Life as Edward Jensen

For those who have been keeping track of events in midtown Phoenix concerning Willo and their strange practices, the following should come as no surprise.

In a 10 June 2008 post to this blog, I proposed something akin to a Central Avenue Alliance. Well, thanks to a few enterprising individuals in the City of Phoenix and Tapestry on Central, it is going to happen!

Enter in the Midtown Museum District. Our mission is to be a group of residents and businesses that seek to network with each other. At the same time, we seek to be an inclusive neighborhood and an urban catalyst seeking to improve the quality of life for our residents and the prosperity of our businesses.

The boundaries are a bit confusing but they are:

• McDowell Road to the south,
• Indian School Road to the north,
• 1st Avenue or thereabouts (between McDowell and Thomas) and 3rd Avenue (between Thomas and Indian School) to the west, and
• 3rd Street to the east

We’re still in formation, but if you are within our boundaries or if you know of anyone within these boundaries (residents or businesses!) who wants to join us, please e-mail us at midtownmuseumdistrict@gmail.com. You can follow us on Twitter at @midtownmuseum, or check out our interim blog at http://midtownmuseumdistrict.wordpress.com/.

Thanks!
Edward Jensen

From the US Presidential Election campaign trail: Presumptive Republican nominee for President, John McCain, touts the Chevrolet Volt as the key to energy independence. A couple of problems with the Volt: it still takes gasoline (read: foreign oil) and it isn’t the first electric car on the road. Does anyone remember the General Motors EV1? I guess not…

Let’s review simple economics. Remember supply and demand? If the price of something is high, then that means there is high demand for something of limited supply. To lower the price of oil (and consequently gasoline), the Republicans in Congress are proposing drilling domestically (read: increasing supply). There’s one big problem with that: in our best case hypotheses, it won’t help us much. So then, let’s try and reduce demand.

Former oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens has the initial sketches of a plan for American energy independence and reducing demand on oil. From my initial readings, it lies in having natural gas for automobiles and wind power generation for domestic electricity. I found a video of Mr. Pickens explaining his plan from a recent Trains for America blog entry:

if you cannot see the video, click here

And one more thing: remember Sen. McCain’s gimmick of having a gas tax holiday? The revenue generated from that tax funds the US highway trust fund, which is heading towards a serious crisis because people are driving less (similar to the gimmick).

Cheers-
Edward Jensen

When asked about news programs, normally I wouldn’t consider The Daily Show with Jon Stewart as a news program. But in a recent Daily Show, host Jon Stewart hits something on the head:

if you cannot see the clip, click here

Cheers-
Edward Jensen

If you haven’t yet registered for the second Transfer Students’ Welcome Event on July 23, you are encouraged to do so! Come meet your academic advisors, faculty, student staff, and complete the process to transfer to Arizona State University and the College of Public Programs!

RSVPs are required, and so to RSVP, please visit http://copp.asu.edu/do/students/welcomersvp before Friday July 18!

See you there!

I seem to be on a bit of a photos kick.

On Sunday 13 July, downtown Phoenix was hit with yet another Monsoon thunderstorm. This picture shows how low the clouds were and also a bit of green hue in the sky.

If you cannot see the image, click here

Cheers-
Edward Jensen

As promised, here are still images from today’s historic METRO test in downtown Phoenix.

The images are presented in a Google Pictures slideshow. To see larger versions of these images, click here.

Isn’t this exciting?

Cheers-
Edward Jensen

Earlier today, METRO made its grand march into Downtown Phoenix and turned north onto Central Avenue. I’m working on getting the pictures uploaded, but I have a couple of videos that share the exhilaration of the moment:

if you cannot see the video of METRO turning onto Central Avenue, click here

if you cannot see the video of METRO departing the Central/Washington station, click here

if you cannot see the video of METRO departing the Central/Van Buren station, click here

I’m working on a slideshow of the pictures I took. That is to come later today!

Cheers-
Edward Jensen

On 4 July 2008, in conjunction with the annual Tempe fireworks party to celebrate Independence Day, METRO Light Rail displayed a two-car trainset at the 3rd Street at Mill Avenue station. Our friend and Light Rail correspondent Nick Bastian of RailLife.com shot the following video from the intersection of Rio Salado Parkway and Ash Avenue:

if you cannot see the video of METRO in action, click here

Thanks, Nick!

Cheers-
Edward Jensen

As I wrote in a previous blog entry, Barack Obama has pledged support to fix America’s crumbling infrastructure including our national rail system. John McCain, the Arizona senator and presumptive Republican nominee, has promised to kill Amtrak – saying that it would be ‘a non-negotiable issue’.

The short-sightedness is rather refreshing. I guess we know who’s funding McCain’s campaign!

Anyway, read this, this, and this.

[Author's note: this entry is from 'The News from Downtown Phoenix', and I encourage you to check it out.]

For the latest installment of the Downtown Phoenix Cafeterias Project, Sam and I went to Phoenix City Hall’s 10th floor cafeteria, the aptly-named City Hall Grill to sample a long-established Thursday tradition, Mexican Food Day. Known to City Hall staffers and the ASU folk as some really good Mexican food for really low prices, it was definitely worth the walk in 105F+ daytime heat.

The present Phoenix city hall is the fourth incarnation of the civic seat. Although the first building has been torn down (was located where Central Station is presently), nos. 2 and 3 still exist as a county courts building and the Calvin C. Goode Municipal Building. Phoenix’s newest City Hall was approved by the City Council in May 1990 and the twenty-storey, $83mln tower opened January 1994. Of interesting note is that the Orpheum Theatre was renovated as part of City Hall’s construction. For more information and a lot of photos, check out this website.

While architectural history makes for interesting conversation, let’s get to the real reason we’re here: food.

As mentioned before, the cafeteria is on the 10th floor of City Hall. To get there from street level, find the elevators that service floors 2-10 (the north bank). Once off the elevators, find the signs that direct you to the cafeteria. (On one side of the elevator bank at the 10th floor is the Fire Prevention Office and the City Photographer’s office. If you enter those offices, turn around.)

Since it was Mexican Food Day, I opted to have a chicken taco salad with all the fixin’s – rice, beans, salsa, jalapeños, guacamole, sour cream, olives, and everything else. The food was as good as it was reasonable – a rather large portion for $5.49. With drink, I was out the door for $6.50. In addition to the specials, the usual cafeteria fare is there – salads and grilled hamburgers are specialties of the house. The view was as good as the food: the seating area has north, east, and south views (and everything else in between) so you can see the Maricopa County complex, CityScape construction, Chase Field, South Mountain Park, and Midtown.

The cafeteria is open from 8am-4pm with lunch being served in the middle of those hours. Aside from city employees eating, a lot of county court jurors were eating there. Which is for a good reason – good food for a good price brings everyone out!

So in short, the cafeteria is in Phoenix City Hall, 200 West Washington Street (at Marvin Andrews Way) on the 10th floor. Go eat there and enjoy!

Cheers-
Edward Jensen

To stay abreast of the Downtown Phoenix Cafeterias Project information or to recommend cafeterias for us to try out, e-mail cafeterias@edwardjensen.net and thanks!