The Black Hole is closing. Ed Grothus, who established the Los Alamos surplus store in 1953, died in 2009. His daughter Barbara announced in September 2012 that the family has decided to close the store and sell the four-and-a half-acre property.
The owners of the Santa Fe Reporter have added another newspaper to their stable. The owners of the Willamette Week, based in Portland, OR, bought the Reporter in 1997. In August 2012 they acquired the Independent Weekly, which is based in Durham, NC.
Randy Travis left Santa Fe after he and his wife Elizabeth divorced in 2010. He moved to Tioga, Texas, where he has been arrested twice in 2012 for drinking-related offenses.
The downtown Plaza Café reopened in July 2012 after being closed for almost two years. The restaurant was damaged in a kitchen fire in September 2010.
The Sanbusco shopping center, which was developed by Joe Schepps in 1984, was taken over by creditors in July 2012. The center has been struggling since its anchor tenant, the Borders bookstore, closed in early 2011.
It has been pointed out to me that describing Prep as “the city’s other private high school” (in addition to St. Michael’s) implies that there are only two. Santa Fe Prep and St. Michael’s are the oldest and the largest, but there are other private high schools in Santa Fe, Desert Academy among them. Mea culpa.
The Historic Design Review Board is now known as the Historic Districts Review Board. The name change, which became effective March 1, 2012, is meant to reflect the board’s responsibility for older buildings within multiple districts. The board was originally responsible only for the design of new buildings in the downtown/Eastside historic district.
