Urban triangle?

Exciting changes

Image by kevindooley on Flickr

There’s a lot of urban development happening around the Valley. Downtown areas are being built up and the sprawl into the desert seems to have slowed down, albeit temporarily. It’s good for the denser urban cores to build up and become livable areas where people can work, play and live all within a small radius. But for all the development smaller cities like Chandler and Mesa are pursuing, the Valley tends to center around three main downtown areas: Tempe, Phoenix and Scottsdale. Before you Scottsdale haters start flaming this post, do me a favor and finish reading.

For better or worse, these are the three most centrally located and important urban areas in this metropolis. Tempe has had ASU and Mill Avenue for a long time. It’s been through its ups and downs, but downtown Tempe continues to be a nexus of urban activity. Scottsdale long ago established Old Town as a shopping destination and has continued to build its cred as an urban area with the growth of high-end residential buildings, the nightclub scene and increased dining choices. Downtown Phoenix however, is important to the Valley because it’s, well, Phoenix. It’s the center city of the metropolis, the city and county governments are located there and so are two sports arenas. But Phoenix hasn’t been able to establish downtown and the central corridor to the north as a true urban core. Sure, it has light rail, but it doesn’t have the walkability and density of Old Town Scottsdale or Mill Avenue.

I’d really like to see Phoenix step it up and grow into a truly great urban area, and to see Tempe and Scottsdale keep doing what they’re doing. Could all three city governments do more to encourage that? Sure. But I don’t want to debate specific policies here. What I do want to point out is that central Phoenix, Old Town Scottsdale and downtown Tempe/Mill Avenue form an “urban triangle”. Instead of one huge downtown area, we have three distinct areas, all with their own character and vibe. Old Town has the shopping and nightlife, Tempe has the collegiate bohemian feel and Phoenix has…um, something. Phoenix hasn’t quite established what it will be.

Downtown Phoenix needs to work towards finding identity and continuing to grow as a urban center. The urban triangle concept is great, and I’d really like Phoenix to be a part. But cities like Chandler are putting a lot of effort into developing quickly. If Phoenix fails to take advantage of opportunities, Chandler could surpass Phoenix and replace it as the third member of the urban triangle. Regardless, the rise of an urban triangle will be good for the Valley as a whole, but Phoenix is the name which the rest of the world uses to refer to this whole metropolis. It would be a shame for the city itself to be only a minor player in the Valley of the future.

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  • http://www.yuriartibise.com Yuri Artibise

    Great post. I fear that Phoenix has grown to big and sprawled too much to be able to respond as nimbly as Chandler. As a result they are being forced to spend time appeasing the suburbanites with misguided developments like CityNorth.

    Even when the city does focus on downtown, it's with a suburban mindset (a la CityScape), or a college town mentality (ASU downtown campus). What little urban fabric we once had is being eroded to placate the occasional vistor instead of those looking for a real urban experience.

  • Jim McPherson

    Well there is something called Discovery Triangle. The original three corners were Phoenix (Phoenix Biomedical Campus), Tempe (ASU), and Scottsdale (Skysong). But Scottsdale backed out because they didn't want their “cachet” diminished. So now the new “corner” is Papago Park. The goal: “To help shape and grow the urban lifestyle” of the stuff therein. For more information, visit http://www.discoverytriangle.org/

  • http://www.phxrailfood.com David Bickford

    You asked for Scottsdale “dislikers” (I don't consider myself a hater.) to wait until after reading your entire post before commenting. Okay. Done. Now, I'll comment — more in praise of Mesa than in criticism of Scottsdale.

    For the typical resident of the Phoenix Metro Area, I'd say your triangle is on target. Five years ago it was for me; however, in recent years I've realigned many of my activities to focus on the linear corridor created by light rail. That means for me the trio is Central Phoenix, Tempe, and Mesa.

    Now, to borrow your words, before all you Mesa haters react, let me finish my comments. Right now, light rail extends only a mile into Mesa. The only real attraction near Mesa's one station is Mekong Plaza, which is a great place to eat and shop, but its design is not friendly to pedestrians. Mesa clearly missed the memo on TOD and walkability during the construction of the light rail starter line.

    It looks like Mesa is going to get it right, however, in round 2. The only light rail extension moving forward right now is the Central Mesa extension, and the Mesa City Council has made a number of smart decisions. First, Mesa should be commended for bringing light rail to its downtown rather than a more suburban destination. Glendale also has a walkable downtown with interesting attractions, but its city government seems hell bent on bringing light rail to Westgate instead of downtown. Second, Mesa made the decision to run light rail right down Main instead of obscuring it on a side street. Third, it made the decision to narrow Main to one lane in each direction between Country Club and Mesa Dr. The latter decision may prove controversial, but it will do a lot to maintain walkabilty in Mesa's downtown core.

    About that core — Mesa's Downtown hardly has the nightlife pulse of Tempe or Scottsdale, but it works well as a daytime family destination. For someone like me who is at a phase of life in which dinosaur museums matter more than dance clubs, I find it to be one of the most underrated downtowns in the Phoenix Metro Area. Access and exposure via light rail may start to change that.

    As for my erstwhile friend Scottsdale, I'll be candid in saying that part of me wants to see Scottsdale lose its allure as a consequence of sitting out light rail — not to the point that Scottsdale fades away, but to the point that its misguided leaders are forced to reconsider their resistance to transit. Maybe that will happen, but maybe it won't. After all, Georgetown is still a vibrant part of Washington DC despite not being near that city's subway system. I cope by redirecting some of the time and money I formerly spent in Scottsdale toward Central Phoenix, Tempe, and Mesa, but I'll make exceptions for unique and worthwhile Scottsdale businesses like Sweet Republic, Echo Coffee, etc.

    It looks like I'm getting close to violating my rule that blog comments should never be longer than blog posts, so I'll close with a thought about your statement that “Phoenix has…um, something. Phoenix hasn’t quite established what it will be.?” My reaction is that Phoenix should not overthink this question. Phoenix is the big city at the core of the metro area. Scottsdale and Tempe are smaller communities that need more distinctive identifies, but Phoenix doesn't necessarily need that type of specialized branding, and efforts to create it by the Downtown Phoenix Partnership seem artificial. Instead, Phoenix should concentrate on strengthening neighborhood identifies, which are often indistinct in Phoenix. Any great city is a collection of great neighborhoods.

  • Terry B

    Matthew,
    Thanks for the conversation starter. Used it on my blog about downtown mesa.

  • http://matthewpetro.wordpress.com Matthew Petro

    Glad I could help! What's the link to your post?

  • http://matthewpetro.wordpress.com Matthew Petro

    Phoenix has never really had much urban fabric when compared to classic urban places like bigger and older East Coast and European cities. So it's not surprising that it's easy for that fabric to erode away.

    We do have a tremendous opportunity to grow our own modern urban fabric here, because we're not as tied to the past as older cities. I hope that things like ASU and CityScape can provide economic engines to help downtown Phoenix, but counting on large developers and institutions to create a vibrant downtown is a strategy for failure. As you pointed out in your blog post on Urban Fabric (http://yuriartibise.com/2010/07/19/urban-fabric/), a fine-grained downtown is far more desirable. A space like that is created when small business and entrepreneurs are involved in the development. Causing that to happen should be the goal of the Phoenix city government.

  • http://www.yuriartibise.com Yuri Artibise

    That is a common mispeception about Phoenix. The city had a dense, vibrant downtown until the 1960s when there began getting demolished and replaced with parking lots and single story buildings. Check out the book Vanishing Phoenix for a sample of what has been lost (alas the website I was working on got sidetracked by a misunderstanding of “fair use.”)

    Personally I think Phoenix has missed the boat and is going down the wrong path. Developments like the Sheraton, CityScape, ASU and the Convention Center illustrate that the city doesn't get urban fabric. At best they are mere patches to cover up what has been (and continues to be) destroyed. At worst they are a decisive move towards suburbanizing the downtown core: http://yuriartibise.com/2010/02/24/cityscape-su…

  • http://matthewpetro.wordpress.com Matthew Petro

    Wow, this is a great comment and could be a blog post all on its own!

    Thanks for mentioning Mesa. I'm usually not out in Mesa very much, but I haven't quite reached the phase in life in which places like Arizona Museum for Youth matter more than SideBar and FEZ. That phase is approaching rapidly, so my appreciation for Mesa and the light rail extension through it may grow.

    It's good to see Mesa making very smart moves in bringing light rail down Main Street. I'm glad to see them handling it well, and I hope they reap the rewards.

    With regards to Glendale (which is where I currently live), I am continually frustrated by the city government's lack of investment in downtown in favor of the artificial “destination” of Westgate. Their desires to run light rail down I-10 to Westgate seems like they just want a shuttle from Mesa, Tempe and Phoenix to Westgate, not to any other parts of the city. Glendale has opportunities to become the centerpiece of the West Valley, but that's a discussion for another post.

    I do hope that Scottsdale sees the value of light rail as a way to bring even more vitality to Old Town and the surrounding area. I particularly hope they follow Mesa's lead and run the train down Scottsdale Road, instead of routing it around the edge of downtown. That may be a hard sell to the city council, but success in Mesa and a changing from the old guard to the young may change some opinions.

    Finally, you make a great point about the neighborhoods of Phoenix. I hadn't thought of the various historic neighborhoods and the value they could bring to the city identity if Phoenix chose to emphasize them. I agree that the efforts to brand downtown seem ridiculously artificial (Copper Square? Really?) and that the city should work on highlighting the identities which are already growing organically.

  • http://matthewpetro.wordpress.com Matthew Petro

    I know Phoenix once had an urban downtown once, but compared to older East Coast cities, it didn't have the same size and history. Take Boston, for example. The city has history dating back 300+ years. It's evolved through every era in United States history. Phoenix just doesn't have that. I think that's why it was easy to demolish the buildings which were here in the 1960s; they didn't have history which kept them safe.

    As far as urban fabric goes, I don't see anything wrong with large hotels, a convention center and a university campus in downtown. Many cities have these. They just need to be surrounded by fine-grained fabric to balance them out.

  • http://www.yuriartibise.com Yuri Artibise

    The problem with them is that they are displacing the grained urban fabric that was there before. Cities like Tempe, Chandler and Scottsdale (and even Mesa) get this as you mentioned in your post, why can't Phoenix? instead of protecting what we have left, they continue to demolish it for yet more parking.

    Until Phoenix pays as much attention to creating residential units as it does parking space, it will never be truly urban. It will continue to loose ground to cities like Tempe, Scottsdale and Mesa (and even Glendale, whose downtown has perhaps the best raw urban fabric in the Valley).

  • http://matthewpetro.wordpress.com Matthew Petro

    Ultimately, I agree with you. Phoenix needs to encourage and emphasize fine-grained fabric in order to be a truly vibrant urban area. As the central city of the Valley, it's good for Phoenix to have bigger urban projects than smaller cities. But that needs to be tempered with the small stuff too, especially residential areas which are affordable by middle class people. As David mentioned above, an emphasis by Phoenix on encouraging and supporting the neighborhoods which already exist would be an excellent idea, but offering incentives to build new residential areas would be smart as well.

    Also, thanks for your take on downtown Glendale. It certainly is raw and needs to be refined, but I don't think the city government is focusing on that at all. Like Phoenix, they're determined to keep pouring resources into making their big suburban development successful.