Only 20 years of progress?

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

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?

Does downtown Phoenix not want business?

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.

Two views of downtown emerge at ASU

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?)

Elsewhere around downtown

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.

Do people really believe this stuff?

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

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

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

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

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.

New Times still doesn't get light rail

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.

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

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.

ASU students don't miss a chance to bash downtown

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?

Downtown Phoenix's new icon

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.

More (Super Bowl and other) links

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

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?")