The Downtown Phoenix Partnership is at it again. The people who brought us "Copper Square" now have plastered billboards around downtown and on I-10 celebrating "Downtown Phoenix: 20 Years of Progress."
20 years? How about 150? Yes, DPP is in its twentieth year of existence, but downtown Phoenix existed long before there was a Downtown Phoenix Partnership.
And all we have to celebrate is 'progress?' I'm all for truth in advertising, but 'progress' is a pretty weak thing to brag about. That word practically buys into the mentality that some suburbanites here still cling to-- that downtown was a ghetto that has marginally improved thanks to the presence of a couple ballparks. How about something a little more positive-- like '150 years as Arizona's urban capitol,' or something to that effect?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
I recently looked over a timeline of "20 Years of Progress" in the Downtown Quarterly. It's interesting to see some of the dubious events classified as "progress." Two examples:
1) The 1995 Sahara remodel is mentioned. That's ironic considering that the Downtown Phoenix Partnership has supported the ongoing demolition of the Sahara and the plan to convert the site into yet another parking lot.
2) The Jefferson Street Garage is mentioned. Parking garages may be necessary evils in order to attract people to Downtown, but I don't think they're milestones to be celebrated as "progress."
I couldn't agree more with David Bickford's lament that the Sahara is in imminent damger of bring ground to dust, and replaced by --of course --yet another parking lot. Has anyone at all stopped to consider the impact on the visual ecology, for once? Phoenix suffers from relentless flatness. Little wonder that we are being swallowed up bu dust storms in increasing frequency (http://www.collectivewizdom.com/DustCloudsOverPhoenix-AreThereHealthConcerns ) which is not helping the air quality, to say the least.
Post a Comment