Posts Tagged ‘empty lots’

September 28, 2011

An Essay by Will Bruder: What Can We Aim For?

by: Will Bruder

Tweet This week I am posting Will Bruder’s excellent essay for the 98th Arizona Town Hall meeting, “Capitalizing on Arizona’s Arts and Culture”. I’ve posted the essay in 3 parts. In today’s post, which is the third and final part, Will gives us a 6-point plan on how to move forward in Arizona in ways that we can tap into our unique local resources and plug into the sustainability progress happening globally. Make sure to read Part I and Part II of this essay if you haven’t yet. If you’d like to read Will’s entire essay in one sitting, you…

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Tweet It’s one thing to complain about the empty lots that plague our city, but it’s a very different thing to actually DO something about it. That’s why I’m so impressed by the A.R.T.S. (Adaptive Reuse of Temporary Space) initiative which aims to activate vacant lots. A.R.T.S. is a project that was spearheaded last April by the Roosevelt CDC and its visionary leaders Cindy Dach and Kenny Barrett. The latest installation of A.R.T.S. is the Valley of the Sunflowers, a field of sunflowers on a 2-acre vacant lot in Downtown Phoenix. Not only will this field be startlingly beautiful in…

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Tweet The Musical Instrument Museum (MIM) has been in the news a lot lately.  In fact, it was featured on NPR today.  Last week I had the pleasure of personally visiting the Musical Instrument Museum with my out of town family and I absolutely loved it.  The building and the surrounding landscaping are fantastic, but that’s not why I love this museum.  I love this museum because it celebrates, respects and cherishes every culture in the world in a  state that can easily be considered a little xenophobic after the passage of SB 1070.  Having a varied cultural background myself,…

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October 25, 2010

Craving Green Breathing Space in a Fast-Paced City

by: Taz Loomans

Tweet Today’s post is a continuation of my series Learning from European Cities and I’d like to talk about the role of green space in urban life.  In my past visits to European and South American cities, I’ve always been impressed by the green space embedded in their urban fabric in the form of beautiful, lush city parks.  On my recent trip to Europe, I was particularly impressed with the green spaces in Brussels.  This may partially be due to the fact that Paul and I stayed next to the Botanique, a beautiful and very old botanical garden right in…

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Tweet A few weeks ago I spoke with Councilman Tom Simplot, the councilman for District 4 in Phoenix.  There is a possibility that Councilman Simplot may run for mayor in 2011, but he did not confirm one way or another during our interview.  He did, however, answer questions about many of the things we find important at Blooming Rock such as historic preservation, sustainability, growth and the reversible lanes. Below is our conversation: Blooming Rock: Are you running for mayor? Councilman Simplot: I’ll tell you right now, no one should be saying definitively if they are running for mayor because…

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