Posts Tagged ‘phoenix’

Tweet Today’s post is by contributing writer Jennifer Gunther: Members of the City of Phoenix Planning and Development Department informally met with local developers in the AE England Building in downtown Phoenix Tuesday afternoon to get a feel for what those on the other side of city code think about current regulations and procedures. Cynthia Stotler, the assistant director of the department, opened the floor of the historic building’s spacious event room to the audience for a “listening session.” She said that in response to growing demand for a more livable urban environment in Phoenix, the City wants to ask…

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Tweet Today’s post is by contributing writer James Gardner. James is a graduate student in Urban and Environmental Planning at Arizona State University. Having grown up in a small town in Arizona, James become attracted to the field of planning and urban design by taking a critical look at his surroundings. James has an interest in the integration of health, sustainability, and urban design, and how we can create communities that have access to a healthy lifestyle, be it through access to nature, or just a healthier built environment.  Tim Beatley visited Arizona State University on April 10th and gave…

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May 01, 2013

Is Phoenix a City or Just a Big Suburb?

by: Taz Loomans

Tweet I visited Phoenix a few weeks ago and I stayed with my parents in their home in Chandler, Arizona, a suburb of the city. I wrote the following in my journal about my experience of living in Chandler. I thought you might be interested in the unvarnished thoughts of someone who has lived in suburban Phoenix, then in Central Phoenix and is now living in the central Portland. [Excerpt from my journal entry from April 18, 2013…] “Trying to live an urban life in Phoenix is just depressing. Living a suburban life in Phoenix is perfect though. It makes…

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Tweet Today’s post is by contributing writer Jennifer Gunther reporting on Day 2 of Phoenix Urban Design Week’s Urban Tactics Symposium: The AIA Arizona office downtown hosted day two of Phoenix Urban Design Week’s Urban Tactics Symposium, which featured keynote speaker, planner and walkability expert Jeff Speck and a panel of planners, researchers and designers who presented key strategies that can help Phoenix become less autocentric and more of a socially oriented urban space. The author of “Walkable City” gave an overview of the first section of his book, laying down the case for walkability’s powerful impact on the overall quality…

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January 24, 2013

7 Best Ethnic Markets in Phoenix!

by: Taz Loomans

Tweet I love ethnic food, especially the Indian, Asian, Middle Eastern and Mexican variety. As such, I often frequent ethnic food markets to find things you couldn’t in your run-of-the-mill grocery store. Below are my 7 favorite ethnic markets in Phoenix. And when I say Phoenix, I mean Phoenix proper and not suburbs like Chandler or Glendale, as there are so many wonderful ethnic markets in those areas that I’m not even aware of! 7. Middle Eastern Bakery 3052 N 16th St Phoenix, AZ 85016‎ – Middle Eastern I frequented the Middle Eastern Bakery a lot while renovating 3 Palms, because it…

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December 31, 2012

A Year of Profound Change Leads to a Big Move

by: Taz Loomans

Tweet 2012 has been a year of profound change for me. I went through a divorce after being married for seven years. If you’ve ever been through a divorce, you know that it feels like the rug (actually, it feels more like the entire ground you walk on) has been pulled out from under you. Nothing looks or feels quite the same. Your old assumptions and your old paradigms don’t make sense anymore and you’re left with a blank canvas (whether you want one or not) on which you must build a new life with new assumptions and new paradigms….

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Tweet Tis the season to be jolly! After an epic 6-month long saga that has been nothing short of a roller coaster, the David Wright House is finally in good hands with plans in place to preserve it in perpetuity. The Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy, the organization that first brought the threat of demolition to our attention, has come to the rescue! The preservation organization facilitated the purchase of the property by an anonymous benefactor that will transfer it to an Arizona nonprofit. The new owner will push forward a landmark designation by the City that will protect the…

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December 18, 2012

Is Boosterism Good for Phoenix?

by: Taz Loomans

Tweet Boosterism: The enthusiastic promotion of a person, organization, or cause (in this case of a city) If you don’t have only good things to say about Phoenix and you purport to be an activist, you might be considered cynical or worse, a hypocrite, lazy or ineffective. But I think boosterism is dangerous to the progress of Phoenix because it leads to delusion, which may feel good now but isn’t conducive to moving forward. Knowing where you are now is the first step to making constructive change. The same goes for Phoenix. We have to know where we are now,…

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Tweet Today’s post if by contributing writer Beth Johannessen. Beth is a recent graduate of University of Arizona’s Masters of Landscape Architecture program. Currently, she is the landscape designer at Phun:Design Studio a sustainable design and development firm here in Phoenix. Her approach to design includes a focus on urban infill, placemaking and community based design that celebrates the native Sonoran Desert habitat. We can all exhale a collective sigh of relief; another hot summer is coming to a close here in Phoenix.   With the end of summer comes the promise of spending some much needed time outdoors.  However, now…

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Tweet The 4th Annual Grand Avenue Festival is this weekend! It’ll run from 11 am – 8 pm, with an After Hours event from 8 – 10pm on Saturday October 20th! My favorite part of the festival is the Historic Commercial Building and Adaptive Reuse Tours. There are 3 awesome buildings on the tour this year: Phoenix Laundry and Dry Cleaning (now Milum Textiles), OS Stapley Hardware buildings, and 1205 Space (now housing John Coll P.L.L.C). The best part is that the tours will be FREE courtesy of sponsorship by the Phoenix Revitalization Corporation (PRC)! The tour promises to be…

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