Watching fireworks from a downtown Phoenix rooftop, as my friends and I did on New Year's Eve, was a study in Phoenix sprawl.
Way, way out on the horizon in every direction-- Tempe, Avondale, Peoria, Scottsdale-- were fireworks. One would have expected the nation's fifth-largest city to follow suit. After all, a firework display is not that expensive, and downtown is a great scene for such shows because the noise from the explosions echo off the other buildings in a really cool way. There's no need for a full-blown New Year's party-- the colossal bust that was downtown's New Year's Eve party to ring in the year 2000 showed there's no point in trying to encroach on Tempe's virtual monopoly on big New Year's celebrations (and Glendale's poorly-attended Westgate Party just underscores that reality).
But instead of a simple fireworks display, downtown Phoenix was quiet. Maybe city leaders will realize that Phoenix has fallen behind even its suburbs and put together something next year.
1 comment:
Finally! A blog entry appears after a two month hiatus.
The lack of a fireworks display on New Year's Eve doesn't bother me. Besides, Central Phoenix residents do get the benefit of the D-Backs putting on a fireworks show a few times during the season... which looks cool even from two miles away.
What I really want downtown is a microbrewery. Tommyknockers Brewery, which occupied the historic warehouse on the SEC of First Street & Buchanan, was my kind of place. I recall that the Stadium Lofts were just starting construction when the place closed down. We're probably a few years from anyone trying to repeat such an experiment. Until then, I'll be riding the light rail (when it opens) to 4Peaks in Tempe.
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