The Grand Opening That Wasn't > There's More To The Story

 . . only two [2] people showed up on Friday Nov 6.

That didn't phase the owner of the new business Polk Barn Primitives on S Center Street.
Lisa Sorenson and her daughter Matti were busy in the shop and waiting for a new big sign to get installed on the front. [just yesterday they got email notification that the sign plans had been approved by P &Z - this lady moves fast]
Yours truly happened to be walking by today, getting into a brief spontaneous chat with Lisa while the sign was put up on the front by Todd Tate, owner of Sign Art whose motto is "A business with no SIGN . . . Is a SIGN of no business". 

Pole Art Primitives now has both a sign and an experienced business owner who just relocated with her family to Arizona in April - six months later she opens a business enterprise in the New Urban Downtown Mesa!

Holy Speed Limit "BatMan"! How To Cover A Collision On Main Street



Heard some sirens, emergency vehicles and first-responders racing to  a scene on Friday, November 3 while at the Farmers Market. Heading of to do other errands on Main Street your blogger walked onto this scene captured in an image below of a collision on Main Street between a big SUV and the front of a Valley Metro Light Rail train.

Not wanting to sensationalize an unfortunate and possibly negative-publicity incident here downtown, no report was posted even though it was recorded on a cellphone . . . yours truly now has second-thoughts about that.

Re/Branding Falcon Field > Part 2: Historic Zone



Backtracking to a press release #598 from the City of Mesa Newsroom announcing an online survey with responses that were to be returned by November 6, 2015 for proposed actions by the city to develop an historic zone at the newly-rebranded Falcon Field. Veterans Day, a one-day celebration today November 11th, gets all the public attention it deserves with a downtown parade attracting by estimates about 40,000 people.

Your blogger is expecting to hear back from City of Mesa falcon Field Project Manager Kurt Krause about how many persons responded to the survey and how the improvements get funded https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/FalconFieldHZ

City of Mesa intends to define, design and construct improvements in Historic Zone area of Falcon Field Airport (Airport). The Historic Zone includes Falcon Field Park, Falcon Drive, Fighter Aces Drive, the t-hangars, the historic World War II hangars, and the terminal parking lot.

The project’s vision is to create a unique character, sense of place and destination for the Historic Zone using Falcon Field's history and future goals - and we need your input! 

Apart from delivering the vision, new utility infrastructure expansion to benefit economic development in the area is included in the improvements.

1. Proposed improvements consist of:

• Reconstructing Falcon Field Drive and Fighter Aces Drive to accommodate additional landscaping, wider pedestrian sidewalk system, and wayfinding signs.
• Improvements to the McKellips Road intersection including turn lanes, striping and traffic signal to accommodate the modified Falcon Drive.
• Reconfiguring terminal parking lot to improve access and circulation.
• Conceptually designing Falcon Field Park to upgrade the facility amenities and integrate the overall project character and history with aviation theme.
• Creating two public viewing areas to create an aesthetically attractive and family-friendly aircraft viewing area.
• Site signage and wayfinding throughout Historic Zone.
• New Falcon Field entrance monument sign at McKellips Road intersection.
• Aesthetic improvements:
   o Exterior treatments for existing "T hangars".
   o Enclose dumpsters in T-Hangar areas with aesthetic screen walls.
   o Aesthetic treatment for existing WWII hangars that highlights heritage and history.
• New utility infrastructure (water line, sanitary sewer, storm drains, etc).

 

Airbase Arizona has been based at Falcon Field nice 1978. It is the largest unit of the Commemorative Air Force. According to a press release on November 6, 2016 celebrations and honors for the men and women who served the country started the next day and are extended to November 13 at Airbase Arizona.

Take Me Home Huey is a sculptural installation created by Steve Maloney from the remains of a U.S. Army Huey helicopter shot down in 1969 during a medical rescue in Vietnam. It will be exhibited at Airbase Arizona until late January 2016.

Steve Maloney, like many vets has been diagnosed with PTSD. Read ands see more of his story >> https://takemehomehuey.org/

Thursday, Nov. 12: Media Preview of the Take Me Home Huey installation from 11:00am – 2:00pm. Continuous screening of the project’s documentary film (8 minutes) with the artist Steve Maloney and Debbie McKinion, the Executive Director of the CAF, available for questions and interviews.

Friday, Nov. 13: The Take Me Home Huey art installation and self-guided tour via individual mobile phones at the CAF will be open to the public from 10:00am -4:00pm daily.

 

Friday The 13th [2nd Fridays Night Out] Word >> Heard On The Street [1st Mesa Music Fest Nov 13-15]

What a week we're in - 40,000 people expected for the Veterans Day Parade & Events on Wednesday and who knows how many for the usual 2nd Friday Night's Out on Nov 13 + First Mesa Music Fest for three days Nov 13-15 + a big two-day attraction Reptile Expo at the Mesa Convention Center - if  this is gonna kill Mesa's reputation as  a boring place, let me go from excitement, exhaustion and pleasure. Happily

Hot Diggety Dawg!

If the New Urban Downtown Mesa is all about PROMOTING - your MesaZona blogger is admittedly guilty of that - there are some local long-established downtown businesses Off-Main Street, just a block or two's walking distance south that readers will be happy to know about for authentic Mexican food.

Like this one on the NW corner of Macdonald Street & Broadway: Micky's Hot Dogs. It's been here for 17 years.
Here's what you see when you walk right onto Broadway.

. . .  and here's the menu above the small open kitchen when you go indoors
Mexican Food Sonora Style
[and half a block east on Broadway on the south side is the most successful restaurant in all of downtown Mesa: Mariscos de Sinaloa, but more about that in a later post].

All the tortillas, big and small with your choice of wheat or corn tortillas, are hand-made Hecho a Mano as shown here by Miguel when that was brought to my attention by the manager during a visit to Micky's yesterday just after 11:00 a.m. when it opens and stays open most days, except Tuesday, until 11:00 p.m.
It's one of downtown's few food establishments that does stay open "late". For 17 years they know how to keep people happy - at the same time attracting new customers.

Indoor tables were filled and a family of six were eating on the outdoor patio when yours truly arrived with a friend just after 11. . .  Good crowd when the doors just opened!
It's always an encouraging sign to see lots of people liking the food at a neighborhood place.
What's to Like?
Que Hay de Gusto?
Everything!
Todo!




Here's what's on the menu Disfrutale! Enjoy it!
Tacos 4 choices: Carne Asada, Pastor, Cabeza + Birria
Tortas [translate sandwich] 3 choices: Carne Asada, Pastor, Pierna de Puerco
Burritos
Combinations [3]
Salchi Papas - come and find out
Quesadillas Large and small
Birria de Res
Tostada 2 choices: Lorenza + Vampiro
Drinks/Refrescos: Mexican sodas, canned sodas, Horchata + Aguas Frescos
Image to the left: For tacos and other items a self-serve station like most Taquerias with salsas, Pico de Gallo, pickled onions, jalapeños and fresh lime

Now about that mouth-filling Sonora Hot Dog
Here's an image of one quickly prepared yesterday when the manager had time to present it on a table during a few minutes available between customers.


Grilled Chile pepper served on top

 

 

 

Promoting =

further the progress of, support or actively encourage.

View heading east on Broadway with landmark building Nielsen Grain Elevator Silos There's been some speculation and interest in this property

encourage, advocate, further, advance, assist, aid, help, foster, nurture, develop, boost, stimulate

Meet + Greet > Heavy Metal Makes Its Mark On Main Street

This is a really good fit regenerating the New Urban Downtown Mesa.
Asylum Records @ 108 Main Street, one of the growing independently-owned businesses thriving on Main Street, re-located here in 2014 from the dying music scene in Tempe into what was way-back-when the Old Royale Theater.
According to the Downtown Mesa Association, Downtown Mesa is comprised of over 400 businesses, 90 percent of which are independently owned, small businesses.
Another example in the urban redevelopment jargon toolbox of "adaptive re-use"?
Or smart music entrepreneurs finding a good location, making a deal, banking on the expansion of the light trail - seeing an opportunity here - and promoting downtown?

Time To Give Rail History A Place in The New Urban Downtown Mesa

At the same time that Valley Metro Light Rail is driving future growth in the Valley, one of the steam-powered "iron workhorse" engines of early economic development and growth for the City of Mesa in the 19th and early 20th centuries - Southern Pacific Railroad Engine #2355 - has been stalled for over 50 years off the tracks in an out-of-the-way place in Pioneer Park.
Dedicated efforts are now on a fast-track to move ahead with an educational and fundraising campaign http://www.saveourtrain.com/ to move SP Engine 2355 to a more prominent place in Pioneer Park to increase public participation in regenerating an historical perspective for Creative Place Making in downtown's biggest public open space:

Recreation at its best with the partnership of the City of Mesa Department of Parks & Recreation working with other public + private interests + philanthropists, some of whom wish to remain anonymous.
A group of community activists names itself  RAIL - using side-by-side images of old and new trains RAILmesa.org