It's the little things

Amid the battle over CityScape and the eye-catching construction taking place at 44 Monroe and Summit, it's easy to lose sight of what really makes a city: the small stuff. In spite of the city bureaucracy, which hinders small business expansion, downtown Phoenix is doing pretty well on that front (part of the reason why I believe we don't need CityScape).

Here are a few more pictures of what's going on downtown on the human scale:

The owners of Fate, the pan-Asian restaurant on Fourth Street, are expanding their ventures. Pictured here is Fate (on the left), and its neighboring structure to the right at 901 N. Fourth Street, which is being gutted for remodeling as we speak. My understanding is that this building will house a bar and tavern. I'm also happy that Fate has gotten rid of the crappy asphalt parking lot that used to sit in front of the restaurant-- it looks like patio seating will replace the parking. (That's fine, in cities you parallel park on the street).


To the east of the 901 N. Fourth Street structure is this cool, two-story building that also is being renovated by the Fate owners. This is the back of both buildings, with 901 N. Fourth Street on the right.

Here is a two-story building at 1017 N. Central, just north of Roosevelt. It was a gallery a few months back, but has since been converted to a very modern-looking office building.

Just up the street from Matt's Big Breakfast is this formerly vacant building at 818 N. 1st Street, which is now the sales office for the KML Mosaic project in Tempe. (Interesting that the sales office for a Tempe condo is here...)

And finally, for good measure, is the historic home at 830 N. Second Avenue that I pictured just a couple weeks back. Check out the progress...