December 08, 2010

What Cohousing can Teach Us about Urban Planning

by: Taz Loomans

Tweet About a year ago, I was asked to be a part of a cohousing effort here in Phoenix and everything that I learned about community-oriented design inspired me tremendously and has informed much of my thinking about neighborhoods and our city. Cohousing is a very specific model of community living that was originally created in Denmark. A cohousing community usually consists of around 12 to 36 units, is designed by a participatory process led by future residents, has extensive common facilities usually in the form of a common house and is ultimately managed by its residents. But there are…

December 07, 2010

Why Small Multi-Family Living May be the Way of the Future

by: Taz Loomans

Tweet This weekend I was in Milwaukee with my husband to visit his family. My brother-in-law had us over for tea and I helped him put up his Christmas tree. He lives in a one-bedroom apartment on the 3rd floor of an old mansion. That mansion, that was once built for a single wealthy family, was later converted into 4 apartments. My sister-in-law, who also lives in Milwaukee, recently bought a duplex that was also once an old mansion but was turned into a duplex later. Milwaukee is full of such buildings in its neighborhoods – single-family mansions turned into…

December 01, 2010

What’s the Best Location for Phoenix’s Next Dog Park?

by: Sean Sweat

Tweet Today’s post is by Sean Sweat who’s posted on Blooming Rock before making a case for a dog park in downtown at the former location of the Ramada Inn. After a disappointing result from a City of Phoenix public hearing approving a vast asphalt parking lot there instead, Sean has come up with an exciting new idea for a dog park in Downtown. Sean Sweat, aka @PhxDowntowner, is the Treasurer of St Croix Villas in the heart of downtown and an MIT-trained transportation professional. His professional focus is supply chain & logistics. His personal focus is pedestrianism, public transit, and…

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…

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…

November 23, 2010

Finally, Sustainable Landscape Standards for the Southwest!

by: Taz Loomans

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…

November 22, 2010

PSF Community Dinner, Real-Life Connections Powered by Social Media

by: Taz Loomans

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…

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,…

November 16, 2010

Goldwater Institute Standing in the Way of Arizona’s Solar Future

by: Taz Loomans

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…

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…