The Five Best Things To Happen Downtown in the Last Decade

I can sense progress downtown in that I had an easier time putting together the list of the five best things to happen here since 1996 than I did compiling the list of the five worst. Of course, a couple of the "best" things are actually things that didn't happen, so maybe my initial reaction was a little deceptive. Anyway, without any further ado, here are the five best things to happen to downtown Phoenix since 1996:

#5: Cardinals Stadium goes to Glendale: I'm a big sports fan, and I think that downtown arenas and stadiums, when done right, can be tremendous catalysts for redevelopment. But putting the Cardinals Stadium in downtown Phoenix would have been a disaster.
First, while the Diamondbacks play 61 home games per year and the Suns have 45 (or so) home dates annually, the Cardinals would have played only 10 games in the stadium per season. That's only 10 extra days on which people will come downtown, for a far more minimal overall impact than the Suns or D-Backs have.
Second, downtown Phoenix has hit the saturation point as far as sports-oriented events go. Another arena would have been overkill for a downtown that would have had little else besides sports.
Third, relatedly, and perhaps most importantly, the suggested location was right in the middle of the Roosevelt Arts District. Had the stadium been built, the burgeoning scene on Roosevelt (where real urban life now exists in the form of places such as Modified, Fate, Artisan Village and Made) would not exist. For that reason alone, it was a major victory when downtown backed out of the stadium race. (I still think the stadium should have been in Tempe, but that's another story altogether...)

#4: Arizona State University launches its downtown campus: ASU Downtown gets the number 4 slot on my list because of its potential. The addition of as many as 15,000 students in the heart of downtown has the potential to generate a lot of life in downtown Phoenix. More high-rise developments and accompanying retail, like a bookstore and grocery store, hopefully will follow. But there is still reason for caution here. ASU hasn't been as open about its plans as it should be with current residents and has pulled some behind-the-scenes strings in order to tear down part of the historic A.E. England Building on Central in order to build a park. Nearby historic districts could be overrun with student rental housing-- and I can tell you as someone who grew up in Tempe that students are not the best neighbors. In addition, if the campus walls itself off from the rest of downtown, it won't have much of an impact at all and Phoenix's $200M investment will be wasted. So, while there's a lot of potential here, the jury's still out.

#3: Urban residential developments appear: While the new housing built in and around downtown Phoenix is just a drop in the bucket compared to the growth the Valley of the Sun has seen in the past decade, there is genuine cause for optimism as downtown Phoenix finally has sprouted true urban residential development. Led by Roosevelt Square in 2000 and Artisan Parkview in 2003, and followed rapidly by Artisan Lofts on Central, Stadium Lofts, Artisan Village, Orpheum Lofts, and, soon, Portland Place, 44 Monroe, PRD 845 and the Summit, downtown Phoenix has gotten its first taste of high-quality "city" housing in which residents can walk to restaurants and entertainment in a real urban environment. The key will be adding more affordable housing units to this stock and making sure that future construction integrates retail (Artisan Village is a great example of doing this right).

#2: Light Rail: Yes, all it's done so far is rip up Central Avenue (so much for that expensive European brick the city added to the street 20 years ago) and downtown, but the Metro system will knit together downtown Phoenix, uptown Phoenix, and downtown Tempe and for the first time allow Phoenix residents to leave their cars at home. The presence of light rail has already driven millions of dollars of private residential development along the planned line. Commercial real estate brokers are reporting that businesses want to cluster themselves along the line. So, despite the ignorant comments of suburban naysayers, light rail will be used by more than just homeless people. And it already-- even two and a half years before completion-- has helped spur downtown growth.

#1: First Fridays: The urban street scene that is First Fridays gets the top spot in this poll for one simple reason-- upon seeing it for the first time, I have yet to hear anyone say anything other than, "I can't believe I'm in Phoenix." First Fridays has managed to do what the sports stadiums, theatres, convention centers and other public investment couldn't do, filling restaurants and retail stores and getting tons of people to walk the streets of downtown. While the art is hit-or-miss, the popularity of this event has given hope to downtown advocates that the city can, one day, have a thriving downtown scene every night of the week. And while it's just once a month right now (although "Third" Fridays seem to be getting more and more popular) it's a great start.

Honorable Mention: the appearance of great independent restaurants around downtown (Matt's Big Breakfast, Cibo, Carly's, Fate, Cheuvront and Pizzeria Bianco); Phoenix Futures-Jerde Projects (another "best thing that didn't happen" downtown).

The Five Worst Things to Happen Downtown in the Last Decade

Downtown's come a long way in the past 10 years. But there certainly have been some missteps along the way. Here's a review of the five worst things to happen in downtown Phoenix since 1996:

5. The Civic Plaza Garage, a.k.a. "Garage Mahal": The last thing downtown Phoenix needs (ever) is another ugly, space-killing parking garage. Especially with Bank One Ballpark/Chase Field right next door, the block at 7th Street and Jefferson was a prime redevelopment spot that could have been filled with retail or residential. Instead, we get a massive garage that looks ugly, destroys the streetscape, sits lifeless when there isn't a game going on next door, and best of all, cost $91 million dollars of public money to build.

4. Bank One Ballpark/Chase Field: This is really more of a missed opportunity. Bob/Chase wasn't built to blend into the downtown streetscape like Coors Field in Denver or the MCI Center in D.C., but is instead another downtown fortress that, like the Garage Mahal, is pretty much lifeless on non-game days. This would be higher on the list but for the fact the Diamondbacks play inside, and 2001 was obviously unforgettable.

3. Sheraton at Phoenix Convention Center: Sensing a theme here? Another publicly-financed megaproject that is, at best, sterile and disappointing. I can't describe the hotel any better than the classic comments of letter-writers to the Arizona Republic: "it looks like the underside of my boat," or "that reminds me of Las Vegas buildings of the 1970's that are being demolished." What was especially regrettable is that the Phoenix City Council passed over a daring, cool architectural proposal from a local group in favor of this retread.

2. "Copper Square": There's only one saving grace to this ridiculously stupid attempt to "brand" downtown-- absolutely no one ever-- ever-- calls downtown "Copper Square." (Well, except the people who came up with the name and are paid to repeat it.) The idea that a city's downtown would be known by some other name is just conceptually false. Maybe they could have renamed some portion of downtown as "Copper Square"...but not the whole thing. Hopefully the Downtown Phoenix Partnership cuts its losses and drives a stake through this one.

1. The continued demolition of historic buildings: Since 1996, downtown has lost Madison Square Garden, St. Mary's Elementary School, several warehouse district buildings when the county built its awesome jail/morgue complex, and has set the stage for the total compromise of the integrity of the Sun Mercantile Building and San Carlos Hotel. In the works is the continued tear-down of historic buildings in the Warehouse District thanks to a recent Phoenix Planning Commission decision to make it easy for developers to carve up the overlay in that area.

Downtown Phoenix needs to realize that its competitive edge over the suburbs or even an area like 24th Street and Camelback is its history. Other downtowns across the country have leveraged their history as an economic development tool, but Phoenix for the most part hasn't figured this out. Of course, this problem may "solve" itself, because at the rate things are going pretty soon there won't be much history left to tear down.

Coming next: The Five Best Things to Happen Downtown in the Last Decade...

Matt's Little Tavern?

Good news- Another restaurant is on the way for downtown Phoenix, as the owners of Matt's Big Breakfast are planning to open a tavern featuring American bar food. The yet-to-be-named tavern will be located at 3rd Street and McKinley, around the corner from Matt's.

Matt's is one of the best things to happen downtown in the last few months, and if this new restaurant is anywhere near the same quality-- which I fully expect it will be-- "northern" downtown will have one more small business building block.

I wanted to start this blog with some positive news...

Welcome

This site will be a forum for people to discuss downtown Phoenix and urban Arizona and the issues facing the city and metropolitan region. Finally, it seems that downtown has some real momentum, but as always in Phoenix, there exists the possibility that the opportunity to create a real "city" will be squandered.

Hopefully this site will be a clearinghouse for information and discussion as our city moves forward.