Archive for the ‘urbanism’ Category

July 14, 2010

Empty Retail Stores: Turning a Plague into Opportunity

by: Taz Loomans

Tweet 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 Ellis. CBRE’s second-quarter MarketView for the Phoenix retail market shows a rise in vacancies to 12.2 percent from 11.9 percent last quarter and 10.5 percent a year ago. That’s the 13th consecutive quarterly rise. Vacancies are highest – above 14 percent – in northwest…

July 13, 2010

Why is Walking such an Alien Experience in Phoenix?

by: Taz Loomans

Tweet Last week my friend Kevin Kellogg, the urban laureate at the Stardust Center, and I needed to find a place that was showing the World Cup semi-final match between the Netherlands and Uruguay. I was, as usual, officing out of Lux Coffee Bar that morning. Kevin suggested we watch the match at George & Dragon (G & D), the British pub on Central north of Indian School. It’s a classic venue to watch the World Cup. It occurred to me that Lux was close enough to G & D to walk! I know this should not have been such…

June 29, 2010

The Life that’s Passing Phoenix by as We Sit in Our Cars

by: Taz Loomans

Tweet This morning, I was running some errands and had to walk between the two banks on Central, just north of Thomas, you know – the Wells Fargo and Bank of America there. It didn’t make sense to get into my car, drive for 5 seconds, park and go to the next door bank, so I walked. As I walked out onto the sidewalk (thankfully it was in the shade on this 109° summer day) I was struck by the smell of the city, the growl of the cars as they whizzed by and the sight of people waiting for…

June 28, 2010

Sunday Studio Turns Blight into Bright with their Garfield Eco-Flip

by: Taz Loomans

Tweet I was very excited when I got invited to an open house by Sunday Studio a couple of weeks ago to check out the eco-flip they did on McKinley and 16th St. in the Garfield Neighborhood. The photo of the end product was gorgeous and it intrigued me. I was duly impressed when I got a tour, it was a house that any downtown resident would be proud to call their home. When I saw the slide-show of the before and after pictures of the house, I knew we had a visionary on our hands, a person who cared…

June 16, 2010

Tax Increment Financing as a Historic Preservation Tool

by: Aaron Kimberlin

Tweet Last week, I asked how we can make historic preservation a more lucrative option. Today, Aaron Kimberlin tells us about one way to do just that – Tax Increment Financing: ___________________________________________________________________________________________ Nationally, Tax Increment Financing (“TIF”) is the foremost tool used to stimulate downtown redevelopment and economically jumpstart blighted areas. Arizona is the only state in the U.S. that does not promote this redevelopment tool. Let me repeat that… ARIZONA IS THE ONLY STATE IN THE U.S. THAT DOES NOT PROMOTE THIS REDEVELOPMENT TOOL. That doesn’t necessarily mean that the City of Phoenix should follow in the State of…

June 01, 2010

Phoenix – Let’s get on the Solar Highway!

by: Taz Loomans

Tweet As you know, we probably live in the sunniest place in the country. This may become a frustrating thing in the coming months when we might be praying for an occasional cloudy day in July, but it’s what we have to deal with here in the Valley of the Sun. Our constant companion, the sun, is actually a blessing if we consider that Phoenix is supposed to become a ‘solar city’ according to Mayor Phil Gordon’s Green Phoenix plan. (Currently Phoenix has received a $25 Mil grant from federal stimulus funds for the Green Phoenix plan and will be…

May 25, 2010

The BIG delusion in Phoenix

by: Taz Loomans

Tweet Paul and I live in a 920sf unit with 3 cats. Does this seem small to you? No that’s not our place in the photo. That’s a luxury home in Queen Creek. Here’s what’s making me think that size does matter. Yesterday I wrote about the Awakening the Dreamer Symposium which highlighted the environmental, spiritual and social issues of our world today. One of the exercises of this event was to question our assumptions. The assumption I want to challenge today is about size. Here are some variations of the basic assumption that bigger is better: bigger = more…

May 24, 2010

3 Phoenix Events Profess that Newer and Bigger is Not Better

by: Taz Loomans

Tweet This weekend I attended 3 awesome events whose message is summarized in the video I’ll share with you at the end of this post. The first event is the Places, Spaces and Faces Community Dinner. This event brings people together to share food, ideas and stories in historically or architecturally significant buildings in Phoenix. This monthly event was founded by Kathleen Bartolomei, Yuri Artibise and me and now is organized by two new community members every month. This month’s event was held at the Hotel San Carlos and featured a presentation by Robert Melikian, who’s family owns the hotel. …

May 17, 2010

Why Phoenix Could Learn from Milwaukee’s Neighborhoods

by: Taz Loomans

Tweet This week I’m traveling in Milwaukee, WI visiting family. One of the best parts of traveling is that it gives you a fresh perspective on what’s back home. The prevailing trend is that people from the midwest move to sunny Arizona because of the weather and the promise of a new start. But that doesn’t mean that there isn’t a whole lot that’s right in the midwest that Arizona could learn from. So during my stay in Milwaukee, I’ve been thinking about what Phoenix can learn from this city. One of the big differences I’ve seen is in the…

May 10, 2010

Another Phoenix Infill Lot Wasted on a Circle K

by: Taz Loomans

Tweet I’ve been driving by this new building in construction the past few months. It’s on 11th St. and Indian School. My first thought when I found out what it was was – oh great, all we need in this city is another Circle K. There’s hardly anything getting built nowadays and for good reason, we have way too many existing buildings waiting to be reused. And one of the few new buildings is a Circle K – a brand new gas station and convenience store? Convenience gas stations are, as you might know, the bane of our Phoenix urban…