Posts Tagged ‘city of phoenix’

October 27, 2010

A Design Review of Lola on Central

by: Taz Loomans

Tweet Have you been to Lola Coffee on Central? I usually go there for meetings because it’s quieter than a lot of other coffee shops. The design of the space has never struck me as very special because there is a certain intimacy that’s missing from it. But today, when I took a closer look, I discovered that there are some cool design elements in the coffee shop. Just as a clarification, there is a Lola in Downtown, on Roosevelt and 4th Ave. Now that Lola has achieved the intimacy and richness that Lola on Central is missing, but I…

October 15, 2010

Action Item: Love Dogs, Not Cars

by: Sean Sweat

Tweet Today on Blooming Rock we have a special Friday post by Sean Sweat about future plans for the Sahara Motel site that is slated to become a parking lot, but Sean has a better idea. Sean Sweat, aka @PhxDowntowner, is the Treasurer of St Croix Villas in the heart of downtown and an MIT-trained transportation professional. His professional focus is supply chain & logistics. His personal focus is pedestrianism, public transit, and multi-modal interactions. INTRODUCTION St Croix Villas needs your help. If you like any of the following things, you’ll want to help us: • Downtown Vibrancy • Pedestrianism…

October 11, 2010

Biking Infrastructure as Sign of Modernity and Progress

by: Taz Loomans

Tweet “Bruges is a biking city” declared the woman at the information counter at the train station when we arrived from Brussels. I found out first hand that she wasn’t kidding. Biking is an integral part of the infrastructure in Bruges, which is a tiny city in Belgium that has gotten a few big things right. And one of those things is their bicycle culture. Right from the get go, when we walked out of the train station, I saw a sea of bicycles parked outside: The woman at the information counter would later tell me that locals bike to…

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)…

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”. …

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…

September 01, 2010

Developing a Tree Fund is Crucial to the Future of Phoenix’s Urban Forest

by: Taz Loomans

Tweet Today’s post is the fifth installment of the Wednesday Phoenix Tree and Shade Masterplan Series. Today’s installment is about the second step outlined to implement the Masterplan – Preserve, Protect and Increase. As you might recall, Raising Awareness was the first step which I discussed two weeks ago. The final step is Sustainable and Maintainable Infrastructure and that will be the subject of next week’s installment. The goal of the Preserve, Protect and Increase phase is to “Preserve, protect and increase the quality and quantity of trees and vegetation, especially large shade trees in appropriate areas” according to the…

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…

August 25, 2010

Planting the Right Tree in the Right Place and Other Keys to a Healthy Urban Forest

by: Taz Loomans

Tweet Last week, in the third installment of the series on the Tree and Shade Masterplan, I promised to talk about steps 2 and 3 in the implementation of the plan. But I’ll talk about those things next Wednesday and this is why: just a few hours ago I had lunch with the authors of the marvelous Tree and Shade Masterplan – Ken Vonderscher, Richard v-C Adkins, and Lysistrata Hall – and I learned so much from them that I wanted to share it with you today, while it’s fresh on my mind. Ken, Richard and Lysistrata all work for…

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…