Prescott's downtown is simply dazzling. It works on so many levels...the wooded, hilly setting...an insane concentration of life especially for its size...everything revolving around Courthouse Square... It takes the cake anywhere in Arizona afaict.
Central Ave could easily be that strip ... if the County moves out of the Security buildings, Westward Ho becomes a hotel again, and depending on the vacant lot...one can dream.
Until then, the pockets of life can't hold a handle to a continuous strip. A continuous strip is an obvious destination in and of itself, with something immediately to do all around you in spur of the moment stuff, capturing the energy of the street which exponentially builds on itself.
Phoenix has sooo many places to stretch out and fill its britches downtown it will take billions of dollars to finish it, and even then it won't nearly be as cohesive as what Tucson will grow into. Phoenix will grow into a clusterfuck of destinations like Scottsdale but, lacking the small scale in enough places, still won't have something to do on its own.
Tucson's strips are undeniable assets, and it will be much easier to fill them out with easier financed low/midrise stuff. Any of downtown tucson's 4-6 story projects would be a waste to build in downtown Phoenix with the highrise mentality here, but there they work all too well there.
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Originally Posted by Jsmscaleros
You can't really exclude the rest of the valley when talking about Phoenix. They are interconnected cities all part of the same metropolitan area. Truth is, most people in Glendale, Chandler, Tempe, etc... will tell friends or relatives in other cities that they live in Phoenix - because essentially, they do.
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I wish the periphery cities would develop their own identity rather than corrupt Phoenix's. The core of Phoenix, like Tucson, is diverse and progressive but gets totally overshadowed by the politics originating from the extreme east and west sides of the metro.