Red Car Junction

Red Car Junction, originally uploaded by Living in Monrovia.

Here is a rendering I scanned from the 2007 State of the City Brochure. It depicts the proposed Red Car Junction mixed-use development scheduled to be built later this year at the southeast corner of Myrtle and Olive. It will contain 136 condos, 11 work-live units and 7,800 square feet of commercial space. The 3-acre site will also contain more than 350 parking spaces.

This year's mayoral address for the State of the City meeting was both extensive and succinct, and was chock full of photographs of the city's existing and planned projects. A surprise to me was that the city has now acquired a vacant building that has long been my own particular bug-a-boo, the former Senior Center building located at 601 S. Myrtle. Apparently the city is negotiating a bar & grill restaurant at the site, but nothing has been confirmed. My own fantasy was for a small hotel at the site ("The Monroe"?) that might have a restaurant incorporated inside. Doncha think the city's namesake deserves to have some sort of watering hole named after him? I could imagine something with 19th Century decor and old photos. But hey, my imagination is usually in overdrive!