Archive for November, 2010

November 30, 2010

Hedonistic Travel: The Pleasures of Carlessness

by: Sarah Davies

Tweet Today’s post is by Sarah Davies, who’s visiting Phoenix for about a year or so from the UK as a researcher at ASU.  I first met Sarah at Critical Mass and we exchanged a few friendly words while trying to ride two abreast and to avoid the nearby speeding vehicles and falling in the gutter.  During our short and understandably distracted conversation, I found out Sarah doesn’t have a car, she lives in Downtown and works at the ASU Main Campus.  Intrigued, we followed up our brief riding encounter with a coffee at Lux a few weeks later.  It…

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November 29, 2010

A Design Review of Bliss ReBar

by: Taz Loomans

Tweet This is a design review of Bliss ReBar, the new restaurant on the corner of 4th Street and Roosevelt, but I can’t do a design review of this restaurant alone.  I have to peal back a few layers of time and owners to really do a design review of this place.  Remember when Bliss was Nine|05?  And before that when Nine|05 was Fate? The Layers of History I remember going to Fate when it was fairly new about ten years ago with my friend Rocco Menaguale, who turns out is the architect with triArc Design and Architecture that did…

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Tweet Janet Waibel, landscape architect and owner of Waibel & Associates Landscape Architecture, has done something remarkable, something no one has every done before.  She has written down and compiled best practices and standards for landscape management in the southwest, in particular, the Valley of the Sun.  Why is this such a remarkable feat?  Simply because no one has ever written such a comprehensive and consensus-based text on this subject.  Our climate is so unique that our landscape has very specific and different needs than anywhere else in the country.  Sure, over the years people have figured out how best…

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Tweet This Saturday, there was a buzz of activity inside a building that is otherwise pretty quite on most nights This building is the historic First Baptist Church on 3rd Avenue and Monroe.  Usually the Church, built in 1930, sits all alone, towering over Phoenix, in great disrepair but in full possession of its dignity.  Remarkably, it’s been saved from demolition despite being brought to its knees due to a fire in 1984.  This might have something to do with the fact that Terry Goddard owns it. So what was the infusion of life this Saturday?  It was the 10th…

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November 17, 2010

Children and the City

by: David Bickford

Tweet Today’s post is by guest blogger David Bickford, PHX Rail Food blogger.  I first met David at a Radiate PHX event and I’ve run into him several times around town at places like the Public Market and Lola’s on Central. Sometimes we have time for a great conversation but usually, David is on his way to pick his little girls up after work.  He’s one of the few people I know who is an urban dweller that has kids. David works in a managerial position at a Phoenix-based institution of higher education, but his hobby is PHX Rail Food,…

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Tweet From the Phoenix Business Journal today: The Goldwater Institute is again trying to overturn the state’s renewable energy standard. The group is in Arizona Court of Appeals today arguing that the Arizona Corporation Commission overstepped its bounds setting a standard that requires utilities to have 15 percent of their power produced by renewable resources by 2025. The case, Miller v. ACC, focuses on a surcharge to Arizona Public Service customers monthly bills and argues that the ACC breached its constitutional mandate in establishing the requirement. A Maricopa County Superior Court judge originally ruled the ACC acted within its authority…

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November 15, 2010

Phoenix – Small Town Big City

by: Taz Loomans

Tweet This weekend I attended three excellent community events, Pecha Kucha Night Phoenix #2, Cupcake Camp Phoenix and Certified Local! Fall Festival.  There were probably five other events happening simultaneously that I missed, I’m sure.  It’s November and the event season in Phoenix is in full swing! So I knew a lot of the people at each of these events.  I would say I knew a good chunk of them.  And I would also say that this same chunk attended all three events and will probably attend the various events that are coming up this holiday season.  It seems like…

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November 09, 2010

Phoenix Bicycle Boulevard Update!

by: Taz Loomans

Tweet The Bicycle Boulevard is planned to start at the northeast part of the Gateway Community College campus.  One entry point is the Grand Canal at 40th Street and Van Buren.  The nearest Light Rail stops are 38th St. and Washington and 44th Street and Washington.   Once you get on the Grand Canal, proceed northwest.  A foot bridge will be built to get from the canal to Roosevelt Street.  The path then heads west on Roosevelt all the way to 19th St, then south on 19th Street to either McKinley or Fillmore.  There are three choices of where the Bike…

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Tweet Eric Corey Freed, licensed architect, LEED ap practices a very special brand of architecture called organic architecture out of his firm organicarchitect in San Francisco.  Early in his career, Eric studied under an apprentice of Frank Lloyd Wright, gaining an appreciation for and adopting Wright’s philosophy of organic design.  In his own practice, he has also become deeply involved in ecological and environmentally responsible architecture drawing from ancient design principles and new technological innovations.  He has co-developed the Sustainability Programs at the Academy of Art University and the University of California Berkeley Extension.  Eric is the author of four…

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November 02, 2010

ASU and the City

by: J Seth Anderson

Tweet Today’s post is by J Seth Anderson, a fantastic writer, journalist and fellow urban advocate for the Valley. Seth (first name is John, but he has always gone by Seth) is not a Phoenix native but dang close! His favorite time of year is summer in Phoenix. Seth lives in a mid-century house in downtown Tempe although he lives and breathes downtown Phoenix historic preservation and development. He writes about downtown Phoenix, historic preservation, politics, and LGBT issues on his own blog Boy Meets Blog. Seth also writes for the new Downtown Phoenix Journal magazine debuting this Thursday, November…

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