Rode 12 miles on my new bicycle yesterday morning, than ran and hiked last night.

:)

--don

Yup, I figured I could email out resumes while sitting in my car just as easily as while sitting at home watching Judge Judy.

Here's the local CBS story/video:

http://t.co/rx5wFH0a

Here's the national CBS video which was on todays morning programming:

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505263_1...lition-threat/

if you ever start a strava account to track your bike rides/hikes, etc. follow me on there and I'll return the favor.

Good job raising awareness. It's sickening that someone is so dead set on tearing down such an architecturally significant building. If this were Chicago there would be riots in the streets if someone wanted to tear down the Robie House to build some McMansions.

This is today:
http://grandavephoenix.com/grand-avenue-festival/

I'll be helping guide the 8am tour of some historic buildings, there are also tours at 10 and 12. There's a free film screening and free events all day, come on down and see how Grand Ave is coming along :-)

Interesting. Too bad you aren't guiding the 10 am tour as well, I can make that one.

Yesterday I saw a bunch of boxed palo verdes in the stone lot at the Roosevelt, Grand, and 15th intersection. Were those for the festival?

I don't know! I had to work the rest of the day, so I did the 8am tour until 10am and then had to be off. So I wasn't really hip to the rest of the goings on.

Frank Lloyd Wright house in Phoenix has mystery buyer lined up
 

http://www.bizjournals.com/phoenix/n...n-phoenix.html

Excellent news!

Hoover, what is the status of the O.S. Stapley Hardware building? If you gave tours of it, there must be some new developments regarding its sale or restoration. Any news?

Abromovitz Investment Properties own it, which is a father and son operation. They were the ones who years back bought up the building that now houses Cooperstown, fixed it up and got Alice Cooper to move in there.

They're doing a similar restoration to OS Stapley and the smaller single story buildings that are adjacent (just north) of it. Those buildings were built later, in phases, each is about 6K sq feet if memory serves.

Its still very early but it looks like Abromovitz is doing a good job, they've been sandblasting tons of nasty crap off the walls on the insides, exposing the brick and such. If you go look at OS Stapley you'll notice the nasty aluminum siding that was on it, facing Grand Ave, is gone, and the old building face is now revealed. They're going to fix that up and try to match the original as close as they can. That building is actually 3 stories, it has a basement that has basically the same floor plan as the 2 other floors.

No talk yet of a tenant/tenants. Mark Abromovitz was just very general and said "you know creative types, people who love the City, see Lower Grands potential" and such. Personally, I think the 3 story building needs some kind of anchor in it to really become a gateway/destination for Lower Grand.

If all of the buildings become offices for small architecture firms and things like that, I kinda doubt thats the highest possible use. A really cool restaurant, or in my ultimate fantasy world something like Ground Kontrol would be amazing.

Thanks for the info. I was curious if the metal had come down to reveal the original facade. I didn't know it was under construction/restoration already. Good to hear.

Uhhhhh, if something like Ground Kontrol went in there, I may never leave. I would have to play Galaga until I had the high score. I was addicted to arcades as a youngster. An arcade that had a bar and food, and maybe some live music every once in a while would be the best thing ever.

I went to a similar place in Chicago near Wrigley Field. They had old school indoor batting cages, old school arcade games where you could get tickets and buy trinkets (lamest most expensive ever, though, 8937294872938742 tickets = one plastic pocket harmonica), and old school arcade games (we played a couple locals on the old ice hockey game where you spin the players to hit the tiny puck in the goal). Not to mention a bar. It was so fun.

deleted for lack of interest

--don

Would just like to thank those who regularly update the Southwest forum or are out in the community making a difference as tomorrow I will be leaving the Valley for many years. I plan on returning without a doubt, but wherever I go it'll be nice to read about all of the changes happening in our city. Cherio!

All the best in your new endeavors. We'll keep the forum fresh for you.

ok, where are you going and what are you doing.

wtfvaguepostsucks.

I joined the Navy and will be off to Chicago for 2 months.

at Navy Pier?

Close but not as fun and a bit more yelling.

I'm sure your Navy career will bring you to SD at sometime.

Good luck to you!

Susan was elected to the School Board on Tuesday. Thanks to all who signed the petition.

congrats!

Congratulations, I see that of the three winners she got the most votes :cheers:

Random question:

Does anyone know how the Madison United neighborhood got that name? I mean, I get the Madison part. There's Madison Park on 16th St, Madison school district, etc. But where the heck did the United part come from?

My best thought was maybe it was some kind of block watch/unity/neighborhood fight back kinda thing?

I don't know, but it sounds like a soccer team to me.

fight the power

I've thought that as well, has that European sports kinda sound for sure.

From Wikipedia (I did not know this about schools here, which came up when I was searching):

In Arizona, union high school districts are districts that contain only high schools. Sometimes the name is derived from the first school opened, which typically has Union in its full name. Examples include the Casa Grande Union High School District (the Union school still uses the full name), the Glendale Union High School District and the Tempe Union High School District. Some special union high school districts—like the Santa Cruz Valley Union High School District— have just one school.

A unified school district (in Arizona, California, and Oregon) or unit school district (in Illinois) is a school district which includes both primary school (kindergarten through middle school or junior high) and high school (grades 9–12) under the same district control. This distinction exists primarily in Illinois and the western U.S. states, where elementary school districts and high school districts are, or were, usually separate. The Los Angeles Unified School District (sometimes called "LA Unified") is a major example of a California unified school district. In Illinois, unit school districts are not to be confused with consolidated or union school districts, which are usually formed by the consolidation of multiple school districts of the same type.

As for the neighborhood, who knows? I did find this site:

http://www.phoenixmarkettrends.com/b...l-phoenix.html

:)

--don

Right but this is Madison UNITED not Union or Unified. And I don't think the neighborhood boundaries overlap exactly with the school district boundaries, it seems odd.

I just dont really get why they wouldn't have opted to simply call it "Madison", or even "Madison Park" considering that park is nearby, but what do I know.

Also their sign has like a Mom and children on it, which is unique. Most of them have little houses or other physical structures depicted, not people.

Related: I bet I could put my brain to a lot of good use if I didn't fill it with wondering about needless nonsense like this.

on an unrelated note...
 

So tonight I was elected the President of the Phoenix Historic Neighborhoods Coalition.

Our next meeting is....well, we don't know. We may or may not have one in December. We'll be updating the website soon, sprucing up the Facebook page, getting on Twitter, etc.


I'll be posting more info down the line I'm sure. I'd invite/encourage you all to get involved with the group, whether you live in a Historic Neighborhood or are just interested in Historic Preservation more generally.

AND... The school district is Madison Elementary School District. For grades 9-12 the people in Madison got to the Phoenix Union High School District.

Congrats. :)

--don

Not sure what the real point of this post is other than to cry over our city's destruction. But on a positive note, since the 60s and 70s, downtown has come a long way, and I think we're on a course for it to be really good.

Here are a progression of aerials from a section of downtown Phoenix from 2nd St to 7th St, Polk to Washington.

There used to be some grand old homes and dense blocks of houses and buildings in this 1930 view:
http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i2...psf9338dd7.jpg

By 1969 this area was almost completely destroyed and a desolate wasteland of parking lots and empty lots:
http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i2...ps708a4c13.jpg

Today there aren't many empty lots left, most have been developed with super-sized developments. We've lost more houses/small buildings, but added a lot of important structures and landscaping:
http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i2...ps38834845.jpg

Granted, I'd rather have saved what we had in the 1930s than build the Mercado, the Herberger, and the crappy St. Mary's building, but the Convention Center and Heritage Square are nice and important for downtown.

I hate all of that megablock crap

agreed

Check out this ridiculous list.

http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/Media/...a.aspx?index=3

Can anyone vouch for the accuracy of the per square foot dollar figure for an acre of land (I'd bet prices are still very high, definitely not a 90% discount since the height of the market)? And don't they know it looked like that in that area before the recession (and is getting better now with Roosevelt Point, etc.)? Businesses aren't "closing their doors", more are actually opening in this area. Who writes this type of useless crap on the internet (and why did I read it?).

I remember this...it was done a few years ago (2009, maybe 2010) when things weren't looking as great as now and things were in limbo.

Wow thanks for those aerials PHX31, amazing/depressing. I posted them to my Facebook, hope you don't mind.

On a positive note:

In the past 2 days, "we" (me, you maybe, lots of people) have helped kill the Circle K on the SEC of 7th St/Roosevelt and the David Wright House was bought by a preservation minded buyer, who's going to not live in the house, but rather have it fixed up, preserved and used for educational purposes.

These are 2 amazing Christmas gifts for those of us on team good guys here in PHX.

Cool maps
 

Found this dot density map based off of ethnicity and race. It was in another SSP thread. This map is of the East Valley. Very interesting to look at and compare other cities to Phoenix.

Red = white
Blue = black
Orange = Hispanic
Green = Asian

http://www.flickr.com/photos/walking...57626354149574

There is this link from The NY Times that shows you how every region and every state. Zoom in for more detail.
http://projects.nytimes.com/census/2...r?ref=nyregion

This is a good site too!

Its fascinating just how segregated American cities are to this day, by choice. I wonder what metro region is the most integrated.

Some quick observations:

Census tract 1157 in South Phoenix - Broadway to Southern, 7th ave to 19th ave
1 sq. mile. Population 7,048
5% white
92% hispanic

Census tracts in the Surprise, Sun Cities area are in the 90%+ white. Some are 99% white. Census tracts in N. Scottsdale around Shea, also in the 90's.

Ate at the 3rd Ave & Roosevelt Pita Jungle with a client for the first time last Wed. It was jam-packed and tasty.

Also was at the Angel's Trumpet House on 2nd Street south of Roosevelt for the No Pants Day on the light rail and that was pretty cool as well.

--don

Damnit! I always hear about no pants day after the fact. I've got some crazy velvet paisley boxer briefs that are perfect for such an occasion.

Angels trumpet has a pizza my friend swears is the best ever, called the tractor, with egg, bacon, and Brussels sprouts. I need to try it.

Since it's been a slow news day, here's a pic of the Phoenix sunrise this morning. It was unusually orange because of the clouds.

http://i46.tinypic.com/349ccd5.jpg

/\ Nice shot. I think the best angle of the downtown skyline is from the east side looking west (when you are on I-10 somewhere north of Jefferson).

My favorite angle was from the 202 at the 10 interchange going westbound on the 202. DT looks like a fortress from the northeast.

I came across this "Original Architectural Rendering" of the Viad Tower online.

I thought there was supposed to be a twin, but I had never known the original (or the twin) was supposed to be shorter with the angled slopes much more pronounced. Anyone ever seen this or known about this? Plinko?

http://img3.etsystatic.com/008/0/665...63419_o5dm.jpg

^^^ Too bad that didn't get built, its more interesting looking.

On another note, this was in the paper today:

Whats the thoughts of people on this board about the Resolution Copper mine? I'm kind of split on it, I usually have a strong opinion one way or the other ,but can certainly see both sides here.

Obviously even if the economic benefits are half of what the supporters are claiming, thats a big help to AZs weak-ish economy. On the other hand, I hate seeing more of our natural beauty depleted, though I haven't camped/hiked in that area specifically and am unsure of exactly how special it is.

I feel like if I knew Rio Tinto or BHP Billiton was going to set up major offices in Central Phoenix and really create a US corporate HQ sort of thing here, I might be more 'pro' the mine. The feel I get now is a bit of out of country folks swooping in, depleting resources and skipping town.

Thoughts?

so I took this just now

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d6...psa2636bfd.jpg

Central Phoenix

http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i2...uadfasdfre.jpg