[combusean]

THINK BIG SMALLER - NEGLECTING THE LITTLE THINGS RAISES THE SPECTER THAT DOWNTOWN WILL REMAIN A DEAD ZONE
Arizona Republic, The (Phoenix, AZ) - July 30, 2006
Author: Jon Talton, The Arizona Republic

From the newsroom window, I've watched Phoenix Civic Plaza turned into dump-truck loads. In the 1960s, it had been promoted as the big thing that would revive downtown .

That didn't happen. Far worse days were ahead when Civic Plaza first opened in 1972. A few other big things followed, including Arizona Center, US Airways Arena and Chase Field. Yet our core remained an underachiever in the American downtown renaissance of the 1990s.

Now, some of the biggest things yet are on the way: light rail, ASU, a huge new convention center and convention hotel.

Will this finally heal the heart of Phoenix, as Reg Manning's pro-Civic Plaza cartoon in the 1960s promised?

Answering that requires me to admit that my lucky streak has, if not ended, at least has slowed down.

I lived in San Diego; Denver; and Charlotte, N.C., as their downtowns were turned around. Progress was evident within two or three years. Yet I've been back in Phoenix for nearly six years and little has disturbed the empty lots and vacant buildings.

In Charlotte, nine high-rises are under construction or about to start downtown , with another four proposed. Now that real estate is slowing down, most of the projects announced for central Phoenix will be dead or long delayed.

All these are suburbanized, car-dependent cities, pointing to a profound competitive truth. Every city we're competing against for talent and capital has the same suburban stuff we have: same look-alike subdivisions, same malls. The best have their version of Scottsdale, their version of resorts and golf.

But they have something Phoenix lacks: lively downtowns and distinctive, convenient urban neighborhoods.

Phoenix's problems are complicated, and they were in the civic bloodstream when Civic Plaza opened. By destroying the Deuce , the old skid row, Civic Plaza caused the rising homeless population to scatter into the downtown business district and neighborhoods.

Meanwhile, the Papago Freeway was being planned that would eventually ram through the beautiful old houses of the Roosevelt district.

The neighborhoods between downtown and the Capitol, which contained irreplaceable historic houses and apartments, were allowed to become drug dens on the way to being demolished.

Meanwhile, the city allowed vast swaths to be zoned high-rise, making them too expensive to develop for decades, or maybe ever.

Making a stand in these areas could have helped stave off the destabilizing forces of sprawl. But the city's elite had moved to Arcadia or Paradise Valley, and few people back then questioned the process of car-based abandonment. Yet this consigned the Civic Plaza to being essentially a fortress in a dead zone.

It ensured that the road back would be needlessly difficult.

When I compare Phoenix to the other cities, another big difference emerges: The other turnarounds have been driven by business, not city hall. Lacking many committed major headquarters, or even a visionary developer such the late Ernest Hahn in San Diego, Phoenix operates at a severe disadvantage.

Meanwhile, Phoenix City Hall has been slow to adopt many of the salutary policies under its control. Downtown is still not the easiest place to do business -- far from it. Phoenix still lacks the historic reuse incentives and codes adopted years ago by its successful rivals.

City Hall can build big buildings, but it suffers from a tin ear when it comes to small, human-scale and connectivity. This is especially sad considering some of the talent on the city staff.

Thus, Phoenix has been AWOL in protecting and (equally importantly) reviving the warehouse district. Shade has yet to be a priority. Delightful, distinct small businesses struggle, not least against complicated, suburbanized city regulations.

Some downtown advocates see this neglect of the small as a consequence of an emphasis on the big. But a city the size of Phoenix must learn to walk and chew gum at the same time.

Downtown Denver (the city is one-third the size of Phoenix) has stadiums for four professional teams, plus a huge performing arts center and art museum, plus a teeming business district, plus chain stores, plus unique local stores and art galleries, plus urban housing.

The major projects in downtown Phoenix have an unprecedented potential, but we need the big and the small. We need a showplace national convention center -- and the galleries on Roosevelt. We need ASU -- and Bentley Projects.

Here's a simple yardstick: Are we making downtown a better place to work, play and live?

It's impossible to give up on the core without giving up on Phoenix.

The next 50 years are not going to be a repeat of the past 50, and Phoenix has no future if it cannot get its heart right, finally.

Reach Talton at jon.talton@arizonarepublic.com. Read Talton's blog at www.taltonblog.azcentral.com.