This will be a short post today; I’ve been stuck in Oregon due to some car trouble and am writing this before I begin the long trek (via my car) home.

In my last post, I showed an image of the “Skate” sign that once was affixed to the long-gone Redwood Roller Rink and is now a piece of public art between two of the buildings in the ELCO Yards project. Here is a better photo of that sign:

Due to the sign’s fine condition, I had stated that this was either a restoration of the original sign, or a nice replica. An alert reader noted that the sign angles the wrong way (when attached to the building it angled down from left to right), causing me to give credence to the idea that it is a replica. But in that response, my reader began with “unless they flipped the old sign over and repainted or added lettering to the back…”, which turns out to be exactly the case! All of the construction fencing around the two buildings this sign now stands between has been removed, and you can now walk along the sidewalk between those buildings and the Caltrain tracks, thereby getting a view of the sign’s back side. And here is what that looks like:

So it seems safe to say that this is indeed the original sign, reversed and with a close replica of of the original face on the sign’s rear (which I guess is now the sign’s face). Clever.

Along that rear walkway, I was able to get a nice clear look at the murals that adorn each of the two adjacent buildings. Here is the mural on the Caltrain-tracks side of the building closest to Chestnut Street:

And here is the mural on the other building, which stands adjacent to the Main Street Dog Agility Park:

Both have been done by muralist Kelly Ording, and I find both to be quite lovely. They are definitely worth a visit.

Since the construction fencing is down around the ELCO Yards building out on El Camino Real at Cedar Street as well, I took a walk around that building, too. It has some interesting public art at the building’s main entrance (to the office portion of the building, at least; this building also has a large open “family friendly retail” space on its El Camino side, and a childcare center on its Cedar Street side; both with separate entrances):

And nearby is this bench, which I think I’ve shown before:

Finally, when I was there in the area the Main Street Dog Agility Park definitely looked to be complete, although it was not yet open. The city had put up signs indicating that the park was still closed, but I had to laugh when I saw how someone had augmented the sign:

“Until when?” indeed. Perhaps it is open now? I hope to check this week. But it sure looks good:

On that same walking trip I took a spin through Sequoia Station to see if I could identify where the Yumi Yogurt store will be located. That turned out to be a rather simple task:

As you can probably tell, this store will be in the middle of the center’s “restaurant row”, which runs from See’s Candy to Jamba Juice.

Finally, thanks to an article in the Redwood City Pulse, I learned that next Wednesday (the 27th) the Redwood City Women’s Club will be hosting “five speakers in a public discussion on how to build a better downtown by considering buildings, transportation networks, parks and businesses as one connected system.” Then on Thursday, September 4, the city itself will hold a walking tour along Redwood Creek “to explore how it will become a recreational site intended to support climate resilience and downtown development goals.” Both events are part of an effort to update Redwood City’s vision for its downtown and its Centennial and Stambaugh-Heller neighborhoods. Both events require pre-registration. Register here for the August 27 event at the Women’s Club (149 Clinton St.), which will run from 6 – 7:30 p.m. As for the Redwood Creek walk (which will begin just outside the Sports Basement store at 4:30 p.m. and will be followed by a speaker panel inside that store’s “The Grove” community space from 6 – 7:30 p.m.), register here.