Taking a visionary step toward shaping and securing the future of the Phoenix metropolitan area, Vestar, the leading developer and operator behind landmark retail destinations like Tempe Marketplace and Desert Ridge Marketplace, announces Legacy Park, a multi-billion-dollar mixed-use development in partnership with the legacy owner, Pacific Proving, LLC. Legacy Park is a transformative project that will bring a level of quality and … Read More
Will the Scottsdale City Council Listen to the Voters or Spit in Their Faces?
Today, the Scottsdale City Council will be at a crossroads with a critical vote; it will decide if it will proceed with litigation against newly-created state law that stole our ability to determine our own fates. You may remember how Axon decided to circumvent your desire and the desires of the over 25,000 voters who wanted to bring their apartment … Read More
Guest Editorial: Crunch Time
By Bob Littlefield Dear Friends: At tomorrow’s Scottsdale City Council meeting Councilmembers will decide if they will sue to reverse the bad legislation that, if is allowed to go into effect, will nullify the referendum signed by 26,000+ Scottsdale voters who want a say in whether Taser-maker Axon will be allowed to build the largest apartment complex in Arizona history … Read More
Only in Scottsdale: A Popular Local Dive Bar Gets a Face Lift and Expansion
Some cities get gentrification. Scottsdale gets something far more entertaining: dive bars with grandeur. And nowhere is this phenomenon more perfectly encapsulated than at Giligin’s, the beloved Old Town watering hole that’s apparently decided one floor of unapologetic dive bar charm simply isn’t enough. The establishment has submitted plans for what might be the most audaciously Scottsdale expansion ever conceived: … Read More
Shots Fired Yet Again: Barry Graham Strikes the Best Kind of Blow Against Axon
by Alexander Lomax I’ll be honest: I’m not always a fan of Scottsdale Councilman Barry Graham. I’ve been critical of him before and will continue to do so when it’s warranted. But I’m also fair and will give credit where it’s due, and I will always give credit to a good judo move in politics. Judo seems like a pretty … Read More
Axon’s Stock Soars While We Continue to Pay the Price
By Alexander Lomax It’s been a great year for our friends at Axon, hasn’t it? We probably don’t have to remind you of their egregious apartment megacomplex plans, their rezoning plan which seems to have shortchanged Arizona schools to the tune of tens of millions of dollars, the bullying of the Scottsdale City Council, and the end around at the … Read More
Repurposing History: A New Restaurant Demonstrates a Fantastic Reinvention
We love a good reinvention of an old space. For too long, our region has biased towards tearing down and rebuilding, and we have lost too much of our precious little history we had remaining as a result. So when innovators decide to preserve a piece of history and remake it into something beautiful and new, we stand up and … Read More
Can the Scottsdale Quarter Get Even Better? It Appears So, and We’ll Find Out Soon
Scottsdale has long been a city that has pushed the perceived limits of excellence further and further. It can rest on its laurels, but that is not its nature, and a brand new acquisition and planned upgrade will test the possibilities of that push that quest for excellence in a way that perhaps we haven’t yet seen. Scottsdale Quarter has … Read More
Guest Editorial: What Scottsdale should say to Axon
Dear Friends: Over the weekend the Scottsdale Progress printed my opinion piece about Axon. If you didn’t get to see it in the paper, I have reprinted it for you below: Scottsdale is a spectacular city. It was so long before Axon. It will be long after Axon is gone. We can both applaud a local company’s success over the past many … Read More
Projection, Thy Name is Isner
By Alexander Lomax The fight against Axon’s apartment megacomplex goes on, as much as most of us wish it would be relegated to the dust bin of history’s bad ideas (get up to date here). And even while the city bravely decided to defend the will of the people and explore legal options, it was still willing to come to … Read More