Life in Downtown Phoenix

Get past downtown?

2011-11-06T20:00:00.000-08:00

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?

2011-04-20T21:54:00.000-07:00

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!

2011-03-08T19:14:00.000-08:00

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

2011-02-15T19:56:00.000-08:00

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

2011-02-11T15:42:00.000-08:00

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

2011-01-21T15:41:00.000-08:00

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.

Saying the right things but doing the wrong things at CityScape

2010-11-01T21:55:00.000-07:00

With CityScape's grand opening looming, the Republic ran a story featuring this amazing quote from RED Development's Jeff Moloznik:

"I think what separates CityScape from Arizona Center is that when you do
take the wrapping paper off and our tenants are open, people will really see an
engaged street front," Moloznik said. "If you want to have retail on this site,
it has to be facing the street."

With all due respect, what in the world is he talking about? Anyone with two eyes can see that CityScape mostly turns its back to the street. In that regard, at best the development is a marginal improvement on the Arizona Center.

Working counter-clockwise from the west side of CityScape's primary retail block at Central Avenue and Washington Street, the west side features an entry to the parking garage, a teeny little auxiliary door for Five Guys, and a back door for CVS at the southwest corner.

The south side is more of the same-- from west to east you have the CVS back door, a blank wall with some measly posters and windows, another parking garage entrance, and on the east side an entry for Oakville Grocery.

The east side is open as you look across the concrete jungle that a very few people still call "Patriot's Park" to the true front doors of CVS and Lucky Strike (recessed far away from the street in true suburban fashion).

And the north side features a secondary building that has no entrances facing the street.

I'm sorry, but a couple token windows and back doors do not "engage" the street. A walk down the street of virtually any major urban center in the world would illustrate the difference. Either RED is being disingenuous or, more likely, this is more proof that they're suburban developers that simply didn't have a clue about building an urban structure.

Only 20 years of progress?

2010-09-30T19:40:00.000-07:00

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?

Downtown Phoenix and the Arizona built environment: not a favorite of our leadership

2010-09-09T13:56:00.000-07:00

The azcentral voters' guide offers a fascinating bit of insight regarding our state's politicians. When asked in questionnaires to name their "favorite place in Arizona," almost all of the state-level candidates and most of the legislative aspirants responded by mentioning natural locations such as the Grand Canyon, Meteor Crater or (the red rocks of) Sedona.

A few central Phoenix candidates mentioned downtown-ish spots: Bob Thomas mentioned the Willo District, Katie Hobbs named the Encanto Neighborhood, and Lela Alston cited, of all places, downtown Phoenix.

But other central Phoenix politicos like Kyrsten Sinema (Camelback Mountain), Paul Yoder (Workman's Creek) and Ken Clark (Humphreys Peak) followed suit with natural locations.

Obviously, Arizona is a beautiful state and its natural environment is really unparalleled. But what does it say about the built environment that we've created that so few of our leaders find it memorable?

Dirt Lot List update

2010-08-14T09:19:00.000-07:00

I recently updated the Downtown Phoenix Dirt Lot/Parking Lot list in anticipation of the teardown of the Sahara Hotel (which, despite a temporary lull, I still expect).

Indy film in downtown Phoenix?

2010-07-15T19:19:00.000-07:00

Who knows how legitimate it is, but a pretty provocative tweet went out today about an independent movie theatre and bar opening in late 2010 on Second Street just south of Roosevelt Street. For years locals have said that the demographics were right for such a venture, so let's hope this comes together. Mrs. Downtown_resident and I are in for sure.

CVS, lose the booze

2010-07-02T15:03:00.000-07:00

Cruising on the light rail next to the backside of CityScape (yes, as predicted CityScape turns its back to the light rail stop and the Luhrs buildings in true suburban fashion) one can see that the soon-to-open CVS store seeks a liquor license. Again, CityScape and its tenants demonstrate a profound lack of understanding for their downtown environment. The last thing downtown Phoenix or the poor souls struggling with addiction need is another place to purchase single-serving alcoholic beverages. CityScape’s CVS should follow the lead of its sister store at Central and McDowell as well as some of the Circle K stores nearby and abandon its pursuit of a liquor license.

Bandwagon City

2010-06-23T22:52:00.000-07:00

I've complained about it before, but nothing illustrates Phoenix's shortcomings the way its sports fan base can. The latest example of what has been a decades-long issue in town played out during the last three nights when the New York Yankees came to town to take on the Diamondbacks, as Chase Field had to have been two-thirds to three-quarters Yankees partisans. You'd never see an embarassing display like that in places like Boston, Chicago, or even Los Angeles.

It's often argued that fandom in a local sports team is an expression of civic pride. If that's the case, what does it mean when the locals turn out solely to root against the home team?

All press is good press

2010-06-05T15:53:00.000-07:00

Downtown and midtown Phoenix got some unexpected positive press recently from a pretty unlikely source. Paul Rogers of MyFord Magazine, a publication produced by Ford Motor Company and sent to all registered Ford owners, spent a few days in Phoenix to test out the new Ford Fiesta and-- instead of staying in the typical suburban environs-- spent his time downtown.

And when I say 'downtown,' I mean it...we're talking not about the relatively predictable and more tourist-friendly spots like the Sheraton and the Arizona Center, we're talking true, gritty downtown spots like Grand Avenue and the Clarendon Hotel. Here's an excerpt:

...in many respects Phoenix still feels like a city on the rise. Nowhere is this more appearant than in the emerging arts district along Grand Avenue...this strip of once derelict motels, storefronts and gas stations is the home of artists and other trendsetters.

Rogers goes on to make positive remarks about his visits to Sapna Cafe and the Paisley Violin on Grand.

Rogers also discusses the origins of First Fridays:

[Grand Avenue's] artsy flavor-- the sculpted lines of my Fiesta fit right in-- traces its roots back to Art Detour, an annual two-day self-guided tour of galleries and studios begun in 1989. The tradition became so popular that, five years later, the nonprofit group that established it made it a monthly event called First Fridays. Roughly 100 arts venues now open their doors to thousands of people on the first Friday evening of every month. Those who come to stroll include students from the downtown campus of Arizona State University, tourists and, especially gratifying for the organizers, suburbanites from Scottsdale.

The article (sorry, the magazine doesn't have an online presence to which to link) goes on to recommend Sapna Cafe, Paisley Violin and Gallo Blanco as well as the Clarendon Hotel for lodging. The story even includes a full-page picture of a white 2011 Fiesta sitting beneath the "Her Secret is Patience" artwork at the Downtown Civic Space.

So take heart, downtowners, what's going on here is still being noticed and appreciated.

More Fridays

2010-03-08T18:28:00.000-08:00

Last weekend's Art Detour (most know it as the annual event where First Friday lasts all weekend) reminded me of a couple years back when the detour weekend didn’t coincide with a First Friday. Attendance for that Art Detour was way down and many of the artists and gallery owners who participate in First Fridays and Art Detour blamed the decision to sever Art Detour from First Fridays. Still, I wish they could have stuck with that experiment. I liked the idea of getting people into the arts district and Roosevelt Row more than just 12 times per year (and I’m sure a lot of the downtown restaurants and businesses did too). Perhaps some year in the future Art Detour can merge with a Third Friday to help that night’s art walk take off and at least give us 13 crazy Friday nights a year.

Another retrofit to bolster streetlife in downtown Phoenix?

2010-02-07T08:16:00.001-08:00

Visits to San Diego during the summer are bittersweet: obviously the beaches and gorgeous weather are awesome, but it's hard not to feel envious while walking around that city's awesome downtown, with its abundant streetlife and invigorated historic structures.

While any Phoenician who's headed to San Diego knows the general contrasts between the two downtowns, one detail about San Diego has always really struck me as illustrating the difference between downtown San Diego and downtown Phoenix: our respective NBC affiliates' locations.

On one hand, you have downtown San Diego's entry, pictured above. While it's in a nondescript office tower, it sits in the midst of downtown and adds to the streetlife in the area by allowing passersby to glimpse inside to see the studio and filming, like the NBC mothership in Rockefeller Center.

On the other hand, you have downtown Phoenix's NBC affiliate. While it is at least downtown and now very transit accessible (with the Roosevelt/Central light rail stop a mere two-minute walk away), the building is a typical downtown Phoenix fortress. It's a single story with no windows and one lone doorway off Central (that is probably never used, like most of the front doors in the buildings along Central).

But all that may be about to change. Channel 12 announced plans to move into the Arizona Republic's building on Van Buren Street, and to modify their new digs so that they too would have a first-floor studio that's visible from the street. Cheers to that decision, and it's about time. Hopefully the vacated fortress on Central gets a new tenant willing to upgrade that building...a lot.

While it's not much, it's still good to see downtown Phoenix gain a little ground on its neighbor to the west.

Does downtown Phoenix not want business?

2009-12-19T09:46:00.000-08:00

If downtown Phoenix is to emerge as a premier national downtown, it needs to do things better than other places. And if Fiancee_of_Downtown_resident and my experience is any indication, downtown still has a ways to go in some respects.

Fiancee_of_Downtown_resident and I are smack dab in the middle of wedding planning (which also helps explain the lack of attention I've given the blog). Being downtown boosters and all, we really liked the idea of having our reception somewhere around downtown. We contacted two city-run downtown facilities, both of which advertise in wedding publications as sites to hold receptions. We absolutely loved one of them, an historic building that could have been the site for a unique and unforgettable wedding reception and possibly ceremony. We toured the place, met with the relevant city representatives and were probably going to book the event until...they stopped calling us back.

Seriously? In this economy? A city starving for revenue is too busy to call a customer back? (A customer willing to spend several thousand dollars, no less.)

Our experience at the other downtown facility was not much different. We called the wedding coordinator there and this time we did receive a response...about eight weeks later.

By that time we had already moved on to plan B. We love the spot we picked in the Camelback Corridor, but it's tough thinking about what could have been downtown.

Slowly but surely

2009-10-26T19:01:00.000-07:00

In a testament to how much people want an authentic, urban environment in Phoenix, there's still progress downtown even in this bleak economy.

Downtown denizens like me have looked forward for years to the opening of the Phoenix Public Market's permanent grocery store, the first such store in downtown Phoenix in a generation. Tomorrow is the day that the market finally opens. Here's hoping this is just another step in the remarkable growth of the public market since it opened in early 2005.

Did you know-- and can you believe-- that a housing development was actually just completed downtown? A transit-oriented development for seniors called McCarty on Monroe opened last week at 12th Street and Monroe, just one block north of a light rail stop. In this economy, this type of small-scale, near-downtown development is crucial if we're to build a true walkable urban environment.

Finally, the ultimate slowly-but-surely piece of news that emerged downtown is that the Downtown Phoenix Partnership is organizing a "zombie walk" the night before Halloween. While I beat up the DPP for a lot of their moves, they deserve some credit for putting this fun idea together.

New downtown Phoenix marketing effort misses the mark

2009-10-18T11:55:00.000-07:00

The Downtown Phoenix Partnership can’t seem to get out of its own way. After the partnership made the right call in abandoning the silly Copper Square “brand” for downtown, it followed up by unveiling an odd-looking logo and an unintentionally ironic billboard marketing campaign.

I won’t go into the logo (you can decide for yourself at downtownphoenix.com), but the billboards are an unfortunate waste of money. The signs are in several places around central Phoenix, and probably elsewhere, and show a panel of three pictures and the slogan “only in downtown Phoenix.” The problem is that the pictures are generic glamour shots of smiling kids and adults that look like they could be anywhere.

The Downtown Phoenix Partnership needs to scrap this first wave of billboards and roll out others that identify and depict the unique places and people of downtown—you know how many suburbanites still have never heard of Cibo, much less have no idea how to pronounce its name?— and stop trying to make downtown look like everywhere else.

Two views of downtown emerge at ASU

2009-09-23T21:12:00.000-07:00

Since I praised current ASU students for their more positive views about downtown, it seems a battle of opinions has been waged on campus about downtown Phoenix. While more students seem to have come around to the view that downtown Phoenix isn't "scary," at least one person still is afraid in downtown, especially being hit up for change. (Is that guy serious?)

'Twilight' under the stars

2009-08-28T08:22:00.000-07:00

ASU students will resume their free movie showings at the Civic Space Park tonight with a screening of 'Twilight' at 8 p.m. The plan is to run movies on the fourth Friday of every month during the school year. This is a great concept, and I give a ton of credit to the ASU students who put this together. The current crop of students seems different from their recent predecessors, whom I criticized in the past for their knee-jerk derision of downtown Phoenix and their failure to lead. This group of ASU students is just the opposite, and is helping to shape downtown Phoenix in a very positive way.

Caffeine High for downtown Phoenix

2009-08-17T21:53:00.000-07:00

Flash back to 2004, and it seemed like the nationwide coffee shop craze had bypassed Phoenix. Despite the success of independent coffee houses in basically every city nationwide-- even Buffalo has a hip local coffee chain known as 'Spot Coffee'-- Phoenix had only the Willow House and Lux and a few outposts in Tempe.

But in a boom that parallels the explosion of restaurants in and around downtown Phoenix, a lot has changed in a few years. Downtown and central Phoenix are now awash in java places, and the suddenly competitive landscape is going to test the depth of the downtown market.

By my count, there are three independent coffee shops and at least five Starbucks outlets in downtown Phoenix. Three more places (Tammie Coe, Krispy Kreme, and Calabria) serve coffee but specialize in other fare. Further uptown are several other popular indie coffee houses, including the aforementioned Lux, which sparked the trend.

And in the next few months, the number of independent shops is set to double. All the entrants are familiar faces-- Royal Coffee Bar will open a branch at the Downtown Phoenix Public Market's indoor store, the people behind Matt's Big Breakfast will open a shop near the Phoenix Art Museum, and on Friday Fair Trade Cafe will start up a second branch at the new Civic Space Park. In addition to the new independents, another chain-- Press Coffee-- was announced at CityScape.

As with every positive sign for downtown, there are sure to be naysayers and doubters that will come out of the woodwork. A common refrain will likely be that there aren't enough people downtown to populate these enterprises. But like the new restaurants, which all seem pretty popular even in the face of a recession and a massive cutback in consumer spending, I expect the coffee shops to do just fine.

The suburban doubters often misunderstand the urban market. Unlike suburban stores, which seem to like to isolate themselves from competition, urban shops benefit from clustering. The more places to go-- even places of the same type-- the more people will get out and walk the sidewalks and eventually decide to stop inside some place for a drink and a break. Coffee shops particularly fit the urban streetscape with their windows that let patrons face out and observe life outside the shop.

So, as with the proliferation of condos and restaurants, the more coffee shops in downtown Phoenix, the merrier.

The free market did not give us suburbia

2009-08-15T13:46:00.000-07:00

A common refrain of defenders of the dominant American suburban form is that it is simply the culmination of millions of microeconomic decisions by consumers to "vote with their feet" and buy a house in the 'burbs. If mainstream Americans really wanted urban living, they would have chosen to stay in the cities, goes the argument.

A great article in today's Wall Street Journal debunks that free market myth, and discusses the way that government-- through its creation of Fannie Mae and federal underwriting for mortgage loans, among others-- shaped our sprawled-out society through multiple market-distorting policies throughout the 20th century. One key quote from the article:

"Federal housing policies changed the whole landscape of America, creating the
sprawlscapes that we now call home, and in the process, gutting inner
cities...[o]f new housing today, 80% is built in the suburbs-- the direct legacy
of federal policies that favored outlying areas rather than the rehabilitation
of city centers."

The article doesn't even get into the federal government's massive freeway-building programs that laid waste to central-city neighborhoods in order to whisk commuters into and out of downtowns and back to the suburbs.

The article is a worthwhile read, and makes one ponder how America would look if government policy (authored by politicians of both parties) hadn't for decades obsessed over increasing (mostly suburban) homeownership. And it goes without saying that Phoenix, which came of age as these policies were in their ascendancy, would have looked much different. It also makes one wonder about Phoenix's future as these policies increasingly come under question by politicians and more importantly, consumers.

Elsewhere around downtown

2009-07-31T18:46:00.000-07:00

A look at what others are saying about life in downtown and metro Phoenix:

* A group is organizing tonight to promote late-night hours on the light rail line. I took light rail after 11 p.m. on a Friday a few weeks ago and it was packed, but it's great to see others fighting complacency and helping to make sure that we don't lose our late hours.

* A state legislator gives Downtown Voices Coalition a "C+" on its report card and then receives rebuttal from a DVC member listing the group's accomplishments. I'm interested to see if the legislator responds.

* Samuel Richard at the Downtown Phoenix Journal writes about people leaving Phoenix, and draws an avalanche of responses on the topic.

* Phoenix is noticed by the Wall Street Journal, but once again it's not for reasons we'd like.

Frugal in (downtown) Phoenix

2009-07-22T20:26:00.000-07:00

One of the knocks on urban living is that it's too expensive, and therefore inaccessible to middle and certainly lower-income earners. One look at some of the prices on menus at downtown Phoenix restaurants and-- still to some degree-- the prices of downtown condos-- lends a lot of credence to that argument. Obviously, high prices are a scourge these days as everyone tries to cut back on costs and save more. So can downtown Phoenix fit into a budget?

Fiancee_of_Downtown_Resident and I certainly think so. Friday night we hit the Third Fridays concert at the Civic Space Park (free), traveled to Tempe on light rail ($3.50 as I had already purchased a round trip that day for work) and purchased two huge yogurts at Mojo ($5 with a coupon) before catching a hilarious open mic on Mill Avenue (free) for less than $10 total.

The free Third Fridays concert got me thinking-- what other free or cheap hidden gems exist downtown? There are some good ones:

Phoenix Art Museum: free First Fridays from 6-10 p.m.
(obviously, dozens of galleries around downtown and central Phoenix are free on First and Third Fridays as well)
Heard Museum: free Third Fridays from 5:30-9 p.m. and Saturday, July 25 and August 1, 10 a.m. - 3 p.m.
Civic Space Third Fridays concert series: free every Third Friday; also watch for the occasional free movies in the park.
Arizona Science Center/Phoenix Children's Museum/Phoenix Art Museum/Heard Museum: free with Culture Pass from various libraries including the Burton Barr Phoenix Library (admits 4).
AMC 24 at the Arizona Center: $5 movies before noon, including weekends.
Carly's: $3 wine on Thursdays.

Feel free to include any of your own free and inexpensive downtown Phoenix items in the comments...

Do people really believe this stuff?

2009-07-18T11:18:00.000-07:00

I acknowledge the fact that it's hard to draw any conclusions about people's thinking from online forums, particularly the local mecca of mouth-breathers, the azcentral.com blogs.

But some recent comments made by one inhabitant of the azcentral.com forums were striking to me for their sheer ignorance:

"Most major cities never had a downtown and function quite well without
one."
"There are few if any examples of the successful application of urban planning models to the development of a modern city."
"All of Paris is a downtown, just like all of Phoenix is a downtown."

For obvious reasons, I'll let these arguments speak for themselves. But it's no wonder that downtown Phoenix looks the way it does when this line of thought is prevalent in the community.

Welcome to the neighborhood, and please come again soon

2009-07-12T09:33:00.000-07:00

I'm tempted to be annoyed by the fact that ADOT has shut down I-10 between Seventh Street and Seventh Avenue for roadwork for the third weekend in the last four (and plans to do it one more time next weekend). I was going to write a post about the way that decision has choked downtown streets such as McDowell and Roosevelt, causing large backups on Seventh Street and Seventh Avenue in the process and making errands like running to the grocery store inordinately difficult.

But I decided the better approach was to see the bright side of ADOT's move. Thousands of people who would have just zipped past downtown Phoenix and given the area a passing notice, if any at all, were exposed to the area these last few weekends. Those who took their detour along Roosevelt Street got to see, among other things, relatively new urban housing developments, a bakery, restaurants, and a new record store. This had to be quite a shock for many in this metro area, where it's not uncommon to hear people say they haven't been downtown in 15 or more years. No doubt many of those people expect downtown to be a frightening and crime-ridden place, and almost certainly those people were pleasantly surprised.

On second thought, maybe we can petition ADOT to shut down I-10 every weekend.

New Times responds to light rail ridership issue

2009-07-08T22:34:00.001-07:00

Ray Stern, the author of the New Times light rail ridership article I discussed a few months back stopped by to comment on my post. If you recall, I suggested New Times exaggerated the state of light rail ridership and ignored the fact that Metro ridership is well above the system's own initial estimates. Ray believes I implied that it was OK for Metro to selectively report its statistics in his comment; I argue otherwise in my response.

Downtown Phoenix snippets

2009-07-01T23:17:00.000-07:00

Downtown Phoenix continues to inch forward with the addition of new businesses. Revolver Records is leaving its home in the Melrose area of Seventh Avenue for a spot on the south side of Roosevelt Street across from Carly’s Restaurant. Revolver opened July 1 and doesn’t close on weekends until 10 p.m.

Meanwhile, the buildings that used to house Fate and Next Door will get new life as Nine05, a restaurant, and Canteen, a “gastropub.” Sounds interesting.

Jim McPherson has put together a map of downtown’s various projects with some good commentary and descriptions of the current status of what’s going on.

Lower Grand Avenue will host a street festival in September, and has put together a cool blog celebrating the festival and the restaurants and attractions on the street. Hopefully they’ll catch a break with some cool weather that day.

Dark Knight, Bright Day for Downtown Phoenix

2009-04-30T21:07:00.000-07:00

On a perfect April night last week, you could see things all starting to come together for downtown Phoenix.

On the surface, it was merely a couple hundred people taking in a free movie in a park. But when put in perspective, the screening of The Dark Knight put on by ASU students for a class project was a huge moment that illustrated how far downtown Phoenix has come.

The movie screen was in the center of a juxtaposition of downtown Phoenix's old and new. The screen sat in front of the newly-restored 1926 A.E. England Building, flanked on its left by the "Her Secret is Patience" sculpture (also referred to by many more colloquially as the "Jellyfish") and on the right by the very bright lights of the new Central Park East high rise. Moviegoers were pleasantly distracted by the light rail trains that both in front and behind them as well as the news zipper scrolling along on the ASU journalism building. And of course, beneath the movie patrons was the brand-new Downtown Phoenix Civic Space, a 2.77-acre gem of a park that just opened.

An even more positive sign was the crowd that came to watch the movie. Not only did the turnout exceed expectations (with minimal publicity, organizers expected 60-75 attendees and then at least 250 showed up), but it was a crazy blend of people: old and young, all races, ASU students, high-rise condo dwellers and homeless people. And as far as I could tell, everyone enjoyed themselves.

I've been critical of ASU in the past. Its administrators descended on downtown and acted like they owned the place-- let's not forget they wanted to tear down the A.E. England Building they're now patting themselves on the back for saving-- and at first its students publicly bashed their new environment instead of trying to go out and change it for the better. However, on this night ASU's students had a very positive effect on downtown with their ingenious, well-run program to activate the new park. This event showed the promise the university's presence can have for downtown.

As the event ended, people were overheard saying what a great event it was, how they couldn't believe it took place downtown, and how they'd be back (WALL-E will run this Saturday at 7:30 p.m.). Hopefully this is the start of a new tradition that can take its place alongside First Fridays and Suns games as a constant in downtown life. But even if it doesn't, it was enough to illustrate to everyone there that there is at last a burgeoning urban center in the giant megalopolis.

Apparently, while no one was looking, downtown Phoenix came to life.

All quiet

2009-04-18T09:18:00.000-07:00

One of the x-factors for downtown is the performance of its two main sports teams, the Diamondbacks and Suns. When the teams are playing well, attendance at their respective events surges and downtown becomes that much more alive. (Granted, the two stadiums do a lousy job of interacting with the rest of downtown, but while the spillover from downtown sporting events could be better, there is no doubt that the streets are more alive and downtown businesses profit. Hopefully the presence of light rail will enhance the sports spillover even further.)

But as of late April 2009, things are pretty quiet on the downtown sports scene. The Suns missed the playoffs for the first time since 2004, costing downtown establishments as much as $200,000 per game in lost revenue, and the Diamondbacks are off to a bad start with their punchless offense.

The prognosis for the two teams seem very different: the aging Suns ought to tear up the team while there is still some trade value in their older players— hanging on to some of the younger guys who hustle on defense as well as offense such as Jared Dudley (above)— while the Diamondbacks have to be patient with a team that’s still very young and wait for the talent that showed itself in 2006 to return.

Here’s hoping that the two teams can turn things around quickly. It’s great for all of Phoenix and especially downtown when the Suns and D-backs are title contenders as they both were just a couple years ago. And I shudder to think how far we’ve fallen if our best hope for a championship in Phoenix is…the Cardinals?

New Times still doesn't get light rail

2009-04-14T22:35:00.000-07:00

Phoenix New Times has a libertarian streak that emerges from time to time in its opposition to light rail (although sadly they don’t seem to apply the same limited government philosophy to new freeway construction). This week the online version of the paper took a shot at the train, suggesting in a misleading headline that “light rail ridership [was] on decline…”

While average daily ridership in March dropped 3% from February’s numbers, there are a couple points to keep in mind. First, the March totals represented the first time average ridership has fallen, so it’s really not fair to suggest that ridership is on the decline, as if to imply some sort of trend. Perhaps this is the start of a trend as the warmer months approach, and perhaps not. We won’t know for sure until future numbers are released by Metro.

Second, and more importantly, the New Times needs to remember the baseline. For years, Metro estimated that 26,000 riders would board the train on an average day during light rail’s first year. By this measure, the train is a huge success: even the March figures (31,000+ per day) are almost 20% above the estimate. Even if ridership falls significantly during the summer, Metro is probably still a sure bet to exceed its own initial ridership estimate for the first year.

Finally, New Times is probably best-advised to avoid predicting ill fates for the light rail; the paper’s credibility in that area is somewhat shot after it ran a story last May giving the train little hope of opening on time. As we now know, light rail opened at the end of December on the exact date it announced years earlier.

Poor stadium siting decision is multi-million dollar mistake

2009-03-22T12:21:00.000-07:00

You could laugh at the stupidity of some of the land use decisions made in the Phoenix area if they weren't so sad. Witness the struggles of Glendale and Phoenix as they try to figure out how to overcome the brutal mistake of placing University of Phoenix Stadium too far outside the urban core.

The issue reared its head as Glendale has expressed its interest in connecting the light rail system to the stadium, probably by running the train up the loop 101 from I-10. While this is a questionable decision because it uses light rail on freeways-- eliminating any opportunities for transit-oriented development on city streets, including Glendale's own downtown-- it also clearly exposes the stupidity of putting the football stadium so far away from the center of the metro area.

For those who have forgotten, Glendale ended up with the stadium after the initial site-- located in Tempe along what is now the light rail line-- was scuttled by concerns from the Federal Aviation Administration and the City of Phoenix that the stadium's proposed location in the stadium flight path was a hazard to jets taking off from the airport. The Glendale site ended up chosen almost by default as several other sites, including one in downtown Phoenix, dropped out of contention. (By the way, I have long argued that it was a positive move for downtown Phoenix that the stadium went elsewhere.)

So here we are in 2009. The stadium was built at 91st Avenue and Glendale just inside the Loop 101, where land was empty and cheap and accessible only by freeway. Meanwhile, light rail has initially proven quite successful, and places like Glendale and Mesa are clamoring for extensions into their cities. And now it's deemed a priority to bring light rail to the stadium, as Glendale and Phoenix attempt to marry the suburban, sprawled-out stadium with urban mass transit. While it's questionable how successful that arrangement will be, if it happens, there's no doubt it's going to be expensive-- the initial estimate for the additional track is $224 million.

So that's $224 million that strapped taxpayers could have avoided spending had our planners had some foresight just a few years ago and placed the stadium in Tempe or somewhere else on or near the light rail path. Hopefully future Phoenix-area land use decisions will be a little more informed now that light rail is here to stay.

Beyond chains and cheese: Restaurant madness and what it means for downtown

2009-03-10T23:17:00.000-07:00

While the arts community was the first generation of pioneers to successfully lift downtown Phoenix out of its doldrums, the second wave of downtown resurgence came from the independent restaurants that gambled on the area. By 2005, places like Matt's Big Breakfast, Cibo and Fate proved that independent restaurants with quality food could really have success downtown.

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and 2009 is really proving that as the number of restaurants opening their doors all around the aforementioned downtown pioneers is staggering. Already this year the Turf (formerly Turf Accountant), Pasta Bar, El Portal and Sapna's Cafe have opened. By the end of the month Moira will bring sushi back to downtown for the first time in years, and sometime soon Luke's of Chicago will start a branch on Seventh Street in a renovated historic building while a mediterranean restaurant is set to appear on Roosevelt Street just east of Third Avenue. Almost every one of those restaurants is within a half-mile radius of the original Matt's/Fate duo that got things rolling.

Amidst all this Pallette apparently closed-- which is shocking for anyone like me who was part of the sometimes-90 minute wait on the weekends for brunch-- but the rumor is that someone else wanted the location and that Pallette will resurface somewhere else in the area.

Assuming these businesses can survive the current economic conditions, they'll be poised to really help downtown surge when the housing market finally turns around. Downtown Phoenix probably already stood alone with Tempe's Mill Avenue and Old Town Scottsdale as options for those who live in the Phoenix area and prefer walkable urban environments. But aided in no small part by this restaurant boom, downtown has separated itself from the chains of Mill and the cheese of Scottsdale as probably the premiere locale for urbanists. While downtown Phoenix is of course only beginning to catch up with even its western competitors in places like Denver and Portland, it has clearly established some positive momentum.

Downtown odds and ends

2009-03-05T17:45:00.000-08:00

A well-placed source says:

* Workers will install the civic space park artwork (you know, the "jellyfish") on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of next week.

* The Suns estimate that 10% of fans at US Airways Center arrive on light rail.

* Light rail ridership numbers in February are significantly higher than January's numbers, which beat the preliminary estimates.

* Unfortunately, 44 Monroe only has 11 contracts out of 202 units in the building. A glance at the building at night-- where only a handful of condos are lighted up-- seems to confirm that statement.

A silver lining for downtown Phoenix office space

2009-02-28T09:40:00.000-08:00

As the Phoenix office market collapses, downtown's share of the smaller pie keeps growing. CB Richard Ellis reported that in the fourth quarter of 2008, downtown Phoenix's office vacancy rate climbed to 12.8%, but that figure still was better than all of downtown Phoenix's major competitors (midtown Phoenix was at 16.0%, the Camelback Corridor had a vacancy rate of 17.8%, and the Scottsdale Airpark and north Scottsdale markets checked in with whopping vacancy rates of 24.4% and 28.8%, respectively).

In the meantime, downtown Phoenix was one of the few submarkets to add space, as Central Park East and the CityScape office tower construction progressed. Downtown is poised to add more than one million square feet of Class A office space, more than double any of the other Phoenix-area submarkets. That construction will help downtown surpass midtown Phoenix in terms of overall Class A office space, and cause downtown to become the third-biggest Class A office submarket in greater Phoenix. In fact, downtown Phoenix would have become the biggest Class A submarket in the Phoenix area had the Camelback Corridor and Scottsdale Airpark not been in the midst of their own office building projects.

While downtown Phoenix has always been a decent office outpost and lagged in commercial and residential options, adding more people to the downtown mix-- even if it's just during the 9-to-5-- is never a bad thing. The big issue now will be finding tenants for all the new office space (especially at Central Park East, which currently has no tenants).

Laying the foundation

2009-01-26T18:13:00.000-08:00

During these recession/depressionary times, not much building will occur. So it's nice to see the infrastructure set in place for the next wave of development, whenever that occurs. Here are two examples.

First, the city completed streetscape improvements on Second Avenue from Fillmore Street all the way up to Roosevelt. Shade trees, palm trees and grassy lawns were added, decorative 'acorn' lamps were installed, and, perhaps most importantly, the sidewalk was widened. Future developments on both sides of the street will benefit, as will anyone walking from the Roosevelt and Third Avenue area all the way to the core of downtown.

Second, APS added a downtown substation at Seventh and Garfield Streets to serve the larger numbers of residents and businesses in the area. That by itself is decent news, but then APS made a maneuver so creative that it's hard to believe it occurred in Phoenix: it decorated the exterior of the substation so that it looks very similar to the neighboring Artisan Village condos. As you can see in the picture above, the facade mimicked the Artisan Village look right down to the balconies!

The bottom line: if big bureaucracies like APS and the City of Phoenix can take creatives steps like these, there's hope for the city after all.

The plague of downtown Phoenix continues

2009-01-18T18:18:00.000-08:00

Before I moved back to Phoenix, I would drive around downtown and wonder why it looked the way it did with so many empty lots. Other cities with somewhat desolate downtowns usually just have a lot of empty buildings. But Phoenix is peculiar with its abundance of barren land right in the middle of its downtown.

Now I don't wonder where the vacant lots come from; I've come back and watched some of the lots appear. And just this week a new one popped up as a landowner decimated an entire block of vacant buildings at First Street and Portland, as pictured above. While I don't believe any of the buildings were necessarily "historic," they were somewhat old and could have been excellent homes to small businesses as downtown continued to rebound. But now they're gone, and in their place is just more infertile land, zoned for a high rise that may never be built.

Downtown links

2009-01-10T11:07:00.000-08:00

There's good news for downtown Phoenix as 2009 gets underway, as light rail is meeting ridership expectations so far, even before ASU, Brophy, and Central High School students return to class. In addition, despite the gloomy economic times, downtown keeps adding more entertainment options as the Irish pub called the Turf Accountant gets ready to open its doors later this month. I also understand that Club Central, the midtown hip hop spot, is opening a branch at Second Avenue and Van Buren.

On the down side: the Boston Globe (at the very end of this story) speculates that sprawled-out cities like Phoenix have less potential then dense, urban places like London or Cambridge to develop intellectual breakthroughs, or even worse, pessimistic blogger Jon Talton calls Phoenix a "dead town walking" in the midst of the recession and housing market collapse.

A Phoenix First

2008-12-17T07:33:00.000-08:00

Saturday night Girlfriend_of_Downtown_Resident and I made history as we became the first people to ever miss the light rail train! Yes, I know dozens of people have already ridden the vehicle, but the two of us tried to catch the last ride on the light rail at Mayor Gordon's tree lighting and weren't able to climb aboard. Despite running up to the train-- which was full of people-- at the stop on First Avenue, the Metro representative wouldn't let us into the car. I guess I'll have to wait until December 27 to ride for real.

Downtown links and comments

2008-10-18T08:25:00.000-07:00

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

2008-10-01T08:31:00.000-07:00

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?

Mistaken Identity

2008-09-13T06:51:00.000-07:00

I understand my commentary about Wellington "Duke" Reiter, the former ASU dean who headed up much of the work at the ASU Downtown Phoenix campus, was printed as a letter to the editor in a central Phoenix newspaper, The Midtown Messenger, and erroneously attributed to another individual.

Apparently the paper is going to run a retraction, but just so there's no confusion-- I'm not Jim McPherson, and he had no hand in writing the blog post.

CityScape = Collier Center

2008-08-20T22:27:00.000-07:00

Anyone disagree that by January 2011, CityScape will only comprise two blocks of (mediocre) retail and a single high-rise? (A carbon copy of the Collier Center, as I originally suggested in February 2007?)

Granted, this is a position on which I'd like to be wrong. But the signs all point one way-- the most telling coming a few months ago when the project's developer, RED Develoment, split the incentives in its development agreement so that it could receive half of the promised millions from the city even if it only built one tower at CityScape. Right now, RED is saying that it's building the office tower on the block on the east side of Central and Washington streets, but that the hotel/condo tower will follow in a few months.

We'll see. Any project that depends on condo development in a significant way is probably DOA in this market. And the need for hotel rooms downtown will be significantly blunted by the opening of the city-owned Sheraton.

In any event, the Arizona Republic needs to stop exaggerating the scale of this project. I've seen story after story-- one ran today-- that refers to CityScape as a "sprawling, $900 million project spread out over three blocks." Again, while I'd love to be wrong, this project is not going to spread over three blocks-- my understanding is the project partner that was to develop the block between First and Second streets has already dropped out; it's definitely not going to amount to the $900M touted by the developer in order to gain city approval.

Ultimately, I don't care all that much whether one tower or two is built, although I'd prefer two. My hope was to finally get a project in downtown Phoenix that engages the street with quality retail. My expectations all along have been very low on that front, so if CityScape only ends up producing one more downtown tower, I won't be much more heartbroken. It's too bad. Much as I'd like, I just can't get excited about this project.

ASU students don't miss a chance to bash downtown

2008-08-12T21:38:00.000-07:00

In a repeat of a story that was written in January 2007, the Republic spoke to several ASU students who were very dismissive of downtown Phoenix and the new ASU campus. The consensus, as it was in 2007, seems to be that "there's nothing to do downtown," and that there's no "campus feel."

In some ways, I can sympathize with the comments about the lack of a campus feel. When I looked at colleges, I definitely wanted the wide open green spaces of a traditional college campus; I couldn't imagine going to school at an urban campus like Boston University or NYU.

But I can't relate to the sentiment that there's nothing to do in downtown Phoenix. There's plenty to do if one looks hard enough-- granted, it's not spoon-fed to students like a walk down chain-laden Mill Avenue. And more than that, the ASU students who populate the downtown campus in 2008 need to be leaders who relish being urban pioneers. Instead of complaining, what about taking over a cool but unknown downtown bar like Seamus McCaffrey's or Lost Leaf on Wednesdays or Thursdays, and causing the rest of the city to take notice and follow along?

Duke Reiter leaves a mixed legacy at ASU

2008-07-19T13:50:00.000-07:00

Leave it to the Arizona Republic to give nothing but glowing reviews to ASU's Wellington "Duke" Reiter, the former dean of ASU's college of design, who is headed to Chicago to take the top job at one of that city's universities.

However, I'm sure there are a lot of downtown Phoenix activists who are happy to see him leave.

Reiter did spearhead the development of ASU's downtown Phoenix campus, and he did prod the city of Phoenix to re-examine itself. He made a powerful comment a couple years back, stating-- and I paraphrase-- that it was an open question as to whether Phoenix would ever become a real city and not just an overgrown suburb.

But on the other hand, Reiter was 100% behind the decision to wipe out nearly all of the buildings on the site of what is now the Civic Space park. Only a public outcry spared the A.E. England building from the wrecking ball, and supposedly Reiter pulled some strings inside the City of Phoenix to pull the building off historic registers so that it could be demolished. (Of course, Reiter later took credit for preserving the building in a laughable bit of revisionist history). ASU downtown Phoenix also wiped out the Taylor Street bungalows.

And what did we get in return from the design dean? Some good and some bad, and a lot of question marks. The good: the ASU journalism building is a true city building that will feature a news zipper and a restaurant and enhance the streetscape. The bad, or at least the mediocre: the new Taylor Place dorms are pretty institutional-looking, and the nursing building was going to turn more blank walls to the downtown streets until another public outcry caused ASU to back off its variance requests. And the civic space park is a question mark (and the public art was installed by the city with the backing of the artist community-- and that almost bit the dust so that the park could open at the same time students return to ASU in fall 2008).

So Reiter's legacy includes helping get the ASU downtown campus off the ground, but also includes a lot of clear-cutting the little shreds of history Phoenix still has in favor of some mostly underwhelming university buildings. On balance, I can't say I'll miss the guy.

A holiday aberration, or a sign of the future?

2008-07-05T09:39:00.000-07:00

Yesterday's First Fridays was the most poorly-attended version of the event I can remember since I started attending regularly in 2004. The question is why-- the insane heat, the fact it was Fourth of July and everyone who stayed in town was watching fireworks or the Diamondbacks, or whether the new rules on street vending have had some effect.

I happen to favor the restrictions on the vendors-- for a while it seemed First Fridays was turning into Phoenix's largest garage sale-- and happen to think that even if the crowds dissipate somewhat because of the absence of the vendors, that the focus will turn back to the art in the various galleries. And that's where it belongs.

Downtown Phoenix's new icon

2008-06-28T11:32:00.000-07:00

The Janet Echelman "Sky Bloom" artwork that will soon grace the new downtown Phoenix Civic Space is going to look amazing and, I predict, will be an image that will define the city on postcards and in movie and TV scenes. Look carefully at the lower-center of the picture above (or click to enlarge), and you can see the ring on which the remainder of the artwork will be installed. It is huge, and this is going to be huge.

The Downtown Phoenix Partnership just doesn't get it

2008-06-18T22:31:00.000-07:00

Does the Downtown Phoenix Partnership just enjoy publicly demonstrating its irrelevance?

I'm not sure how else to explain the DPP's move this week to (finally) abandon the ridiculous "Copper Square" brand name-- only to announce plans to pick another name to replace Copper Square.

Just what we need: another nickname for downtown that no one will ever use.

Here's a thought for the DPP: save your money. Or, if you've got $100K to blow on downtown, how about fixing some of the narrow and cracked sidewalks, providing shade, or adding some bike paths somewhere? But don't waste your members' money on renaming a place that already has a name-- downtown Phoenix.

Ups and downs at downtown restaurants; downtown project and dirt lot list updates

2008-05-14T08:17:00.001-07:00

The 101 Bistro/Pita Jungle experiment has apparently come to an end, as the landlord exercised its rights of forcible entry and detainer and changed the locks on the doors and kicked out the tenant. All the cool patio seating is gone, as well as every trace of the restaurant inside. Too bad; Pita Jungle seemed like a perfect concept downtown.

Around the corner, Thai Elephant appears to have extended its hours and is open until 9 p.m. on weeknights and weekends.

Girlfriend of Downtown_resident and I tried out The Bread Fruit (Jamaican restaurant) a few nights ago and were somewhat disappointed. However, I'll leave the restaurant reviews to Silverbear and the Railfood blog. Maybe they're just working out the kinks in the first few days; at least we didn't have to wait an hour to be served like you do in Jamaica.

The Downtown Phoenix Project List and Downtown Phoenix Dirt Lot List have been updated.

Build it

2008-05-10T15:34:00.000-07:00

The proposed 400-foot towers at the southwest corner of Camelback and Central have everything Phoenix needs-- pedestrian orientation, height, and compatibility with the light rail line. The developer, Reid Butler, has a track record of quality downtown projects (Roosevelt Commons and Legacy Bungalows). And, in true Phoenix form, the project is meeting with resistance from the neighbors.

Protesting height is a reasonable argument in areas where the height doesn't yet exist. But Central Avenue is dotted with high-rises and has been for 30 years. Residents already live in the shadow of towers, so their arguments against this development sound weak.

The guy who really needs to get off the fence in this matter is Phoenix councilmember Tom Simplot. Light rail was built to facilitate this kind of development-- and without an ample supply of residents who can walk to its stations, Metro won't be a success. Why should this matter to Simplot? He's on Metro's board.

Random Thoughts

2008-04-06T10:40:00.000-07:00

* Stock Footage. I loved seeing the downtown Phoenix shots on ABC today during the Suns game, but is it too much to ask for these guys to get some current footage? The downtown shot during today's game showed an unfinished Summit in the foreground and a half-built 44 Monroe in the distance. The downtown shot during a recent Diamondbacks game on Fox Sports Arizona recently panned over downtown at night-- but 44 Monroe hadn't even been built yet-- meaning the shot was at least two years old. Hey, downtown Phoenix can use the publicity, but let's get some current footage so everyone can see all the new projects.

* New Diamondback attitude. Speaking of the Diamondbacks, I heard Diamondbacks president Derrick Hall on KTAR's morning show this week-- he joked that he wanted to have a contest to send a fan of an opposing team to Cincinnati (in his mind, a lousy city). I love that kind of attitude. I have attended tons of Cardinals games over the years that were filled with fans of the other team, and I've always had the belief that the Bidwell family didn't mind that, believing a customer is a customer. It's great to see the Diamondbacks take the opposite approach. One more reason why I had no problem watching the Cardinals move out to Glendale.

* Dead Real Estate Market. While the foreclosure rate in central Phoenix is low relative to the rest of the metro area, home sales in downtown Phoenix are nonexistent. There have been seven - seven! - sales in the 85003 zip code during the first quarter of 2008.

Light rail appears to turn in an hour too early

2008-03-29T09:56:00.000-07:00

Metro light rail created a stir this week when it released its schedule. Metro chose to keep its schedule simple-- they promise a train will run every ten minutes during peak hours (vaguely defined as sunrise to sunset) and twenty minutes during other times. Wade through the labrynth of light rail schedules in other cities and you'll see that this was a good idea.

But I didn't like the simultaneous announcement that the train will end service at 1 a.m. Metro rail ought to stay open until bars close at 2 a.m., especially in a county in which drunk driving is a major problem (relative to other places across the U.S.).

Metro's projected closing at 1 a.m. is early when compared to its peers*:

City Rail Service Closing Hour

New York: n/a (subway runs 24 hours)
Washington, D.C.: 3 a.m.
San Diego: 2 a.m. (last trains run around 1 a.m. and reach final stops at 2 a.m.)
Denver: 2 a.m. (last trains run around 1 a.m. and reach final stops at 2 a.m.)
Dallas: 1 a.m. (last trains run around midnight and reach final stops at 1 a.m.)
Boston: 12:30 a.m.

* It should be noted that it may be too early to know exactly what a 1 a.m. closing means. For instance, while light rail ends service at 1 a.m. in San Diego, the last train reaches its ultimate destination around 2 a.m. If at the end of the night the trains need to head to the railyard at 48th Street and Washington, it could very well be that the last train will make its way through downtown Tempe and Phoenix well after 1 a.m. We'll see.

More downtown Phoenix dining

2008-02-18T20:57:00.000-08:00

The Bread Fruit, a Jamaican restaurant, will open this spring on Pierce Street near First Street. Around the corner in a restored one-story commercial building at 735 North First Street, the sign on the window says one of the building's spaces is being fitted for a restaurant. There are rumblings of a sushi place coming into 215 E. McKinley's ground floor. All of these places are within a very short walk of Matt's Big Breakfast and the Roosevelt. It's incredible to see these developments in the midst of a slow market.

One negative: seeing The Bread Fruit find a home in a teeny old one-story building does make me wonder what could have been had ASU salvaged the Taylor Street bungalows. But I guess there's little need to dwell on the past with so many good things ahead.

More (Super Bowl and other) links

2008-02-02T07:53:00.001-08:00

In light of the Super Bowl, the Associated Press rehashes the City of Phoenix party line on downtown development, (this article ran in media outlets all over the world). While the big-ticket developments like stadiums and convention centers are fine, they are generally failures at putting people on the streets. I hope our leadership realizes that downtown Phoenix won't be a success until there are people on the streets day and night. Although it's cool that they quoted Matt of Matt's Big Breakfast.

On the other hand, another writer skewers Phoenix as "far too spread out," and notes the "downtown lacks life." (The Phoenix comment is toward the end of the story.)

Which brings me to my next Super Bowl-related point-- I heard from a source that's pretty well-connected in Phoenix sports business that the NFL Host Committee is not happy with the spread-out nature of our metro area. The NFL apparently dislikes the fact, for instance, that the Patriots stayed at the Westin in north Scottsdale, the Giants on the Gila River Reservation, the media in downtown Phoenix, and the game was played in west Glendale. Driving between those four points is an 81-mile, one hour and forty-five minute trip. My source tells me the NFL prefers cities "where everything is in one place." This matters as the Phoenix area tries to compete for future Super Bowls.

Finally, on another topic, Christopher Leinberger of the University of Michigan and Brookings Institution gave a great speech to the DREAM'R awards sponsored by the Downtown Phoenix Partnership. While he made a lot of great points, my favorite was when he noted that members of Generation X and Y pick a city in which to live and then build their careers there. Therefore, he noted, it's important to offer the walkable urban environment that so many Gen X and Y members prefer. As I've said before, Phoenix is living this reality as native Arizonans move to places like LA, DC and New York in search of urban life. You can get a flavor of his remarks in this chat he held with the Arizona Republic.

Super Bowl links

2008-01-30T05:43:00.000-08:00

Exactly as I figured, the Super Bowl media blitz is on and downtown Phoenix is taking its lumps. One guy gives a pretty objective take on downtown Phoenix's "ghost town" feel, while another opts for the lazy way out and settles for Pizzeria Uno and griping on a blog.

Elsewhere, I do battle with the owner of the Vine at Thirty Second Street and Indian School (never liked that place anyway) over the state of downtown Phoenix-- he calls it "a big fat zero," while I say it's "improving." I could have brought up the seedy neighborhood around his bar, but chose to take the higher ground.

Some guy who is apparently a Scottsdale resident gives downtown a one-sentence brush-off as part of an incredibly lame take on visiting the Phoenix area.

Finally, a real columnist offers an upbeat view of the Phoenix metropolitan area. (Hey, how come no one called it the "Valley?")

A city dweller's guide to Super Bowl XLII

2008-01-25T07:32:00.000-08:00

No, Phoenix is not Boston or New York. That's hardly a revelation. But visitors here for the Super Bowl wishing to take in a little urban culture in the desert should look carefully, because there are some great finds in our city as well.

I've compiled a list of downtown Phoenix "city culture" that our guests should check out if they want an escape from the bleached-blonde vapidity of Scottsdale or the beer-soaked environments of Tempe and Glendale (or the suburban sameness of everywhere else):

* First Fridays Art Walk. Friday, February 1, 2008, 6-11 p.m.; sites all over downtown and uptown Phoenix but concentrated at Third Street and Roosevelt Street and Grand Avenue at Fifteenth Avenue (for details see artlinkphoenix.com). More than 10,000 people descend on downtown Phoenix monthly to check out the artwork in the various avante garde downtown galleries (which stay open late on this night). The art is really hit or miss, although I recommend checking out what's new at the Bragg's Pie Factory at 1301 NW Grand Avenue or taking in the Gold Spot Gallery at Third Avenue and Roosevelt Street.

* Downtown breakfast and lunch. At this point in downtown Phoenix's nascent renaissance, the restaurant scene is further ahead than the nightlife options (although I'll discuss those as well). There are terrific options for breakfast and dinner downtown. First, breakfast-- Matt's Big Breakfast is the gold standard for breakfast and lunch in Phoenix; Palatte opened last summer in a renovated historic home at 606 N. Fourth Avenue and serves healthy breakfast and lunch options and has a nice outside patio; and for the really adventurous the Welcome Diner serves limited breakfasts and lunches in a Depression-era/Route 66 diner-on-wheels (seating nine individuals) in the Garfield neighborhood.

[Matt's Big Breakfast, 801 N. First Street, 7:00 a.m. - 2:30 p.m.; Palatte, 606 N. Fourth Avenue, 7:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.; Welcome Diner, 924 E. Roosevelt Street, 7:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.]

* Downtown dinner. Everybody knows about Pizzeria Bianco, the downtown wood-fired pizza that has won multiple awards and was even called (by an out-of-town reviewer) "the best pizza in the world." It's great food and is worth the wait when you couple a trip there with stops at next-door Bar Bianco and the brand-new Cross and Crown English pub across the way. But if you'd like to avoid the three-hour waits that can be common at Pizzeria Bianco, check out Cibo in the Roosevelt Historic District next to downtown Phoenix. It's in a refurbished 1920's house and has a great selection of pizza, wines, and desserts (try the crepes with nutella). Another great spot for bohemian adventurers is Fate, which serves inexpensive pan-Asian fare in a restored historic home just off Roosevelt Street. Fate is even more of a destination these days thanks to its recently-opened Next Door outdoor bar. Fate is open until 3:00 a.m. on the weekends, which is great for those living the NYC lifestyle, as is Carly's, an avante garde sandwich place with a great beer selection, open until at least 2:00 a.m. on weekends.

[Pizzeria Bianco 623 E. Adams St., 5:00 p.m. - 10:00 p.m.; Bar Bianco, 609 E. Adams St., 4:00 p.m. - 11:00 p.m.; Cross and Crown Pub, across from Pizzeria Bianco, call ahead for hours; Cibo, 603 N. Fifth Avenue, 5:00 p.m. - 11:00 p.m. weekends, earlier weekdays; Fate, 905 N. Fourth Street, open until 2:00 a.m. Friday and 3:00 a.m. Saturday; Carly's, 128 E. Roosevelt Street, open until 2:00 a.m. on weekends. (Keep in mind these places will be mobbed on First Fridays (Feb. 2), but other than Pizzeria Bianco should be only moderately busy on other nights.)]

* Nightlife. Downtown Phoenix is just starting to develop a nightlife scene and its current options are very limited, but for those who get tired of Scottsdale's fakeness or Tempe's college scene, there are some quality spots to relax and try some great beer. Go to the Roosevelt Tavern, owned by the same couple that runs Matt's Big Breakfast, featuring multiple beers on tap including Tempe's own Kiltlifter, plus some clever takes on bar munchies, and take in a scene that features everything from prep school teachers to beatniks (yes, Phoenix has some). A great discovery just two blocks away is the Lost Leaf, which has more than 75 varieties of domestic and imported bottled beers (that will seem really cheap by east coast standards). A nice, authentic Irish pub will help the Bostonians get over any brief homesickness, and that's what you'll find at Seamus McCaffrey's in the heart of downtown, which usually features live music on weekends. Finally, for wine lovers, a stop at Cheuvront (beware- it closes early) or Silver might be a good option.

[Roosevelt Tavern, 816 N. Third Street, open until 2:00 a.m. on weekends; Lost Leaf, 914 N. Fifth Street, open until 2:00 a.m. every night; Seamus McCaffrey's, 18 W. Monroe Street; Cheuvront, 1326 N. Central Avenue, open until midnight on weekends; Silver, Second Street and Washington Street, call for hours.]

Party off

2008-01-24T20:26:00.000-08:00

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.

Sounding the alarm (again) on CityScape

2007-11-26T21:01:00.000-08:00

This month's issue of Contact Magazine (now, curiously, going by the Germanic-sounding name of "kontakt") is out, and it contains an article about the massive CityScape project being built on three prime blocks in the heart of downtown Phoenix. Among other things, the article contains several renderings of the project.

As I've said before, CityScape continues to look like a slightly-modernized Arizona Center. The renderings betray the suburban developer's inward focus-- every one of the renderings depicts the project's interior or one of the "gateways" into the project (think Arizona Center at Third Street and Van Buren by the row of flags and Hooters).

And where the streetscape is shown, one can see blank walls facing outward, or, in the case of the AJ's, a window facing the street, but of course no doors.

The bottom line is that I'm happy for the tall buildings and hip hotels that CityScape will bring to Phoenix. But the real action in any city is on the street. And, while I'd love to be mistaken, it looks like one more Phoenix development is going to get this wrong.

Sunday Updates

2007-11-11T08:09:00.000-08:00

Some random updates on things happening in downtown Phoenix:

* Gateway on Grand. The Grand Avenue neighbors have reached a compromise with the developer/investor who proposed a nine-story building on the parcel where the old Desert Sun Hotel sits. The compromise gives the developer/investor the midrise zoning originally sought, but puts a deed restriction on the parcel that would limit the site to a maximum height of 56 feet (four-five stories). This is a great solution as it allows more height than what was originally on the site and makes it more likely that the property will be developed-- it keeps the land's value from being artificially inflated by midrise zoning and makes realistic the construction of a cheaper, wood-frame building (which can still look pretty nice-- see Artisan Lofts on Central). It's great to see a divisive battle avoided and see everyone get something.

* Lido on Roosevelt. Supposedly the parcel at Fourth Street and Roosevelt, once targeted for a 19-story apartment tower, was flipped again. The sign advertising "Lido" has been removed and the property is fenced off. Unfortunately the fence is probably just a deterrent to overflow parking from Modified Arts and not a sign of any impending development.

* Restaurants. Fate's new tapas bar, Next Door, headlines the recent openings downtown. I haven't had a chance to check out the new place-- and I leave the restaurant reviews to Silverbear on his excellent Railfood blog-- but it was mobbed during the November First Fridays. Other openings include Thai Hut on First Street and McDowell (an upgrade from the truck-stop-esque Marvin's Garden that used to occupy that building), middle eastern restaurant Nile Cafe (at Artisan Village near Seventh Street), and a wine bar called Silver at Second Street and Washington. Silver's appearance is especially promising for downtown Phoenix as the upscale wine bar replaces an adult bookstore.

* Coming Soon. A coffee shop is slated to open in the corner storefront at the recently restored Bragg's Pies factory building at Grand Avenue and approximately Thirteenth Avenue. One of the vendors from the Downtown Phoenix Public Market is going to open a full-time enterprise in the spot, which has very cool floor-to-ceiling windows that face toward the downtown skyline. I hope it has wireless...

Copper Square: Put a fork in it

2007-11-01T21:11:00.000-07:00

Downtown Phoenix finally got its name back this week after Phil Gordon announced that the city would eliminate the "Copper Square" brand name.

Hooray!

The ridiculous nickname, foisted upon downtown Phoenix by a marketing team, had no historical basis and was rarely used by anyone who wasn't paid to repeat the term. While I actually think downtown could benefit by naming some of its districts (e.g., Roosevelt Row), it was silly to try to call downtown Phoenix by anything besides its real name.

So how is that for good news? Number two in my "Five Worst Things to Happen Downtown in the Last Decade" has been corrected. And number one (the continued destruction of historic buildings) has been staved off temporarily with the Sun Mercantile decision. Good times, indeed.

Downtown Phoenix Dirt Lot List

2007-10-22T22:36:00.000-07:00

The flip side of the flurry of construction downtown is the continuation of one of downtown's decades-old pastimes: land banking. In this unfortunate scenario, investors (who often live out of state) purchase a lot in hopes of reselling it at an unrealistically high price and tear down whatever building sits on the land to avoid paying the accompanying property tax. This is possibly the single biggest problem facing downtown Phoenix today, as the empty lots are not only ugly, but the continued tear-down of old buildings has led to a dearth of older commercial buildings that small businesses can occupy.

Tracing the evolution of the countless empty lots in downtown and uptown Phoenix today would be next to impossible, so I'll limit my list to those empty lots that have appeared since I moved downtown in 2004. Please let me know if you can think of any more.

Downtown (and Uptown) Phoenix Dirt Lot/Parking Lot List
[updated August 6, 2010]

1. Dirt Lot covering entire city block at Portland Street and First Street; created 2009
2. Jewel Box parcel at Central Avenue and Fillmore; created 2008
3. Dirt Lot at Portland Street and Second Street; created 2007 [former home of the 1909 Morin House, threatened when the Orcutt Winslow partnership planned to tear down the building and moved to Fifth Avenue where it filled a former dirt lot]
4. Dirt Lot at McDowell Road and Fifteenth Avenue; created 2007 [controversial teardown of the Palmcroft Apartments in favor of a proposed four-story complex; probably the highest-profile Proposition 207 victim; thanks to Mark for the mention]
5. Dirt Lot at Central Avenue and Willetta Street; created 2006 [small commercial building that housed a graphic design business, razed for the never-built Artisan Haus project]
6. Dirt Lot at Central Avenue south of Central High School; created 2006 [former Holiday Inn razed for the never-built Cresleigh Village project]
7. Phoenix Biomedical Campus; created 2005 [I know the city moved or demolished several homes in the Fifth Street/Sixth Street area north of Fillmore so that land could be quickly "assembled" for expansion of the campus. The land is still vacant.]
8. Sahara Hotel/Ramada Inn; created 2010-? [The city is tearing down this mid-century modern hotel in hopes that the site will someday house ASU's law school. In the meantime...stop me if you've heard this before...the site will be a parking lot.]

Phoenix fans: still a ways to go

2007-10-13T11:15:00.000-07:00

After witnessing the Diamondback fanbase outnumber the Cubs faithful last week, and noting that Chase Field was sold out for two home dates against Colorado this week, I was all set to proclaim that our city is coming of age in its support of the local teams. And then I attended last night's game and changed my mind.

The Diamondbacks still have a lot of fans who are just plain 'ol knobs. Putting aside the garbage-throwing incident in Thursday night's D-Backs-Rockies tilt (an overblown incident that does happen all over the place, unfortunately), I saw some things that tell me that our fans have a long way to go to earn credibility:

(1) Leaving early. With the Rockies leading 2-1 in the seventh inning of Game 2 against the Rockies, fans started heading for the aisles in droves. You have to be kidding me! Why leave? This was a Friday night...in a one-run game...in the National League Championship Series. I realize it's a long drive back to Higley and Buckeye, but why shell out the money for a ticket if you don't even care to stick around to see how the game turns out?

(2) The "wave." Baseball purists hate the wave. I think it can be fun when done at the right time. But I saw a couple sections of the stadium trying to get the wave going in the ninth inning of last night's game, and on into the extra innings. Again...ridiculous-- doing the wave means you're not paying attention to the game. And with a tie score in the most meaningful game of the season...how could you not be paying attention? Solution: do the wave in the first inning. Not with the game on the line.

(3) Ticket demand. Yeah, this was a sellout. But demand was not real high-- I got four seats together in the $60 per seat nosebleeds for $14/ticket (the game was in the first inning). The scalpers commented that the only D-Back games they made money on this year was the Red Sox series. Not a sign of good fan support.

I think things will get better as this young team keeps winning and people begin to forget about the Colangelo-era purge that the new ownership commenced this last year. But right now we're still suffering from growing pains.

Slow times in the real estate market

2007-09-30T13:36:00.000-07:00

While sales of downtown Phoenix condos have been slow at best, it might be somewhat comforting to know that it's that way everywhere. One (formerly) popular suburban subdivision-- and I'm talking about a quality, non-cookie cutter development-- is currently projecting it will see one closing per month. One.

Time to batten down the hatches and ride out the storm...

Downtown Phoenix's next tower: Central Park East

2007-09-11T07:30:00.000-07:00

* I've been out of town and moving the past couple weeks (I'm still a downtown resident, however) and have been unable to post until now. One quick comment after cruising through downtown yesterday: construction at Central Park East is imminent. An Arizona Republic story on Sunday pinned the construction start "within the next few months," but yesterday the site at Van Buren and Central Avenue had a construction trailer and several construction vehicles on location and it looks like things are going to get started a lot sooner. I'm excited for this project-- it adds much-needed office space downtown and the building's renderings are impressive. Bring on the crane!

Driving up Seventh Avenue

2007-08-26T09:49:00.000-07:00

Had a few thoughts while driving up Seventh Avenue today:

* While the HOPE VI project that replaced the Matthew Henson housing projects was much-needed and a big upgrade, how come other cities get true, urban HOPE VI projects and Phoenix gets a suburban-style apartment complex? In DC there's a block-long HOPE VI project that mixes low-income housing and market-rate apartments that meshes perfectly with the surrounding historic Capitol Hill brownstones. In fact, developers and preservationists alike have mistakenly taken pictures of the block as an example of the 100+ year old historic neighborhood (even though it was built in the late 1990's). An urban project on Seventh Avenue would certainly have been preferable to the fenced-off building that was built instead.

* Arizona Preservation Foundation is renovating the Montgomery House at Seventh Avenue and Mohave Street, one of the two oldest remaining adobe structures in Phoenix, with plans of turning it into offices. It's a cool building and it will be interesting to track its progress as it's restored.

* While it still completely sucks that Madison Square Garden was torn down in 2005, the building that replaced the Garden could have been worse, I guess. It does attempt to mesh with the street with a large sidewalk, and it's reasonably attractive. Negatives: the aforementioned teardown of MSG, of course, and the lack of ground-floor retail.

Elsewhere in downtown Phoenix, a sign and rendering appeared today at Second Street and Roosevelt advertising the construction of four urban brownstones. The web site listed on the sign links to a realtor with no information regarding the project. I have my doubts, but I'll add this project anyway to the Downtown Phoenix Project List.

Downtown's best choice in District 7: Ruth Ann Marston

2007-08-18T17:10:00.000-07:00

My choice in the Phoenix City Council District 7 race, after hearing all four candidates speak individually and in a recent forum, is Ruth Ann Marston, edging out Michael Nowakowski. While as a voter there are many issues I care about, this is a downtown blog and I'll explain why I think she's the best candidate for downtown.

Marston's a political veteran and knows the workings of city hall after years of dealing with Phoenix government, albeit as an outsider. She won't be intimidated by the veterans on the council and consequently won't feel the need to join the council in all the 9-0 votes to which we've become accustomed. Marston's accomplished, serving as the president of the Phoenix Elementary School District governing board and helping to save Kenilworth School from I-10 construction, among other achievements. Finally, she has a favorable view of historic preservation and should be able to lead developers away from wasteful conflicts like the fights over the Sun Mercantile Building and Patriot's Park while still encouraging necessary downtown development and progress. (The Sun Merc and Patriot's Park battles have partly been a failure of the city council and staff, who could have helped avert the fights simply by giving some better advice to the developers early in the process.)

While Marston is the best choice for downtown, Michael Nowakowski wouldn't be a bad alternative. He's willing to listen and also probably won't buckle under to the developers' wishes, if his wife's courageous vote on the CityScape issue while sitting on the Parks Board is any indication.

Laura Pastor has failed to impress me with her grasp of the issues. She seemed to mix up the Sun Mercantile/W Hotel annex issue with the demolition of Madison Square Garden when asked a question at one forum. She all but acknowledged that she'd side with the developers if a battle pitted developers against a public outcry. There's of course the concern that she has her sights set on her dad's job, and while that is not something about which I could speculate I think it's a safe bet that she'll rarely, if ever, break from the status quo at City Hall. And Phoenix needs leadership and courage, not someone who's more concerned with political expediency.

Finally, Art Harding is enthusiastic and fairly well-informed, but the political newcomer didn't seem to give a compelling reason to favor him over an experienced veteran like Marston.

One last note-- in the recent debate at the Irish Cultural Center, the candidates showed they all could use a broader perspective. Moderator Richard de Uriarte asked all of them during the "lightning round" which city is Phoenix's biggest rival. Harding said Scottsdale, Nowakowski said Tempe, Marston answered Glendale, and Pastor said it was Goodyear. (Goodyear?) In any event, District 7 is home to more than 250,000 residents and is as big as if not bigger-- by itself-- than every one of those suburban cities. A mammoth city like Phoenix needs to view its rivals as places like San Diego, Denver, and even LA. The candidates should all be thinking a little bigger, and hopefully the eventual winner will do that while on the council.

Downtown's hurdles

2007-08-12T09:55:00.000-07:00

One of the toughest hurdles that has faced downtown Phoenix for decades is the fact that the city and county governments have consistently used it as the storage center for the metro area's downtrodden. Jails, homeless shelters, and mental health facilities are all clustered downtown. Yes, they've got to be somewhere, but downtown bears a vastly disproportionate burden in housing these uses.

One telling statistic along these lines is that downtown's main zip code is home to the largest number of registered Level 2 and 3 sex offenders in Maricopa County. The 85003 zip code is home to 40 such sex offenders, all of whom live right downtown at Fifth Avenue and Adams next to a police station, but mere blocks from the Orpheum Lofts and 44 Monroe. Compare this to zip codes 85017 (west Phoenix/40 sex offenders), 85040 (south Phoenix/36 sex offenders), 85014 (east Phoenix/15 sex offenders), or of course 85281 (downtown Tempe/14 sex offenders), 85251 (Old Town Scottsdale/6 sex offenders). These are all in raw numbers-- if there were some way to measure these in per-capita terms I'd bet the proportion of sex offenders to total residents in downtown Phoenix would be staggering.

Downtown Phoenix should be a place where all types of people can freely mix. But it can't be overwhelmed by any one type of person-- so if Phoenix is serious about turning its downtown into a world-class (or even "national-class") destination, it needs to stop viewing downtown as the dumping ground for society's troubled.

A decent sports bar for college football, that's all I ask

2007-08-03T12:19:00.000-07:00

You’d think that with two stadiums and five professional sports teams downtown that you’d be able to find one good sports bar. But until downtown has a full-time residential population it appears even that’s too much to ask at this point. I can see people poised over their keyboards ready to talk about Majerle’s and Cooper’sTown and the like. But let me explain what I mean.

Girlfriend_of_Downtown_Resident and I organize football-watching events for the college we attended. We get a decent group of up to 35 people for the bigger games, and of course being a downtown booster I wanted to host the events somewhere in downtown Phoenix (and take the gamble that we could convince people to visit). Our school plays many of its games at noon in the eastern time zone, so we needed a place that opened early to accommodate us, and preferably one that served breakfast (who wants to eat burgers at 9 a.m.?). That shouldn’t have been a big deal, as dozens of sports bars across town open at that time to accommodate football fans. But none of them are downtown.

Obviously places like Seamus McCaffrey’s and Portland’s were out because there aren’t enough TVs or seats to handle a group of our size. That left Jackson’s on Third, Cooper’sTown, Coach & Willie’s, Majerle’s, or even Networks in the Hyatt. However, none of them open early or serve breakfast; in fact, Jackson’s doesn’t even open at all unless there’s a game going on at Chase Field or US Airways Center that day. They were even a little rude at Coach & Willie’s when I asked about hosting our group— a lot of thanks for trying to drive some business their way.

So, after a broader search, I had to settle on something in north-central Phoenix. At least it’s still centrally located, although it’s not the same as bringing people downtown.

One of the most fun things about living back east were Saturdays in the fall, when people would be walking all over the city to head to gatherings to cheer on their alma maters in football. That happens here, too, although it’s spread out all over the city and people drive to get to their destinations. Hopefully, when we’ve got enough people living downtown to warrant opening up some of these places early, we can have a little bit of that magic in Phoenix as well.

"A crime-ridden mess"

2007-07-29T10:10:00.000-07:00

Out of nowhere this week from the well-respected international newsmagazine The Economist came a brutal depiction of the Phoenix metro area*: the city's high crime rate, low-rated public education system and awful pollution were cited as evidence that Phoenix is in decline; the magazine went so far as to call the city "a crime-ridden mess."

In an unusually ponderous article, The Economist pointed to several factors as reasons for our problems: meth smuggled from Mexico, lack of opportunity for minorities (evidenced by the proliferation of chain restaurants), and even light rail. But the article seems to settle on one factor as being the cause of our woes-- growth. The article makes the case that Phoenix's rapid urban growth has both overwhelmed our civic infrastructure such as prisons and courts, and that the lack of any sort of shared history among all the newcomers makes for a city of transients who not only fail to care about their adopted home but also are easy pickings for criminals.

Interesting comments, for sure. And incredibly timely (not to mention painful) in the wake of Friday's tragic one-two punch in which two news copters crashed into each other chasing a carjacker and, later on, a young policeman was murdered following up a report of a forged check.

But is growth the main culprit for these problems? Or something else? I have long believed that the rapid growth and turnover in this city make for a very disconnected place in which cultural institutions struggle for donations and our sports teams play in front of stadiums filled by fans of the visiting team. But is the transient nature of Phoenix even more malignant than that, as The Economist seems to think? Phoenix's leaders need to steer the city through its collective mourning and then start asking the big questions as to how to fix the "mess."

* = I refer to the entire metropolitan area as the "city" and "Phoenix," as does The Economist in the article. Jon Talton used to decry the use of "Valley" to describe the metro area, and I agree-- no one outside Phoenix has ever heard of the "Valley" (except to refer to Silicon Valley, perhaps).

Sun Mercantile thoughts

2007-07-22T14:03:00.001-07:00

This week's Arizona Republic story about moving historic buildings, such as the Morin House on Second Street, had me wondering if the Sun Mercantile building could be transported to another site, settling the W Hotel/Sun Merc controversy once and for all. Unfortunately, there's no such compromise available. In this case, the site of the building is at least as important as the building itself (as the last building standing in Phoenix's second Chinatown), and regardless, the City of Phoenix Historic Preservation office doesn't believe the building would even survive a move.

So we'll continue to wait and see what happens with the ongoing litigation. If I had to bet on the outcome of the lawsuit, I'd guess the city and Suns are going to win. The legal case boils down to whether the city council exhibited an improper bias when it had ex parte contacts with constituents via e-mail, and whether that bias materially affected the outcome of the "case." That's going to be really tough for the Sun Merc plaintiffs to prove, even though their lawyers have done a great job thus far. (The case itself is approaching month number 18, although the city has another motion for summary judgment well in progress).

But looking even further beyond that, is the W Hotel another phantom project? The developer has clearly been content to ride out the litigation and the soft real estate market-- and has not been too interested in a settlement-- not the behavior of a guy who wants to get his project going. At the very least, I wouldn't be too surprised to see the Suns and the city win the lawsuit and the project continue to sit idle.

The Brain Drain: it's real

2007-07-16T23:49:00.000-07:00

Anecdotally, it's always seemed as though Phoenix is one of those cities that exports its talent. The vast majority of my friends-- who grew up in Phoenix-- went on to opportunities in places like Washington, D.C., Portland, New York and San Francisco. Conversely, at my out-of-state graduate school, the Phoenix-based companies that recruited on campus sometimes had to cancel their interview appointments due to lack of interest. Of course, that's all just anecdotal evidence.

But here's a study that demonstrates that relative to other cities, Phoenix does a poor job of attracting (and keeping) graduates of elite colleges. Forbes.com examined the migration patterns of Class of 1997 alumni from Harvard, Princeton, Duke, Northwestern, Rice and Stanford (individuals who could probably choose to live anywhere) and determined that Phoenix was 39th out of the 40 biggest American metro areas as a destination for those individuals. That poor showing led the web site to rank Phoenix as the 27th best city overall for young professionals, behind places like Cincinnati and Pittsburgh, and well behind western competitors Denver (#10), Austin (#11), and San Diego (#19).

I would argue that one significant factor creating Phoenix's inability to attract talent is our lack of city life. While not all young professionals want true urban life, many do-- and they gravitate toward places that offer them that opportunity. By concentrating solely (until maybe the last 5-10 years) on the suburban form, Phoenix has never offered a variety of living options. Hopefully that has finally changed. This ranking is further confirmation that it should change.

Chez Nous lands on Grand

2007-07-14T15:02:00.000-07:00

I'm hearing that Chez Nous, the cocktail lounge that was located at Seventh Avenue and Indian School, is moving downtown into the Grand Avenue site currently housing Fat Cats at 915 N.W. Grand Avenue. That is cool news. I've never been to Fat Cats, but I've gone to Chez Nous several times. I can't think of any other place in Phoenix where people of all races, economic backgrounds and ages would feel comfortable. I'm glad to see it's going to keep on going and add to the downtown mix. That will be some kind of place on First Fridays...

Downtown Phoenix Project List

2007-07-05T23:40:00.000-07:00

[list updated April 29, 2008]

Downtown is awash in construction and development, as I've detailed before on this blog. While the area has seen previous construction booms, those were usually driven by one or two megaprojects. The current boom is different, and definitely more encouraging, as it's comprised by loads of medium and small-sized projects that are critical to putting people on the sidewalks. Below is an attempt to list the current, future, and already completed projects. The list is not static as I'm sure I've missed some projects (especially in the "rumored" category). I also tried to draw a line and only included projects finished after 2000 in and around downtown (south of I-10, between about Tenth Street and Tenth Avenue, and north of Lincoln), and I excluded single-family home renovations-- there are just too many to list. Your input is always welcome...

Under Construction (as of April 29, 2008)

Residential
1. 44 Monroe, 202 condos/34 stories, First Avenue and Monroe Street.
2. Portland 38, 38 condos/several 3 story units, square bounded by Eighth and Ninth Streets and Portland and Roosevelt Streets
3. Roosevelt 11, 11 condos/several 3 story units, Ninth Street and Roosevelt
4. Portland 2/3 stories, roughly Sixth Street between Portland and Moreland Streets
5. Portland 3/3 stories, NE corner of Second Street and Portland Street
6. Portland 1/3 stories, SW corner of Second Street and Portland Street (31 condos in Portland 1, 2, and 3)
7. ASU Dorms I and II/13 stories, Second Street and Taylor Street*
8. ALTA Phoenix, 325 apartments/7-8 stories in various buildings, Fifth Street and Van Buren
9. 841 N. Second Avenue renovation, appears to be a condo or apartment development, probably 15-20 units/2 stories
10. Chester Place, 5 units/2 stories, Sixth Avenue south of Roosevelt
11. Metro 4twelve, 12 units/2 stories, Fourth Avenue between McKinley and Roosevelt Streets
12. McKinley Row, 32 condos/4 stories, Fourth Avenue and McKinley

Office
1. 735 North First Street, renovation
2. Central Park East, Central Avenue and Van Buren

Hotel
1. Hotel Monroe, 150 hotel rooms, Central Avenue and Monroe Street
2. Sheraton Hotel, 1000 hotel rooms, Fourth Street and Van Buren Street

Academic
1. ASU School of Journalism, First Street and Taylor Street

Transit
1. METRO light rail construction ($1B project stretching from north-central Phoenix to west Mesa) via downtown

Convention
1. Phoenix Convention Center expansion to 900,000 square feet of convention space

Retail
1. Hanny's renovation, restaurant in rehabbed department store, First Street and Adams Street
2. Security Building, first floor renovation

Yet to break ground/rumored (as of April 29, 2008)

Residential
1. GS3 Condos, 27 condos/4-5 stories, Third Avenue and Portland Street
2. Portland Place Phase II, 91 condos/10 stories, roughly Second Avenue and Portland Street
3. The Jet, 675 apartments, Second Avenue and Van Buren Street
4. Omega, 214 condos, Second Avenue and Adams Street
5. DNA Phoenix, undetermined number of condos/4 stories, Third Avenue and Fillmore Street 6. Cosmopolitan Towers, 100+ condos, Fourth Street and Pierce Street
7. Desert Sun project, 200 condos/8 stories plus commercial, Grand Avenue and Roosevelt Street*
8. Fillmore 555, 137 condos and apartments/5 stories, Fifth Avenue and Fillmore Street
9. Calder Tower, 420 apartments/39 stories, Fourth Avenue and Van Buren*
10. Phoenix Gateway Center, 100 apartments/8 stories, Twelfth Street and Washington
11. Imperial Plaza, 100 condos/22 stories, block bounded by Fourth and Fifth Avenues and Jackson and Madison Streets
12. Urban rowhouse project, 6 condos/4 stories, Second Street and Roosevelt

Mixed-use megaproject
1. CityScape, at least 500 condos and 150 hotel rooms in one tower, and 550,000-square foot office space in a second tower under the city's development agreement, Washington Street and Central Avenue*
2. Jackson Street Entertainment District, restaurant/retail/residential, between Fourth Street and First Street on Jackson Street

Office
1. MAG office building, 230,000 square feet/10-12 stories, First and Second Avenue at McKinley Street

Hotel
1. Kimpton Hotels, block bounded by Washington and Jefferson Streets and First and Second Streets
2. TWELVE Hotels, block bounded by Washington and Jefferson Streets and First and Second Streets
3. Aloft Hotel, 107 hotel rooms, Central Avenue and Adams Street

Completed [this section under development]

Residential
1. 215 McKinley (2007), 12 condos, Second Street and McKinley Street
2. Stadium Lofts (2005), approx. 30 condos, Second Street and Buchanon Street
3. Artisan Village (2005), 105 condos, square bounded by Seventh Street and Fifth Street and Roosevelt Street and Portland Street
4. Orpheum Lofts (2005), 88 condos, First Avenue and Adams Street
5. Fontenelle Lofts (2005), 7 condos, Third Avenue and Roosevelt
6. Roosevelt Commons (2004), 48 apartments, Fifth and Sixth Streets at Roosevelt Street
7. Lofts at Fillmore (2000), 18 condos, Second Avenue and Fillmore
8. Roosevelt Square (2000), 414 apartments and 10-15 condos, square bounded by Central Avenue and Third Avenue, Roosevelt Street and Portland Street
9. Portland Place Phase I (2007), 54 condos/6 stories, Third Avenue and Portland Street.
10. PRD 845 (2007), 12 condos/4 stories, Seventh Avenue and Roosevelt Street
11. Summit (2008), 165 condos, Third Street and Jackson Street.

Office
1. Phelps Dodge Tower (2001), Central Avenue and Washington Street
2. Collier Center (2000), Third Street and Washington Street

* = development offends historic preservation standards or other sound urban planning principles

Brophy Towers update

2007-07-03T18:10:00.001-07:00

The parcel of land across Central Avenue from Brophy Prep (uptown at Highland Avenue) contains a sign advertising the "Brophy Towers" condo tower-- and during the past couple years the promises advertised on the sign have bordered on the ridiculous with their constant modifications. At various times the sign has declared the development will be 32 stories, then 50, and now 36. The date of delivery of the condos has been all over the place, too. Even the name changed at one point. I figured for fun I'd track the sign and update it on this page as (inevitably) the vital stats change.

Project Name: Brophy Towers (formerly Metro Lofts)
Current Height: 36 stories
Current Delivery Date: Mid 2009

(By the way, this project looks cool in the rendering aside from the circa-1980 attached parking garage. I'd love to see it happen, but I'm more than a little skeptical...)

True lofts on Sixteenth Street, another Roosevelt Row newcomer

2007-07-01T14:09:00.000-07:00

What downtown Phoenix doesn't have a lot of, unfortunately, are old buildings that can be rehabbed into something new and cool. So anyone looking to save some money by purchasing a remake of an old spot will have to start looking a little way outside the downtown core. Here are some awesome-looking spots over at Sixteenth Street and McDowell priced under $300K, courtesy of Desert Living Magazine:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWdiaQKzTRg

Meanwhile, another option for drinks has joined the mix around Roosevelt Row. The Lost Leaf bar at 914 N. Fifth Street opened up a few weeks ago and serves about 40 bottled beers and a couple wine options until 2 a.m. every night. Girlfriend_of_Downtown_Resident and I stopped by last night; we both liked the scene and I enjoyed the beer options (which are almost all nicely priced at $3 each). The menu promises draft beer and food options in the future, and I heard that they'll even offer discounts to anyone who walks or rides a bike to the location (the Artisan Village discount?).

Downtown in Pictures: June 2007

2007-06-24T11:21:00.000-07:00

Downtown Phoenix is in the midst of an unprecedented construction boom. Here are a few pictures of the goings-on, with commentary:

Rebirth
Some of my favorite downtown projects are the restorations of the old, forgotten buildings in and around downtown. Those projects are every bit as much of a sign of the downtown comeback as the big deals. Here are a couple of those:

The bar next door to Fate (924 N. Fourth Street, just south of Roosevelt) looks just about done. The patio out front and the tree-like structure in the middle should be a fun place to hang out.

Since Matt's Big Breakfast opened in late 2004, two of the neighboring single-story buildings have been rehabbed-- one holds an architecture firm and another is the sales office for KML, the company developing Mosaic in Tempe and the "Gateway" project at Roosevelt and Third Street. This building, a little closer to the downtown core at 705 N. First Street,

is poised to join its neighbors as a restored, useful structure.

This little house on north Second Avenue is one I've spotlighted for a while. Its exterior is just about done, although the tagged-up door is kind of a cool vestige of the building's former dilapidated self.

The New, but Smaller, Stuff

Light rail will be up and running (supposedly) in just under 18 months. Here you can see the "sails" that will provide shade to the Metro stations have been installed at the station at Central and Van Buren.

Odyssey Homes is building three small communities north of Roosevelt Street. This one is at the northeast corner of Second Street and Portland Street; I think the project looks nice and urban the way it faces the street. A twin development is being built at the southwest corner of the same intersection. The new residents here ought to supply nearby Carly's Bistro with a few more customers within walking distance, although judging from the looks of things Carly's is doing pretty well all by itself right now.

The Portland 38 project is moving forward in the Garfield neighborhood east of Seventh Street. I love the view of the cranes in the background of this picture. I don't love the site plan for Portland 38, in which it appears the buildings don't face the street. That causes the development to act a little more like a suburban apartment complex, which is too bad.

ALTA Phoenix construction is rolling along. This project is supposed to feature retail and supposedly will have some gallery space for First Fridays. It's a cool development that will link together Roosevelt Row with the downtown core (Arizona Center is just across the street).

The BioScience high school is finishing up over at Fifth Street. While the building is a little fortress-like, especially from the back (not pictured here) I love the colors they used.

The twelve condos at 215 McKinley are just about finished. I like this development, although I think it was built one story too tall. This project will also have street-level retail and is within a five-minute walk of The Roosevelt, Matt's Big Breakfast and the shops at Artisan Village.

Finally, Roosevelt 11 is also under construction in the Garfield Neighborhood at Roosevelt and Ninth Street. Just five years ago it would have been unthinkable to see upscale condos being built in the once-crime-ridden Garfield district, so this building is a great sign.

The Big Guys.

Everybody knows about these high-profile projects-- you can see them driving by on the freeway, for one thing. I'll let the pictures do most of the talking here:

Portland Place, the best of all the new downtown projects (in my unbiased opinion)...

Summit, using some very daring color schemes. I kind of like it, but I hope their HOA doesn't hesitate to remake the colors in a few years if the colors start to look outdated. Note the weird contrast of styles with Chase Field in the background and a cool old warehouse in the foreground.

44 Monroe, which is just about topped off. I think it looks awesome the way it helps to fill out the downtown skyline.

Whither the Phoenix Urban Form project?

2007-06-14T19:34:00.000-07:00

The Phoenix Urban Form project may be a victim of timing-- it got under way just after the last election cycle in which its doom was set up. The project, which promised to revamp downtown zoning laws to provide for a better city environment (including better pedestrian "connectivity" and shade), may not see the light of day if Phoenix's legal counsel has its way. The City Attorney's office has told the council behind the scenes that enacting the Urban Form recommendations will put the city at risk of a Proposition 207 lawsuit, and, consequently, the attorneys have advised the council not to go ahead with Urban Form. It will be interesting to see whether the council has a stomach for risk. If not, this worthwhile project will become a (silent) victim of the Prop 207 land use law passed by voters last year.

Fenway West

2007-06-09T13:34:00.000-07:00

Wanna-be New Englanders celebrate at Chase Field after Red Sox player Julio Lugo's first inning home run. By the way, my guess is 1/3 of the people cheering on the Sox in Phoenix yesterday are bandwagoners that have never set foot in Massachusetts.

Photo Credit: David Kadlubowski/The Arizona Republic.

Sports teams are sources of civic pride and help foster a sense of community. People's love for their cities is often reflected in their love of the local sports team-- look at Chicago with the Cubs or D.C. with the Redskins, for instance.

That's why it bugs me to attend sporting events in Phoenix. Fans of the home team in every sport are sometimes outnumbered and frequently outshouted by fans of the opposing teams. And, for the most part, the people cheering for the visiting teams are residents of the Phoenix area.

The scene was no different yesterday at Chase Field, where in my estimation at least half of the 40,000 fans on hand were there to cheer on the Boston Red Sox against the Diamondbacks. To me, this just shows that many of the people who move here never really see Phoenix as "home," and that their loyalties continue to lie elsewhere even when they moved here to escape some frigid place back east.

Having half the (local) fans cheering against the home team would be unthinkable in places like Chicago, D.C., New York, and of course Boston. Maybe someday I'll get to see the same thing happen here. In the meantime, go Diamondbacks (and Sun Devils, Suns, Coyotes, Sting, and yeah I guess even the Cardinals).

Downtown's one thing, how about redevelopment off the beaten path?

2007-05-26T12:51:00.000-07:00

If you really want to get discouraged about the Phoenix area, take a drive along Grand Avenue (northwest of McDowell) or go to any one of the neighborhoods to downtown's immediate south, east and west. At least downtown is the focus of redevelopment efforts, but you have to wonder whether some of those areas will ever turn around.

That's why it was really great to see this week's announcement in the Arizona Republic about Yourtown, a $12M redevelopment of an old Smitty's restaurant at 16th Street and Buckeye in one of those no man's lands. Sloane McFarland, the guy who helped get Lux Coffeebar and Welcome Diner going and sparked redevelopment in the areas around those spots, will bring both of those concepts plus an urban farm, a building supply store and art and music venues to this blighted corner. (McFarland's also a Brophy grad. Go Broncos.)

When this gets going, it'll be a great place to take people for coffee or breakfast after picking them up at Sky Harbor. And it brings some life to one of those places that seem like they'll never be found by redevelopment.

Downtown Phoenix loses an advocate and other comments

2007-05-06T08:47:00.000-07:00

Jon Talton is reportedly moving to Seattle. Not sure whether he will continue to work in journalism up there or pursue some new adventure, but I already miss his work in the Arizona Republic. I disagreed with Talton's national political views, but I loved his Phoenix-oriented columns. No one else at the Republic kept downtown at the front and center of discussions the way in which Talton dared. While his negativity regarding Phoenix bothered some people, I believe he wrote from the viewpoint of someone who loved this city with his whole heart and had subsequently had his heart broken many times as Phoenix made mistake after mistake in destroying its downtown.

On a happier note, yesterday Girlfriend_of_Downtown_Resident and I stopped into the Mosaic sales office and learned that KML, builders of the Mosaic project in Tempe, have plans for the block bordered by Roosevelt Street, Third Street and Fourth Street. Their project, tentatively called the "Gateway" development, is to feature a condo tower, apartments and a grocery store. While this location is a crucial piece of the redevelopment of downtown Phoenix, as it would(hopefully) bind together the Roosevelt Arts District and the emerging urban life around the parcel, it's a long way off. We were told the sales team would start moving on selling that project in late 2008. But, as this parcel is probably the most embarassing one of all the vacant parcels in downtown Phoenix, this could be a great project.

Three words: Let's go Suns!

Adios

2007-04-29T13:24:00.000-07:00

These little bungalows on Taylor Street near Second Street aren't long for this world. Soon, an ASU-powered wrecking ball will deal these 90-year old buildings their fate. While preservationists are aware of this, there won't be any Sun Merc-style lawsuits or A.E. England-type behind-the-scenes politicking to save these low-profile buildings. So I figured I'd put a picture of them in this space before they make way for two ASU dorms.

For those keeping score, ASU has now taken out at least six single-story downtown Phoenix buildings while the downtown Phoenix campus is constructed. It's too bad a few of these couldn't be integrated into the campus as a reminder of the city's history. They're functional and could be used to house small businesses or ASU offices. But that's not ASU's model.

Where was my byline?

2007-04-11T12:26:00.000-07:00

Maybe I'm seeing something that wasn't there, but the opening paragraphs of the Arizona Republic's cover story on downtown sounded a lot like something I wrote about six weeks ago. Here's what I mean:

On February 25, in my post 'The Old Guard Reacts in the Wake of CityScape,' I wrote, '...Every few years some developer comes along with a project that is going to "save" downtown but fails in that colossal task. In the seventies, it was the civic plaza convention center. In the late 1980's, after the Boston Globe called downtown Phoenix a "surreal nightmare," we tried to save it with the Mercado and Arizona Center. In the nineties, it was US Airways Arena and Chase Field...CityScape is just the latest variation in a series of megaprojects billed as the downtown savior.'

On April 8, the Republic ran a story called 'Multiple projects key to downtown's revival.' It opens like this: 'First it was the Phoenix Civic Plaza. Then it was the Arizona Center. Later it was the sporting venues - America West Arena and Bank One Ballpark - that were to provide the spark. More recently, it was a new Arizona State University campus that was ballyhooed. It seems every few years - for the past three or four decades - city boosters anointed one venture or another as the savior of downtown Phoenix. But each time, the project's actual impact has fallen far short of the lofty projections.'

Maybe I'm mistaken-- but it seems like there are a lot of similarities here-- the use of a list that names the civic plaza, the Arizona Center, the arena and ballpark; the use of the same word, "savior," to describe the projects; and of course the overall thesis are pretty much the same.

Anyway, I'm not mad. The notion that downtown Phoenix tries to reinvent itself every so often through some "silver bullet" megaproject was hardly novel when I wrote it. And I also know that someone can read something, forget it, and then weeks or months later, the subject of the reading comes back into one's mind and the person innocently uses it as their own thoughts. My only beef is, hey, if you liked the concept, give me a byline, or quote me!

Bar Smith: worth a visit

2007-04-07T10:49:00.000-07:00

I stopped by the brand-new Bar Smith last night with my girlfriend. It's a quality spot, but it's got some challenges ahead. The restaurant is wedged between Burn and the Sky Lounge on Washington Street-- you know, the spot where Oregano's failed. (When a place such as Oregano's, where 60-minute wait times are the standard at its other locations, can't make it, that says something about downtown.) The place was pretty much empty on a Friday night. Still, it's got some good things going for it-- the ahi tuna sliders were really good, the scene inside could be hip and it's a got a very cool rooftop patio. It could be a fun place to hang out when the downtown core comes to life during the upcoming Suns playoff run.

'Broken window' theory at work downtown

2007-03-31T18:37:00.000-07:00

You could see another sign of the rebirth of downtown Phoenix this week after some guy who calls himself 'Detox1' tagged a bunch of buildings in the Roosevelt neighborhood, including the historic Gold Spot Market. Ten years ago, my guess is that the graffiti would have stayed there for months. (In fact, the Gold Spot was a vacant building just 5 years ago.) But the handiwork of Detox1 (which sounds like an Instant Messenger screen name to me) was gone by mid-week at the latest, and in at least one instance had been painted over in a few hours.

Coming soon...

2007-03-29T19:53:00.000-07:00

Downtown Phoenix continues to add the fine-grained development that will give birth to a real city:

* GS3 Condos at Third Avenue and Portland Street continue to move through the city's permitting process, seeking several variances in April.

* The "Gallery" Bar and Grill at Third Street and Roosevelt (at Canvas) received variances to allow outdoor dining and live music.

* Sister's Express Cafe apparently will open at Artisan Village in the live/work space along Roosevelt and nearest Seventh Street.

* Portland Place is moving forward on its second phase. It's hiking the prices in the few remaining condos in the first phase to match the second phase's prices.

Leadership needed

2007-03-18T10:28:00.000-07:00

Omega Condominiums: At first blush anyway, this proposed 32-story condo looks great. It has ground-floor retail, the parking is part of the building and not a stand-alone garage, and it respects its downtown Phoenix environment (i.e., it doesn't require the destruction of any historic buildings or parks).

Unfortunately, a potential roadblock has emerged in that it will sit atop the parking lot currently in use by the residents of nextdoor Orpheum Lofts. The Orpheum residents claim they were promised parking when they purchased their condos, but once the Omega tower is built their only option will be to purchase parking at $30,000 per stall in Omega.

This problem seems solveable. If there's one thing downtown Phoenix has an abundance of, it's (not people or entertainment options) parking. There are numerous surface and garage parking lots near the Orpheum Lofts that are unused at night. And here's where we need leadership-- if Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon is really serious about downtown housing, his office should step in and broker a solution with the Orpheum HOA to find an answer to the parking problem. Hey, I hear the city wants to add a couple more floors to its already-monstrous garage on 3rd avenue (Heaven help us), so maybe there could be some spaces available there?

Orpheum Lofts and new residences. As a side note, it's interesting how the Orpheum Lofts homeowners begged the Parks Board to approve CityScape because they were so desperate for new residents and options downtown (a few so-called "urbanites" even said they were frightened by their downtown environment), but now that a proposed project threatens their own self-interest they're opposed to new development. This is bad news and there's got to be a compromise if downtown Phoenix is to succeed.

Updates and links

2007-03-12T18:12:00.000-07:00

Odds and ends:

New Residents. Central Phoenix's population will swell a little bit more as closings just occurred in the second building in Tapestry on Central (the portion of the complex facing Central). Meanwhile, closing is supposed to take place in mid-July in the first phase of Portland Place.

Sun Mercantile/W Hotel suit. The lawsuit filed by various groups in an effort to save the Sun Mercantile building is now rolling into its fourteenth month of existence, and still going strong. The case is now in the discovery phase. I'll say it again: developers, do quality urban projects and respect the buildings and parks that are already in place, or you will face some powerful resistance. (See 44 Monroe as an example of doing it right.)

Light rail as economic development tool. Even light rail advocates like myself will admit the project is partly about economic development. Read a libertarian response (starting on page 4).

Fellow bloggers. After perusing the sites of various downtown Phoenix-related bloggers, I have to wonder: am I the only one who's not a real estate agent?

More ideas on improving Seventh Street and Seventh Avenue

2007-03-09T22:28:00.000-08:00

Last July, LIDP reader Steve posted a lengthy comment on one of my posts regarding the "highways" of Seventh Street and Seventh Avenue. It contains some great thoughts and it's worth the read.

I'll let you check out Steve's comment for its numerous useful points, but one take Steve had should be highlighted: he noted that the three-quarters of a mile distance between lights on Seventh Street and Seventh Avenue was too long. It's so true-- the short distance between lights in real city environments really slowed down cars and made life more pleasant for pedestrians. In Phoenix, drivers can reach top speeds even on its most urban streets. At least light rail has led to the addition of many more street lights on Central. Love to see that on Seventh Street and Seventh Avenue.

Another parking garage?

2007-03-01T23:04:00.000-08:00

New 26-story downtown tower at Central Park East. Check.
Ground-floor retail. Check (although this should now be a given).
Parking for 600 vehicles. Ugh.

While it’s always great for downtown to get a new tower, we don’t need another parking garage in a downtown where garages and buildings seem to exist on a 1:1 ratio. Hopefully the garage can be built with retail or housing masking the garage as in Roosevelt Square, the proposal for the new Solomon Tower or Tempe’s Centerpoint Condos and Grigio Apartments. However, this is downtown Phoenix—not Tempe or even the Roosevelt neighborhood—so I won’t hold my breath.

And isn’t there a light rail stop within a block?

The old guard reacts in the wake of CityScape

2007-02-25T09:19:00.000-08:00

The CityScape proposal is nothing new for this city. Every few years some developer comes along with a project that is going to "save" downtown but fails in that colossal task. In the seventies, it was the civic plaza convention center. In the late 1980's, after the Boston Globe called downtown Phoenix a "surreal nightmare," we tried to save it with the Mercado and Arizona Center. In the nineties, it was US Airways Arena and Chase Field. This decade, the powers that be shoved Dodge Theatre down our throats and really wanted to jam the Cardinals Stadium downtown too. CityScape is just the latest variation in a series of megaprojects billed as the downtown savior.

Howeve, this time around, there was a difference. There was a mobilized opposition that had a major effect on the process. And it's been noticed: there's been chatter about it on the message boards and today the Republic's Doug MacEachern spends 25 column inches complaining about the public daring to insert itself in a process that he apparently believes should be left to the developers.

You can read MacEachern's column for yourself, but frankly I think he disqualifies himself from discussing the issue with any authority when he makes this comment: "on various Internet blogs...the opponents [of CityScape] argued that CityScape's design is just too suburban for them. I'm not entirely sure what this means..."

(MacEachern is the Republic editorial board's designated expert on downtown. I guess we really should expect nothing less from a newspaper that doesn't even employ an architecture critic.)

Anyway, MacEachern is essentially complaining about a breakdown of the old paradigm in Phoenix development, that LIDP reader Walt accurately describes as "accepting the developer's vision without complaint or suggestion." MacEachern argues that the message is being sent to developers that downtown is too difficult a place in which to do projects. (He ignores the fact that big-ticket projects such as Orpheum Lofts, 44 Monroe and Portland Place cruised through the city approval process with no opposition, because they were quality urban developments.) I agree with MacEachern that a message has been sent, although I'd phrase it differently: developers need to realize that they need to do true urban projects and be willing to listen to the residents, or they will face a firestorm of difficulty and criticism.

CityScape aftermath

2007-02-23T17:27:00.000-08:00

The Parks Board voted 5-2 to adopt the conceptual master plan for CityScape. My initial reaction and observation following last night's meeting:

A lightweight board. "New York might have Central Park, but New York also has a lot of other things that I wouldn't want," said Parks Board member Laura Bell in casting her vote to turn over the park to RED. Huh?! Even CityScape supporters would have to admit the board's comments in electing to abdicate their roles as stewards of a park to the private sector were pretty much insipid. Jim Holway was the lone bright spot among that dismal crew.

Class warfare. The young professionals in the room, many of them residents of the Orpheum Lofts, generally supported CityScape (while in general the opposition was older and less well-to-do). I don't get it- haven't any of these young professionals lived in other cities? Don't they realize that trading away the public park for a PF Changs doesn't make our city better, it just makes it generic?

Nobody buys RED's "park." In its presentation on CityScape, RED Development tried to make the claim that the little grassy spot in the middle of the AJ's/B. Dalton's/PF Chang's complex was Patriot's Park. They even tried to say that 20,000 people could attend an event there (even though their diagrams showed half those people would be unable to see the "stage" because their view would be blocked by PF Chang's). But nobody who spoke on behalf of the project tried to defend RED's ploy. Aside from the developers, even the supporters of CityScape seem to concede that Patriot's Square is gone.

Streetside Retail? It's hard to say whether there will be streetside retail. Yes, one of the development team pledged in the meeting that all parts of the project will have street-fronting retail. But earlier in the presentation one of the RED guys mentioned only "retail along Washington and Jefferson." Holway brought up the fact that RED hadn't received any commitment from the proposed tenants to have street-facing retail. And RED's own plan points out "street side retail" only on the new east-west street, and nowhere else in the project (see below). Hopefully-- at least-- there will be street-fronting stores.

Summary. In all, this was no surprise. It's Phoenix! The developers generally rule the day. But they did have to make some concessions. And maybe the people in attendance-- who seemed so desperate for new development-- will get over their civic inferiority complex and not be so desperate the next time a developer proposes some crappy deal to the city.

It's the little things

2007-02-18T10:13:00.000-08:00

Amid the battle over CityScape and the eye-catching construction taking place at 44 Monroe and Summit, it's easy to lose sight of what really makes a city: the small stuff. In spite of the city bureaucracy, which hinders small business expansion, downtown Phoenix is doing pretty well on that front (part of the reason why I believe we don't need CityScape).

Here are a few more pictures of what's going on downtown on the human scale:

The owners of Fate, the pan-Asian restaurant on Fourth Street, are expanding their ventures. Pictured here is Fate (on the left), and its neighboring structure to the right at 901 N. Fourth Street, which is being gutted for remodeling as we speak. My understanding is that this building will house a bar and tavern. I'm also happy that Fate has gotten rid of the crappy asphalt parking lot that used to sit in front of the restaurant-- it looks like patio seating will replace the parking. (That's fine, in cities you parallel park on the street).

To the east of the 901 N. Fourth Street structure is this cool, two-story building that also is being renovated by the Fate owners. This is the back of both buildings, with 901 N. Fourth Street on the right.

Here is a two-story building at 1017 N. Central, just north of Roosevelt. It was a gallery a few months back, but has since been converted to a very modern-looking office building.

Just up the street from Matt's Big Breakfast is this formerly vacant building at 818 N. 1st Street, which is now the sales office for the KML Mosaic project in Tempe. (Interesting that the sales office for a Tempe condo is here...)

And finally, for good measure, is the historic home at 830 N. Second Avenue that I pictured just a couple weeks back. Check out the progress...

Cityscape: No thanks

2007-02-11T10:53:00.000-08:00

I've held off on addressing the CityScape proposal for a while. But the final proposal has come forward, and it's time to comment. Here are my pluses and minuses about this proposal, and my conclusion.

Pluses:

No more parking lots. If built out, the CityScape development would replace parking lots with residential, office, and hotel towers. Obviously, eliminating surface parking lots at the heart of the city would be a good thing.

Grocery Store. CityScape has signed a letter-of-intent with AJ's to build a grocery store downtown. Such a store is of vital importance if downtown is to support residents, and AJ's is a quality place.

Residential/Office. CityScape could bring as many as 1,000 residential units downtown, if built out. That is a lot of people, although residential development better be affordable in light of the slow condo market. The office space is really needed as downtown has the lowest vacancy rate of any metro Phoenix office submarket.

Minuses.

Patriot's Square Park. The current plans for CityScape would see a two-story PF Changs and a six-story building housing Borders and AJ's replace downtown's public square. This is an absolute travesty. Simply put, the citizens of Phoenix should not have to give up a public park-- particularly the only one in the middle of downtown-- in order to get generic retail and services that can be found in numerous locations in this city and in others. On top of that, RED Development is seeking a city subsidy!

(And don't believe for one second that the little grassy area between Borders and PF Changs makes up for the loss of Patriot's Square. It's a tiny, token gesture on the part of RED.)

(More!) Blank walls in downtown. While CityScape representatives have stated that their development will have street-facing retail along Washington and Jefferson Street, there appear to be blank walls facing the street along First Street, Second Street, and Central Avenue. How do I put this? No, no, no. We simply cannot repeat the mistakes of the Arizona Center and Collier Center.

Questionable Obligation. In exchange for a city subsidy and the city's relinquishment of Patriot's Square Park, RED only must build one office building and develop the retail on Patriot's Square. So, one building and some uninspiring accompanying retail...I have a name for that: Collier Center. We don't need another Collier Center, particularly one we have to pay for.

Submerged Streets. The CityScape plan plunges Central Avenue and First Street underneath pedestrian overpasses. I'm not a fan of this. Real urban development interacts with existing city streets and doesn't try to separate pedestrians and cars. This is one step above a superblock!

Chain Stores. Borders is everywhere. PF Changs is everywhere...and it sucks! Of course national chains will want to be a part of the revived downtown Phoenix, but do we have to pay for them too?

Summary: I'm really disappointed by all of this. The public process related to Patriot's Square Park was a farce, as RED and the city came back with essentially the same design as the original proposal. More importantly, this looks like a huge missed opportunity to develop prime city blocks the right way. I'm all for more towers and new residential and office-- but not at the expense of our public park, and particularly not for what is effectively another suburban development plopped in downtown.

Let's not act out of desperation. Downtown Phoenix looks like it was built out of desperation-- with project after project that hoped to "save" downtown and flopped. That's not the case anymore. Downtown has a lot of positive momentum: the office market is booming; the Jackson Street Entertainment District has a lot of promise; First Fridays are spurring new restaurants and housing. Basically, we don't need to be desperate anymore. Let's encourage the City of Phoenix to vote down the city incentive for CityScape and the plan to give away Patriot's Square so we can wait for another, better urban development that is fitting of the city's heart.

Monroe Street -- Downtown's best street?

2007-02-04T12:03:00.000-08:00

Sadly, while downtown Phoenix has a lot to do, its entertainment options are spread out. Other cities do a far better job of concentrating bars, restaurants, stores, and other urban amenities-- downtown Phoenix has unfortunately been carved up by too many superblocks and parking garages.

So, downtown's best street is undoubtedly Monroe Street (solely because of the little stretch between Central and 1st Avenue). It's got the cool historic hotel, the San Carlos, plus Seamus McCaffrey's. Across the street is more nightlife with Monroe's (the only basement bar I'm aware of in downtown). This street should get even better when 44 Monroe finishes up and the Professional Building is renovated. There are plans for ground-floor retail in both buildings and 44 Monroe will bring 200-300 more residents downtown. Glad to see it continue to rise.

Downtown Phoenix: ideally located for the metro area's future growth

2007-01-28T11:20:00.000-08:00

The explosive growth of the West Valley is, in one way, good for downtown Phoenix. (And I'm not referring to the fact that the West Valley did downtown a favor by taking the Cardinals off our hands.)

The fact that the west side has grown so much means that at least geographically, downtown is now back as the center of the metro Phoenix area. Companies now have more of an incentive to locate in central and downtown Phoenix as their workforces now commute from both the east and west sides of town. And people living in downtown Phoenix can get to either side in a flash. I just got back from Tempe (Apache and McClintock) in 16 minutes. Believe it or not, it's 30-35 minutes to faraway Surprise from downtown.

Just one more reason why it's great to be downtown.

Downtown Phoenix updates

2007-01-18T17:03:00.000-08:00

* New life is being breathed into vacant buildings at 841 N. Second Avenue (below), across the street at approximately 830 N. Second Avenue (below), and at the Professional Building at Central and Monroe (above) as downtown continues its comeback.

* "Matt's Little Tavern," a.k.a. The Roosevelt, is up and running to rave reviews. I've been there twice, and it's cool. It's housed in the 1909 Farish house, which gives the bar the feel of a house party. For better or worse, the place is packed-- with all types of people ranging from Brophy teachers to beatniks (I never knew Phoenix had so many). The beers are awesome and the food is creative, although it's strictly snack food and won't make it as a dinner. Feel free to show it off to your friends from the suburbs and other cities-- it doesn't disappoint.

* The Royal Coffee Bar has opened at Second Avenue and Jackson Street in the warehouse district. I'm not a coffee fan but the interior is distinctly urban. Next door is the Sweet Pea Bakery. Looking down Jackson Street are pluses and minuses as the Summit condo at 5th Street is nearly topped off, towering over the neighborhood, but The Old Brickhouse at Central Avenue has shut its doors.

Now if only University of Phoenix Stadium could get this right...

2007-01-13T13:46:00.000-08:00

I'm not crazy about the Diamondbacks new ownership and the pettiness that they displayed in getting rid of all remnants of the Colangelo regime (they even changed the team's colors). But these new guys could start to grow on me if they make sensible decisions like keeping the roof open during the nice weather.

I swore off going to D-Backs day games during nice weather two seasons ago when I wasted three hours on a gorgeous April afternoon sitting inside BOB with the roof shut. They even had the nerve to display the outside temperature-- 73 degrees!-- while we sat inside the sterile environment.

All this apparently because a few whiners couldn't stand the sun in their eyes. (Note to wimps: invest in sunglasses.)

I'm looking forward to baseball season already...

ASU students need to make their own opportunities in downtown Phoenix

2007-01-06T12:03:00.000-08:00

I was a bit disappointed to hear the students at ASU Downtown Phoenix criticizing the school for the lack of social options downtown. Let me first say that I’ve lived in other downtowns in bigger cities that had a lot more going for them, so I am not unaware of the fact that, relative to other cities, downtown Phoenix is pretty limited in terms of what’s available socially. Still, the students quoted in this article came off as whiny and kind of spoiled.

First, there are cool things to do downtown at night. Beyond the art and sports offerings, there are a lot of fun, fairly inexpensive places that stay open late that are within walking distance of the ASU dorm: Fate (open until midnight during the week and 3 a.m. on weekends); Seamus McCaffrey’s (open until 2 a.m. every night, I believe); Carly’s (open until midnight); Cibo (open until 10 p.m.); Portland’s (open until 10 p.m.); Majerle’s (open until 2 a.m.); and now The Roosevelt (open until 2 a.m.). A majority of the places on that list are restaurants that are open to those under 21.

Second, and more importantly, I had hoped that ASU downtown would attract a different type of student resident—leaders who realized that they were urban pioneers who would help create a social life where one didn’t already exist. There’s an old, run-down dive called the Newsroom right near the ASU dorm. Aren’t there five or ten ASU students who could turn that place into “the” dive bar for students on Thursday nights, for instance? Instead of acting like leaders and making their own opportunities, however, the students quoted are followers who seem to believe ASU is supposed to provide those kinds of opportunities for them. Too bad.