Melrose Drive-Through Liquor store to be demolished

[5thgenzoner]

Originally Posted by JGMotorsport64

It's definitely quirky. But the design is bad for walking, which we need to encourage. I'm sure I, like most people, have seen this building in passing but never thought about it til just now.

This one should be let go. It's just a pink block shack built at a time when the urban plan for this area was different.

That place is THE on foot destination, we all walk to it, there are pedestrians there nearly every time I stop in and bicycles too. I agree that it could be kept looking nicer and not as run down. That being said our Melrose District "brand" is vintage-retro , eclectic and funky and above all midcentury. Pinky's is a little guggys style gem, it just needs a little rehab. An its a neighborhood favorite for many years. In my opinion its that 5 story top heavy monster that changes the skyline and feeling completely. I wish the had never allowed it.

[5thgenzoner]

I have been in this neighborhood for over 30 years and pinky's is a neighborhood fixture. The whole Melrose concept is supposed to be mid century, retro and vintage, nostalgia for Phoenix in her youth. We have in the past decade seen some of our cool places razed for stucco and red tile nothingness. There was that little gem the Chez Nous torn down and replaced with a Fresh and Easy that pulled out already. The old Bashas store further south recently shuttered, more apartments and a strip going in. The Emerald Lounge is another old fave now long gone.
As for little Pinky's it could use some spiffing up for certain but do we have to just do away with it, it does a good amount from of business and lots of people go there on foot and by bike. A pocket park right on 7th Avenue would be a smoggy mess with the morning and afternoon rush hour, probably uninhabitable for a good 5 hours a day. If it were updated the way they did over by the Wag N Wash is a little further north, I think Pinky's and the Retro Ranch next door would be an a plus for the Melrose "brand" . There is no way this is anything but a Developer switching up on the original inhabitants, after the fact.
And I hate the way that 5 story top heavy pseudo Mediterranean whale changed the skyline on the Curve its shape and style has no character at all. Keep our neighborhood they way it is .

[exit2lef]

Originally Posted by 5thgenzoner

Keep our neighborhood they way it is .

I don't usually thrown around the term "NIMBY," but that last sentence says it all in terms of the prevailing attitude among those who have signed the petition. If the building is truly worth preserving, then it could be rehabilitated, surrounded by grass and trees rather than just asphalt, and reborn as something more attractive than a drive-thru with bars on the windows. Reading the comments on the petition, though, I see the majority of respondents want Phoenix preserved in amber, never to change or mature, never to become less automobile-dependent. I can't agree with that.

[phenomenon]

This is one of those "city landmarks" that people only pretend to care about when it's about to disappear. How many times have you visited that liquor store in the past month OP? I live near that area and can confirm that the liqour store is dirty, ghetto and a magnet for degenerates and bums. The same guys begging for change on the freeway ramps ride their bikes there to pick up a few bottles. I won't miss it. Phoenix could use some more high rise apartments.

[New Horizons]

No I haven't been there, but I've driven by it. Guess I'll drive through sometime and get a 24 oz beer and a paper bag.

And bums and beggers don't bother me a bit. In fact they kind of add a touch of urbanity to the landscape.

Originally Posted by phenomenon

This is one of those "city landmarks" that people only pretend to care about when it's about to disappear. How many times have you visited that liquor store in the past month OP? I live near that area and can confirm that the liqour store is dirty, ghetto and a magnet for degenerates and bums. The same guys begging for change on the freeway ramps ride their bikes there to pick up a few bottles. I won't miss it. Phoenix could use some more high rise apartments.

[azriverfan.]

The preservationists in Phoenix can act like a cult. Phoenix lost a W Hotel that was going to be built in downtown because the quack preservationists said it would destroy some iconic shanty building. As a result, we not only didn't get a major high rise hotel in downtown, we hurt our efforts to create night life and further development of downtown.

The NIMBY's and preservationists have hurt this city. We lost a Trump hotel in the Biltmore because of the moronic NIMBY's in the early 2000's.

Have you guys seen Porlandia? It's a show that makes fun of hipsters. Phoenix has their own faux hipster crowd that likes to treasure buildings that they have probably never been to but their entire argument is based on aesthetics. This same crowd tends to criticize our conservative government and lack of public school funding. But just like they have never been to that Melrose store, they probably don't vote either and just like to complain.