Flagstaff, AZ on a Cold November's Day (11/11/11)

[Buckeye Native 001]

AKA: Flagstaff, Arizona: Better Late Than Never (2011)

We'd had a winter storm the Tuesday before and the snow began melting Wednesday (as is the norm here), but there was still a little bit left by the time these pictures were taken on Friday (Veterans Day 2011).

That said, in a place that averages over 300 days of sunshine per year, I've learned to appreciate/cherish cloudy days. It also, in my opinion, makes Flagstaff look extra dreary, so given my typical demeanor, the clouds were welcome.

Some music, first:
• Video Link

Starting on the east end of Downtown


And looking down Aspen, one of the main east-west drags through Downtown


You can see one of the Lowell Observatory telescopes up on the hill


Also, my brother tagged along for the journey


Moving over to the west side near City Hall and the Library is the Flagstaff Townsite neighborhood.


Also, there's a greenbelt/wash separating Wheeler Park from the Library


I don't know where he learned that. Also, a BNSF train in the background.


Back to Flagstaff Townsite. Apparently the city's been trying to get this registered as a National Historic District, but hasn't had much luck with that.


Either they haven't yet taken down the Halloween decorations, or college students live here


A little more charming


The main library branch


Three words that, to me at least, don't make a whole hell of a lot of sense together


Closet Buckeyes fan? The red's a little too dark for scarlet...


Signs!


There's a disturbingly large percentage of salons in this neighborhood




Flagstaff Federated Community Church, a Presbyterian/Methodist congregation. Open and affirming.


Christ, another hair salon!?


Huh.


Milton/Santa Fe/Route 66 passes under the BNSF tracks. During the monsoon season, this floods way too often.


It was Veterans Day


Front view of the library, right across the street from City Hall


Looking east down Aspen. The building with the clock is where I took the first couple of shots to start this thread.


Where do you want to go?


Route 66 on a typical Friday (even though its a holiday). Flagstaff's Amtrak station in the background


City Hall, constructed in 1983. Very po-mo.


Along Aspen, east of San Francisco


Good Thai food, if that's your thing. I don't much care for it...


Canyon shot down Aspen




The Hotel Weatherford, with mast. On New Years Eve every year, they drop a metal pine cone to ring in the new year. I'm surprised that even though it always seems to be freezing cold on New Years Eve, the pine cone drop is attracts a significant crowd and its damn hard to find parking that isn't on or near the NAU campus.




Across the street from the Weatherford on Aspen and Leroux. Maloney's and San Felipe's: Ground zero for drunken college students during the school year.




Looking south on Leroux, which ends at 66 and the train station.




Newer building overlooking Heritage Square, northeast corner of Aspen and Leroux. Fifteen years ago, this was nothing more than a parking lot.




Heritage Square, the city's primary gathering spot




Across the street








Ah yes, the Monte V at the northeast intersection of Aspen and San Francisco. Many an attempt has been made here at a pretentious asshole shot looking up at the building...


The Babbitt family is originally from Cincinnati. They have their name attached to damn-near everything in this town.


The Coconino County Courthouse, constructed in 1894. Most recent renovations, including the yard (grass replaced all the concrete), were finished in 2002.


Yeah, I like this building.


But I'm not sure what he was doing.


Me, trying to look like the guys on one of those lawyer ads you see in the phone book...Didn't go over very well.




Snow still on the San Francisco Peaks


And finally, shots of the city and NAU from Mars Hill




Train coming






Thanks for taking a look. Next up: Tempe, Mesa and Phoenix on a sunny day in late December.

[AviationGuy]

Great tour. I love those Arizona mountain towns, especially Flagstaff.

[vid]

Decent.

[whatsthepoint13]

I love how yin and yang Arizona can be- sprawly, hot cities to the south, historic, cool, mountain towns to the north. Great and extensive tour, thanks!

[ColDayMan]

Niiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiice!

[kcexpress69]

Sweet pics, brother!! Don't think I've ever seen Flagstaff before!! Never been there. Thanks!!

[Centropolis]

i've always liked the vibe of flagstaff from what i've seen, unfortunately never have been downtown and only crashed in an interstate motel (meh, my mistake).

[Buckeye Native 001]

Thanks all

Originally Posted by whatsthepoint13

I love how yin and yang Arizona can be- sprawly, hot cities to the south, historic, cool, mountain towns to the north. Great and extensive tour, thanks!

To be fair, Flagstaff isn't immune to sprawl, either. Partly due to geography (we sit right at the base of the tallest mountain peaks in the state) and because of the built nature over time (typical Arizona post-WWII boom, like Phoenix on a much smaller scale), the city limits are actually quite large, for a town of 60,000:


Source

That said, the city's done a fantastic job rehabilitating Downtown the past 25 years or so, and those improvements are beginning to spread out more, particularly in the Southside neighborhood, which acts as a buffer between the city and the north end of the NAU campus.

Take into consideration, however, that Downtown isn't very big, so the re-investment, while impressive, isn't on the scale of, say, what's going on down in Phoenix, Tucson and Mesa. In those cities, progress is being made, but because of the way those cities evolved in the past 60-70 years, is taking a lot longer. All Flagstaff had to do to generate its boom Downtown was figure out how to lure people back for shopping after the mall was constructed on the east end of town in the 1970s.

Having a large university less than a mile to the south certainly doesn't hurt, either.

[Ex-Ithacan]

Nice to see your enthusiasm comes out in the gloomy conditions. I should have guessed.

Apparently there's some finger thing in the genes, though your bro is unable to mask a smile.

Thanks for the tour Bucky, good to see an old timey Western town.

[PHX31]

Cool photos, I like the downtown area of Flagstaff, it has some great historic buildings. I'm surprised, though, that Flagstaff doesn't have any neighborhods with great housing stock to speak of like Prescott (or maybe I've just never been able to find it).

[Buckeye Native 001]

I guess some of the neighborhoods immediately around downtown (Flagstaff Townsite, La Plaza Vieja, Southside) has some interesting older housing, but this is a city that burned to the ground several times in the late 19th century because nobody thought about building anything using brick or sandstone until the third or fourth major fire devastated the town.

But you're right, I'm not quite sure why Flagstaff doesn't have a more impressive housing stock, especially compared to Prescott.