“Time may change me, but I can’t change time.” – David Bowie
Change is nothing new. In fact, the only constant is change.
At the beginning of September, 2008, the traditional start of the Fall arts season here, downtown Phoenix is criss-crossed with change and lack of change. Many ideas that have existed only on paper are beginning to come to fruition. Still numerous other promises have completely evaporated in the aftermath of the first ripple of economic recession.
Approved high-rise plans have vanished completely, mere mirages over the vast checkerboard of blighted vacant dirt lots throughout the city’s core. Financing woes are exemplified by the tragic story of Mortgages Ltd. A restriction of development capital has reopened doors for adaptive reuse and other low-cost strategies for revitalization that echo the surge of grassroots vitality that erupted here in the early years of this decade.
Now is the time, while there is blood in the streets, to dig in and get something done.
