While deciding which photo to use to lead this post, I settled on this one, taken at the corner of Maryland and Euclid Avenues last Friday evening during the June Local Social event, to demonstrate how lively the neighborhood is on weekends, which now seem to start on Thursdays. Those who were in the CWE that night to dine, or simply to walk about, happened upon all kinds of street entertainment thanks to the generosity of CWE North Community Improvement District, which arranged for a line-up of musicians, a mime, clowns, an artist and a magician to perform throughout the CID district between 6 and 9 p.m. Pedicabs were also available to transport visitors along Euclid Avenue between Maryland and Washington Avenues.
If you peer closely at the photo far right you might be able to see the very top of a pile driver at the corner of Euclid and Lindell that's being used to install piers for a 12-story 217-unit apartment building. When the Opus project and the numerous other apartment projects that are under construction in the Central West End are complete next year, there will be more than 1,250 new dwelling units from Vandeventer to Kingshighway, Hwy. 64/40 to Delmar. The CWE is booming!
Leaving that busy intersection, we came across a mime by lululemon.
And then the mime and a clown from Circus Kaput.
The juggler and musicians Mario & Julio kept things lively at the corner of Maryland and Euclid, alongside Coffee Cartel, above and below.
For $1 one could get a "wet and slobbery kiss" in front of Wolfgang's Pet Stop, above and below. I asked proprietor Beth Ruppel, above right, how the best canine kissers were chosen. It seems that the shop's groomers keep a little black book.
The busy scene at Gringo, Euclid and McPherson, above.
Balloon artist Wayne Canepa adds a finishing touch to a special request.
While Bean, the Chihuahua above, was content simply sitting and enjoying the view from a ringside table at Pi, the Kempton girls, above, were considering putting him in a purse and taking him home.
Just north of Pi, steel drummer Mango Jay entertained outside Club Viva.
J'aime Jackson sketched caricatures outside The Silver Lady and West End Tan on McPherson.
And a hula hoop artist kept things spinning outside Left Bank Books.
Irie Sun entertained from Kopperman's patio, above.
And talented Sebastian Salas did stand-up card tricks.
The final photos show families enjoying the evening at the Maryland Plaza Fountain near 'Scape, above and below.
and across the street, above.
The next Local Social is scheduled for Friday, July 10.