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Downtown Phoenix has been ignored before Phil Gordon took over.
Although Downtown is a lot more livable today, compared to other cities, it is still a disappointment.
Lets see what the next mayor does.
A mayor can only encourage development downtown ... he/she can't actually build more attractions, bring in more corporate jobs, or improve the nightlife. Most of that has to come from the private sector. I still maintain that one of the biggest obstacles to anything getting done is the pathetic NIMBYs. Several times, there have been major plans to build things, only to be stopped by these activist NIMBY groups who have nothing better to do with their time than cause trouble.
Case in point: a few years ago, a small group of NIMBYs started a lawsuit over the proposed W Hotel, claiming the property was part of Phoenix's Chinese history (even though the property is an eyesore). Because of that, the hotel was never built. Several years before that, Collier Center was planned to have a hotel built, but the owner of the Wyndam started a protest over it, and won. Even CityScape was met with protests when it was found out Patriot's Park was going to be demolished. Thankfully, their activism went nowhere ... but it just proves how many idiots there are here who would rather have vacant lots and run down structures than beautiful new developments.
It looks like we can scratch off-Create a commuter or monorail system from Downtown to Sky Harbor Airport.
I was searching through some articles, and Phoenix is building a new People mover system from the Airport Terminals to the Light Rail Station on 44th and Washington.
This will be a lot cheaper than I anticipated and a great way for visitors to get to downtown.
Here's another idea to add to the list: we should be a city of festivals. Sorry, this is a long post, but I have several ideas about this:
Really, there should be some sort of street festival going on every weekend downtown(summer and winter), and each one needs to be well-advertised, open to the public, and preferably an annual event so everyone here knows about it, can recommend it to tourists who are visiting, and it becomes part of the fabric of our community as a tradition. Ideally, the festivals would be held in a particular park, for ease of name recognition/reputation. I think festivals would really work well in our area because, since not everyone has tons of money to spend( due to the service economy that we have currently, along with the economic depression), you could still enter for a small price, and then spend as much or little money you want on trinkets, souvenirs, vendor booths, etc.
There is some of this going on already. But it needs to be better organized and advertised! Here are a few ideas for festivals(yes, we have these already, but they need to be consistently at a specific location downtown, as well as the ones that are spread out in all corners of the valley):
1) Cultural festivals that include music, food, art, of a particular geographical region. i.e. Navajo, Greek, Italian, Brazilian, Irish, Thai, etc. festivals.
2) Food grown in Arizona: A lot of people are shocked to realize we actually can and do grow plenty of fruits/veggies right here in Phoenix! Yes, even in the summer, delicious tomatoes, peppers, basil. And the rest of the year, we can grow naturally almost anything that doesn't love acidic soil. Plus, something we have here that few other places have is cactus, which can be used in cooking. We already have some local chefs who are using cactus flavors in their cooking, but we need to have it popularized, so that people are visiting Phoenix for a particular style of cooking. Just as people associate 'Santa Fe' style with a particular style of cooking. What is the 'Phoenix' style?! Laid-back is good but it doesn't mean comatose when it comes to ambitions. Also, since we have a large Mexican population, we should at least aspire to the best Mexican food outside of Mexico; and there should be a Mexican food cooking contest every year.
3) Movies in the park. One time, while visiting the country Chile, I was surprised to see how many people would come out with lawn chairs, families, etc to the local park to watch old Charlie Chaplin films. Maybe something like this is already happening, but it needs to be better advertised.
4) Dancing/music: ok, maybe just in the winter. But when I lived in South Florida, there wasn't anywhere you would go out that had music in which you could get out alive without dancing. Even people who don't dance; the Cubans would drag you on the dance floor...there was no saying 'no'! So, I come to Phoenix and it seems no one dances, even in the winter! Why? I think the answer lies in the music. Musicians need to develop a regional style of rhythm that swings, that calls people to dance. Maybe it would be a hybrid of some Mexican and American form, I don't know. But just as New Orleans has a unique sound, we should have one. Yes, I know these things take a long time, and respect for tradition, but one must start somewhere. So, I urge musicians to work together to form such a new tradition. Again, laid-back is good, but it doesn't mean we have to be comatose and lazy.
5) Silly regional contests: Phoenix takes itself too seriously sometimes. The politics are always turned to volume 11. We need to make fun of ourselves, and have more fun. Let's have pet lizard and scorpion races, hot-sauce eating contests, that type of thing.
6) Day without cars downtown: In Bogota, they have Sundays called Ciclovia, in which certain areas of the city are mostly closed off to cars, and the point is to either walk or bike around. Not sure if this could ever work in Phoenix, but it's interesting to ponder. If nothing else, there need to be nicer strolling areas in which cars a limited, in order to make festivals more attractive.
Well, those are just a few ideas. I'm not sure how much of this type of thing can be done by private citizens vs investor, vs. govt. But I do think we can do better, we should be more ambitious from a roots level to create a city which we can be even more proud to call home. It reminds me of a documentary I once saw about people who lived from scavenging from a huge landfill in Brazil. They even made beautiful art from the leftover scraps they could find. We do not even live in such a sad extreme, so why shouldn't we strive to make where we live(regardless of economic conditions, or so-called 'class' of people involved) a better place? IMO, the draw should be a unique culture, not large buildings or huge #s of chain restaurants and clothing stores that can be found in abundance elsewhere.
One more thing, we should always be aware of blight, and trying to prevent it. Fortunately, Phoenix is relatively tidy compared to many cities, but we can still do better, so that people who visit will say "Phoenix is sooo pretty, even though it's hot". When buildings are constructed, let's try to make them not just functional, but attractive. Downtown where I live gets quite a lot of graffiti. Let's try to limit this and over-paint it asap. We should also become the city of flowering vincas during the summer. They grow easily during extreme heat, come in a variety of shades, and require not too much water (and they're cheap to buy). People should form guerilla gardening groups to beautify the city with lots of flowers.
There should be voluntary community funds that help older people, who may not be able to afford mowing grass and weed upkeep, to convert to low-maintenance rocks/cactus landscape, too.
Last edited by Xica_da_Silva; 09-05-2011 at 12:09 PM..
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3) Movies in the park. One time, while visiting the country Chile, I was surprised to see how many people would come out with lawn chairs, families, etc to the local park to watch old Charlie Chaplin films. Maybe something like this is already happening, but it needs to be better advertised.
They have been doing just that at Civic Space Park (also Steele Indian School Park but that isn't downtown). I am guessing that they have stopped for the summer and will resume when it gets more livable out.
Phoenix will never compare to Chicago or New York or L.A.
Getting people to live downtown is the first step in bringing in every other day-to-day reason to be downtown (not considering symphony or sports events or conventions). Most businesses draw clientele from within a few miles. There has been significant growth in and around downtown since I moved to the valley, and much more since I first visited. A lot of growth and renovation. No urban growth is an overnight proposition (unlike the insta-subdivisions of the Phoenician suburbs in 2005). Downtown's population has grown substantially.
I've lived in cities and suburbs on both sides of the country, for 20 years of my adult life. It's the same anywhere. There are people who are fine living in suburbs, and people who prefer cities. Suburbanites live in suburbs for a reason. People who live in the city live there for a reason. Phoenix didn't have anywhere for people to live downtown, but now it does, and people have moved to the downtown area. Residents need goods and services, and the people who live in cities don't usually care to drive 30 minutes out to the suburb of Mormon Falls every other day. The same people really don't care if the residents of aforementioned suburbs think that their way of life is the only way exists. Likewise, suburbanites don't think of cities as liveable, and probably don't care that they drive 2 hours out of every 24. It's just a different lifestyle. Neither is right or wrong. Neither is going away. Urban living and urban renovation/renewal is not going to decline anytime in the near future.
I've lived in cities and suburbs on both sides of the country, for 20 years of my adult life. It's the same anywhere. There are people who are fine living in suburbs, and people who prefer cities. Suburbanites live in suburbs for a reason. People who live in the city live there for a reason. Phoenix didn't have anywhere for people to live downtown, but now it does, and people have moved to the downtown area. Residents need goods and services, and the people who live in cities don't usually care to drive 30 minutes out to the suburb of Mormon Falls every other day. The same people really don't care if the residents of aforementioned suburbs think that their way of life is the only way exists. Likewise, suburbanites don't think of cities as liveable, and probably don't care that they drive 2 hours out of every 24. It's just a different lifestyle. Neither is right or wrong. Neither is going away. Urban living and urban renovation/renewal is not going to decline anytime in the near future.
Exactly right! Actually, a typical metropolitan area anywhere across the country has a combination of urban and suburban lifestyles (even the New York metro area). Claiming that a certain city or metro region should be all urban or all suburban is ridiculous. When you have a consolidated area consisting of a large population, there are naturally going to be differing values and lifestyles. As I stated earlier, not everybody moved to Phoenix to retire or live in the suburbs. I know quite a few people who would much prefer living and working closer to a city center than in a sprawling suburban area.
What gets me about the diehard suburb lovers is their insistence that a lot of the amenities should move out their way, and that's not always going to happen. I think it's their way of still wanting to live in a far flung area but not wanting to drive very far to their destinations. Well, tough. They made the CHOICE to live away from where most things are, so they need to put up or shut up.
A mayor can only encourage development downtown ... he/she can't actually build more attractions, bring in more corporate jobs, or improve the nightlife. Most of that has to come from the private sector. I still maintain that one of the biggest obstacles to anything getting done is the pathetic NIMBYs. Several times, there have been major plans to build things, only to be stopped by these activist NIMBY groups who have nothing better to do with their time than cause trouble.
Case in point: a few years ago, a small group of NIMBYs started a lawsuit over the proposed W Hotel, claiming the property was part of Phoenix's Chinese history (even though the property is an eyesore). Because of that, the hotel was never built. Several years before that, Collier Center was planned to have a hotel built, but the owner of the Wyndam started a protest over it, and won. Even CityScape was met with protests when it was found out Patriot's Park was going to be demolished. Thankfully, their activism went nowhere ... but it just proves how many idiots there are here who would rather have vacant lots and run down structures than beautiful new developments.
You know bro, I've never been to phoenix but I read about it. I personally think I might like yours more than mine since you have the baseball stadium and arena downtown. You even have AMC movie theater downtown. I would kill for this in our downtown. You even have the newly updated library and city hall. The new CityScape complex with Oakville grocery is what I really wanted in my downtown. How about Bianco's Pizzaria the best east coast style pizza in the country. I'd go there all the time. You have no idea how lucky and better off than us in Philly especially the weather and very hot girls. I think I would love to live there.
You know bro, I've never been to phoenix but I read about it. I personally think I might like yours more than mine since you have the baseball stadium and arena downtown. You even have AMC movie theater downtown. I would kill for this in our downtown. You even have the newly updated library and city hall. The new CityScape complex with Oakville grocery is what I really wanted in my downtown. How about Bianco's Pizzaria the best east coast style pizza in the country. I'd go there all the time. You have no idea how lucky and better off than us in Philly especially the weather and very hot girls. I think I would love to live there.
This is pretty amazing coming from somebody in Philadelphia. To hear others talk, Phoenix can't hold a candle to Philadelphia when it comes to things like an active downtown and a true big city experience. Phoenix is typical of the western city that grew outward instead of upward ... unlike Philadelphia and other eastern cities that focussed more on the inner core. But with other western cities like Denver, San Diego, Los Angeles, Portland, Seattle, etc. focussing more on inward development, I'm hoping Phoenix will follow suit. We have made some progress, but there still is work to be done. There certainly is more demand for an active urban core than there was a decade or two ago.
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