Downtown Phoenix In Review 2013: Weaknesses

As 2013 winds down, let’s look back on the year that was in downtown Phoenix. In this second post of four, I’ll look at downtown Phoenix’s weaknesses.

In these past couple weeks, I’ve been thinking about the things that have happened in 2013 in downtown Phoenix and how they shape its present as well as the next year in our community.  Yesterday, I discussed downtown’s strengths; tomorrow, I’ll share my assessment of downtown’s threats. The finale is on Sunday where I’ll share downtown’s opportunities.

DTPHX YIR 2013 coverA DOWNTOWN PHOENIX YEAR-IN-REVIEW 2013: II. WEAKNESSES

In the traditional SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis, on which this quartet of posts is modeled, a weakness is defined as something of internal origin that is harmful to organizational mission. I had a difficult time categorizing items that are weaknesses or threats (external origin) so this afternoon’s post should be read in concert with tomorrow’s entry when that comes online.

1. Still No Downtown Grocery Store — It’s been decades since downtown Phoenix has had its own grocery store.  For downtown denizens, our nearest grocery store is a Safeway at 7th Street and McDowell Road, a trip that almost certainly requires a car to travel to safely.  In September, a Whole Foods Market opened in the Town & Country shopping center at 20th Street and Camelback, even more removed from downtown.  To create density downtown, the literature would suggest that a walkable grocery store is required; however, this is the classic chicken vs. egg paradox.

2. Still Not Enough Downtown Density — Since the Great Reset, we’ve had about a dozen new “destination” restaurants open in downtown and about a half dozen new coffeehouses open (which is seen by many as good; my judgment is still up for grabs) but we still don’t have decent density in downtown.  Some new projects have opened on the edge of the downtown core (including several age-restricted projects in the Roosevelt neighborhood) but there are still miles to go.

3. Too Much Talk vs. Not Enough Action — Almost every day in 2013, I seemed to read about yet another organization that has popped up to try to leave its mark on this community.  In skimming through the “about us” descriptions and mission statements, one trend has become alarmingly clear: a lot of these new groups don’t fully understand the wider context for why things are the way they are.  I’m not saying that this youthful naïveté is not instrumental in making things happen; what I am saying is that a thorough understanding of history, nuance, context, and setting is important so that the right decisions are being made instead of the decisions with the most support.  There are great organizations in downtown to be sure — Downtown Voices Coalition, the Roosevelt Row CDC, Grand Avenue Arts & Small Business District, and the Midtown Museum District to name a few — and I would think that we should focus on these established players in town that have already effected great positive change in our communities and in city government.

4. Designing the Micro vs. Designing the Macro — In Phoenix, we have a bad habit of looking at areas under a small lens with great focus instead of a broader picture.  We look at streetscape design improvements for several blocks of one street instead of improving a much greater portion.  The Adams Street redesign concerns the two blocks of Adams between Central Avenue and the Convention Center.  Why doesn’t it stretch over to 1st Avenue to include one of our downtown’s most-urban sections of street?  Or why not over to 3rd Avenue to include the Orpheum Theatre and Phoenix City Hall?  (One of my first essays in 2014 will address this very project.)  We forget that two of the tenets of urban design are connectivity and connectedness: something that is hard to achieve when one looks at the micro scale instead of the bigger picture.

Downtown Phoenix in Review 2013: Strengths

As 2013 winds down, let’s look back on the year that was in downtown Phoenix. In this first post of four, I’ll look at downtown Phoenix’s strengths.

In these past couple weeks, I’ve been thinking about the things that have happened in 2013 in downtown Phoenix and how they shape its present as well as the next year in this community.  Over the next four days, I’ll share my assessment of downtown Phoenix’s strengths (today), weaknesses (tomorrow), threats (Saturday 28 December), and opportunities (Sunday 29 December).

DTPHX YIR 2013 coverA DOWNTOWN PHOENIX YEAR-IN-REVIEW 2013: I. STRENGTHS

1. Downtown Phoenix, Inc. — Formed at the end of 2012, this was a new way in which to coordinate the major operations in downtown Phoenix.  While the organization has its initial kinks to work out, the group of people in place to lead Downtown Phoenix, Inc. (DPI), is a great group that can be a unifying force for downtown advancement.  In my conversations with DPI’s CEO, David Krietor, I am assured that he knows the tasks that are at hand and will surround himself with the best possible people to get the job done.  And, even more assuring, he knows that there’s more to downtown / urban Phoenix than the central business district: there are the emerging urban areas along Lower Grand Avenue, Roosevelt Street, and in the Garfield and Eastlake Park neighborhoods.  I think DPI is something that we need to get behind and support however we can.

HPF 25 Sept (Community) 22. Hance Park Master Plan — On 12 March 2013, the City of Phoenix Parks Department announced the new design team to work with the community to create a new Master Plan for Hance Park.  Led by Scottsdale’s Weddle Gilmore, downtown Phoenix’s Floor Associates, and New York City-based !melk, the new design is working its way through multiple revisions and community meetings.  In September, eight community design charrettes were held to get a pulse of what people wanted in their urban park.  The initial design rethinks the park into three areas as well as integrating the Burton Barr Phoenix Central Library into Hance Park even more.  The design will be finished in March 2014 (in time for an unveiling during the second McDowell Mountain Music Festival at Hance Park, so I hear) and then the task begins to find the money to build the new Hance Park.  A great city requires a great parks system and Hance Park is on its way to serving as the cornerstone of that system in urban Phoenix.  I’ve also written on why we might also want to reconsider the name to “Roosevelt Park” and I hope you read through that essay.

3. Adoption of LGBT Non-Discrimination OrdinanceIn an unnecessarily contentious City Council policy session on 26 February 2013, including a change of venue to the larger Orpheum Theater building, the Phoenix City Council approved by a vote of 5-3 new language to make it illegal to discriminate against members of the LGBT community within the City of Phoenix.  Opponents from Arizona’s conservative community, including the Roman Catholic Diocese of Phoenix, curiously challenged the bill as a “bathroom bill,” saying that it would open the door for child predators.  Their accusations have been wrong.  A bill was taken up in the State Legislature to overturn Phoenix’s legislation but that, fortunately, failed.  As I say, urban design is one thing; good urban (and inclusive) policy is even better.

Header-Logo-In-Box14. Opening of Downtown’s First Dog Park — Those who know me (and know me well) might find it interesting that I’ve included this item on the list and especially as a downtown strength.  I was a most vocal critic of the discussions surrounding the dog park (including a misguided proposal to install a linear dog run on 1st Street south of Hance Park).  I felt that those discussions distracted from the bigger issue at hand: the renaissance of Hance Park.  But it’s heartwarming to see that there has been a lot of community involvement both in construction and in the ongoing operation of the dog park, including a “Friends” group dedicated to funding the dog park’s continued operation.  It’s shown that people in Phoenix love their parks and will advocate for them.

5. A Nationwide Renewed Interest in Downtowns — Perhaps not solely a 2013 issue, there has been a renewed interest in downtowns and urban areas.  People are seeing the benefits from living in central cities: reduced costs of commuting, better health, and more amenities within a short walk’s distance.  As an urban dweller since 2006 (and an observer of downtown Phoenix since 2000), it’s great to see the strides being made.  In urban Phoenix, there is a long way to go but we’re getting there…even if it’s slowly.

A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols 2013

festival nine lessons 2013

Something that I’ve done on Facebook but have yet to publish to edwardjensen.net is a yearly Spotify playlist of A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols. Based on the formula out of Kings College Cambridge and broadcast all around the world (including tomorrow morning at 8am on KBAQ 89.5 FM in Phoenix).

You can click on the image above to access the Spotify playlist. This year’s edition includes two pieces by the British composer Sir John Tavener, who passed away on November 12: his settings of Today the Virgin and The Lamb.

The music order is after the jump.

Continue reading “A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols 2013”

Replay: In Conversation With City Council Candidates

Here is a replay of my conversations from earlier in 2013 with Phoenix City Council members-elect Laura Pastor (District 4) and Kate Gallego (District 8).

Earlier this year, I embarked on a series of one-on-one Google+ Hangouts with the four finalist candidates for Phoenix City Council. I thought that I’d replay my conversations with the two winning candidates, Laura Pastor in District 4 and Kate Gallego in District 8.

City Council ICW

IN CONVERSATION WITH LAURA PASTOR / recorded 4 October 2013

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=boEvAXEhy9A

Laura Pastor is the Director of the Achieving a College Education program at South Mountain Community College and is the daughter of U.S. Congressman Ed Pastor. She serves on the Governing Board for the Phoenix Union High School District.

IN CONVERSATION WITH KATE GALLEGO / recorded 13 October 2013

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1cA3gLjGwg

Kate Gallego works in strategic planning and economic development at Salt River Project. She serves on the City of Phoenix Central City Village Planning Committee and is also the Vice Chair of MyPlanPHX.

Public Art in Airports

I’ve been in email contact with someone about a future column in a national newspaper about public art in airports, especially at Phoenix Sky Harbor.

Apologies for the delayed post — this has been a crazy past 24 hours.

I’ve been in email contact with someone about a future column in a national newspaper about public art in airports, especially at Phoenix’s own Sky Harbor Airport. I thought that I would share, as my contributing post to the 15 posts in 15 days (on short notice), some thoughts I shared with the author of the column:

I’ve said for many years that a great city requires great art. Phoenix’s public art program is one of the best in the country. Likewise and by corollary, an airport is the welcoming center for a city’s visitors and, therefore, a great airport requires great art. Traveling by airplane isn’t exactly the most fun thing to do anymore, unfortunately, and an airport’s art helps to humanize the traveling experience. There’s also a practical dimension to it as well. Instead of placing carpet on the ground which will have to be replaced in a few years’ time anyway, why not place a beautiful terrazzo floor that will last generations? Instead of looking at a blank wall while in line at the security checkpoint, why not look at a gallery exhibit?  Instead of looking at a blank wall with artificial lighting while you’re waiting in line to get your rental car, why not have high clerestory windows with dichroic glass that produce dancing colors on the floors and walls?

What are your thoughts and ideas?

Replay: Sky Harbor Terminal 2

A replay of a November post in which I discuss why the demise of Sky Harbor’s Terminal 2 is greatly exaggerated

[editor’s note: This post was originally published on 3 November 2013 as “Sky Harbor Terminal 2: Its demise is greatly exaggerated.” As a result of this essay’s publication, I was invited to appear on KJZZ’s Here and Now on 6 November to discuss, alongside Alison King of Modern Phoenix, Deborah Ostreicher of Sky Harbor Airport, and host Steve Goldstein, what really will be happening to Terminal 2. Enjoy!]

The year was 1962. A brand new building arrived at Phoenix’s fledgling Sky Harbor Airport: its second terminal building. The building was made for jets — the old Terminal 1 (opened 10 years previously but demolished in 1991) saw the golden age of propeller aviation. Toward its end, Terminal 1 was home to Southwest Airlines before they moved into the just recently opened Barry M. Goldwater Terminal 4 at the east end of the airport campus.

Fast forward just over half a century from Terminal 2’s opening in 1962 to 2013. The airport is now a regional hub for two major airlines – Southwest Airlines and U.S. Airways – and ha nonstop international service to cities in Canada, Mexico, Costa Rica, and the United Kingdom. But Terminal 2, at 51 years old, still plays its part in Phoenix aviation.

Sky Harbor Terminal 2, ca. 1962 (photo credit: Chanen Construction)
Sky Harbor Terminal 2, ca. 1962 (photo credit: Chanen Construction)

Walking in to Terminal 2 is a different experience than its more modern — and more austere — counterparts. At the west end of the terminal headhouse building (now over the security checkpoints) is a mural by the late French-American artist Paul Coze. “The Phoenix” is one of Phoenix’s best midcentury murals and the phoenix bird is also replicated in his sculpture outside the Town and Country shopping center at 20th St and Camelback. In 2000, artwork from Terminal 3 was also placed in the Terminal 2 headhouse – a series of two paintings by the Western artist Billy Schenck and a 3D copper piece by Jose Bermudez.

When the Phoenix City Council signed off on new Sky Harbor Terminal 3 expansion project, it was mentioned that Terminal 2 would be closed. Many in the historic preservation community thought that by “closed,” the airport meant that it would be demolished. The Arizona Preservation Foundation wrote on its Facebook page that “[n]ot only will it close, it will be demolished.” A column in the East Valley (Phoenix) Tribune lamented that “The airport announced this past that it intends to spend millions of dollars to expand Terminal 3 to the east of Terminal 2, the latter destined to be torn down. It was only a matter of time.”

I’m here to say this: The demise of Terminal 2 is greatly exaggerated. While it will certainly close in the wake of Terminal 3’s westward expansion, the headhouse — the building with midcentury charm, the Paul Coze mural, and 51 years of history — will not be demolished. I have had conversations with high-ranking airport officials as well as those who work at Sky Harbor’s Airport Museum, the largest airport museum in the country and one of the largest in the world. Even if the building was slated for demolition, there is a great team (including myself) in place to protect, preserve, and conserve all of artwork that is in Terminal 2. The rumors on the street, while completely unofficial, are that the terminal headhouse will be converted into offices.

As we go forward, we need to get the facts straight and our stories correct. Nostalgia is an important part of place, placemaking, and propinquity: Terminal 2 is one of those wonderful structures in Phoenix’s history as well as in aviation history. But we need to be mindful that there are systems, teams, and people working on protecting the Paul Coze mural as well as the other portable art works in that building. Nobody wants to see those works damaged or destroyed.

Sky Harbor Terminal 3 - Stained GlassIt is necessary that we do not let our guard down. In addition to the artwork in Terminal 2, there are spectacular pieces of non-portable art in Terminal 3. I am thinking of the award-winning terrazzo floor by the baggage claim carousels designed by Teresa Villegas or the stained glass that is above the main escalator well (look above the hanging airplane!) designed by Ken Toney in collaboration with the architects (see picture at right). But again, I am confident in the team that has been assembled in the preservation and protection of these works of art.

A great city doesn’t need great art, it requires great art. So, too, does an airport: A great airport requires great art. It’s great that Sky Harbor has some of the best airport art out there.

Replay: Living post-password

With a couple edits, one of the things I’ve learned in 2014 is that passwords are evil. Learn how to overcome the inherent problems of passwords.

[Editor’s note: The below post, “Living post-password”, was originally posted on this blog on 2 April 2013. It’s been reposted below with several updates and new insights as part of this blog’s ‘Marching Toward 2014’ series of posts.]

passwordPasswords and passphrases. I (still) hate them.

Yes, I used the ‘h’ word. Passwords and passphrases give people the illusion of safety and security when they are one of the easiest things to crack. I cringe when I come across major banks whose login mechanisms are weaker than, say, Facebook’s mechanisms.

I’ll admit that the inspiration for this post came in November 2012 after reading the story of Mat Honan in WIRED Magazine. The article’s linked but I’ll summarize: Mr. Honan had his entire digital life wiped away because a hacker could defeat his email account password.

Do I have your attention? Good. Because for the next few paragraphs, I’ll showcase some alternatives and addition to passwords and some questions that you need to ask yourself about your own computing practices. Continue reading “Replay: Living post-password”

Computing in 2013: Things I’ve Learned

The world of computers and computing has changed drastically in 2013. What we thought we knew about safe computing has changed: here’s what I’ve learned.

marching toward 2014The world of computers and computing has changed drastically in 2013.  From leaked documents showing how broad a net our Federal government has cast when it comes to observing its citizens’ private communications to high-profile password leaks, what we thought we knew about safe computing has changed.  I’ve learned a lot in 2013 and here are my top five lessons:

1. Passwords are inherently evil. I really don’t like passwords.  They provide a false sense of security to users because they’re used inappropriately and in an unsafe manner.  One of the more popular posts that I wrote this year (and I’ll repost in the coming days) is on why I don’t like passwords and some things to offset the inherent security flaws of passwords.  We’ve read stories in 2013 of major corporations having their password files hacked and distributed to the Internet.  Last year, we even read the tale of WIRED editor Mat Honan having his entire digital life wiped away because of his unsafe use of passwords.

2. You cannot have too much encryption. With documents surfacing that shows how our own Federal government spies on its citizens, we’ve learned that encryption should be used on a wider scale.  We read stories in 2013 of how Dropbox, the popular cloud file storage and sharing service, has been hacked and documents leaked to the cloud.  As free public wireless Internet access points become the norm in places like coffee shops, libraries, restaurants, stadia, airports, and hotels, we should start to heed warnings about how to take charge of what information we share online and when we do it.

3. Backup, backup, backup! Just as you can’t have too much encryption, you can never have enough backups of your data.  My main computer is a MacBook Pro and I have a Mac mini that’s set up as a central server for file shares, iTunes, and Time Machine.  Attached to that Mac mini is an external RAID array for keeping irreplaceable files like my lifelong photo album backed up.  And that is backed up to the cloud.  Paranoia?  Perhaps.  But when it comes to the digital world, one cannot backup their data enough.

4. When it comes to network and systems design, simplicity is key. In the previous academic year (2012-2013), I served as the head of IT for a downtown Phoenix charter school and started to lead that school’s efforts to moving toward a one-to-one system (in which each student has or has access to their own computer or tablet computer).  There were a lot of things that had to be done before the school could get to that point and I determined that we needed to standardize on a few things to make management (the IT department chair’s job) easier.  By simplifying things, we were able to make the computing experience that much better.  As I redesign my home computer network, I’m needing to remind myself that it doesn’t need dozens of complex moving parts, just something that works and can be easily centralized and managed.

"Amsterdam Commute" by stephenrwalli/Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0)5. The best computer is the one that’s with you. In April, I wrote a post about balancing computing necessities with commuting realities.  My MacBook rarely leaves the house; if I’m taking Phoenix’s streets on bicycle, then it will not be coming with me.  My iPad is the machine that I usually bring with me; as it is constantly in sync with the various cloud services I use, I know that it has a current copy of my data.  In some instances, I’ll bring with my XT2, a tablet PC I acquired as a cheap PC when I need to do more things than my iPad can do.  Sometimes, I’ll even leave the iPad at home and just go from my iPhone.  That’s traveling lean.

Marching To 2014: 15 Posts in 15 Days

As 2013 winds down, it’s time to look ahead to 2014 and how this year will set the stage for what’s to come.

marching toward 2014As a year winds down, it’s become custom to look back and look forward simultaneously. So this blog in this year will be no exception to that: over the course of the next fifteen days, I’m going to look back at the 2013 that was and how that will shape the core of 2014. I call this “Marching to 2014.”

The posts over the next 15 days will be replays of popular posts from 2013, two series of “year-in-review” posts me and our community, and a couple posts related to Christmastide. 2013 was an interesting year with lots of changes and it’s good to know how that will shape the 2014 that will be.

Join me as we all march into 2014. Let’s see what we’ll find!

Rethinking Hance Park I: The Name

When it comes to downtown Phoenix’s Hance Park, perhaps it’s time to reconsider that park’s name. I propose an alternative.

[This piece has been edited, please see the editorial comments at the bottom.]

Hance Park Footprint - Google EarthTonight (Wednesday November 20) is the night in which the community comes together to discuss the future of downtown Phoenix’s Hance Park after the world-class design team put together its introductory report, online here.

(The event is tonight from 6-8pm at the Cutler Plotkin Arizona Jewish Heritage Center, 122 E Culver Street. A Facebook invite is here with more details.)

It’s not every day in which thirty-two acres of space in the central city comes up for consideration. That being said, there are lots of community people and downtown leadership organizations that have taken a keen interest in the goings-on of this process. For the most part, this is a most excellent thing! It’s great to see all of the energy and vitality in the room when we discuss the future of this urban space as well as what urban life in Phoenix will become.

While we’re talking about the next design of the park, there’s another piece of the park that should be reconsidered: its name. I have nothing personal against the late Mayor Margaret Taylor Hance (1923-1990), who served as Phoenix’s 52nd mayor from 1976-1983. As Phoenix’s first female mayor, she proved that women could be equally effective in Phoenix’s halls of government. She was a champion of freeways and highways, using her influence with Arizona’s federal representatives to send freeway funding back home. As part of I-10’s construction through the central city, she supported the Arizona Department of Transportation’s desire to demolish thousands of homes leading to the irreparable partitioning of dozens of neighborhoods. She also advocated for dense development outside of the Central Corridor and signed off on the City’s “leapfrog” annexation of lands far removed from the city’s core. In other words, when it came to advancing central city Phoenix, she was not its champion.

I am not saying that her legacy is not valuable or something that should be celebrated. It’s just, as it were, historically ironic that a major park in central city Phoenix is named after someone who staked her legacy on suburban development. The park was slated to be called The Deck at Central Avenue; however, it was renamed as Margaret T. Hance Park in 1991 as Mayor Hance passed away in 1990.

With a lot of energy and enthusiasm surrounding this park, it’s been argued that Hance Park will be to Phoenix what Central Park is to New York City. It’s certainly an aspirational statement and a call for an extremely high standard of excellence. Let’s look at what other cities call their “central park”: those parks are named after early civic leaders (Loring Park in Minneapolis, named after Charles M. Loring, architect of Minneapolis’s parks system), major natural features (Golden Gate Park in San Francisco), early Presidents (Washington Park in Portland, Oregon), or in commemoration of major events (Millennium Park in Chicago).

In Phoenix, we’re talking a lot about place and placemaking. The Roosevelt Row community has created a wonderful sense of identity and placemaking through arts and culture over the past couple of decades. The Roosevelt Neighborhood extends, generally, from Fillmore to McDowell and from Central Avenue to 7th Avenue. We have Roosevelt Point, a new apartment complex at 3rd Street and Roosevelt; we also have Post Roosevelt Square at Central Avenue and Roosevelt Street. These neighborhoods and developments borrow their name from Roosevelt Street, which is named after our 26th President: Theodore Roosevelt.

Roosevelt at ASU
President Theodore Roosevelt speaking at Arizona State University. (photo credit: Arizona State University)

To celebrate place and to celebrate a former President who did a lot of things for a new Arizona and Phoenix, I propose that the new name of Hance Park should be this: Roosevelt Park. In addition to lending his name to a street which has lent its name to the developments and neighborhoods I mentioned, President Roosevelt had many positive contributions to a pre-statehood Arizona. Theodore Roosevelt signed-off on the construction of Roosevelt Dam to the east of Phoenix, which enabled consistent agriculture and development in Phoenix. In March 1911, he delivered a speech on the footsteps of the main building of the Tempe Normal School, which is now Old Main at Arizona State University’s Tempe campus. While Arizona became the 48th State under the administration of Roosevelt’s successor (William Howard Taft), the contributions of President Roosevelt to Arizona–and Phoenix–should be commemorated.

[Edit: It’s come to my attention that there is already a park in downtown Phoenix that is called “Roosevelt Park” – a small park on 3rd Avenue just south of Roosevelt Street. If Hance Park were renamed Roosevelt Park (as I believe it should), then the park that’s currently named Roosevelt Park would have to be renamed as well. Keeping with the Presidential theme, it could be renamed McKinley Park; alternatively, it could become the Roosevelt Community Park.]

[Editorial postscript: Although the author, Edward Jensen, serves on the board of the Hance Park Conservancy as a Neighborhood Stakeholder, the viewpoints and opinions presented in this post do not represent the views of the Hance Park Conservancy, who has not taken a position on the park’s name.]