Downtown links

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.