See This > Live Action/Time-Lapse Video: Creative Place Making

Jesse Perry @ MrDowntownPhx does The New Urban DTMesa BIG TIME in a self-produced You Tube upload. He told your MesaZona blogger about it late-day yesterday.
[More background details to follow, with thanks to Cori Garcia, Communications & Marketing Manager for Downtown Mesa]

Completed Mural in Downtown Mesa right off the light rail on the Surf and Ski shop at 137 w Main St. Dedicated to the destroyed signs of historic mesa, this image is a compilation of two vintage neon signs of the Chicken & Waffles Marquee Drive-in the was once along Main Street in Mesa, AZ. Wall is done in spray paint and measures 14' wide by 9' high.

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LISC Phoenix 2015 Annual Celebration & Awards Event

Yours truly took up the invitation from Terry Benelli [posted on this site 30 Sept 2015], Executive Director of Local Initiatives for Sustainable Communities LISC/Phoenix, for yesterday's well-attended breakfast at The Phoenix Art Museum presented by BBVA Compass with featured guest John Graham, President of Sunbelt Holdings, in an interview with Mark Sapp.
The program was opened by Bryce Lloyd with opening remarks by Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton and Brad Parker, BBVA Compass.

The Awards Program featured exemplary citations for
- The Caterpillar Foundation's partnership and commitment to neighborhood revitalization. This is the first time the foundation has invested in the Phoenix area where LISC will use that investment to help expand employment and financial security for low-income families, as well as to turn blighted land into vibrant community space that adds value to the surrounding area.

Michael Trailor, in the image to left, for six years Director of the Arizona Department of Housing, exemplary advocate to understand housing issues and targeting resources and joining with other community leaders in an effort to end homelessness and build more sustainable communities
- Cloubreak Communities Victory Place 5-acre development that supports and creates transitional and permanent supportive housing for vets.
It's a four-phase project that will provide 273 residential units in a campus dedicated to both veterans' housing and service partners US VETS, Community Bridges, AZ Behavioral Health Corps, Phoenix VA, and Bethesda Community Baptist Church.

Due to limitations of space and time and high-tech equipment, your blogger will leave it to the able LISC video staff for a more complete professional presentation of the annual celebration and awards event with details of what said when the program started exactly on time @ 08:55 a.m. closing at 09:50 with Terry Benelli acknowledging thanks to LISC's community leaders and partners, community developer sponsors, community builder sponsors, and community planner sponsors.
The big roster includes BBVA Compass, AZ Community Foundation, Banks Nordstrom, State Farm, JP Morgan Chase, National Bank of Arizona, BMO Harris Bank, Northern Trust, Bank of America, US Bank, Alliance Bank of Arizona, AmTrust Bank, Cardinal Cap Management, and Wells Fargo.
27 Community Sponsors are featured in the awards program, among them the cities of Phoenix, Mesa and Tempe, Valley Metro, Friends of Transit, Gorman & Company [who built Escobedo @ Verde Vista here in DT Mesa], Community Development Partners + Perlman Architects who built El Rancho del Arte, Urban Development Partners with both Charles Huellmantel and Todd Marshall who built Encore on First in attendance.

Keep an eye out for a transcript and video of the whole interview with John Graham, seen in the image to the left.
To be brief and get to the point, recently Sunbelt Holdings has diversified away from suburban into new urban downtown infill development, currently on Marina Heights in Tempe and Portland Place in central downtown Phoenix - both transit-oriented along Valley Metro Light Rail.

There's plenty of potential for new urban DTMesa infill development - or as Mesa mayor John Giles puts it "20 acres of vacant City-owned properties" that can be connected to city-owned utilities - most notably the centrally-located on Main Street whole square block where Brown & Brown Chevrolet operated an autodealership for 85 years purchased a short time ago by John Graham and Sunbelt Holdings, who will be joining the other developers mentioned here investing and planning Mesa's future.
Site 17, part of where Rendezvous Park was the center of city life, remains the biggest piece of vacant real estate in the central urban core regeneration puzzle, after being demolished and cleared for a time-share development that didn't happen.


Plans for Phase 2 of Rancho del Arte were on view at yesterday's event

Bicycle-Friendly?? + A Silver Designation from The League of American Bicyclists

Way, to go Mesa! . . . a long way to go for "moving up" from Bronze in 2003 - 12 years.
WTFark is this? All about getting an award?
Via email @ 2:01 pm today from City of Mesa Newsroom
Mesa Earns Silver Award as a Bicycle Friendly Community
The League of American Bicyclists [LAB, logo to left] announced earlier this week that Mesa has earned the Silver designation as a Bicycle Friendly Community, moving up from the previous Bronze designation awarded in 2003.
Mesa’s designation was upped to Silver as a result of the great strides achieved . . . "

OK. That's all to the good, but what's totally ignored are some of the issues brought into focus by a post here on Nov 13 ... and -- speaking of strides --  the fact is that more people walk than bike.
As readers can see in the map to the right,
"bicycle commuting" has increased all over the country since 2003.
For everyday people using bikes it's not  a Silver Award, a one-day event like CycloMesa or short-term Bike2Work and School Day events that grab headlines and hype in emails and press releases - Bikes are survival.
The

Winners of Gold Awards had this to say: 'any city can be a great cycling city as long as there’s commitment from a broad range of city leaders and the population as a whole...The lesson we learned is that it has to be a broad-based effort, it can’t just come from the top.” -- Dave Cieslewicz, executive director of the Wisconsin Bike Fed and former mayor of Madison, a city that earned top designation in the same announcement. [link below].

Tucson and Scottsdale have received top designation. Flagstaff, Sedona and Tempe were recognized as well in other categories as well as Gilbert and Phoenix.
An image snapped in Phoenix today while waiting at a Valley Metro Light Right station to return to DT Mesa after attending the LISC annual event at the Phoenix Art Museum shows full racks of the rideshare Grid Bike program not being used, but available.
Original planning in Mesa was for 250 in 2015 that was reduced to100 for next year.

Granted that 'winning' a Bicycle Friendly Community designation shows a community's dedication to creating safer and better places to ride your bike, everyday people using bikes for years as a necessary low-cost self-empowering  way to get around - not "for fun" or to "save the planet" - have needed the same assurances getting attention now with increasing urban gentrification and the focus on recreation and physical fitness.
Street vandalism is not infrequent.
Some retail workers remove seats on bikes so they can't  get stolen.
Bikes need to be secured with locks to prevent theft. At the Mesa Main Public Library locks are available at the inside information desk for bikes parked in front.
Curious readers might wonder looking at the sign on Main Street to the right if the City is planning to continue being a Bicycle Friendly Community after this year . . .

Some information about The League of American Bicyclists (LAB) located in Washington DC is a non-profit membership organization which promotes cycling for fun, fitness and transportation through advocacy and education
The League was a prominent advocacy group for the improvement of roads and highways in the United States^[5] long before the advent of the automobile. The Good Roads Movement in the late 19th century was founded and led by the League, which began publishing Good Roads magazine in 1892.
In 1894 the League voted to prohibit membership by non-white people.^[6] Since the League was the governing body for bicycle racing at that time, the League's action effectively banned non-white people from most races in the United States.^[7] It was not until 1999 - more than ten years after the Civil Rights Act became the law of the land - the League disavowed the 1894 action.^[8]
At its height in 1898, the League had over 103,000 members.^[9] Early members included three of the wealthiest men of the Gilded Age: Newport socialites John Jacob Astor, Diamond Jim Brady, and John D. Rockefeller.^[9]
The World War II contributed to the success of the League through rationing of motor vehicle fuel and tires. Membership was 614 in 1945, with 200 honorary members in the armed services. However, in the late 1940s, the League went into decline. Factors included the increasing availability of motor vehicles; the "baby boom", which made for difficulties in pursuing recreational cycling; narrow highways; and conformist social attitudes, with a perception of bicycling as a children's activity.
Through the end of the 20th century, the League existed as a national clearinghouse for cycling advocacy, but more so as a social organization, holding three or more regional rallies each year, usually in June, centered on public college campuses in various parts of the USA. Each of these rallies featured mapped rides of various lengths, dormitory housing and meals, a variety of cycling-related lectures, and vendors selling products.
In the late 20th century, the League was criticized for its name: League of American Wheelmen. Also, the term Wheelmen was becoming increasingly obscure. In response, the League began doing business as the League of American Bicyclists in 1994.^[13]
The League reached a peak of 24,000 paid memberships in 1997, then declined to around 20,000, where it has remained since
A major change in the direction of the League occurred in 1997 when it moved its offices from Baltimore, Maryland to Washington, D.C., and focused increasingly on advocacy at the federal level
The League has continued to play a leading role in cycling issues into the 21st century. Its  Bicycle Friendly America program distributes awards to communities which have adopted measures to accommodate and encourage bicycle use.
http://www.bikeleague.org/

Green Build Gains Ground > Get A Buzz On!

Greenbuild International Conference and Expo
Greenbuild is the world's largest conference and expo dedicated to green building. The green building community gathers to share ideals and mutual passion at Greenbuild, sparking a contagious buzz throughout the week. 
. . . When industry leaders, experts and frontline professionals dedicated to sustainable building in their everyday work come together, the result is a unique and palpable energy. Participants are invigorated and inspired. They find themselves equipped to return to their jobs with a renewed sense of purpose.
Greenbuild features three groundbreaking days of inspiring speakers, invaluable networking opportunities, industry showcases, LEED workshops and tours of the host city's green buildings. Join thousands of other people who agree that green building is a good idea and good for business. 
More 4 >> http://www.greenbuildexpo.com/Attendee/ShowInfo

Centrica Hits The News Big Time

This just in four hours ago
Centrica signs global banking giant to 10 year deal

Posted November 17, 2015 by AZRE

In one of the largest Arizona real estate transactions of 2015, Centrica, an adaptive reuse project by Phoenix Rising Investments, LLC (PRI) signed a 10-year lease for their entire 117,000 square foot project. Banco Santander’s US Consumer group subsidiary, Santander Consumer USA Holdings, Inc, will move into Centrica in the New Year, netting Mesa’s Fiesta District almost 1,000 new jobs. Banco Santander is a retail and commercial global bank, with a presence in 10 main markets, 102 million customers, and approximately 14,700 branches—more than any other international bank—and 193,000 employees. Santander Consumer USA Holdings, Inc (NYSE: SC, “Santander Consumer USA”) is a publicly traded, full-service, technology-driven consumer finance company, specializing in auto finance and unsecured consumer lending products.

report from AZRE

Fast real estate deal: The City of Mesa made this announcement in June

 

Why? The area’s walkability, mass transit access, abundant freeway accessibility, redundant fiber network, and proximity to a workforce of more than 1.7 million people within a 20-minute drive, make it an ideal location for high-tech and multinational companies such as Santander,” said Michael Hsiung, Principal of Phoenix Rising Investments, LLC the developer and owner of Centrica.

 

How? PRI, along with Legacy Equity Partners, collaborated with an award winning team to develop the back office facility located in the heart of the Southeast Valley, with excellent transportation access, including seven bus stops within a quarter mile and two bus stops within 50 feet of the property.

Who? Willmeng Construction Inc. and Nelsen Partners designed the environmentally conscious state-of-the-art project with abundant parking and redundant fiber optic backbone connectivity.

More than a million people reside within a 10-mile radius of Centrica. With the addition of Centrica, and a $25.3 million investment by the City of Mesa into the Streetscape along Southern Avenue, adjacent to Centrica, The Fiesta District has become a target destination for major companies.

Creative Place Making > Re/Generating The New Urban DTMesa

Another "arts-inspired" initiative here in "downtown" - readers of this blog will note a change in that reference: nuttin' down about town with new works going UP all over the place and at least one new business opening the doors or soon-to-open the doors [see recent posts on this site] and another one expanding with a move to Main Street.
Here's Jesse Perry today during a quick-chat while he's in the middle of creating a new eye-popping neon-inspired visual on the west side of what-used-to-be in Mesa history the O.S. Stapley Store.
[See other posts on this site about Creative Place Making]





Finishing touches Wed 18 Nov

UPDATE:  A day later the work is done or with just one more "finishing touch" applied by Jesse standing on his tip-toes to do it. Another chance opportunity came up today when yours truly happened to walk east on Main Street from the Country Club/Main Light Rail, seeing a change from the day before and no artist . . . stopping to take a look. Seconds later Jesse drives into the alley; we talked again with him saying the mural was now done, then noticing one little line he gets right to making the change he wanted. Turns out he made a time-lapse video of the work-in-progress that will get uploaded to his website + social media.

Jesse Perry Art

www.jesseperryart.com

 

Getting' down signing the work and applying the copyright symbol

 

It Ain't Rockefeller Center > Wanna Call It "A Winter Wonderland"?? or Rinky Dink?

Got an email | Subject: RE: Holiday Plans . . . sending it along, but don't know about the words it's BACK & BIGGER THAN EVER EVENT! But . . .                                       

[. . . maybe the Festival of Lights across from Pioneer Park that usually attracts 500,000 to 1,000,000 but nobody knows for sure how many?]
Now that Valley Metro Light Rail is gliding down the middle of Main Street the whole New Urban DTMesa is making a wish

Winter Wonderland Ice Rink?
Winter Wonderland Ice Rink is located on the east side of Mesa City Plaza at 20 E. Main Street
Open Nov. 27 – Jan. 3
Monday – Friday 5 – 10 p.m.
Saturday – Sunday 10 a.m. – 10 p.m.
Rink holds 125 people at one time.
Price: $10 for one hour (includes skate rental)
No discount for personal skates
Keep an eye-out for affiliated tie-in when you shop on Main Street: Another benefit to shopping downtown this season – any purchase at a participating business grants customers a $2 off coupon for the new ice skating rink at City Plaza!

The rented rink is getting some strands of overhead lights and the sides getting hung with green garlands.
In the image to the left you can get a fix on the human scale of things installed on the parking lot next to City Hall.
If you sit in the upper levels of the bleachers you might be able to watch the skating or stand long the sides like these people inspecting the rink installation on Thursday
Imagine if you can 125 people all at the same time - of all skating skills - going round-and-round synchronized at the same speed skating along inside the rink . . . ya better watch out and ya better not pout if ya fall down or have wobbly ankles or lose your balance.

At full capacity [125 people per hour] each weekday will have 625 people, or $6,250 income.
For weekends, at full capacity, 2500 people for both days, or $25,000 income