Cityscape: No thanks

I've held off on addressing the CityScape proposal for a while. But the final proposal has come forward, and it's time to comment. Here are my pluses and minuses about this proposal, and my conclusion.

Pluses:

No more parking lots. If built out, the CityScape development would replace parking lots with residential, office, and hotel towers. Obviously, eliminating surface parking lots at the heart of the city would be a good thing.

Grocery Store. CityScape has signed a letter-of-intent with AJ's to build a grocery store downtown. Such a store is of vital importance if downtown is to support residents, and AJ's is a quality place.

Residential/Office. CityScape could bring as many as 1,000 residential units downtown, if built out. That is a lot of people, although residential development better be affordable in light of the slow condo market. The office space is really needed as downtown has the lowest vacancy rate of any metro Phoenix office submarket.

Minuses.

Patriot's Square Park. The current plans for CityScape would see a two-story PF Changs and a six-story building housing Borders and AJ's replace downtown's public square. This is an absolute travesty. Simply put, the citizens of Phoenix should not have to give up a public park-- particularly the only one in the middle of downtown-- in order to get generic retail and services that can be found in numerous locations in this city and in others. On top of that, RED Development is seeking a city subsidy!

(And don't believe for one second that the little grassy area between Borders and PF Changs makes up for the loss of Patriot's Square. It's a tiny, token gesture on the part of RED.)

(More!) Blank walls in downtown. While CityScape representatives have stated that their development will have street-facing retail along Washington and Jefferson Street, there appear to be blank walls facing the street along First Street, Second Street, and Central Avenue. How do I put this? No, no, no. We simply cannot repeat the mistakes of the Arizona Center and Collier Center.

Questionable Obligation. In exchange for a city subsidy and the city's relinquishment of Patriot's Square Park, RED only must build one office building and develop the retail on Patriot's Square. So, one building and some uninspiring accompanying retail...I have a name for that: Collier Center. We don't need another Collier Center, particularly one we have to pay for.

Submerged Streets. The CityScape plan plunges Central Avenue and First Street underneath pedestrian overpasses. I'm not a fan of this. Real urban development interacts with existing city streets and doesn't try to separate pedestrians and cars. This is one step above a superblock!

Chain Stores. Borders is everywhere. PF Changs is everywhere...and it sucks! Of course national chains will want to be a part of the revived downtown Phoenix, but do we have to pay for them too?

Summary: I'm really disappointed by all of this. The public process related to Patriot's Square Park was a farce, as RED and the city came back with essentially the same design as the original proposal. More importantly, this looks like a huge missed opportunity to develop prime city blocks the right way. I'm all for more towers and new residential and office-- but not at the expense of our public park, and particularly not for what is effectively another suburban development plopped in downtown.

Let's not act out of desperation. Downtown Phoenix looks like it was built out of desperation-- with project after project that hoped to "save" downtown and flopped. That's not the case anymore. Downtown has a lot of positive momentum: the office market is booming; the Jackson Street Entertainment District has a lot of promise; First Fridays are spurring new restaurants and housing. Basically, we don't need to be desperate anymore. Let's encourage the City of Phoenix to vote down the city incentive for CityScape and the plan to give away Patriot's Square so we can wait for another, better urban development that is fitting of the city's heart.