Yesterday there was activity in the Tempo Presto storefront—a radio playing jazz and people inside moving around, cleaning up.

Strangely, there were also workmen moving metal pipes and other objects from the abandoned and boarded-up building on Third Street into a rental moving truck.

That’s the mystery building on Third Street next door to Tempo Presto.

"What’s going on?" a Third Street neighbor asked me. Any activity in that neglected building is big news on Third Street.

"Dunno," I said. "I asked one of the workmen if the building had been sold and he said no. But maybe that was the wrong question."

"I think the city owns that building," my neighbor told me. "It’s been vacant for more than ten years."

More like 14 years. My guess is that someone wanted all that metal. It’s worth some money, isn’t it?

It was encouraging to see activity in that building which has been boarded up for as long as I’ve lived here. Back in 2001  it looked like the building was being turned into condos and there was consistent work going on there.

After 9/11 everything stopped. Either the money dried up or someone connected with the project was affected by 9/11.

There’s been almost no activity there. Until yesterday.