Downtown links and comments

Here are a few things happening in downtown Phoenix:

* The Roosevelt Harvest Festival is today. This event, in its second year, is worth a look. It's free and it's a fun way to check out all the shops and restaurants in the area without the elbow-to-elbow hassle of First Fridays. There's even a beer garden sponsored by Lost Leaf. I went last year and enjoyed the event. My only wish for this year: hopefully the aggressive guys hawking the Obama t-shirts (their Arizona HQ is at Sixth Street) will back off a little today.

* I love the sense of humor at the light rail signs at each of the train stops around town. The small video screens show some animated flames, and then flash the words "But it's a dry heat." I wonder if this type of thing will continue once the systems's actually up and running.

* Speaking of light rail, workers at a prominent local law firm organized a light rail death pool where contestants could wager on the date and time on which the first person is killed in a light rail accident. Sick. At least the firm's top guy shut the pool down and condemned the idea.

* Finally, it's encouraging even in a down market that Sens, an Asian restaurant on First Street, will hold its grand opening this week. I doubt there's anywhere in the Phoenix area that has as many non-chain restaurant options as downtown.

(Somewhat OT) What you didn't read on the Downtown Phoenix Journal

The following is a somewhat off-topic digression:

I like the Downtown Phoenix Journal blog and read it pretty much daily. The Journal does a nice job of tracking downtown's events and providing commentary. I also support its right to advertise products-- I have some Google ads on this site. I even look past my pet peeves about the site, namely that the picture on its front page is of midtown, not downtown Phoenix, and that it aggressively pushes renaming the warehouse district downtown as "SoDo," and those truncated SoHo type nicknames (LoDo-Denver, SoMa- San Francisco, etc.) are passe.

But I thought it interesting that the site moderates its comments and raised an eyebrow when I tried to comment on the Journal's post about "FHA Zero Down- Until Sept. 30," and apparently my comment was rejected. The Journal was encouraging borrowers to take advantage of the last few days of the FHA no-money down loans. As the economy crashes down around us due to people getting into loans they couldn't pay back-- and the active government encouragement of such-- I thought this post was misplaced. I wanted to politely point that out. Anyway, here's what I tried to say (roughly, as I'm paraphrasing from memory):

"Love the blog and support your right to advertise. But at this point, with the economy in its current state, do we really need any more people getting into zero-money down loans?"

I thought it was pretty innocuous. But apparently the powers that be at the Downtown Phoenix Journal didn't agree. Your thoughts?