I'm not sure if Phoenix is actually getting "better" with the 19th St and Indian School project and the 8th St and Camelback project either. The buildings that were there before were low density multi-use stuff that wheezed their last breaths of character, these two projects are somewhat higher density (R-4), monolithic, single-use garbage. I noticed That's a Wrap! is gone, for example, which was popular when it opened.
The setback for the apartments on 19th St from Indian School is something like 76', and they had to get a variance to get it that low (lots predate the code, apparently) amongst, many, many others, and it was still opposed by people at the VPC, but passed 14-4.
https://sites.google.com/site/petersviewneighborhood/