The Buzz: Three steam whistles in downtown Redding as tribute to city's past, a trendy future

It’s a blast to the past.

Outside the new Market Center building in downtown Redding is a trio of steam whistles at the corner of Butte and Market streets.

About 20 feet high, the public art will not only be seen, but also heard.

Every Friday at 5 p.m., the whistles will blare, signaling the end of the work week and the start of downtown’s weekend nightlife.

Daniel Knott of K2 Development told me they wanted Market Center's looks and surroundings to reflect Redding’s “core culture.”

“As such, we identified a place for a public art piece that was designed to start conversations, pay homage to our community’s history, and serve as a toast to our downtown transition into a new vibrant, walkable economy that offers new business opportunities during the day and more entertainment and excitement at night,” Knott said in an email.

K2 wanted to tap into Redding’s blue-collar roots in the timber and steel industries and the common thread that connects the two.

“Every day, a steam whistle will signal the end of a shift, a time where hard work and where enjoyment of the fruits of one’s labor can begin,” Knott said.

K2 believes the steam whistle will be a tribute to the city’s past while signaling our industrial future.

“We hope it is an accurate depiction of who we have always been and our limitless potential as we grow into our future,” Knott said.

Knott couldn’t say when the whistle will sound for the first time.

The city of Redding is putting the finishing touches on the streetscape project around Market Center and has scheduled a ribbon cutting for Feb. 24.

“We are trying to have it ready for the streets ribbon cutting. We are working with the team to see how close we can get. My guess though is we are a month out of getting equipment from manufacturers,” Knott said Thursday.

Modus Studio, the Block 7 project architect, created the public art. The company also has a fabrication shop, Knott said.

The return of Kahunas 

Five months after announcing it was closing due to the pandemic and putting their building up for sale, the owners of Kahunas Mongolian BBQ & Sushi have decided to reopen the business.

Co-owner Nina Oller was at the restaurant Friday afternoon getting it ready. She told me the goal is to reopen Feb.16.

“We felt that after about six months things were going to turn around or it (building) would sell,” she said. “So we thought, alright, let’s do this. So off we go.”

Oller believes the economic picture is getting better and with people starting to get vaccinated, the situation will continue to improve.

Kahunas will be open for indoor dining, joining other restaurants and bars in Redding that are doing it despite the fact indoor dining is not allowed under the purple tier of the state's reopening plan for businesses.  

“We have to, to survive,” Oller said.

Shasta County fell into the most restrictive public health designation last October.

Kahunas is in the Shasta Center on Churn Creek Road. It will be open 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and noon to 9 p.m. Sunday. They will adjust the hours if needed.

“I think people are very excited to have us back and we’re excited to see them,” Oller said.

Restaurants and the risk of COVID spread

Restaurants have absorbed much of the economic hardships wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic.

And for months now, Shasta County Supervisor Les Baugh has wondered why local restaurants can’t offer indoor dining. He believes state health rules governing businesses are unfairly targeting restaurants.

For the record, restaurants across the county are accommodating indoor dining, have been for months even though we are in the most restrictive purple tier, which doesn’t allow it.

County officials since the start of the pandemic have said they will enforce the rules through education rather than ticketing or fining businesses, so many restaurants believe they've got nothing to lose, except their business.

Baugh had asked local health officials how much of the spread of COVID-19 can be blamed on restaurants, and he got his answer at Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting.

The short answer is we don’t know.

But there have been some studies that suggest people are more likely to contract the virus in a restaurant than say a hair salon, Public Health Director Robin Schurig said.

County health doesn’t specifically ask those who’ve been infected if they have eaten at a restaurant. Instead, Schurig said, they ask people to think about where they have been and their recent contacts.

“In response to the question in terms of how they may have been infected, most people say they had contact with a known case,” Schurig said. “Some of those are people in their household, sometimes it’s someone who they get together with and that get-together could have taken place in a restaurant or a different setting, and some say they have attended a gathering.”

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There are instances in Shasta County where clusters have been identified at restaurants, Schurig said.

Fortunately, Schurig went on, there have been multiple studies that reveal the potential risks of eating inside a restaurant.

When health officials talk to people who have tested positive and people who have tested negative, “the people who tested positive are more than twice as likely to say they’ve been at a restaurant during the period when they became infected,” she said.

Schurig explained to supervisors that this is understandable given what they know about the virus.

COVID-19 spreads mainly from person to person through respiratory droplets that travel in the air when someone who is infected coughs, sneezes or talks, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Face masks help contain those droplets or flying spit and are most effective when everyone, including those who may not know they have the virus, wears one, health experts say. 

“If people are indoors for an extended period of time, and they’re removing their masks in order to eat and drink, then it’s more likely they could contract or spread COVID than in other settings,” Schurig said.

Logging conference postponed to May

Early February is typically when the timber industry converges in Shasta County for the Sierra-Cascade Logging Conference in Anderson.

But due to the pandemic, this year's conference has been postponed until May 20-22.

Mike Quinn, who's on the board of directors, is optimistic the conference will happen in May.

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"With the state showing signs of loosening restrictions and the conference's commitment to the safety of the vendors, participants and the public, the Sierra-Cascade Logging Conference is looking forward to welcoming everyone to the 2021 exposition," Quinn told me in an email.  "We have received a tremendous amount of support from everyone involved, including the vendors and the conference staff."

Delbert Gannon is the 2021 Sierra-Cascade Logging Conference president.

Stay tuned.

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David Benda covers business, development and anything else that comes up for the USA TODAY Network in Redding. He also writes the weekly "Buzz on the Street" column. He’s part of a team of dedicated reporters that investigate wrongdoing, cover breaking news and tell other stories about your community. Reach him on Twitter @DavidBenda_RS or by phone at 1-530-225-8219. To support and sustain this work, please subscribe today.