INTRODUCTION

St Croix Villas needs your help.  If you like any of the following things, you’ll want to help us:

• Downtown Vibrancy
• Pedestrianism
• Community
• Dogs

If you’re still with me, then continue on to see how you can very tangibly improve all four of those things right now by helping us get a dog park in downtown.

BACKGROUND

I know some readers know the Sahara Hotel’s sad story as BloomingRock has blogged about it numerous times, but new readers don’t.  Therefore, if you are already quite familiar with the topic, skip to the asterisked paragraph.  Otherwise, continue below.

In February of this year, the City of Phoenix purchased an entire downtown block containing the old Sahara Hotel.  The City currently plans to pave the bulldozed site into a 90,000 sqft (2 acres) surface parking lot for the exclusive use of the privately-owned Sheraton Hotel and a news organization.  Then, when ASU has the funds for a new law school in “3-5 years”, they plan to build it on this site.

So you just heard the punchline of chapter one: the City tore down the four-story Sahara Hotel.  The Downtown Voices Coalition and a number of residents and advocates fought diligently to try and write a different ending to that chapter – wanting to preserve the building itself for various reasons.  In the end their focus shifted to at least preventing the City from obtaining a zoning permit to turn the land into a massive surface parking lot in the center of our downtown.  But in the end the City, rather than the people of Phoenix, controlled the end of the chapter.

*Everyone assumed that this was a one-chapter book.  However, St Croix Villas, a residential community 300 ft from the land in question, of which I’m a member, filed an appeal of the zoning decision.  So began chapter two.

SIMPLE REASONS TO REJECT A PARKING LOT

• Most downtowns have 2-3 parking spaces per 1000 sqft of office space.  Phoenix’s downtown has 5.  The City will and has given excuses, but it’s still a fact that we have no shortage of parking in our downtown.

• The City’s expectation to build the law school in “3-5 years” is empty posturing.  Our economy is tanked and our budget problems, which have been a major issue in 2010, are actually forecasted to get significantly worse in 2011 and 2012.  Whatever happens to that land now, will be there for a long, long time.

• The reason the City, and more accurately the Sheraton Hotel, wants a parking lot is simple: revenue.  The Sheraton currently charges $17 to park all day in its garage.  So when the Sheraton has events and their garage fills up, they want to be able to tell the nice people from Paradise Valley and Apache Junction that the next closest parking is this new lot they just built and only costs $12!  Because currently they have to direct those people to an existing two-acre parking lot just 300 feet further that charges only $5 (privately owned).  As I write this at ten o’clock at night, that parking lot has all of 3 vehicles surrounded by 250 empty spaces of dead land.

“Okay Sean – *yawn* – how much harm can another parking lot really do to downtown?  Why all the time, effort, and money spent to fight something that the City government has already promised its corporate bedfellows?”

COMPLEX REASONS TO REJECT A PARKING LOT

A massive parking lot really has no adverse effects in suburbia where the only effective mode of transportation is an automobile.  However, there are three very real reasons that a parking lot is severely detrimental to a downtown – especially one just getting off the ground after decades of neglect and mismanagement – such as ours.

1. Parking lots trap solar energy and slowly discharge that energy as heat throughout the day.

This is formally called the Heat Island Effect.  It has been noted in all major urban areas, and Phoenix is notoriously the most dramatic in the nation.  According to which study you happen to be reading, many of which come from ASU, Phoenix’s urban core suffers from temperatures 5-12° hotter than it would under natural conditions.

During a time when our leaders should be exploring ways to alleviate this semi-avoidable problem, they are instead planning massive parking lots and making a bad problem worse.  The City says that they will provide 7% shade cover via some scattered trees; that leaves 93% of the asphalt to cook us alive.

1. Pedestrianism will suffer from increased auto usage.

This is formally determined by what are called four-step models, which are the conventional method of transportation forecasting.  I have reason to believe that no one in City Hall, and especially the Community & Economic Development department which is pushing for this massive parking lot, knows how to perform one of these – yet they are making transportation decisions.  One element of the four-step model is a mode choice calculation.  The “mode” of someone’s trip could be walking, cycling, driving, or using transit.

Part 1:  Primary Loss

By increasing the parking supply, the City will be directly inducing more trips by car.  This is because when the City increases the supply, they will be lowering the cost as measured by a combination of both $ and convenience (and parking will become more convenient).  When they lower the parking cost, they increase driving demand.

This will be borne out by people deciding that parking is easy enough that they can drive downtown rather than use transit.  More cars will also result from people not putting in as much effort to carpool.  Those are both examples of mode choice shifts.  But it is also expected that this cheaper parking will generate new trips downtown (via automobile), again piling more cars into downtown without adding a single pedestrian.

Peggy Neely (City Councilwoman for District 2) proved right here on Blooming Rock just days ago that she understands this concept of mode shift very well: “We have to encourage people to ride transit and if we have lots of parking lots and it’s very cheap … they will pick the car every time … we need to encourage parking to be (more expensive) or you’re not going to get the cars off the street.”

Part 2:  Secondary Loss

Safety is a major factor in whether pedestrianism is an attractive mode or not.  Safety for a pedestrian means two things: “Will a car kill me?” and “Will a mugger kill me?”

Will a car kill me?

Well that depends on how many cars there are, and how many pedestrians there are.  Imagine walking through the intersection of 12^th Street & Camelback.  There are many more cars than pedestrians.  In that environment, cars do not watch for pedestrians.  It would be like me watching for deer in Manhattan.  But in downtown there are many more pedestrians than in uptown, and so cars are much more cognizant of pedestrians, making it safer for us.  If the City adds more cars without adding more pedestrians, then the City will be making pedestrianism less safe and thereby less attractive.

Will a mugger kill me?

Well, that depends on how many pedestrians are out walking the street.  If you’re alone on a street, no matter how lit, it feels unsafe whether that’s true or not (and it very well might be).  More pedestrians on the road equate to pedestrian safety.

You can see the X in the right column of the chart above.  Those are lost pedestrians due to a mode shift.  By losing those pedestrians, pedestrianism becomes less safe (real or perceived).  This leads to less comfortable pedestrians and more pedestrians lost outright.  (The trips might shift to another mode, or they might be foregone completely.)

So in summary, the City’s massive parking lot for the Sheraton damages downtown’s pedestrianism.

1. Pedestrianism will suffer from parking being closer to the Sheraton.

Currently, overflow visitors to Sheraton events, which are the primary intended users of the City’s massive proposed parking lot, park at some distance from the Sheraton.  This distance is nothing egregious, and Americans could stand to walk a few extra steps these days.

As alluded to in the previous section, these mini-trips on foot improve our ped-to-car ratio (i.e. cars become less likely to use people as speed bumps) and increase the pedestrian presence (i.e. Crazy Joe won’t shiv you for your chewing gum).  Mini-trips on foot are also taken by the people using the light rail.  If the City gives these event-goers curbside service to their destination, eliminating these mini-trips, then it further harms our ped-to-car ratio and pedestrian presence.

So in summary, the City’s massive parking lot for the Sheraton damages downtown’s pedestrianism

SOLUTION

A dog park.

They can pave a parking lot on the southern half of the site.  That should afford the City about 120 spaces.  On the northern half would be a grassy dog park.  We’ll even let people in, too.  My calculations identify 500-600 current households within a half-mile (a comfortable walking distance) that would use this dog park.

This acre of parkspace helps ameliorate the heat island effect, especially near Taylor Place, a 1200-student residence.  Also, since the dog park would subsume half of the parking that the City wants to create, all of the negative effects that we listed above would be reduced (we’ll assume by half).

This dog park takes it even further though, because we would create a focused and significant pedestrian destination, which is something that downtown sorely lacks today.  First Street is the most focused pedestrian area of downtown, and this dog park would be a meaningful nexus on that street.

The result is induced pedestrian trips that would re-balance the ped-to-car ratio and replace the pedestrian trips lost by the event-goers’ mode shift to cars.  All-in-all, the dog park would neutralize the negative impacts of the adjacent parking lot; not to mention the community that dog parks build.  (Talk to any city’s parks director and they’ll gush about the community benefits of dog parks.)

Quickly, I also have to bring up how this would cast downtown in a very different light.  This would be a downtown park that would actually get used, which is in stark contrast to Civic Space Park or Hance Deck Park.  People love dog parks and, without one, downtown is undoubtedly missing out on potential residents.  A suburban dog owner interested in moving downtown might be dissuaded when they see there are no dog parks and they would no longer have a yard.  A quote from Valerie Porter on twitter when I asked who would be interested in a downtown dog park: “I’d be more inclined to live downtown if there was a central dog park. The one at Papago Park is a big neighborhood meetup.”

While the City would need to fund the creation of the park (it can simply use the planned asphalt costs for that half of the site) and probably a portion of the maintenance costs, I am working to raise private funds from pet-oriented businesses to cover most of the maintenance.  Such a business having their name printed on a sign in the dog park is the most effective and targeted marketing possible.

My point is, this compromise improves the community and downtown while the City and the Sheraton still get some of what they want – and it’s possible.

BESEECHMENT

I’m all for working with the City.  I just wish the City was all for working with the people of Phoenix.  In order to get the City to take the needs of its citizens seriously, we need to show that downtowners want this.  We need numbers.  We need signatures on a petition and we need commitments to physically support us at the appeal hearing.

Our appeal will be heard by the Phoenix Board of Adjustments on Thursday, November 4^th, noon at City Hall.

If you care about downtown’s vibrancy, contact me.

If you care about pedestrianism, contact me.

If you care about community, contact me.

If you care about your dog (or just like dogs, like I do), contact me.

sean.sweat@gmail.com

817-223-4842

Light Rail Blogger is partnering with Blooming Rock and Boy Meets Blog to repost Sweat’s original work, which can be found here. Be sure to check out Seth Anderson’s version here.

Since I moved to downtown Phoenix I have relied on my car less and less, and I can’t say I miss the countless hours a week I used to spend sitting in traffic on Valley freeways. When I lived and worked in the East Valley, my car was seemingly as essential as a roof over my head. Traveling to and from my former job in north Scottsdale was a daily exercise in patience and planning — at certain points of the day the 101 literally resembles a parking lot — and I lost a lot of valuable time stopping and going.

When I began working from home last year, it was a welcomed change. I saved gas money, saved time, lessened Valley smog and kept my blood pressure at a minimum. I invested in a bike and took to exploring my neighborhood WiFi hot spots. Working from home can drive even the biggest homebody crazy, so I often travel to coffeehouses, office spaces and other free Internet spots in my ‘hood to keep my sanity.

As I began a freelance-like life (though not a freelancer myself), I was living in the Roosevelt Historic District near Local Breeze and Cibo. Bike culture in this neighborhood is growing — Local Breeze gives a 10% discount to bike riders, and the massive Roosevelt Square apartment complex is home to hundreds of bikers. Roosevelt is home to bike lanes on 3rd and 5th avenues, and they take you to the city core to the south or all the way up to Midtown Phoenix to the north. These bike lanes became my new best friend.

It was not uncommon to see my Roosevelt neighbors pedaling through Hance Park or using the 3rd Avenue bike lane to head to the Willo neighborhood for a leisurely ride. I regularly enjoyed rides through Willo (although the lanes throughout this neighborhood are butt-busting and well worn) over to Encanto Park for picnics or recreation. I soon realized that using a combination of bike riding and light rail, I could get to nearly everywhere I go on a regular basis without ever starting up my car — what a revelation!

I’ve since moved a few blocks east to the Evans Churchill neighborhood, home of Roosevelt Row. This area is teeming with bike culture, as it is home to many urban commuters and bike-friendly spots. Most of my neighbors own bikes, and I am finding more bike-minded residents and visitors every day. The Roosevelt light rail station is only a few blocks away, and many that live in these parts have forgone the car altogether. Hoodride has been a gathering spot for über-bikers for years. Conspire‘s bike racks are always occupied. The Lost Leaf encourages patrons to bike instead of drive and stay for an extra beer. Bikes chained to parking meters are a regular site in front of Carly’s. And newly opened Giant Coffee, with limited parking availability, tells its clientele to take the rail, walk or bike when possible.

While I’m not quite ready to ditch the car (cross-Valley drives and roadtrips are tough on the bike), I’m pleased to say there is little reason to get into the car in a very auto-minded city like Phoenix. In the future, I hope to see downtown Phoenix embrace biking even further, especially with the growth of Arizona State’s downtown campus and developments like CityScape on the horizon.

Si Robins and "Stuart" can be seen riding the streets of Phoenix.

]]> http://lightrailblogger.com/2010/08/05/car-lite-lifestyle-downtown-phoenix/feed/ 3 http://lightrailblogger.com/2009/11/23/five-businesses-that-will-help-you-live-carfree/ http://lightrailblogger.com/2009/11/23/five-businesses-that-will-help-you-live-carfree/#comments Tue, 24 Nov 2009 05:31:07 +0000 Tony Arranaga http://lightrailblogger.com/?p=1182 Grocery shopping, picking up dry cleaning and any errands that normally require a car can be especially tricky when you’re carfree in Phoenix. Alternative transportation like the light rail, a bike or even a Zipcar (car sharing program) can get you around, however I’m curbing my use of the latter after my record carfree spending month in October. Running errands is not a huge problem when you’re carfree, but the wire basket attached to the handlebars is limited to what it can carry because of size as you can see in the picture below.

I learned rather quickly to limit my purchases to whatever will fit in the basket and in one arm.  Once in awhile, I’ll go over my maximum capacity and regret the decision the entire 10 minute ride home. I say all this not to complain or to disuade someone from living carfree, but rather to bring a solution.  In an effort to save time, and possibly my arm from falling off during an errand run, I’ve decided to check into stores around the Valley that have delivery services – and see how they measure up in comparison doing it all myself.

Safeway.com – I used this site to purchase groceries and it was a breeze to navigate.  The tabs were pretty basic in terms of directing you to different pages on the site. You can chose the day and time in most cases the next day if not that same day if you place the order by a certain time.  I purchased 11 items ($60 worth of groceries) and the delivery cost is $12.  From what I could see, everything that I would normally buy at the store was also available online and for delivery.  Perfect!  The delivery charge is a bit much in relation to what I’m ordering, however the convenience will be worth it. Having said that, Safeway is currently offering free delivery for first time customers and for 60 days following your first purchase.  If you’re looking for great frozen food try Schwans.

GooberPetDirect.com – Carrying a small bag of dog food on a bike isn’t hard, but it becomes an issue when you have to go and buy that small bag every week or two.  Especially when you could buy a bigger bag and save a trip and money but can’t carry such a large bag while riding a bike.  A friend referred me to Goober Pet Direct which delivers dog, cat and small animal food (like rabbit and bird) right to your home.  Cost wise, the bags are comparable in price to the same product I bought at the store.  I ordered a bag of food, but couldn’t find anywhere on the site to schedule a delivery?  I also wish they had a close up picture of the dog treats.  The best part:  free delivery!

NaturesGardenDelivered.com – I’m so excited about delivery service because of four words: natural, organic and local fruit.  There was a good variety of fruits and vegetables to choose from in addition to the size of your order.  I purchased a tiny box of approximately 20 pieces of assorted fruit for $28.  Although the fruit will most likely be gone in a couple of days, I figured I would try a small box first just in case to see how quickly I eat it and how long the fruit will  keep. You order early in the week and Nature’s Garden delivers later.  Bonus: free delivery!

OrganicDryCleaners.com – My dry cleaner doesn’t deliver, but I have used Organic Dry Cleaners on Thomas back in my pre-carfree days. Organic does a great job, but the prices were a little higher than most cleaners and you can cut that price down a little with the special internet only offers on their homepage.  I’m not sure if this service would work for me because they require a three piece dry cleaning minimum per order and I’m usually going to get shirts laundered.  The delivery is free.

Baker Nursery – Schlepping a heavy bag of dog food is the least of my concerns compared to a prickly cactus for my patio or a house plant to green my living room.  Problem solved with the Baker Nursery delivery service. The cost for delivery to the Downtown area is $20 and is more expensive from there depending on how far east or west you are from the nursery which is located on 40th Street.

The most important thing to remember, as with most carfree living, be sure to plan ahead when ordering for delivery.  The stores I mentioned above may not be able to deliver the same day or even the very next day, so waiting until the last minute could mean you’re back to running errands on your own.

Did I miss any errands?  Have you used a delivery service either here in Downtown Phoenix or where you live?

I’ll admit the experience was a challenge as a working professional. Fortunately part of my  day allows me to work from home. However there were many days when a meeting with clients called for wearing a shirt, tie and sometimes a sport coat. A bottle of water for hydration and a towel to wipe the sweat from my face always came along for the ride. And fighting sweat stains from my shoulder bag was always a constant battle whether I wore a bag for one half hour of one minute. Looking my best in the extreme heat wasn’t always easy.

You’re probably wondering why on earth would I subject myself to the searing temperatures? The month long challenge that started back in January quickly became a passion. During this time, I realized how much I enjoyed letting someone else doing the driving. I also learned  how mass transit clears the air by taking more cars off the road. I had extra money in my wallet every month because I was buying less gas. I saw first hand how alternative modes of transportation could actually help reduce our dependency on foreign oil. In addition, I felt good.  My body felt good. These benefits only fueled my passion for transit and blogging, however there was something happening on a deeper level.  Each passing month gave me the confidence to go from I think I can to I know I can.

I got to thinking about all this while giving a fellow transit blogger from Portland a guided mini-tour of our light rail system.  Adron Hall and his girlfriend Jo were visiting the area for a wedding last weekend and decided to stay a few days extra to see the city and our new system.

I started following the Transit Sleuth shortly after my first few months of blogging.  Adron is a wealth of knowledge and a great resource. Outside of reading and commenting on posts we’ve only exchanged email. Adron’s work is an inspiration – so I was a little  nervous heading into the meeting.  Basically, he’s like my blogging version of a rock star.  The butterflies quickly vanished and the three of us had great conversation and we had so much fun.  Of course, I had to show them my pick for best tacos in Phoenix.  Next we took the light rail north and headed to Smeeks and Frances to spend some money at locally owned businesses.

I think they liked my tour.  I hear they went back to GB for seconds later that night.