COLUMBIA SPY

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

A few more clues that you're in Columbia:

The COLUMBIA sign at Locust Street Park

And here's another sign you're in Columbia: a brand new sinkhole.

According to a resident of the 600 block of Walnut Street, this sinkhole appeared today (Sunday, November 25) on the sidewalk near 651 Walnut.

Another sinkhole had been noted a few weeks ago near the same spot. This most recent one measures 3 to 4 feet long by about 2-1/2 feet wide by 3 to 4 feet deep.

Columbia Borough Police and at least one member of the borough's highway department arrived on-scene late afternoon and placed barricades around the affected area.

And yet another hint you're in Columbia: a new Knox Box.

Unfortunately, this one was hanging open as of this morning, Sunday, November 25. A controversial lock box ordinance was passed this year. Businesses have until December 31 to comply.

The open Knox Box is located on the 400 block of Locust Street. Has anyone else noticed? By the way, the pawn shop is for sale.

Anyway, here a few more clues, basically self-explanatory:

Down on South 2nd: ventilation - old school

(A new window was recently installed.)

Tires, cut through, keep appearing along the railroad tracks right off Union Street.

This guy is shoveling the street at 6th and Poplar.

Construction vehicles left a trail of mud from the construction site.

And here's the site: the Columbia Outpatient Center - LGH.

And here's the documentation, apparently properly done. (Some businesses are allowed to renovate without the proper documentation.)

Datestone at the Columbia First Church of God at 7th and Walnut

700 block of Walnut - Looks like the rehab house is being rehabbed.

It's never a good idea to leave the key in the lift - unattended.

The lift was used to enable workers to install new Christmas lights at Locust Street Park.

Here's another ventilated building - the Haitian Maranatha Church on Locust.

Wounded mirror

Heading south - The taxes are too damn high.

Gray tabby and blue rhino

Peek of sunshine

Immature Cooper's hawk on the roof of Tollbooth Antiques

Those alternating open and solid spaces along the top of the tower are called crenels and merlons. In medieval times, archers would have shot arrows from there to fend off invading hordes.

A hint of the Columbia that was

Ghost sign

Twin peaks

(At the firehouse on North 4th)

Twin pillars

(At the Edward C. Shannon Armory on Walnut Street)

Down on the first block of North 2nd

Better check that insulation.

Aches and panes

Graffiti-riddled boxcar, many of which pass through town regularly -

We're still waiting for the next Bansky or Haring to appear.

Four Cape Cod chairs painted in two of three secondary colors

The 500 block of Walnut - what, again?

C.S. Davidson reportedly has a 20-item punch list for the Walnut Street road project.

Clogged grates - part of why residents are getting water in their basements on the 500 and 600 blocks of Walnut

There's that giant yellowjacket again.

Kill it. Kill it quick.

Yellowjackets are mean and nasty.

St. Paul's Episcopal

Thanksgiving's over.

Time for Santa

To be unveiled

A touch of Americana

More Americana: gumball machines at Andy's

Riding high down Locust to the former Number 1 Firehouse -

The lift was picked up by Slaymaker this past Friday morning.

12th and Manor: More ghost signs. The lower one reads: CUT GLASS CO. The upper one is illegible.

Double decker: Two rows of corbels

Oh, to be a Private Drive member

Bird brains at the municipal building

This is what the tags read on those scarves used in scarf-bombing on the 300 block of Locust.

CHI might be putting a rooftop playground on this building.

The unsightly box on top hides the unsightly cell towers.

CONDEMNED

(On the 300 block of Locust)

Here's the adjoining alleyway, containing God-knows-what.

In memory of . . .

Part of Grinnell Avenue is freezing over, because the sump pump/drainage problem has not yet been addressed. Columbia Spy will report on the borough's plan shortly.