General Phoenix Metro Discussion Thread

[exit2lef]

Originally Posted by muertecaza

There's a deregulatory, pro-housing bill working its way through the legislature that is similar to bills proposed in other states that would take away some local control and force cities and towns to permit "missing middle" housing. I still have some doubts that it will end up going anywhere here, but it has apparently passed through committee, so may be worth discussing.

There are articles on AZ Central but here's one I found an outlying area that is not behind a paywall:

https://www.myheraldreview.com/news/stat...3d3f470-a801-11ed-a8a5-9fcba55e13bf.html

And here's Tempe YIMBY's more advocate-oriented takes:

https://tempeyimby.org/2023/02/13/sb-1117-a-very-good-housing-bill/?_thumbnail_id=951

https://twitter.com/YIMBYTempe/status/1623029664078827522

I'm not a fan of usurping local control, so I have mixed feelings about this proposal. That said, if the state is going to tell cities and towns what to do, I'm less upset when the state is telling them to do things they should be doing.

The flip side is that there currently some truly awful bills proposed as it relates to local control of transportation. One would put a Proposition 400 extension on the ballot but with funds only for roads -- no public transit. Another would stop cities and towns from putting anything in their general plans that could diminish road capacity to build bike/ped infrastructure. Yet another would prevent any acceptance of federal funds to build bike/ped infrastructure in association with highway construction.

Governor Hobbs wll certainly veto the last two if they are passed, but the Proposition 400 dilemma created by Ducey's veto of last year's bill will be tough to resolve. There may be a difficult choice ahead between putting a bad extension on the ballot or gathering signatures for a statewide initiative that would simultaneously extend the current tax and eliminate the requirement for legislative approval that applies only to Maricopa County.

[exit2lef]

Originally Posted by MiEncanto

Hard to imagine a better WMPO/Super Bowl week. No major issues. The Valley looked great. The weather was perfect. I've never seen so many events happen here inside of a few short days. Visitors overwhelmingly had positive things to say. Heck even golfer Max Homa complimented our airport this morning.

Measuring the impact is difficult. No doubt some economist will get (over)paid to say it generated X billion. But I think the real impacts are long term. It's all the people who visited and a seed was planted. So when that job opens up in the Valley, they look out at the snow on the ground in Philly and think, 'I could do that'. Or the people who travel back home to KC in their 🞵🞵🞵🞵 airport and think "Sure would be nice to fly out of Sky Harbor more regularly".

I even saw a trend on TikTok where tourists were talking about what they loved most about Phx/Scottsdale etc.

The courting of CEOs had to leave some of them impressed . I wonder how many decided over the past week they are ready to pull the trigger?

It's difficult to overstate how big this week was. I'm told from sources in the know that the WMPO nearly doubled its normal pre-COVID attendance. That's bananas. It seems liked every space in the Valley was at capacity all at once: downtown, Hance Park, the casinos, old town, westgate, Desert Ridge etc.

Here's my question: anyone see any major flaws? Avoidable mistakes?
I heard some complaints about the sod on the field but whatever, that happens. There were traffic complaints but that comes with the territory; I didn't see anything dramatically different myself.
And I heard lines at the SB Experience were so long that many simply left or didn't get much done. That's too bad, but again, a product of how popular it was.

I was nice to see Downtown so busy and Valley Metro running three-car trains to and from full park-and-rides. I'm indifferent to sports, but I'm happy to live in a place that can make these events happen successfully.

[Buckeye Native 001]

This might/probably is a me/nitpicky thing, but despite my team not being in the Super Bowl (Bengals...which is still really strange to type), I watched the entire game (save for the start of the third quarter when KC went on their comeback run) and not once during the broadcast did it appear that Fox showed off any part of Arizona?

I know the importance of advertising dollars and commercials, but usually there are at least a handful of establishing shots of whatever city is hosting a game of this magnitude?

Its not like there isn't a shortage of things to show in Phoenix and Arizona (Downtown Phoenix, Tempe, Scottsdale, Camelback, Piestewa, the Superstitions, saguaro, the Grand Canyon, Sedona, etc...) but I don't even remember seeing any aerial shots of the stadium aside from the Air Force flyover and fireworks during the halftime show. Wasn't one of the Goodyear Blimps in town?

Am I completely nuts and being a jackass, or did anyone else notice this as well? Part of the reason I bothered watching the game was due to it being in our backyard and I wanted to see how Phoenix (and Arizona) looked to the rest of the world.

[exit2lef]

Originally Posted by Buckeye Native 001

This might/probably is a me/nitpicky thing, but despite my team not being in the Super Bowl (Bengals...which is still really strange to type), I watched the entire game (save for the start of the third quarter when KC went on their comeback run) and not once during the broadcast did it appear that Fox showed off any part of Arizona?

I know the importance of advertising dollars and commercials, but usually there are at least a handful of establishing shots of whatever city is hosting a game of this magnitude?

Its not like there isn't a shortage of things to show in Phoenix and Arizona (Downtown Phoenix, Tempe, Scottsdale, Camelback, Piestewa, the Superstitions, saguaro, the Grand Canyon, Sedona, etc...) but I don't even remember seeing any aerial shots of the stadium aside from the Air Force flyover and fireworks during the halftime show. Wasn't one of the Goodyear Blimps in town?

Am I completely nuts and being a jackass, or did anyone else notice this as well? Part of the reason I bothered watching the game was due to it being in our backyard and I wanted to see how Phoenix (and Arizona) looked to the rest of the world.

I saw shots of the Grand Canyon and the exterior of the stadium, but none of downtown Phoenix. That's in contrast to last year, when there were some images shot in a way that made SoFi Stadium look like it is right on the edge of downtown Los Angeles, even though it's actually about 10 miles away in Inglewood.

[Prestige Worldwide]

Originally Posted by Buckeye Native 001

Am I completely nuts and being a jackass, or did anyone else notice this as well? Part of the reason I bothered watching the game was due to it being in our backyard and I wanted to see how Phoenix (and Arizona) looked to the rest of the world.

I noticed this as well and was pretty disappointed. NBC Sunday Night Football is pretty good with good local shots during the broadcast as well as most NBA games. Outside of that it's dated stock photos, Grand Canyons and cactuses.

[MiEncanto]

Originally Posted by Prestige Worldwide

I noticed this as well and was pretty disappointed. NBC Sunday Night Football is pretty good with good local shots during the broadcast as well as most NBA games. Outside of that it's dated stock photos, Grand Canyons and cactuses.

My conspiracy theory here is Glendale requested they NOT have a bunch of B roll of downtown, Scottsdale, Sedona, etc because lets be honest, nobody cares to see shot of Glendale except maybe some of the hillsides or the White Tanks. So with that request, perhaps FOX just said we'll just not do it at all and have more time for sponsors.

[Buckeye Native 001]

Originally Posted by exit2lef

I saw shots of the Grand Canyon and the exterior of the stadium, but none of downtown Phoenix. That's in contrast to last year, when there were some images shot in a way that made SoFi Stadium look like it is right on the edge of downtown Los Angeles, even though it's actually about 10 miles away in Inglewood.

I saw a couple of shots of Horseshoe Bend during the pregame but after kickoff, I don't remember seeing anything indicating that one of the biggest games in the world was being played in our state.

And I realize this is a really dumb thing to get irritated about, but after a week of every local TV station acting like the Super Bowl and Phoenix Open were the second coming of the Messiah (and it wasn't a slow news week locally, nationally or internationally) you'd think someone at NewsCorp would've taken notice?

[Prestige Worldwide]

Originally Posted by MiEncanto

My conspiracy theory here is Glendale requested they NOT have a bunch of B roll of downtown, Scottsdale, Sedona, etc because lets be honest, nobody cares to see shot of Glendale except maybe some of the hillsides or the White Tanks. So with that request, perhaps FOX just said we'll just not do it at all and have more time for sponsors.

I'll go further down the rabbit hole with you. I could see all of the places you mentioned (all represented to some degree within the Host Committee) not being able to agree on what to show or highlight and Fox just said, "no worries, it's our broadcast that we paid for anyways, we'll take it from here". However, Fox isn't huge on local shots during their NFL coverage from what I recall, so I think our conspiracies are pretty thin sadly. Fox was probably the sole driver of what was shown.

[ChelseaFC]

City of Goodyear planning to allow buildings up to 18 stories in the city’s new downtown area

https://www.bizjournals.com/phoenix/news...y-center-downtown-arizona-expansion.html

[Obadno]

Does anyone know when the County Assesor puts out new satellite imagery?

Its nearly march! Ive given up on google earth or google maps updating their images its been like 3 years.

[PHX31]

Originally Posted by Obadno

Does anyone know when the County Assesor puts out new satellite imagery?

Its nearly march! Ive given up on google earth or google maps updating their images its been like 3 years.

If you click the "show historic imagery" button on google earth it brings in the newest aerial for some reason. downtown's imagery date is 7/17/2022.

[Obadno]

Originally Posted by PHX31

If you click the "show historic imagery" button on google earth it brings in the newest aerial for some reason. downtown's imagery date is 7/17/2022.

Show historic imagery is on the desktop version im guessing?

[Obadno]

Mann the July 2022 satellite imagery looks bleak, very bright and washed out at BROWN

[locolife]

Originally Posted by Obadno

Mann the July 2022 satellite imagery looks bleak, very bright and washed out at BROWN

Are you talking about vegetation in July? If I remember right most of the monsoon rain started mid-Julyish last summer, so you're probably viewing this at the driest/least green time of the year in terms of the landscape.

It's pretty lush right now. A few of my own photos are attached for reference.

[combusean]

Apparently Tempe and Phoenix have different definitions for net and gross zoning and that left me with egg on my face.

I thought this was such a stupid basic number for municipal planning but Tempe only considers gross zoning with dedicated right of ways. Phoenix considers gross zoning with the the centerline of right of way regardless.

Kind of makes me wonder if cities should collaborate on zoning when core definitions are that different or should be defined by state standards.

[Obadno]

2023 Imagery now available on the county assessor site.

Much better.

[PHX31]

These aerial images look good. They are from October 2022. It's strange how quality comes and goes year by year.

[ASU Diablo]

https://www.bizjournals.com/phoenix/news/2023/03/30/census-population-arizona-maricopa-county.html

Maricopa County had the biggest population growth in the country in 2022, according to Census Bureau data released Thursday.

The county's population increased by 1.3% from July 2021 to July 2022 with the addition of 56,831 new residents.

This was the largest gain in residents across the U.S. and occurred mostly because of domestic migration. The second largest increase was in Harris County, Texas — essentially the city of Houston — a state that had six of the top 10 largest county population increases in 2022 across the nation.

Since the Covid-19 pandemic, even more people and companies have been moving to Sun Belt states like Arizona, which last year ranked fifth for population growth and had 15 fastest-growing cities including Queen Creek, Buckeye, Casa Grande, Maricopa and Goodyear.

In 2021, many people were moving to small counties, but the pattern reversed last year with large areas in the South and West experiencing an uptick in migration, according to Census data.

Maricopa County had the largest net domestic migration in 2022 with an increase of 33,305 residents, which was followed by Collin County, Texas's 29,696 increase last year.

[Obadno]

Originally Posted by ASU Diablo

https://www.bizjournals.com/phoenix/news/2023/03/30/census-population-arizona-maricopa-county.html

As is tradition, It will be a weird day when eventually our growth starts to flatten.

[MiEncanto]

On a related note, the Phoenix MSA is now the #4 highest rent DECREASE year over year at -4%. I think that's great news because despite pop growth and high interest rates keeping people from affording a home, the market has provided an impressive number of new units which is allowing pricing to subside. Go team. Our average rent is up to $2k. Shocking that Denver is so much higher at us at 2700 average rent.

https://www.rent.com/research/average-rent-price-report/

Granted, part of that decrease is because we spiked hard the last few years and others who have decreased like Austin and Dallas have a similar rationale. But not all MSAs that have been popular destinations are now decreasing.