Nothing left of Penguin now

It wasn't long ago that the wife and I drove past The Penguin, or at least its empty shell.

"I wonder when they are going to demolish it?" I asked out loud.

I got my answer Wednesday when we spotted a backhoe working in front of the old AM/PM at the corner of William and Carson streets.

We came around the far side to find The Penguin already had been crunched.

All that was left were some bricks and what looked like the diner's swamp cooler.

I had the chance, but I never ate at The Penguin, which closed more than five years ago in December 1997. According to a November news story by Appeal business reporter Susie Vasquez, the restaurant was built in the early 1950s.

Wife Jennifer remembers stopping by The Penguin on trips into Carson City when she was a girl.

"They made the best foot-long chili dogs," she said.

Susie's story mentioned that one former employee who made good is Helaine Jesse, who worked at the restaurant in high school. Today Helaine is vice president of institutional advancement at Western Nevada Community College.

One famous customer was former Gov. Bob Miller.

The beginning of the Legislature means some of Carson's own have come home for a bit.

Carson City resident and former Citizen Alert Director Kaitlin Backlund is a lobbyist for the Nevada Conservation League.

She will be issuing reports about conservation-related issues during the session.

Harvey Connerly, who mans the desk at the Carson High Tech Center, thinks San Antonio, Texas, has something to teach Reno about redevelopment.

San Antonio, like Reno, is home to a river, which runs right downtown. Unlike Reno, though, San Antonio has turned its river into a major tourist attraction.

Harvey thinks Reno could do the same if they cleared the rocks out of the Truckee and built a dam. In San Antonio they run gondolas up and down the river and there are gardens and trees. On the Web site for the Riverwalk, it says the Texans got started on the project very early, 1961, which happens to be when I was born.

Reno may have some catching up to do. If you're interested check out the site at http://thesanantonioriverwalk.com/.

I wonder that the Reno Gazette-Journal's editorial board stopped at recommending the merger of Carson City and Douglas County. I can think of several mergers that might actually be more helpful.

How about merging the Truckee River with the train trench? That would go a long ways toward making Harvey's dream a reality.

Washoe County could merge with Humboldt County to prevent the organizers of Burning Man from playing one off the other.

There is something a little silly about the Reno newspaper suggesting two other counties should just up and decide to become one big happy county.

Meanwhile, the cities of Reno, Sparks, and Washoe County had to go to court to settle their differences.

Perhaps it was a slow day on the editorial desk, or just maybe the fact that three Carson City officials are old Douglas County hands.

Andy Burnham, Larry Werner and Juan Guzman have all worked for Douglas County at one time or another before coming to work for the city.

I think Carson City and Douglas County will work out their differences without an act of the Legislature. I can sum up the Gazette's editorial by paraphrasing "The Simpsons" Grandpa, who in a letter to the editor decried the surplus of states in the union.

"There are too many counties, eliminate two. I am not a crackpot."

Kurt Hildebrand is former managing editor of the Nevada Appeal and is a known crackpot. Reach him at 887-2430, ext. 402 or e-mail him at kurt@tahoe.com.