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.