Posts Tagged ‘phoenix’

September 30, 2010

Anonymity, Memory, The Body and The City

by: Kevin Kellogg

Tweet Today is a very special Thursday installment of the Blooming Rock blog.  Kevin Kellogg is the guest author of today’s post.  Kevin, AIA, NCARB, LEED ap is Urban Laureate at the ASU Stardust Center for Affordable Homes and the Family.  He is an urban designer, architect and planner and principal of Kellog + Associates based in the San Francisco Bay Area.  Kevin has over 25 years of experience in the planning, design and development of affordable housing and community planning.  He is currently serving as the Urban Laureate, a research fellowship devoted to sustainable urbanism and community engagement. ‘Memory…

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September 27, 2010

Imagining a New Phoenix Using Old Buildings: A Case for Adaptive Reuse

by: Victoria Vargas

Tweet While I’m traipsing through Brussels, Bruges, and Berlin this week, the Blooming Rock blog will be featuring guest posts from some of my favorites writers and thinkers in Phoenix.  Today’s post is by Victoria Vargas.  Victoria is a writer, historic preservationist, archaeologist, and lover of small dwellings. She blogs at Smaller Living about the adventure of living small in a (very) big city. “There is probably no action authorized by local governments more singularly fiscally irresponsible than the demolition of a historic building for a surface parking lot.” Donovan Rykema in The Economics of Historic Preservation (2008, revised edition)…

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September 21, 2010

Silvana Salcido Esparza of Barrio Cafe Planning to Create Community Through Murals

by: Taz Loomans

Tweet When I heard about the Calle 16 (Calle Diez Y Seis) project, I just about jumped out of my seat.  You may know that 16th St., aka Calle 16, is my street.  I live in the neighborhood, between Thomas and Osborn, just east of 16th, in the barrio!  Speaking of barrio, the tour de force behind Calle 16 is Silvana Salcido Esparza, the chef and owner of the fabulous Barrio Cafe.  The very presence of Barrio Cafe on 16th St., a highly-regarded restaurant in the Valley, has done wonders for the neighborhood.  Now Ms. Esparza is taking her contributions…

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September 08, 2010

Engineered Shade is a Poor Substitute for a Vibrant Urban Forest

by: Taz Loomans

Tweet As I’ve discussed in the previous weeks on the Wednesday Phoenix Tree and Shade Masterplan series, the first step outlined in the Masterplan to restore our urban forest is Raising Awareness.  The second is Preserve, Protect and Increase.  Today I’ll be talking about the third and final step towards the Masterplan’s 2030 goal of a 25% canopy coverage in Phoenix – Sustainable, Maintainable Infrastructure. The goal of this step, according to the Masterplan, is to “Treat the urban forest as infrastructure to ensure that trees and engineered shade are an integral part of the city’s planning and development process”. …

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September 06, 2010

Greg Stanton on Sustainable Economic Development in Phoenix

by: Taz Loomans

Tweet About three weeks ago, I had the pleasure of sitting down with Deputy Attorney General Greg Stanton and talking with him about a sustainable Phoenix, not only in the environmental sense, but in the economic sense as well.  Mr. Stanton is currently working for Attorney General Terry Goddard and is working in support of Mr. Goddard’s gubernatorial race.  But he is also seriously thinking about running for Mayor in 2011.  Today’s post features Mr. Stanton’s positions on economic development, City North and future growth in Phoenix, among some other things.  Stay tuned for the rest of the interview in…

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August 31, 2010

Mayor Gordon on his Legacy to Phoenix

by: Taz Loomans

Tweet This morning, I had the honor of sitting down with City of Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon and asking him a few questions about future urban development and sustainability.  I had asked readers to send me questions to ask the Mayor and I got many really good ones.  Unfortunately, the Mayor’s morning was a particularly busy one and I was only able to speak to him for a short time.  But I tried to touch on the topics that matter to my readers  in the short time I did have with him. Below is our conversation: Blooming Rock: Would you…

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August 27, 2010

10 Things You Should Know about the Upcoming Parking Lot at the Sahara Hotel

by: Taz Loomans

Tweet 1.  The City used funds from the Downtown Phoenix Hotel Corporation to buy the Sahara building.  Apparently part of this deal was the temporary use of the site as a parking lot for the Sheraton Hotel.  This is the “done deal” City Manager David Cavazos was talking about. 2.  When several community members suggested the lot become a park or a green space, Jeremy Legg, the City applicant for the parking use permit, mentioned the Civic Space Park is just a block away.  Wait, so we can have TOO MANY green spaces, but never enough parking lots? 3.  The…

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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…

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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…

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