Demolition part 3 and a call to action
Posted on 12. Aug, 2009 by Tony Arranaga in Featured, News
UPDATE: new links
Looks like I wasn’t the only one curious about the demolition project in Midtown Phoenix over the weekend. You may have read my post about crews razing a landmark structure on the northwest corner of Central and Indian School, which is just north of downtown and directly across the street from a light rail station.
Wow, what a surprise. The city allows buildings to be torn down, for no reason, just to let the land sit empty and vacant until some undefined future date. Just take a walk around downtown and notice all the dusty lots and you’ll see what the corner of Central and Indian School will look like for years: empty and barren. (And if there are no plans to build anything, why tear down what is there?!)
This leads me to a comment posted by Ben Bethel of the Clarendon Hotel in my previous post on this subject. Bethel also wrote a letter to the mayor and vice mayor with a great idea on how to use this empty lot and three others along Central Avenue:
Mayor & Vice-Mayor,
I’d like to propose that the city help turn the giant empty lots on the NWC and NEC of Central and Indian School Roads into urban co-op farms. Could also be done with the lots across from Brophy Prep and Central High School, as well as the lot on the NWC of Central and McDowell. Could be a unique opportunity for the “greening of Phoenix”… bring worldwide attention to a city making an effort to not only beautify empty lots that will probably be empty for another 10-15 years, but in a useful manner by having co-op farms like in NYC/SF/etc… plus there’s nothing worse than driving down the main boulevard of the 5th largest city in the US and seeing dust-devils blasting sand all over the place!
7 Responses to “Demolition part 3 and a call to action”
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glynnjamin
12. Aug, 2009
@lightrailblog FWIW I emailed Gordon about letting me & a Roosevlt group do a garden on 3rd Ave & Fillmore lots. They are parkin lots now…
lightrailblog
13. Aug, 2009
@glynnjamin have u heard from city on garden request?
glynnjamin
13. Aug, 2009
@lightrailblog No word at all. I sent Gordon a tweet, a FB message, and an email. Guess I’ll have to hang out at Chars until he shows up.
N.L.
13. Aug, 2009
The vacant property at the NE corner of Indian School and Central Avenue is privately owned by Barron Collier Company. The 15-acre site is entitled for mixed-use development, but the owners, like everyone else during a down cycle, have to wait until the timing is right to develop the property. In the meantime, Barron Collier Company has paid to have the site maintained, and recently installed nearly $75,000 dollars worth of fencing to match the Parks Department fencing at Steele Park.
Ben Bethel
13. Aug, 2009
Thanks for the props… and I realized that there’s one nice bit of positive news over this being turned into a vacant lot: 1) all of those people living in the apartments get AWESOME views of the midtown skyline, and all of the people driving by now look at relatively-new apartments instead of dilapidated old buildings.
Remember, email your mayor and vice-mayor to get the ball rolling on the urban co-op garden idea… it could cost very little (till the land and let people plant what they want on their own dime), would help negate the urban heat-island effect, would make the street look much more beautiful, and would make people feel like they’re in a safer neighborhood instead of one filled with empty lots and broken glass. It also gives people a strong sense of community… something still lacking here, although it’s beginning to come around.
Thanks!
Ben Bethel
Owner/GM
The Clarendon Hotel
Irene Agustin
17. Aug, 2009
A co-op urban garden is a cool idea. Also, a great way to involve the community. The kids at Crisis Nursery are getting gardening lessons from Eagle Scouts, but this could definitely be an ongoing project for our volunteers to help our kids learn to give back to their community.
Also, Seth is an awesomer gardener. I give him all my plants because I’m good at killing them.
Wes Novack
24. Aug, 2009
An urban garden would be an awesome idea, but like someone mentioned above, it would have to be a city owned lot and not a privately owned plot of land.
The city might also be reluctant to turn a lot into a community garden if they have future plans for a particular lot. Once the garden is up and running and the community is really using it, it would be difficult to take away and probably cause an uproar.