Posts Tagged ‘city of phoenix’

August 23, 2010

City Traffic Engineers Agree Phoenix is Not a Bike-Friendly Community

by: Taz Loomans

Tweet I had the pleasure of speaking with Kerry Wilcoxon, the Traffic Engineer in charge of Safety in Neighborhood Traffic and Joe Perez, the Bicycle Coordinator at the City of Phoenix a week and a half ago at Giant Coffee. I asked them why we don’t have the necessary bike infrastructure in place to make biking a viable mode of transportation in Phoenix and what the City is doing about it. In today’s post Kerry and Joe talk about how Phoenix was originally planned around the car and why although this is a very hard thing to change, there is…

August 18, 2010

Raising Awareness is a Key First Step towards Restoring the Urban Forest in Phoenix

by: Taz Loomans

Tweet This is the third installment of a month-long Wednesday series on The Phoenix Tree and Shade Master Plan. Part I was all about what an urban forest is and Part II, last Wednesday, was about the multiple benefits of a healthy urban forest. Today I’m going to talk about the first step that the Master Plan has outlined towards restoring the urban forest. This is the vision of the Master Plan for the year 2030: By 2030, the view from the northern ridge lines of South Mountain to the desert washes of the Sonoran Preserve reveals the urban forest…

August 11, 2010

Trees Improve Social Connections, Who Knew?

by: Taz Loomans

Tweet 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 the importance of trees.” This may be why most people have no idea or don’t care that our Phoenix urban forest is being destroyed slowly. Planting trees is not in the forefront of people’s minds when it comes to improving livability. Here’s why trees…

August 09, 2010

Saving the Sahara: Calling the Community to Undo a “Done Deal”

by: Taz Loomans

Tweet According to the Arizona Republic article today by Emily Gersema, Ramada Inn in Downtown Phoenix Days from Demolition, the $700,000 demolition of the old Sahara Hotel, currently a defunct Ramada Inn, is scheduled to happen later this month. Before we go into why this building is important and why it’s worth saving, let’s first visit the reason why it’s being demolished: The City of Phoenix is planning a $700,000 demolition to make room for overflow parking for the Sheraton Downtown Hotel while there are loads of empty lots all around downtown that would work just as well, not to…

August 04, 2010

The Phoenix Tree and Shade Master Plan: Restoring the Urban Forest

by: Taz Loomans

Tweet Yesterday, I posted this quote on the Blooming Rock Facebook Fan Page: ‎“One generation plants the trees; another gets the shade.” – Clarence Darrow and I learned from Jo Marie McDonald, vice president of the Phoenix Community Alliance, that there is actually a Tree and Shade Master Plan in place for the City of Phoenix. The first step of this Master Plan is to raise awareness. To help with this, every Wednesday for the next month, I’ll be featuring parts of this document on the Blooming Rock blog. With the crippling budget cuts, the City is too understaffed and…

July 28, 2010

Phoenix Planning Manager Carol Johnson Reveals the Strategy for Downtown and the Light Rail Corridor

by: Taz Loomans

Tweet Below is my conversation with Carol Johnson, the Planning Manager at the City of Phoenix about what’s next in terms of codes, walkability and making our city more livable on the whole: Blooming Rock: What’s your position in the city? Carol Johnson: My title is Planning Manager. I oversee our long range planning division, that includes the planners that staff that Village Planning Committees. We have 15 Village Planning Committees which are like mini Planning Commissions throughout the city to help break it up into more manageable pieces because we’re over 500 square miles. There used to be one…

April 27, 2010

What you need to know about ‘Energize Phoenix’

by: Taz Loomans

Tweet 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 this Corridor? Here’s a map of the area that they’re including in the Green Rail Corridor: (As an aside, this map provided by the City of Phoenix Planning Department is pretty cryptic and you have to work hard to figure it out. I’m looking…