About three weeks ago, I had the pleasure of sitting down with Deputy Attorney General Greg Stanton and talking with him about a sustainable Phoenix, not only in the environmental sense, but in the economic sense as well.  Mr. Stanton is currently working for Attorney General Terry Goddard and is working in support of Mr. [...]

Today I gave a presentation at the Barrett Urban Experience, a 4-day intensive introduction  to the downtown Phoenix urban environment for Barrett Honors College freshmen, a brainchild of Nan Ellin.  Overall, the program is very well designed, including a public art tour, a trip to the Downtown Public Market, a discussion about community food by [...]

Today is the second installation in a month-long Wednesday series on The Phoenix Tree and Shade Master Plan.  Last week I talked about the concept of the Urban Forest and why it’s important.  Today I’m going to try to address this notion quoted in the Master Plan: “(The) General public has a limited understanding of [...]

From the Phoenix Business Journal article “Retailers vacate 609,692 SF in first half – Phoenix Business Journal” on Tuesday July 13, 2010: Retailers continue to abandon property in the Phoenix area with a net loss of 609,692 square feet, or 0.4 percent of the market’s total space, so far this year, according to CB Richard [...]

The Cash for Caulkers bill, or the Home Star Energy Retrofit Act, was approved by the House on Thursday May 6 and is expected to pass the Senate this summer. What is it? Cash for Caulkers is similar to Cash for Clunkers where you get an instant rebate for making energy efficiency improvements to your [...]

Have you heard about the $25 mil grant the City of Phoenix received in partnership with ASU and APS as part of the Stimulus Bill?  You need to know about this! This grant is intended to make the Green Rail Corridor into a model of energy efficiency and sustainability.  Now what part of town is [...]

Now that Earth Day’s over, are we going to go back to our wasteful ways?  Why not keep the momentum going with an Earth-Day inspired commitment?  It doesn’t have to be big, it can be as tiny as committing to shut the lights behind you when you leave a room or a big as committing [...]

It looks like our economy is in dire straits for a few more years to come.  According to this December 2, 2009 article below by Mike Sunnucks of The Phoenix Business Journal, both our residential and commercial real estate markets are dead in the water until about 2013.  I’m the last person to want to [...]