There’s all kinds of slumps. Batting Slumps, Pitching Slumps, Career Slumps, Income Slumps (if you’re in sales you know what I mean), Oil Clean-up Slumps and Political Capital Slumps (ask the President – he knows).

There’s also a new one. IT’S A BLOGGING SLUMP. There’s any number of things that can lead up to it. Just not enough hours in a day. Burn Out (the big one), Exhaustion. Depression. Arthritis. As I geared myself up to write this today, I got curious and googled “blogging slump” and lo and behold: I’m not the only one.

The Blog Herald describes it best as to what I’ve been thru recently:

When you start out blogging, you’re full of energy and ideas, and it’s hard to imagine that enthusiasm ever waning, but ask almost everyone who’s been blogging for a long time, and they’ll tell you that it does. Suddenly, where you once had seemingly endless articles waiting to be written, you feel like you have nothing to post about and not much interest in writing anyway. What do you do when you hit one of these blogging slumps?

I really screwed up by not knowing this piece of their advice was out there:

2. Take a break. Sometimes, when you’re burnt out on blogging, a break will help re-energize you. Tell your readers up front that you are taking a hiatus, and let them know how long you’ll be gone. For most readers, this will be no problem at all as long as you let them know before you stop posting for a period. It’s very important to make them aware up front. If you don’t, they will think you’ve just disappeared and may unsubscribe and stop visiting all together,

AND, it was just plain rude of me to drop off without even letting you know. I apologize.

THE GOOD NEWS: I’m back and anxious to blog again.

One reason I’m anxious to blog again, is so that all the KIND READERS who have emailed me, run into me at an event, or called me TO GET OFF OF MY BACK.  I yelled that in caps to have an excuse to use a smiley face, which I’d sworn I’d never do. I really appreciate all the concern, and even all the expressed anxiety that I was done blogging for good. NOT SO!

For 3 and half years, I was, I believe, one of the most prodigious real estate bloggers in the country. Don’t believe me? Try reading it backwards all the way to the beginning. There’s well over 1000 posts. It put me dead at the top of the any google search that contained any of following terms along with the words Las Vegas: mid century modern, MCM, historic, vintage, retro, urban etc etc. I may have lost some of my “google juice” during the slump, but I’ll get it back.

It’s worked wonders in establishing me in the minds of so many of you as “the” go-to guy on any of those subjects. It hasn’t lost it’s power, and I won’t/can’t let it, either. Thankfully, my past prodigiousness kept my phone ringing all thru the slump.

I still, amusingly get several calls or emails a week from people around the country who want to buy this pattern or that pattern of the Decorative Concrete Blocks. People call and email asking for contractors and handymen. New buyers are calling me all time. I work with some of them and not with others. I talk to buyers who HAVE to use their boss’s cousin’s girlfiend as an agent. Even the Boss’s Cousin’s Girlfriend calls me for advice because “she’s clueless” about old houses and historic neighborhoods. I talk 5 times a day with homeowners who are distressed about what to do about their “upside down” mortgage.  I can help some of them, but not all of them. But I give them all at least the time of day.

And I’m still in business!

I’m grateful to all of you. And I’ve heard it so often, that many of you are grateful for my past blogging.

So here’s the deal:

I’m geared up to get at it again. Mentally, physically, and time-wise. There’s even a new post below this one if you’ll scroll down. If you get my posts by email, or by RSS feed, you already know that.

If I remember correctly, the most number of comments I ever received to any one post is 21. That’s a lot if you’re not a political blog.

I’m thinking that a few or many or a lot of you might want to tell me what you’d like to see more of. Tell the other readers why this blog is an important one. Tell them why it’s important to you, or how how it helped you make a decision about where to live or something about your house, or why your neighborhood is so great. If you’re a past client, tell them about your experience working with me. Tell my what a scum I am for not posting for 2 months and how glad you are that I’m back again. Anything you want to say.

Let’s have at it. The more comments I get to THIS POST AND ALL FUTURE POSTS, the more I’ll blog. Deal??

Sincerely,

Uncle Jack

I’m starting a new series on the “historic” neighborhoods of Las Vegas. A few have Historic Status and get a capital H. But all of them are from the 40’s 50’s and 60’s. It’s my intention to do them as much in chronological order as possible, knowing that some of the neighborhoods developed simultaneously.

First up on the list is the historic Las Vegas neighborhood of Huntridge. In future posts I’ll discuss the area, the architecture, the charm and the history. Today though, we’re going to talk about the heart of Huntridge, The Huntridge Circle Park.

The Huntridge Circle Park sits in the middle of Maryland Parkway, just south of Charleston. It’s surrounded by 3 busy lanes of traffic in each direction. It’s also one of the smallest parks in the City of Las Vegas Parks System.

Unfortunately, the Park is CURRENTLY CLOSED. There’s lots of politics behind that decision. There’s plenty of coverage of it over at the Review J****nal. (aside: their name will never again darken the pages of my blog) but here’s a good story from 2006 in THE LAS VEGAS SUN on the politics. There’s lots of downtown neighbors who have very vocally expressed our desire to open it back up. The city says there’s no money to do it. There’s been plenty of meetings with councilman Gary Reese, plenty of letters sent, and plenty of whining from the neighbors.

Happily, it’s finally come down to this: A private group, the owner’s a gun store and shooting range called American Shooters has an idea to build a world class Veteran’s Memorial. They promised to raise the funds, select a design, and donate it to the city when done. So far, they haven’t let us down, and I don’t believe they will either. As you’ll see, the project has been moving forward for many months now.

There were numerous meetings held about this, and the leaders of many of the Neighborhood Associations prevailed at getting one of our own, Kasey Baker, to be on the committee to select. the final design from among more than 100 entrants. Kasey was the architect of the current iteration of the Park. I served on that committee for a long year 10 years ago as we rebuilt the Park and turned it into something beautiful and wonderful for the re-emerging Downtown Las Vegas Historic Neighborhoods.

Last week, the 4 top finalists got to show off their concepts and designs. The maquettes or scale model mock-ups were on display for a day for the City Council and mayor and invited neighborhood activists to see them. I was on my way there to see them, when I saw Gerard Ramalho of Channel 3 filming his report live in the Huntridge Park, so I got to see this being filmed. They did an excellent job covering not only the past, but the present and future of the Huntridge Circle Park and the Veteran’s Memorial.

Here’s a few of the pictures I took that day to help you get the feel for them. (they’re clickable to see at a larger size). The “marqettes” will be on display for public comment and recommendation as to which of the designs will ultimately be built. Below the pictures is the schedule where you can GO SEE THEM FOR YOURSELF (PLEASE), and give the committee your input.   

Input from ALL of Las Vegas, and especially from the Downtown Neighborhoods is honestly being sought. You can see the maquettes at the following 2 locations.

Now Thru July 5:

American Shooters

3440 S. Arville Street

Las Vegas, NV 89102

Phone: (702) 362-1223

On display during store business hours

July 6 thru July 19:

East Las Vegas Community/Senior Center

250 North Eastern Avenue
Las Vegas, NV 89101
Phone: (702) 229-1515

On display during center business hours: Monday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. (Tuesday on display after 10 AM) and Tuesday to Friday, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Saturday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m