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.