Join us as we take a leisurely look back at some of the sights we encountered over the past seven days in St. John’s, won’t you?

In this, our first installment of the series, we’ve got free parking, urban art, sexy triangles and more!

Did you know there’s a bunch of free parking behind Wool Trends on Hamilton Avenue? Not very often you see a sign like that.

Does anyone else detect a hint of disdain in this signage? I guess you’d be pissed, too, if your front window got smashed in. I know the good people at Model Citizens didn’t appreciate it when it happened to them last week, either. Not to mention the laptop and merchandise that was stolen in the process.

None of which matters to these two, who are having a rest in the early hours of the morning before their world becomes bombarded with sticky-fingered children and their guardians. And in case you were wondering, the corn maze at Lester’s is in full effect.

At one point last week it appeared as though the sun had exploded shortly after a diesel-fueled rocket flew by overhead. Though as far as I know, neither of those things actually happened.

Art works like the one you see pictured here have been popping up throughout downtown all summer long. From a beautiful message about love to a garment-clad mask to what appears to be a screen print depicting Maurice Moss from The IT Crowd (played by Richard Ayoade, previously seen on The Mighty Boosh and Garth Marenghi’s Dark Place, both of which are brilliant.), these works don’t last long but are a much welcomed addition to the cityscape.

The old T.I. Brother Murphy Centre got a fresh lick over the weekend. Rumour has it a posh new restaurant is moving in. Here’s hoping it helps push this under-utilized end of Water Street towards becoming just as bustling as its more westward stretch. By rights there should be steady foot traffic from Harbourside Park to Colossal Pizza, where I only recently learned you can get chicken shawarma. Tell your friends.

And Junctions is being rebranded as Headquarters according to these equilateral flyers circulated around downtown last week. With the Junctions name having been synonymous with so many different kinds of clubbing experiences over the years, from candy-coated beats to blood-soaked metal, I can understand the need for a refresh. The flyers, on the other hand, mostly just left me feeling confused. And possibly violated.

If you happen to snap a photo in the coming days of this week and feel it’s captured something jeux ne sait St. John’s, send it our way!

Anyone know the deal with these two military vehicles rumbling down Water Street this afternoon with what look to be some civilian passengers?

I know the Experience Genie is in town today giving a local cancer survivor their dream day, but I don’t see this activity listed on their agenda, plus there’s a noticeable lack of blue genie on board either vehicle. If you can shed some light, feel free to do so in the comments!

I recently came across local photographer Robert Young’s blog, The St. John’s Character Collection, an eclectic mix of some of downtown St. John’s most memorable folks. The photos and accompanying stories are a fascinating peek into the people that we see every day. Lots of familiar faces in there, running the gamut from the happy and hardworking to the unfortunately notorious.

The latter includes characters like our fellow human being Marilyn (known to many as Trixie), of whom Robert offers us the gentle reminder: “Try to save a little spare change for her, and always save her some dignity. There but for the grace of God goes all of us or our family members.”

If your rush hour commute in any way involves driving downtown, you might want to try taking the long way around today. Chances are it’ll be shorter in the long run.

I went downtown today to take a look at the situation after last night’s fire. The cleanup from the demolition was still busily underway as of 4pm this afternoon.

As the excavator filled the dump truck, it would drive off and another one would arrive to take it’s place.

It’s weird, almost like Water Street is missing a tooth.

Here’s some video:

The cleanup efforts had to block off Water Street traffic from both sides of the block, making what was already a bad traffic area (due to the harbour cleanup construction) even worse. Bad as it was, drivers did appear to be taking it in stride.

On the bring side, it made crossing the roads much, much easier.

Chris Whalen, who shot this earlier daylight footage of the fire being fought downtown, returned to the scene late last night and early this morning to capture the before and after of the demolition fire fighting efforts.

Chris Whalen was on the scene early yesterday evening and captured some fantastic footage as fire fighters began their work in battling the stubborn downtown blaze.

This photo was taken not long ago by Signal reader Darcy Butler. In case you’re thinking of checking out the situation for yourself, Butler had this to say:

It would be advised to avoid the area, particularly in vehicles as large portions of both Water and Duckworth streets are closed down. But anyone wishing to see some impressive displays of firefighting, take a walk along Water and head for the Scotia Centre. Be aware, there is a large stream pouring down McBrides forcing pedestrians to drop to the bottom of the hill to cross.

Karen Chappell of local photo blog Bitstop was downtown today and took what may well be the last photo of the area before the blaze began this evening.

This photo was taken by Signal reader Craig Cutler not long ago.

According to a report from The Telegram, the fire, which is believed to have started at 148 Water Street, has spread through the four attached buildings ending at the corner of Water Street and McBrides Hill.

This was the scene at around 8:30am this morning on Water Street. There’s a sign on either side of this work crew stating that the sidewalk is open, but there’s a backhoe lugging tree stumps over a dug up section of sidewalk that begs to differ.