks like something that could be posted at he US-Mexico border.

Fallen star

Illegally parked

Old-fashioned cellar doors

Night lights in the day

Night lights at night

Hope they're yard-trained

The borough is considering paying several thousand dollars for a parking study, but here's a free study of some random samples:
No vehicles on the 300 block of Locust this past Friday night.

None at the public lot at the bottom of Locust

Saturday morning: the 400 block of Locust

And the first block of North 4th
Conclusion: No additional parking needed

Down at River Park: frosty leaves

Hopper garage

Looks like Santa's about to hatch.
Does that mean he'll be born again?

Manor School datestone

Manor School - now apartments

Right behind those windows was the office of the principal, Mrs. Hardnele (prononunced "HARD NAIL"). An apt name for a principal.

Atop the one peak is some sort of finial

Close up

If he looks anything like that, get out of there, quick!

Ghost rider on the trailer?

Brett Kavanaugh was here.

Possibly the coolest garage in town - 
(Of course, everyone knows the Dirty Harry line.)

Progress at Florence and Manor

Sidewalk seats for watching the cars go by

Some of the older folks will remember a spider monkey that lived in the back part of this house on Manor Street.

Hooked and wired

The National Guard stored its vehicles here on Manor Street back in the day.

Old-timey car ornament on South 4th

Convertible

That's a lot of ODs.

A rooftop "thumbs up"?

Periscope on rooftop?

Informative apartment building plaque

Hermansader's Victorian Mansion

Second floor herringbone door

New door, not HARB-approved on North 3rd

So there's that missing grocery cart.

CHiPS bell tower

300 block of Locust

Close-up of one of the rosettes

Columbia United Methodist Church

Back on Walnut Street - the 500 block

This section was poured last Thursday and covered with plastic.
Friday morning it was still not completely dry, as can be seen from the footprints and tire marks.

About those tire marks: A witness reported seeing a man in a wheelchair doing donuts on the concrete Friday morning.
Later, the witness heard a Pennsy worker saying, "They forgot to use accelerant" for the concrete.

Female downy woodpecker ready to peck

Overspray on Walnut

Here's the dilemma. Certain borough officials want citizens to pick up trash around town when they see it. But if you pick up this bottle, you'll be charged under the open container ordinance.

Shadow of reality

This may have been posted before.
Notice the face on the handle.

No, we're not cleaning this up.

Ditto

This just can't be right.

All spiffed up - 
Shiny new fence behind Hotel Locust

At the former Masonic Center

Coming up at St. Paul's Episcopal

Out for a jog

Oh, there's Santa now, stocking up with flowers at Royer's.

Unfortunately, he won't be making deliveries any time soon.

This was a common sight on Walnut Street recently.

The beauty strips on the north side of the 600 block were filled in with concrete.  Here's the work in progress.

A few sinkholes opened up at 647-651 Walnut during the project but were filed in with concrete.

Another look at the not-so-beautiful strips

Looks like the strips on the other side of the 500 and 600 blocks will remain grass.

About to fill 'em in

Filling in the strips with concrete.
By the way - safety cones? They got 'em.

Let's continue.

Almost done

Digging up down the block

Pretty close to that gas line

Sawing the sidewalk

Still there - a beauty strip in need of beautification on 462

Weed-enshrouded gate over garage door

At Mount Bethel Cemetery, the Statue of Hope is pointing to the sky.
But why?

There's why. A C-130 - citizen of the sky.

Overhead

And flying away


"Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds," but a broken down mail truck might.

19 comments:

  1. didn't the brought just spend money for a parking a few years ago i cant believe anything changed that much that they need to spend more foe another

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  2. Didn't pay attention in English Class

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  3. Yes, so who are these people who think they are above following the process and obtaining building permits for work being done? Folks you need to report this when you see it happening.

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    1. Do we get a fee to report a building permit violation ?????

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    2. HOLY COW do you think they have enough orange cones?

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    3. That place on North 3rd with no HARB approval looks better than it has in years. And a lot more places would to if they didn't have to play the HARB. Most homes in the Historic district have no historical significance. It should be up to the owner to be in it and then have some benefit like reduced taxes or something. Now high taxes and then you few want to tell people what to do with most folks biggest investment in their lives. What a joke to those that had it imposed upon them. And on top of that you give others in the neighborhood they right to subdivide into apartments for what used to be a single dwelling into 2,3,4,5 units or more in low density neighborhoods and then wonder why there is a parking problem.

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    4. You should educate yourself better before you post.
      A lot of places on N 3rd are looking better because the codes department wrote up almost every property on N 3rd this past year and forced property owners to make repairs.
      Most of the properties in the HD DO have historical architectural features, which is what makes them significant.
      HARB has no ability to approve or disapprove whether a dwelling is subdivided into apartments. HARB also does not care about parking issues.
      All of your complaints should be taken to the borough council, as they created the Historic District Ordinance. HARB did not have the ability to create themselves or the ordinance.

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    5. That place on N 3rd looks like crap with the white door. I hope codes makes them put the original door back!

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    6. The door can be painted, no?

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    7. Paint maybe , but security is first, maybe painting the building camalflage would make these people happy.

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    8. code officers need to stop and look for permits! They are being paid, do the job.

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    9. Why do you need a permit??

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  4. It is there door , harb doesn't pay for it.

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  5. 300 block of cherry has a lot of road blockage , and the side walk almost daily.

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    1. IT IS OK TO BLOCK THE SIDE WALK AND THE WHOLE STREET ????? What happens when emergency vehicles need thru ? Wait till we move Columbia come on it could be your loved one in need .

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  6. PARKING STUDY with the amount of borough workers we can do our own.

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    Replies
    1. There actually was a free study done quite a few years ago.

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  7. With the signs at the lite leading to the money pit , should they be in Spanish too??

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  8. The monkey on Manor Street was actually a capuchin monkey. It was my grandparents, they adopted it when I was very young and was actually older than me. He passed away in 2007 at the age of 45.

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