'Broken window' theory at work downtown

You could see another sign of the rebirth of downtown Phoenix this week after some guy who calls himself 'Detox1' tagged a bunch of buildings in the Roosevelt neighborhood, including the historic Gold Spot Market. Ten years ago, my guess is that the graffiti would have stayed there for months. (In fact, the Gold Spot was a vacant building just 5 years ago.) But the handiwork of Detox1 (which sounds like an Instant Messenger screen name to me) was gone by mid-week at the latest, and in at least one instance had been painted over in a few hours.

Coming soon...

Downtown Phoenix continues to add the fine-grained development that will give birth to a real city:

* GS3 Condos at Third Avenue and Portland Street continue to move through the city's permitting process, seeking several variances in April.

* The "Gallery" Bar and Grill at Third Street and Roosevelt (at Canvas) received variances to allow outdoor dining and live music.

* Sister's Express Cafe apparently will open at Artisan Village in the live/work space along Roosevelt and nearest Seventh Street.

* Portland Place is moving forward on its second phase. It's hiking the prices in the few remaining condos in the first phase to match the second phase's prices.

Leadership needed

Omega Condominiums: At first blush anyway, this proposed 32-story condo looks great. It has ground-floor retail, the parking is part of the building and not a stand-alone garage, and it respects its downtown Phoenix environment (i.e., it doesn't require the destruction of any historic buildings or parks).

Unfortunately, a potential roadblock has emerged in that it will sit atop the parking lot currently in use by the residents of nextdoor Orpheum Lofts. The Orpheum residents claim they were promised parking when they purchased their condos, but once the Omega tower is built their only option will be to purchase parking at $30,000 per stall in Omega.

This problem seems solveable. If there's one thing downtown Phoenix has an abundance of, it's (not people or entertainment options) parking. There are numerous surface and garage parking lots near the Orpheum Lofts that are unused at night. And here's where we need leadership-- if Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon is really serious about downtown housing, his office should step in and broker a solution with the Orpheum HOA to find an answer to the parking problem. Hey, I hear the city wants to add a couple more floors to its already-monstrous garage on 3rd avenue (Heaven help us), so maybe there could be some spaces available there?

Orpheum Lofts and new residences. As a side note, it's interesting how the Orpheum Lofts homeowners begged the Parks Board to approve CityScape because they were so desperate for new residents and options downtown (a few so-called "urbanites" even said they were frightened by their downtown environment), but now that a proposed project threatens their own self-interest they're opposed to new development. This is bad news and there's got to be a compromise if downtown Phoenix is to succeed.

Updates and links

Odds and ends:

New Residents. Central Phoenix's population will swell a little bit more as closings just occurred in the second building in Tapestry on Central (the portion of the complex facing Central). Meanwhile, closing is supposed to take place in mid-July in the first phase of Portland Place.

Sun Mercantile/W Hotel suit. The lawsuit filed by various groups in an effort to save the Sun Mercantile building is now rolling into its fourteenth month of existence, and still going strong. The case is now in the discovery phase. I'll say it again: developers, do quality urban projects and respect the buildings and parks that are already in place, or you will face some powerful resistance. (See 44 Monroe as an example of doing it right.)

Light rail as economic development tool. Even light rail advocates like myself will admit the project is partly about economic development. Read a libertarian response (starting on page 4).

Fellow bloggers. After perusing the sites of various downtown Phoenix-related bloggers, I have to wonder: am I the only one who's not a real estate agent?

More ideas on improving Seventh Street and Seventh Avenue

Last July, LIDP reader Steve posted a lengthy comment on one of my posts regarding the "highways" of Seventh Street and Seventh Avenue. It contains some great thoughts and it's worth the read.

I'll let you check out Steve's comment for its numerous useful points, but one take Steve had should be highlighted: he noted that the three-quarters of a mile distance between lights on Seventh Street and Seventh Avenue was too long. It's so true-- the short distance between lights in real city environments really slowed down cars and made life more pleasant for pedestrians. In Phoenix, drivers can reach top speeds even on its most urban streets. At least light rail has led to the addition of many more street lights on Central. Love to see that on Seventh Street and Seventh Avenue.

Another parking garage?

New 26-story downtown tower at Central Park East. Check.
Ground-floor retail. Check (although this should now be a given).
Parking for 600 vehicles. Ugh.

While it’s always great for downtown to get a new tower, we don’t need another parking garage in a downtown where garages and buildings seem to exist on a 1:1 ratio. Hopefully the garage can be built with retail or housing masking the garage as in Roosevelt Square, the proposal for the new Solomon Tower or Tempe’s Centerpoint Condos and Grigio Apartments. However, this is downtown Phoenix—not Tempe or even the Roosevelt neighborhood—so I won’t hold my breath.

And isn’t there a light rail stop within a block?