Uncategorized | YuriArtibise.com

Mar 07

One ‘Wei’ to Support a Vibrant Downtown Phoenix

By Yuri Artibise Uncategorized View Comments

Being an urbanist is hard in Phoenix. Even when the city takes a step in the right direction, it faces opposition. This week, one such example has come to my attention. The proposed expansion of the “Arts, Culture and Small Business Overlay” is being discussed at the Central City Village Planning Committee on Monday.

wei 300x225 One ‘Wei’ to Support a Vibrant Downtown Phoenix

1302 W Roosevelt St

The current overlay has been in place since April 2008. It has been responsible for many of the new galleries and small businesses in and around downtown that have opened in the past few years, including many featured during this past weekend’s Art Detour. It has been such a success, in fact, that the city would like to expand it to other parts of downtown. Alas, there has been some opposition by nearby residents, making a slam dunk decision into a much more tentative one.

Here is a letter from one of my friends who will be directly affected by the outcome of this weeks meeting.

Hi there,
My name is Katie Hess. I am relatively new to the neighborhood. I bought a house at the NW corner of 13th Ave. and Roosevelt about a year and a half ago.
[…]
Since I purchased my house, I have worked hard to fix it up, and have had many volunteers as well, including a group of herbalism graduates that came to help plant trees, plants, and flowers. We also painted everything inside and out. The house used to be a drab dusty color, and now is sky blue with a mango wall.
My intention in supporting the overlay program is to bring goodness and positive energy to the neighborhood. When I first moved in, people were taking naps in the front lawn everyday, but that soon stopped. We’ve noticed that the negative activities in our area have declined. There is less trash in the alley and fewer intoxicated people hanging out. Over time we’ve really gained respect on our street because we take pride in our neighborhood and really value what we have.
My background is in natural medicine, my main specialty in flower essence therapy (the kind without the scent, taken internally to enhance happiness). I hand-collect the flower essences from flowers around the world, as well as growing flowers here at the house to infuse them into elixirs, body care, spa products, and even organic dark chocolate. My business partner, Lisa Reinhardt, owns an organic, fair-trade dark chocolate company. We may know some of you from the Downtown Phoenix Farmers’ Market, as we’ve had a booth there for several years now.
Since this house is zoned R-5 we have permission to use part of the space for business purposes, and so for the last year or so my flower essence therapy clients have made appointments with me there during the day.
We are in support of the overlay program for our property, because we’d like to have the opportunity to allow people to come and buy organic chocolates and organic skin care/body care products. We think it would be wonderful for our neighborhood to have a resource, sort of a ‘wellness’ atmosphere, where you can walk down the block to buy healthy chocolates that boost your immune system and other organic products to keep you healthy and happy. I believe that this type of community activity would continue to decrease the negative things that we all don’t want to see and enhance our neighborhood.
I have talked with most of my neighbors to the west of me all the way to Grand, as well as the apartment buildings to the south and to the east of us, and everyone is supportive.
For these reasons, I’m asking for your support of the Arts, Business, and Culture Overlay Program. The proposed overlay areas would only affect the corner of 13th Ave and Roosevelt west to 15th Ave and Grand Ave, as well as one property on the NE corner of 15th Ave and Portland St.
If you have any questions I am happy to answer them.
Warm regards,
Katie Hess
1302 W. Roosevelt

Last week, I talked about the need for people to get involved in their community. Katie has done this. She now wants to take here involvement to the next level. Expanding the Arts and Culture Overlay will allow her (and others) to do just that.

However, to make her dream a reality, she needs your help. If you are free Monday night (Mar 8^th at 6pm) please come out and show your support for the overlay expansion at the Village Planning Committee meeting. The meeting will take place at 6:00 pm at Emerson Court, School District Board Room, 1817 North 7th Street (southeast corner of 7th Street and Palm Lane).

It is important that those of us who seek a vibrant downtown make our voices heard at events such as these. You don’t need to speak, or even stay for the entire meeting. You can just fill out a card with your name and address, and say that you are in favor, and then leave. If you can’t make it, yet want to show your support, please send an email to Katherine Coles, the City of Phoenix contact for the committee.

Gentrification is Good (yuriartibise.com)
Cities can’t be branded (tdhurst.com)
Walk this Way: Jane’s Walk Phoenix is profiled in Sunset (yuriartibise.com)

One ‘Wei’ to Support a Vibrant Downtown Phoenix

Thanks for being a regular reader of my site!

Feb 23

Technical Difficulties

By Yuri Artibise Uncategorized View Comments

The problem with being a tinkerer is that the little you know can get you into BIG trouble. While attempting to upgrade some aspects of by blog, I accidentally deleted my database. While the great team at BlueHost was able to restore the database from backup, they most recent backup they could find was from February 15th, meaning that I lost a weeks worth of posts.

I will recreate my lost posts from my drafts, but, I will not be able to recreate the comments, which to me are often the most valuable part of blogging.

In the meantime, I’ll do my best to stick to my post a day commitment to of the 28 Day Blogging Challenge although Tuesday’s post may come late in the day.

Tagged with: Blog • Bluehost • Site Management • technical difficulties • Website • WordPress

Feb 18

Gentrification is Good

By Yuri Artibise Uncategorized View Comments

One of my pet peeve about many fellow urbanists and city dwellers is their disdain for gentrification. Like Gordon Gecko’s notorious “Greed is Good’ speech” in the 1987 movie Wall Street, I’m here to say ‘Gentrification is Good”

At its most basic level, gentrification reflects the transformation of long neglected places like downtown Phoenix into vibrant and successful areas. It begins with the arrival of artists and hipsters attracted by low rents, The pioneers then cultivate a scene that begins to attract middle class professionals.

According to Sharon Zukin’s recent book, Naked City: The Death and Life of Authentic Urban Places, gentrification depends on transforming neighborhoods so that the professional class sees them as “gritty” and “authentic.” Historical building, warehouses and the like provide a foundation for the “authentic” urban experience that attracts upper-middle class people tired of strip malls and chain store.

Since I’ve come to Phoenix, I’ve noticed increasing tensions downtown’s development. Some critics of what is going on are labeling it ‘gentrification.’ To me this label is misapplied.

Using coffee as an example, both the many locations of Starbucks as well as the independent coffee shops such as Fair Trade Cafe, Royal at the Market, Conspire and the new downtown locations of Lola Coffebar and Cartel Coffee Lab have contributed to the revitalization. Many people lump all this development together under the banner gentrification. They are wrong. The multiple Starbucks clones reflects a homogenization of downtown that is distinct from gentrification.

lola coffee bar gold spot 5 Gentrification is Good

Lola Downtown. Photograph from Arizona-Coffee.com

A Starbucks is a Starbucks is a Starbucks, whether you are in a Chandler strip mall, Taylor Place at ASU downtown, or for that matter, Hong Kong. On the other hand the independent coffee shops show a more positive ‘gentrification’ of downtown. Even though many of the ‘independent’ coffee houses are the second or third locations in the Valley, their downtown outlets reflect the flavor of the surrounding neighborhood rather that that of a corporate brand.

There is a distinct difference in décor and more importantly vibe between, say Lola Uptown and Lola Downtown that is lacking when you visit one of the numerous Starbucks or Subways around town. Yes the surroundings may be familiar from one place to the next, but each location is different enough to offer authentic experience. Besides, it’s at these independent cafés where the young urban hipsters and “gentry” are found, not in Starbucks.

I’m not immune to the consitency of Starbucks, or the affordability of Subway. Vigilant readers may spot me in one of these establishments on occasion. This post isn’t meant to judge such business or their customers, rather to point out the different impacts after all, if downtown Phoenix is to be successful we need to greatly increase its population of both residents and visitors, which means opening our arms to ALL walks of life. My problem isn’t with Starbucks or Subway, and it isn’t just with downtown Phoenix. In fact it is a global phenomenon of the same stores, selling the same stuff and the same coffee. One Starbucks is cool. Four within a ¼ mile rover each other is overkill.

Stay tuned for more posts along this line of thinking. As always, I look forward to reading your thoughts and questions in the comments section.

This is day 10 in my 28 Day Blogging Challenge. 18 days to go.

DPJ Article: Three New ‘R’s: Rezone, Reuse and Revitalize — The City of Phoenix’s Adaptive Reuse Program

By Yuri Artibise Uncategorized View Comments

Originally posted in the Downtown Phoenix Journal on December 22, 2009.

Over the past two years, amidst all the new buildings popping up, Downtown Phoenix has quietly become a leader in promoting adaptive reuse. Adaptive reuse is the process of tailoring old structures for purposes other than those initially intended. As old buildings outlive their original purposes, adaptive reuse offers a process to modify these buildings for new uses while retaining their historic features. As a result, an old warehouse may become an apartment building, or a rundown church may find new life as a restaurant.
A prime candidate for adaptive reuse: the city-owned (ca. 1909) Leighton G. Knipe House at 1025 N. 2nd Street.
By taking buildings that are either historical, dated or in older, established areas of the city and ensuring their presence long into the future, adaptive reuse is one of the ultimate expressions of sustainability. Not only does this take advantage of materials that are already there (which is environmental and economical), but it also respects a city’s history and plays an important role in community revitalization. Adaptive reuse also demonstrates that old buildings make great places for new ideas. As the famous urbanist Jane Jacobs said, “Old ideas can use new buildings, but new ideas need old buildings.”
The city’s Adaptive Reuse Program began as a pilot program in April 2008 to streamline the process of modifying older buildings for new business uses. In addition to adopting the International Existing Building Code, the city offers guidance, expedited time frames and reduced costs to individuals and companies looking to “recycle” older buildings for new business uses. Program participants can save between two weeks to three months time and $2,000 to $40,000 during the development process. In September 2009, the program won a “Crescordia” in the “Livable Communities” category at Valley Forward’s Environmental Excellence Awards. The Crescordia, named for a Greek term meaning “to grow in harmony,” is the highest honor awarded in each category.
This issue is important to the city, because as Mark Leonard, Director of the Phoenix Development Services Department explains, “Adaptive reuse preserves our history, helps small business owners be successful, creates unique restaurant and business settings for all of us to experience and it’s environmentally friendly.” Mayor Gordon concurs, noting in a 2008 speech, “Historic buildings are a critical part of what makes the Phoenix skyline truly our own, truly unique.”
The interior of The Lost Leaf
One example of adaptive reuse that will be familiar to many DPJ readers is modifying a historic, single-family residence for use as a restaurant or business. Some notable participants in the program include Tuck Shop (2245 N. 12th St. in Coronado), The Lost Leaf (914 N. 5th St. in Evans Churchill), The Paisley Violin (1030 NW Grand Ave.) and Hula’s Modern Tiki (4700 N. Central Ave. in Uptown). In total, the program has supported 30 total adaptive reuse projects in the past 18 months, although a few of them did not proceed past plan review due to the economy.
Earlier this month, based on the recommendations of a Development Services Ad Hoc Task Force, council unanimously approved expanding the Adaptive Reuse Program. During its deliberations, the task force looked at the existing program’s experience to date, as well as best practices from other cities, and came up with what may be the most comprehensive adaptive reuse plan in the country.
The expanded plan now includes buildings constructed prior to the year 2000, increases the size limits from 5,000 square feet to 100,000 square feet and allows for occupancy change flexibility. This expansion of the program provided increased opportunities to rezone, reuse and revitalize vacant strip malls, big box centers and other blighted community areas and keep them out of the landfill.
Special thanks to Jim McPherson (Arizona Preservation Foundation), Kimber Lanning (Local First AZ) and Denee McKinley (City of Phoenix Office of Customer Advocacy) for their assistance in researching this article.

DPJ Article: Three New Rs: Rezone, Reuse and Revitalize — The City of Phoenixs Adaptive Reuse Program

Tagged with: adaptive reuse • Adaptive Use Program • Crescordia • Development Services Ad Hoc Task Force • downtown Phoenix • Environmental Excellence Awards. Valley Forward • Hula’s Modern Tiki • International Existing Building Code • Jane Jacobs • Leighton G. Knipe House • Lost Leaf • Mark Leonard • Mayor Gordon • Paisley Violin • Phoenix Development Services Department • Tuck Shop • Valley Forward Association

Dec 28

DPJ Article: An Unexpected Connection: Jeff Moriarty & the Phoenix Community Alliance

By Yuri Artibise Uncategorized View Comments

Originally posted in the Downtown Phoenix Journal on December 21, 2009

On Thursday, December 17, the Phoenix Community Alliance (PCA) held its annual membership meeting at the recently renovated Phoenix Country Club. The PCA is a private sector, not-for-profit organization launched in 1983 by local business leaders to create a dynamic Downtown Phoenix. This year, it has 145 corporate members and 70 adjunct members representing a variety of stakeholder organizations.
The PCA advocates for solutions to the critical needs of Central Phoenix and provides technical assistance and support to parties interested in developing in and around Downtown Phoenix. It is involved in several projects, including supporting the Downtown Phoenix Urban Form Project, incubating the Discovery Triangle Corporation and championing the emerging health and bioscience sector. The PCA also helps businesses of all sizes interested in locating in Central Phoenix.
The guest speaker at the luncheon was Jeff Moriarty. Among his many other hats, Moriarty is the President of the Phoenix Innovation Foundation (PIF). The PIF’s mission is to educate and promote the Phoenix metro community through community-based art, science and technology events. It sponsors free, public and community-run events — those whose missions parallel its own — through the donation of logistical and legal support, as well as with some charitable funds.
Jeff Moriarty
During his comments, Moriarty focused on what community means to him and the implications for Phoenix. He discussed his experiences with Ignite Phoenix, and ImprovAZ and his passion for uncovering Phoenix’s “unique personality.” Moriarty also talked about how social media can get around both the “Dilbertarian controls” of traditional corporations and the sprawling geography of Phoenix. Another thread of his discussion was connecting people in unexpected ways to increase community and innovation throughout the Valley. His presentation before the mainly corporate crowd, many of whom had little exposure to social media, was a great example of creating these unconventional connections.
The Phoenix Community Alliance offices are in the historic Security Building at 234 N. Central Ave. in Copper Square. The alliance can be reached at 602.254.7477 or through President Don Keuth. Jeff Moriarty can be found on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. He blogs here, here and sometimes here.

DPJ Article: An Unexpected Connection: Jeff Moriarty & the Phoenix Community Alliance

Tagged with: Don Kueth • downtown Phoenix • Ignite Phoenix • ImprovAZ • Non-profit organization • Philanthropy • Phoenix Community Alliance • Phoenix Country Club • Phoenix Innovation Foundation • Social Media

Dec 17

CenPho Camp

By Yuri Artibise Phoenix, Social Media, Uncategorized, events View Comments

Yesterday, Tyler Hurst announced that the PodCamp concept is coming to downtown Phoenix on the afternoon of January 23, 2010.

This is an opportunity for downtown and central Phoenix residents, community organizations and businesses to get together and share information about social media and how it can help improve our community; whether it be through fostering relationships, sharing information or improving business sales.

“The characteristics of all successful communities: broadly shared, accessible set of opportunities, a shared sense of responsibility for the success of the common enterprise, and a genuine sense of belonging.” – Former President Bill Clinton, TED2007

For those of you unfamilair with the PodCamp concept, it is basically an ‘unconference‘—that is, an ad-hoc gathering born from the desire for people to share and learn in an open environment. It is an intense event with discussions, demos and interaction from participants who are the main actors of the event. People of all skill levels and experiences are encouraged to participate..

Basically If you’re interested in blogging, social media, social networking, podcasting, video on the net, or if you are a business owner, non-profit manager, artist, musician, desiogner or other creative type looking to expand your customer base, or a resident or downtown denizen who is curious about social media or somebody who is just looking for ways to get more involved in your community, this event is for you.

CenPhoCamp will be an afternoon of one-hour presentations about specific issues facing local businesses and the community at large. Presentations are open to any business owner, customer or resident. The application process will be announced very shortly.

ASU's Cronkite School of Journalism

The event will be held at ASU’s Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication. form 2-8 pm on January 23rd. Alas the Cronkite building isn’t free, but it’s cheap. So if you’re an interested business or individual willing to help sponsor the event, please let me know.

As Tyler noted in his post, planning is just getting under way so stay tuned for more details. in the meantime if you want to be involved in any way shape or form, whether it be as a planners, presenter, sponsor or volunteer, please contact me or Tyler.

Thanks and see you on January 23.

PodCampAZ The Third – The End. (funanymore.com)
“Conversing With Consumers Reaps The Greatest Benefit Of Social Media” According To Reality Digital (prweb.com)
The answer is Facebook. Now, what is your question? (e1evation.com)

Tagged with: ASU • Bill Clinton • Business • CenPho Camp • community • downtown Phoenix • events • Phoenix Arizona • Pod Camp • Social Media • social networking • Tyler Hurst • Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication

Nov 18

My Personal Brand According to Twitter

By Yuri Artibise Uncategorized View Comments

Twitter is probably my favorite social media tool. It is short, direct and honest. I find it is a great tool for following the latest news, tracking the ideas and activities of friends and other interesting people and allowing me to share my own thoughts and links.

Recently Twitter introduced a lists feature. This allows us to segment the people they follow on Twitter into groups. These lists have been useful in organizing people and organizations that I follow by sector, geography, content, activities and other categories. However, what I find even more interesting is how Twitter lists help show how others see me. In other words, my personal brand. While we all have an image of our selves that we try and project to others, what matters most is how other perceive us. The names of the Twitter lists that you appear on gives you a useful pool of information about how your personal brand is perceived by Twitter users.

Through social media strategist Jason Baer’s site, I found out about a tool created by Joseph Jaramillo . This tools allows you to pull the words out of the lists that your followers have grouped you in. Using this list, you can create tag cloud at Wordle.net.

Here are my results from this exercise:

According to my Twitter followers it is evident that I live in Phoenix and am involved in downtown and social media (and am even considered a ‘local celebrity’ by someone!) What I find most interesting about this list, however, is that despite my efforts to brand myself as an urbanist, this effort is not really reflected in how others see me. Part of this is due to the fact that I post a lot of my urban related comments under my JanesWalkPhx account. While I initially started this account to promote the Jane’s Walk event in May, it has since morphed into my urban persona, and is where I discuss and share my thoughts on urban issues. I now an seeing the drawbacks of this approach to my branding. As a result, I will begin posting more of my urban content under my name to strengthen that aspect of my personal brand.

Now if only somebody could do the same thing for social interactions. I would love to see what others thing of my personal brand through how I come across in face-to-face interactions!