Posts Tagged ‘phoenix light rail’

Tweet Today’s post is by contributing writer Will Novak who attended Day 1 of Phoenix Urban Design Week‘s Urban Tactics Symposium featuring the nation’s foremost expert on walkability – Jeff Speck: “Phoenix lacks on street parking more than any City I’ve seen…well, maybe Atlanta is close”  “I don’t know anything that’s not in my book. If it’s not in there, I don’t know it.” “I’m very bullish on developers…I just wish they’d read a book written in the last 10 years.” “Well…I am a bit prone to hyperbole.”  Throughout Day 1 of Phoenix Urban Design week, during the Urban Tactics…

Continue reading

July 18, 2011

Phoenix’s Need for New Public Squares

by: Will Novak

Tweet Today’s post is by contributing writer Will Novak: Phoenix’s park system is something of an enigma: part of it is breathtakingly wonderful, the other part embarrassing. The City’s desert and mountain preserve system is world class and a jewel all Phoenicians should be proud of.  However, Phoenix’s “traditional” parks and squares are poorly designed and often don’t even exist where you’d expect to find them. Phoenix has four areas that are either urban or semi-urban (Downtown, Midtown, Uptown & Biltmore), and not a single one of them has a well-designed urban park at their heart. In order for each…

Continue reading

Tweet Today’s post is by contributing writer Ryan Glass. Last month I discussed the ideas behind meeting all your needs in a hyper-local environment, specifically with transit-oriented development areas in mind.  At the end, I challenged everyone to give it a whirl: “See if you can get everything you need, and some things you don’t really need, without ever getting in your car. I bet you’ll like what you find, and your local business-owners will love the support. “ Feeling a need to put my money where my mouth is, what follows is a case-study in doing just that within…

Continue reading

June 20, 2011

Who Should Be the Next Mayor of Phoenix?

by: Taz Loomans

Tweet Today I’d like to tell you who I think would make the best next mayor of Phoenix. But first, I’d like to talk a little bit about respect. It’s so easy for us, when we’re passionate about what we believe in, to let ourselves get angry at those who don’t espouse the same opinions we do and then attack them. What I’ve learned by sitting down with the major mayoral candidates and interviewing them is that each one of them is a dedicated public servant trying to do their best for our city. I have no doubt whatsoever that…

Continue reading

Tweet A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of interviewing Feliciano Vera, a partner with Tim Sprague and John Hill in the local development firm Habitat Metro.  Habitat Metro developed Portland Place and is now redeveloping The Oasis Motel on Grand Avenue.  Just recently, they announced that they acquired the Lexington Hotel on Central Avenue and plan to rehabilitate it into a chic, boutique hotel.  Can’t wait! Feliciano grew up in South Phoenix then set off to Harvard after high school. Fortunately, he not only came back to Phoenix, he also started giving back to the city. If you…

Continue reading

Tweet Believe it or not Phoenix was one of the last major cities in the country to complete its freeway system.  By the 1960s Phoenix still didn’t have many freeways other than the 1-17.  Starting to learn lessons from other parts of the country, especially LA, many in Phoenix weren’t sure that adding freeways would be a good answer to our people-moving dilemma.  “…by the later 1960s, people in many cities were beginning to see that near total reliance on the automobile for transportation imposed significant unanticipated costs.  Many people now regretted the decisions to bulldoze older neighborhoods that resulted…

Continue reading

Tweet According to Carol Venolia in her article Real Time in Natural Home Magazine, modern day society is moving away from direct experiences, such as actually spending time with our friends, and moving more towards indirect experiences such as chatting online instead.  This distancing from real experiences, the author argues, creates a less satisfying and perhaps somewhat of a distorted life. The idea of direct versus indirect experiences is very much tied into the concept of propinquity which was first introduced to me by Kevin Kellogg.  Propinquity, if you’re unfamiliar with the word, “refers to the physical or psychological proximity…

Continue reading

Tweet Continuing this week of guest posts by top-notch Phoenix writers and thinkers, today’s post is by the Light Rail Blogger, Tony Arranaga.  Since 1995, Tony has worked in television newsrooms around the country. Tony started his career on the assignment desk at the West Coast Bureau for ABC News in Los Angeles. He then spent several years covering politics in both Tampa and Washington, D.C. before landing in Phoenix where he helped ABC 15/KNXV-TV grow a morning show audience. Tony’s new passion is mass transit and alternative transportation. He is the publisher of Light Rail Blogger – which talks…

Continue reading

August 24, 2010

Plans for the First Bicycle Boulevard in Phoenix

by: Taz Loomans

Tweet Today is a continuation of yesterday’s post featuring an interview with Kerry Wilcoxon, the Traffic Engineer in charge of Safety in Neighborhood Traffic and Joe Perez, the Bicycle Coordinator at the City of Phoenix.  Yesterday’s post was about why Phoenix is so auto-centric and how the Light Rail has effected the urban landscape for bicyclists and pedestrians.  Today’s post is on a plan that Kerry and Joe presented to me that will enable bicycling to be a way to actually travel from destination to destination, instead of being primarily a recreational mode of transportation. Below is the rest of…

Continue reading