CityScape fills a need
Feb. 22, 2007 12:00 AM
If Patriots Square was a thriving and appealing urban park, there would be no discussion about making it part of a private development, even one so ambitious and promising as CityScape in downtown Phoenix.
But it's not.
If Patriots Square were truly a living park, children would be playing there. Teenagers would be throwing Frisbees, elderly couples would be out strolling, and college students studying.
But it's not.
If Patriots Square was really a town square, why would Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon - a downtown booster if there ever was one - call for bulldozing it?
Back in 2004, in his first State of the City address, Gordon said:
"Patriots Square is no longer adequate for Phoenix. The canopies were meant for projecting laser shows - but there are no lasers. The grass and other foliage are limited due to watering restrictions - water leaks into the multi-level parking structure below the park. It simply lacks the sparkle and excitement we need in our Town Square . . . As a vibrant park, it's a bust."
That is the reality the Phoenix Parks Board faces tonight as it continues its deliberations over the $900 million mixed-use retail development proposed by a consortium led by Scottsdale-based RED Development. The development would span more than three square blocks in downtown Phoenix.
It is not a decision the board members sought. In fact, it is a curious provision within the city charter that gives the Parks Board, not the City Council, the final say on this important project. It was probably written to take the politics out of the parks system.
That's ironic, because there have been few local issues as controversial and hard-fought as the CityScape project. Opponents are adamant that the city is ceding a public amenity - open space - to a private developer. That Patriots Square will become less of a public park than a private amenity.
Yet, it's not an amenity now. It's an eyesore, a forbidding one, a park that people now avoid rather than walk through, especially at night.
That is the argument residents of the nearby Orpheum Lofts make in supporting CityScape as a stunning addition to the downtown, the new heart of the city, with people, activity, commerce, residences, restaurants and ample room for outdoor events. A place that enriches, not diminishes, the community around it.
David Staciokas, president of the Orpheum Lofts Homeowners Association, commends the developers for listening to their concerns and hopes for the site. After attending most of the "stakeholders" meetings over the past months, Staciokas wants the promise of CityScape to be fulfilled, turning a lifeless, under-utilized and blighted area into a "stunning, iconic place."
There is a call for a broader expanse of land on the northwest corner of the development, at First Avenue and Washington Street, as an entrance to the park. The parks board must weigh the options, understanding that CityScape is primarily a private development project and less a park.
In a sense, the decision has already been made - by two decades of disrepair. Patriots Square is not the town center. The parks department has no money to preserve or upgrade that land, or even repair the parking garage underneath. If CityScape is scrapped, or fails, there is no Plan B for preserving Patriots Square.
The new CityScape will be to the north, developed by both the city and Arizona State University, and will be centered at Van Buren Street, north to the old post office.
In turn, CityScape offers the largest-ever private investment in downtown Phoenix, a vote of confidence in the downtown's future, a welcome boost after years and billions of public investments.
True enough, CityScape doesn't look like a public park.
But it does look like something Phoenix needs even more - excitement, people, a reason to be here, live here and stay here.