Roosevelt continues to surge forward

The area centered around 3rd Avenue and Portland Streets continues to emerge as a true, pedestrian-oriented urban environment. Pictured here is the Sun Dee Building, located at the southeast corner of 3rd Avenue and Portland. The building is being renovated by Desert Viking Co. (whose credits include the nearby Gold Spot Market and Lamar Building). The building will be a single family-home supposedly selling for more than $1,000,000. Meanwhile, Desert Viking is moving ahead with plans for a condominium on the northeast corner of the same intersection. The property was fenced off this week and a hearing on a city variance is upcoming.

Central Phoenix still has a football power

While some other central Phoenix high schools have seen their sports programs decline during the past 20-30 years, Brophy still remains a powerhouse. Brophy won its first state football title last season. Congratulations to the Broncos for their big win over archrival St. Mary's last week.

Downtown tidbits

A few musings on downtown Phoenix happenings:

* Portland Place has sold 46 of its 54 condos as of yesterday. Another condo may open up, but this is still encouraging news for the downtown condo market, particularly after the investors jumped ship. The picture here is the rooftop at Portland Place. In the foreground is what will become the pool deck, looking south toward the downtown core.

* Weitz may yet be the builder for Portland Place's second phase.

* I brought up a comment that appeared on the forums at skyscraperpage.com, courtesy of the poster Soleri, that construction at Artisan Haus may be delayed or the project may be cancelled altogether, and a Weitz official told me he had "heard the same thing." While I was not a huge fan of the Artisan Haus design, particularly the way the building turned a mostly-blank wall toward Central Avenue, the thought of having another vacant lot in central Phoenix is much less appealing. I hope this project still works out.

* Speaking of vacant parcels on Central, there was some promising news today about the sale of the land at Central and McDowell. Hopefully the entity that purchased the land is serious about developing this parcel across from the Phoenix Art Museum, and isn't simply a speculator. AmLand Development, one of the partners in this resume, has a couple of impressive-looking projects in Philly and in Las Vegas, according to the company's web site. Construction is underway on the Vegas project. How great would it be to have a similar four or five-tower complex built at Central and McDowell?

Yes, we have great winter weather. Is that all there is to life in a city?

The Arizona Republic ran its annual piece, coinciding with the first major snowfall back east, in which it basically points out to the locals that 'it's warm here in the winter, and cold in other places!' The added bonus this year was that Buffalo, N.Y. was the metro area that was blasted by snow, so the Republic got to gloat about that area's shrinking population versus the Phoenix area's population explosion.

I lived in Buffalo for two years. Admittedly, it has a lot of problems. But it has a host of assets that Phoenix could only dream of: several major public and private universities, world-class architecture, true urban life in its core (some downtown, most along Elmwood Avenue-- think Central Avenue but with cool shops, restaurants, and people), real neighborhoods, a theatre district, distinct foods and a shared culture. I went to a wedding in Buffalo a couple years back, and at one point several of the guests started chanting "Let's go, Buffalo!" as the DJ played Lloyd Williams' "Shout" (it's played after touchdowns at Buffalo Bills games and featured in the movie Animal House). Try to imagine Phoenicians ever having enough pride in our city to do something like that.

So, while I'm glad that my city is warm in the winter and isn't dwindling away like a few places back east, there's a lot more to life than nice weather. Ignore what the civic cheerleaders at the Arizona Republic would have you think; Phoenix can learn something even from much-maligned (and cold) places like Buffalo.

Ghetto?

A recent post on a message board discussing Phoenix referred to downtown Phoenix and environs as "ghetto." I've had a couple visitors to my place insinuate the same thing. Yeah, well, browse this list of recent downtown home sales and try to make that argument. Keep in mind that the median resale price of a home in the Phoenix area is $257,000.

Gentrification: really an issue?

The latest protest against the "gentrification" of downtown Phoenix is profiled in this week's Phoenix New Times. Basically, some of the artists who helped colonize this area fear a wave of yuppie lofts and chain stores overrunning the neighborhood. I think these fears are a little ridiculous. It's one thing when gentrification of a neighborhood drives lower-income residents out of their homes. But while that happens a lot in other cities, there's not much evidence of that happening in Phoenix.

Here, most of the new condos and lofts are being built on what were previously dirt lots or underutilized properties (as in the case of 44 Monroe, Artisan Village, and Portland Place). No residents are being forced to leave because of the construction, and it doesn't appear as though rising property values have changed the composure of nearby neighborhoods like Garfield. And thus far, the retail that has come with the new developments has been organic, non-chain type fare such as Cheuvront and Tammie Coe/MJ Bread. True, if the new developments bring more standbys like the generic P.F. Changs (as promised by the CityScape development) that would be a bad thing. But there's no worries of downtown Phoenix becoming another chain-infested Mill Avenue yet.

What downtown needs is more residents. Yuppies, artists, families...there's room for everybody. And what is the alternative to the development...downtown Phoenix remains filled with vacant dirt lots?