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  #3081  
Old Posted Mar 13, 2012, 9:42 PM
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Originally Posted by Vicelord John View Post
that area IMO is one of the most densely populated neighborhoods in Phoenix.
It's not your opinion, it's true: 27th and Camelback to 19th and Indian School is by far the most dense in phoenix with something like 15,000 ppsm.
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  #3082  
Old Posted Mar 17, 2012, 2:31 AM
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Temporary dog park approved at Margaret T. Hance Park

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Plans for a downtown dog park continue to elicit fervent debate, but the Margaret T. Hance Park Steering Committee voted to approve a temporary dog park at a meeting held March 6 at Burton Barr Central Library.

The motion was approved 8-4-1 in favor of a temporary dog park near Third and Fifth avenues at Margaret T. Hance Park. Committee members Mike Whiting, Joan Kelchner, Linda Holman-Bentley and Kris Floor were opposed, and Tim Sprague abstained.

Committee member Louise Roman initiated the discussion by referencing the now-disbanded Ad Hoc Downtown Dog Park Citizen’s Committee, which was formed to recommend possible locations.

The meeting’s discussion focused on two recommendations: the temporary dog park and the request for qualification.

The first motion that passed tasked the committee with placing a dog park at Hance Park. The RFQ is a process to request hiring a design firm to create the dog park’s master plan.

Discussion of the RFQ prompted a preliminary debate over where the park should be located and who should decide — the committee or its potential designers.

The committee ultimately decided that a temporary park would address the community’s desire for a park and give the design team an opportunity to move the location if there proved to be a better one.

“There wouldn’t be as much infrastructure in terms of investment since the site of it might move,” Roman said.

This raised controversy over where the temporary dog park should be in Hance Park.

Roman said the area near Third and Fifth avenues, west of the Japanese Friendship Garden and north of Moreland Street were the primary locations examined.

Roman suggested that the committee pass a motion to create a temporary dog park near Third and Fifth avenues.

“It’s an extension of the existing park,” she said.

Joan Kelchner, a fellow committee member, disagreed.

“First of all, it is the way of bureaucracy that once you establish something as temporary, it tends to grow roots,” she said.

Kelchner argued that the location would present several problems, including the difficulty to move the park to a permanent location and inaccessibility to residents.

Kelchner also mentioned that the Third and Fifth avenue area is not handicap-accessible. Instead, she suggested First Street as the best option.

There will be a few more meetings to fine-tune the project, but the ultimate test will be the vote of the City Council, according to Roman.

“Our goal is for the RFQ to be drafted and issued sometime in the fall,” Roman said.

Roman estimated it could be two years until downtown would see the temporary dog park. The park needs to meet certain requirements of the city of Phoenix, such as handicap accessibility and proper amount of square footage.

Sean Sweat, a downtown community advocate, has been a proponent of the First Street location.

The idea of a dog park for downtown residents was initiated in August 2010. Since then, it has incited numerous disputes and community action, including the creation of the Ad Hoc Dog Park Committee by former Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon.

Sweat said there were flaws from the beginning. The Ad Hoc Dog Park Committee was an act of political railroading by Mayor Gordon, he said, and the original vote for the dog park in downtown was 60 percent in favor of the McKinley lot.

“He has stacked the deck,” he said.

Sweat said the Third and Fifth location would eliminate the goal of walkability because it is too far of a distance from the most-populated area of downtown.

“To make downtown work, we have to create an environment where people don’t have to have cars,” Sweat said. “It is moving us further from what should be the goal downtown.”

Roman opposed the First Street location and said it was not within the jurisdiction of Hance Park.

The First Street location would also require an annexation of the road. The committee felt that this could jeopardize the dog park being passed by the City Council, Roman said.

“We have very strong opposition and very strong support,” said Karen Williams, deputy director of the Parks and Recreation Department. “The demand for a downtown dog park is greater than ever before.”

It’s a matter of city staff and management getting on board, but the committee wants to make it a signature park, Williams said.

“This isn’t the end; this is just the beginning,” she said.

Contact the reporter at aiyana.havir@asu.edu

Josselyn Berry contributed to this report.

Editor’s note: This story replaces an article published March 7 called “Location suggestion for temporary dog park voted down by Hance Park committee” that contained a number of errors of fact. The retraction can be found here.
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  #3083  
Old Posted Mar 17, 2012, 3:38 AM
nickw252 nickw252 is offline
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Northeast Corner of McDowell and 7th Ave

T-Mobile in the newly remodeled building at McDowell and 7th just opened. The interior looks really nice but there looks like there is still a lot of work to do on the outside of the building and the rest of the units. The sign for "Generated Materials Recovery" that was on the corner in the T-Mobile location has been moved east to the two floor unit where the My Florist Cafe used to be.

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  #3084  
Old Posted Mar 17, 2012, 6:55 PM
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^^ This is a really disappointing tenant, as is "Generated Materials Recovery". What happened to A new adaptive-reuse development in the old antique shop on McDowell Road and Seventh Avenue will feature an NYPD Pizza and high-end clothing boutique, along with “about a dozen” other tenants, according to the lease agent?

http://www.phoenixmag.com/lifestyle/...illo-district/
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  #3085  
Old Posted Mar 17, 2012, 10:46 PM
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Originally Posted by pbenjamin View Post
^^ This is a really disappointing tenant, as is "Generated Materials Recovery". What happened to A new adaptive-reuse development in the old antique shop on McDowell Road and Seventh Avenue will feature an NYPD Pizza and high-end clothing boutique, along with “about a dozen” other tenants, according to the lease agent?

http://www.phoenixmag.com/lifestyle/...illo-district/
Those are the only two that I know about. Those other tenants are still possible. I'm still hoping for a nice mexican restaurant and bar that caters to the dinner and after work crowd. BTW, pbenjamin, it looks like we're practically neighbors.
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  #3086  
Old Posted Mar 18, 2012, 3:57 PM
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Went by the building yesterday and there is a sign for a "boutique clothing store" coming soon to the left of T-Mobile. I can't remember the name at this time.
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  #3087  
Old Posted Mar 19, 2012, 2:33 PM
westbev93 westbev93 is offline
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The boutique clothing store is going in next to the Serna's cleaners (fronts on 7th Ave). Other than the My Florist space, I don't think there is any other space large enough for NYPD Pizza so that's probably out. The rest of the promised stuff was supposed to go in the buildings that aren't being built right now (and likely will not be built in the foreseeable future) down closer to 5th Ave. So those dozen other tenants are not happening. And it looks like the pad for the unbuilt buildings is getting gravel rather than grass so that's nice.

The interior of T-Mobile looks nice except when it is closed. They have big security bars they pull across the storefront when it is closed. It's not exactly a high crime area so I'm not really sure what the point is.
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  #3088  
Old Posted Mar 19, 2012, 5:04 PM
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Serna's is one of the dumpiest dry cleaners I have ever been in. I can't imagine a "boutique clothing store" thriving in a location in between Serna's and a phone store.
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  #3089  
Old Posted Mar 19, 2012, 10:16 PM
jwoodcoc jwoodcoc is offline
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Vision less Developers

Unfortunately this is what happens when a developer is visionless and can't see what businesses would really thrive in the neighborhood. They opt for businesses like T-mobile likely because of the rent they would pay and not the value they bring to the development. Chalk this up as a fail.
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  #3090  
Old Posted Mar 19, 2012, 11:46 PM
westbev93 westbev93 is offline
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I don't mind a cell phone store because it is a business that people use, and there isn't one nearby. By comparison, there are now 5 restaurants currently operating at that intersection with a couple more potentially on the way. So the last thing we needed was another restaurant. And I understand the developer's problem with financing when you don't have at least one national tenant to show you will actually be able to collect monthly rents.

But T-Mobile? Hasn't everyone switched to Verizon? At this point, Serna's will remain the only business I actually use on that corner. It may be dumpy, but I actually need a dry cleaner and prefer one close to my house. A bakery or very small grocer would have been nice because there isn't one in the neighborhood, but the last one that tried on that corner failed so I don't imagine new suitors are lining up to fail again.
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  #3091  
Old Posted Mar 20, 2012, 2:35 PM
westbev93 westbev93 is offline
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Did everyone see this about the other renovated corner at 7th and McDowell?

http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/bel...pen_breakf.php
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  #3092  
Old Posted Mar 20, 2012, 8:18 PM
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I work for an HVAC company and we just bid a Habit Burger in the old my florist space. Pretty disapointing having gone to My Florist several times.
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  #3093  
Old Posted Mar 20, 2012, 8:45 PM
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My Florist couldn't improve with the times. Back in the day there were no restaurants remotely of its caliber, especially open late. It well-served the gays that were basically the only ones living downtown back then, but they too found more options in the central corridor that weren't there 10 years ago.

You can only do so well serving soup and salads and cold food--why they never updated their menu or reinvested, in, I don't know, a stove? is beyond me.
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  #3094  
Old Posted Mar 20, 2012, 9:49 PM
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It would appear that Habit Burger is real and hiring.

http://phoenix.craigslist.org/cph/fbh/2896578077.html
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  #3095  
Old Posted Mar 20, 2012, 9:59 PM
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I don't remember if you guys already have it over there, but the Habit is a fantastic burger place. I know one of the guys who started it here in Santa Barbara.
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  #3096  
Old Posted Mar 20, 2012, 10:12 PM
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Going in to compete with Five Guys across the street.
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  #3097  
Old Posted Mar 22, 2012, 4:15 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by plinko View Post
I don't remember if you guys already have it over there, but the Habit is a fantastic burger place. I know one of the guys who started it here in Santa Barbara.
While it's neither hip nor urban, it is decent high-end fast food burger. I was pleasantly surprised that the food is pretty much spot on with the original in Santa Barbara.

Last edited by scottkag; Mar 22, 2012 at 4:32 PM.
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  #3098  
Old Posted Mar 22, 2012, 4:32 PM
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Why is everything so hush-hush about the construction of the new Maricopa County Sheriff facility at the corner of 5th Ave and Jackson (next to the Maricopa County Justice Center building)? I don't see a single thing about it in the media. They have already fenced, surveyed and started trenching the lot.
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  #3099  
Old Posted Mar 22, 2012, 5:07 PM
HX_Guy HX_Guy is offline
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What facility?
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  #3100  
Old Posted Mar 22, 2012, 5:42 PM
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Yeah, what facility?

And I hope (and assume) it is the NWC you are talking about for this facility. I haven't been on Jackson around the Union Station for a while, but there are several pretty cool warehouses and buildings in the immediate area, in addition to the Ice House. The warehouse district as a whole has been pretty decimated, but this portion of it has a few cool buildings that I rarely pay attention to.

EDIT:
Well, it appears it is going to be a six-story "high-rise" facility:
http://www.ktar.com/category/local-n...ounty-Sheriff/

Last edited by PHX31; Mar 22, 2012 at 5:56 PM.
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