Get past downtown?

The expected backlash is on-- today's Arizona Republic published a story claiming that Phoenix voters have tired of the mayor and council's downtown focus and want the attention of the next mayor on their various outlying neighborhoods.

At first blush, that seems like a bad thing for downtown. But the more I reflect on the article, I think it may not be so bad if city hall leaves central Phoenix alone for a few years or more. The downtown focus of the past decade wasn't necessarily a plus-- the outcome of the Gordon era was another suburban-type megablock shopping center in CityScape, continued teardowns of historic properties at Madison Square Garden and the City Hall-backed gutting of the Sun Mercantile Building (shelved when the economy tanked), and virtually nothing done about the dirt lots that are everywhere around downtown.

If that was what a downtown focus got us, I'm all for City Hall paying attention to other parts of Phoenix. In fact, I'm OK with a decade where Phoenix leadership does only two things for downtown: (1) cut red tape for businesses that want to open downtown and (2) improve neighborhood infrastructure by narrowing sidewalks, eliminating some of the one-way streets in and around downtown, adding streetlights and perhaps plunging the power lines along Roosevelt Street underground.

Let's let other parts of Phoenix 'benefit' from City Hall's attention.

St. Matthew's to be spared?

In a stunning development, Metro light rail recently decided not to request the Phoenix City Council’s approval in May for the portion of the western extension that was slated to run from I-17 to downtown along Jefferson Street and through the St. Matthew’s neighborhood. Instead, Metro is planning to study alternative routes and the historic preservation effects of the Jefferson Street alignment for the next 6-8 months. Metro specifically mentioned that it would consider as an alternative the alignment favored by the neighborhood activists, in which the light rail follows Van Buren Street from I-17 before turning south on 19^th Avenue and then heading east on Jefferson Street past the capitol and on to downtown.

While the decision certainly doesn’t guarantee anything for the St. Matthew’s neighborhood proponents who did not want to see the train run down the portion of Jefferson (between I-17 and 19^th Avenue) that has historic single-family residences on either side of the street, the fact that Metro has abandoned its all-out push for approval is welcome news.

This blog applauds Metro and the Phoenix City Council for their willingness to stop and listen to the concerns of the St. Matthew’s residents. It will be interesting to see where this story goes next.

Finally!

Dirt lots are one of the scourges of downtown Phoenix, so it was great to get an e-mail today from the Roosevelt Row CDC about the launch of their A.R.T.S. project (active reuse of temporary space), a "dirt lot activation program that addresses the blight of vacant space." Apparently their first project is to clean up and spread mulch over the dirt lot at 408 E. Roosevelt Street, across from Modified Arts.

With development at a standstill, projects like these are a must if we're to beautify (or at least de-uglify) downtown Phoenix. Hope this is the first of many!

Flashy signs are great, but let's not get carried away

The recent announcement that 50-foot electronic billboards will soon loom over the southern portion of downtown Phoenix is fine, but a couple boosters went way overboard in their praise of the move.

"The point is...to really put some excitement on Jefferson Street," claimed Judd Norris, the guy who's going to head up the billboard district.

Phoenix City Manager David Cavazos went him one better.

"It's going to activate downtown. That was one of the best ideas I had all year."

I don't have a problem with the signs, at least conceptually. But these guys are wildly delusional that a few bright signs are going to liven up Jefferson, let alone rejuvenate downtown. You need housing, restaurants, shops and offices to do that. It helps if they face the street, too. Too bad the city helped kill part of Jefferson when they approved the inward-facing CityScape project, which turns the back end of CVS and Oakville Grocery to Jefferson between Central and First Street.

Light rail loses its way

I’ve been an unabashed supporter of light rail for years. And I still strongly support the existing line and the Mesa extension. But I cannot support the so-called western extension of the train that ADOT has proposed. Instead of moving through existing city streets and spurring economic development like the current line, the western extension is set to move along I-10 in the middle of the freeway. Essentially, ADOT is trying to turn light rail into commuter rail. I predict we’ll see busy trains at rush hour and then empty trains the rest of the time (will this line even need to run on the weekends?), and increased criticism of light rail from drivers who most of the time will zoom past empty light rail trains.

When the western extension turns off the freeway, things get even worse. Right now the train is slated to turn off I-10 and head south with I-17 on one side and a huge cemetery on the other. (Obviously, there is minimal opportunity for development.) At Jefferson, the track turns and heads down the center of a residential street until it runs by the capitol on the way to downtown. Oh, and when the light rail crosses the train track near 19^th Avenue, the track apparently will need to rise some 40 feet in the air, which should be really pretty.

A much better route would have been down McDowell or Thomas over I-17 and turning at 19^th Avenue down a commercial street before heading east at Jefferson and joining the original route. Apparently the current route isn’t set in stone, but this route appears to be ADOT’s favorite, and ADOT is famous for tuning out dissenting views.

The good news? This route won’t be built until 2021 at the earliest.

PastaBar closed, but it's not the end of the world

The closing of PastaBAR this week and Verde a little while back probably has downtown’s critics and haters gleeful. But the reality is that the downtown Phoenix restaurant scene is like everyplace else right now: driven by value. In PastaBAR, you had a great product at prices that were too high, and at Verde you had decent prices but an inferior quality of food. Those are both killer combinations in a challenging environment for restaurants, especially given how competitive the downtown market has suddenly become. Downtown dining is a symbol of the area’s health— it’s the real estate market that is the cause for concern.