100 replies to this topic

[MJLO]

As part of a long term plan with the city of Tempe, USAirways is building a building next door to it's Tempe headquarters, the buildings front face will be on Mill. It will have retail on the ground floor, and the eight stories above it will have offices for an unnamed tennant.

Quote

US Airways announced plans for a building on 3.5 acres of its Mill Avenue headquarters campus that have been slated for development for decades.

The grassy expanse at Mill Avenue and Third Street will be replaced by an eight-story building with retail on the bottom and office space on the upper floors.

[MJLO]

W Hotel to put chain in Tempe Wasn't real clear on it, but I think one of the original condo proposals, a two tower deal is going to be mostly hotel now. I need to get to Tempe and Chronical all this stuff going in. Tempe more than anywhere is going nuts with developement

[colin]

Despite criticism, Tempe ready to run new buses

Criticism?
"The homeowners fear the buses will lead to more noise, fewer kids bicycling to school and more pollution where the buses will run on College Avenue."

Yeah! I don't want dirty mass transit in my neighborhood. You get back on your bike and like it!

[MJLO]

people are annoying me more than usual today.

[convulso]

colin, on Apr 22 2007, 12:28 PM, said:

"The homeowners fear the buses will lead to more noise, fewer kids bicycling to school and more pollution where the buses will run on College Avenue."

hard to believe we all share the same world. if people are against transit, then what are they for?

[MJLO]

they are uneducated to the waste their suburban lives can produce or they don't care?

[traal]

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Critics say the buses would run every 15 minutes and pull over in bike lanes, which would force bicyclists to stop, jump on the sidewalk or swerve into traffic.

Physically-separated bike lanes would solve that problem.

Edited by traal, 23 April 2007 - 09:23 PM.

[colin]

China had physically-separated bike lanes (for the most part). Traffic making right turns always caused problems as they would be desperate to pull out or just not see somebody coming.
I agree though that they need to rethink the way bike lanes are done in this state.

[traal]

It's likely curtains for Mill theater

No, not the historic Valley Art Theater, but the Harkins Centerpoint on the northwest corner of Mill & University behind PF Chang's. There are also plans to demolish the Coffee Plantation.

The Centerpoint Condominiums currently being built in the same area sounded like a great project with a great location, but not if they're going to tear down some of the great reasons to live there.

[colin]

Yeah, that's a big attraction for that area and it would hurt Downtown Tempe as a whole if it went away. Seems to be occurring with a lot of multi-plexes nationwide.
So they want to put something in even more snobby than a Coffee Plantation: upscale hotel and health club. What's the deal there?

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Our plans, I think, are reflective of the evolution of the market and evolution of the synergies that are occurring in downtown Tempe.

Ah, gotcha.

I would have loved to have seen Mill in its glory days, when it was more like Fourth Avenue here and before all the money rolled in from across the river.

[nuplanner]

If you look at mill ave from a Form based code outlook, that area needs a little more density. But all of that area is going to high density/mix use. I really like the work DMB is doing and think that they are looking at profiting in the mill ave urban setting by going up instead of keeping the status quo. The smart thing the city of tempe has done is acting to what is going on to there downtown. They have been working with Projects for Public Spaces to create, and seek out connectivity/open space opportunities and so forth. So, the city is right on track with what is going on downtown. I also rather have this density than more single family homes built out in Pinal county to commute to tempe or phx to work.

[traal]

So the Tempe Chamber of Commerce is "firing up a 'streetcar committee' to study the possibility of building a trolley system in downtown Tempe", possibly along Mill Avenue or Rio Salado Parkway. That would be neat.

[MJLO]

It would be, it would add to the touristy-ness that already exists along mill. Tempe really is the place to be though. Density downtown is exploding, it seems as if it's going to turn into one of those trendy hotspots, not only in AZ but across the country.

[traal]

They should also run a trolley line down Scottsdale Road from Scottsdale Fashion Square to the light rail station at Rural & University in Tempe. But now I'm dreaming.

[colin]

traal, on Sep 14 2007, 03:57 PM, said:

They should also run a trolley line down Scottsdale Road from Scottsdale Fashion Square to the light rail station at Rural & University in Tempe. But now I'm dreaming.

They are building a trolley line down Scottsdale Road, maybe even to Tempe.
Check out the post

[traal]

colin, on Sep 14 2007, 06:12 PM, said:

They are building a trolley line down Scottsdale Road, maybe even to Tempe.
Check out the post

But that's not a real trolley, it's just a bus that thinks it's a trolley.

Here's an interesting bit of news: Tempe plans to increase neighborhood circulator routes. The first new route, which will start Monday, will be named Orbit Earth (Orbit is the company doing them, I guess), and subsequent routes starting in November and January will be named Mars and Jupiter, respectively. These will be mini-buses that will "run seven days a week, from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m., connecting north Tempe neighborhoods to downtown Tempe and Arizona State University, as well as other community locations."

Edited by traal, 14 September 2007 - 09:59 PM.

[colin]

That's really cool. I think they only have those ASU shuttle routes right now, right?

I don't know how I feel about individual municipalities running their own transit systems. The inter-modal stuff is kind of annoying as well. Like traveling around Chicago, where METRA doesn't always connect to the El or CTA bus routes, and you can't use the same pass on them nor on Pace out in the suburbs.
Or in the Bay Area. Don't even get me started on that mess of various agencies.

I'm all about transit districts and collaboration. But whatever gets the job done, I guess. If only Gilbert would start a little bus system, maybe set a precedent. They've got the money for it.

Edited by colin, 15 September 2007 - 12:14 AM.

[traal]

Usability should be more important in planning public transit. Caltrain and BART stations in the bay area don't make it clear which platform you need to be on. And on BART, you not only need to be on the right platform, you still have to make sure you get on the right train if you're going across the bay. Find a platform marquee, you won't find any indication of the destination on the train itself. Don't make the mistake like I did of thinking that if you're on a blue-striped BART train, you're on the "blue" line (Millbrae to Dublin/Pleasanton).

[colin]

traal, on Sep 15 2007, 12:39 PM, said:

Usability should be more important in planning public transit.

"Planning" is the key word there. I don't know the history of the Bay Area's transit system, but it seems as though there was little planning involved because of the difficulties involved in inter-modal and inter-system connections throughout. And they are thus now playing catch-up to an extent (like the current debacle with the Van Ness corridor).
If you plan it well, usability is less of a concern.
Tucson has its Regional Transportation Authority charged with making decisions regarding SunTran and the future "modern streetcar" and I think that Phoenix would benefit greatly from something similar. Transit planning should be an integral part of urban planning.

[MJLO]

I wholeheartedly agree. Unfortunately, the Valley cities are a ways out from making something like that happen. Phoenix and Tempe are the only two that really seem to work together. Tho it seems like they have a sibling rivalry when it comes to buildings. Scottsdale is to good to be part of any regional council of anything. Mesa's residents fear anything south of Baseline, North of 202 red mountain, west of the 101, and everyones afraid of Apache Junction. You have to take a flight to get to the West Valley. The city of Phoenix occupies the rest, with as much land area as a small state. But each of the cities here, have their own plans, they each try and lure the same developers, and they rarely have any interests that coincide. This area is as fractured as any i've seen. Something that could be mutually beneficial for the entire metro area, would be hard for the municipal gov'ts to recognize. I can't imagine the decades of political torture the people who had the idea for LRT went thru in the first place. How many years of planning did they go thru before they broke ground in the initial line, and how many years away is it before they are planning on even following thru in the West Valley?