Ooops! Modern Times @ The World-Famous Nile Theater



 “It’s a blast dude. I’ve met so many cool people. This is a great venue, it’s downtown Mesa. What else could you ask for?” 

- Those words are from a November 13 article by Ryan Scott that appeared in Modern Times Magazine about the Whisker Bent & HellBound 3 Competition November 7th.

 

Good News + Bad News > Call The House! Toll-Free

Whether you ride or not, public transportation benefits all of us. It reduces pollution, eases traffic congestion, and helps our communities thrive. In cities, suburbs, and rural America, public transit provides vital connections to jobs, education, medical care, and our larger communities. Help us keep America moving. - See more at: http://voicesforpublictransit.org/#sthash.TQ7ghjY2.dpuf

The good news is, both the Senate and the House have passed multi-year, comprehensive transportation bills.

The bad news is, the House legislation doesn’t significantly increase funding for public transit beyond current levels.

Please call the Voices for Public Transit Legislative Hotline now at (888) 443-5862 to urge Senators McCain and Flake and Representative Sinema to increase America’s investment in public transportation.

The call is free and will only require a few minutes of your time.

We have one last opportunity to make sure the final legislation Congress sends to President Obama funds public transit at the highest levels possible. We have to make it clear to Congress that America wants increased long-term funding for public transit.

Here’s all you have to do:

• Call (888) 443-5862 and listen to our brief instructions
• You’ll be connected to your U.S. Representative’s office first
• Stay on the line and you’ll be connected to your Senators’ offices as well.

Congress will likely be voting on the final legislation in the next week or so. Calls from voters now will ensure they pass a long-term transportation bill that enables our nation to expand and improve public transit.

Let’s make the phones ring off the hook on Capitol Hill.

Call the Voices for Public Transit Legislative Hotline at (888) 443-5862 today!

Transit-Oriented Development TOD > New Urban DT Mesa

The largely Susan Tibschraeny-owned stretch of Main Street on the north side west of Robson near the Country Club/MainStreet Valley Metro Light Rail Station and adjacent to Courtyard Towers [that recently sold for $21 million dollars] will be the chosen site for a new food enterprise revamping what used to be Urban Picnic @ 216 that closed in June of this year [see post on this blog June 13].
After just signing a lease, the new business owners with management background at Postino's, were found on-site inside the location yesterday making preliminary plans to re-configure and re-equip the space to bring it up to code for the anticipated opening.
We talked for a brief time about the menu offerings and DT Mesa. Readers will eagerly wait to see how things develop here - more details will be forthcoming as progress moves ahead on this transit-oriented development that downtown residents, office/retail and city employees, plus other business owners look forward to on Main Street.

Just  a couple of doors away @ 202 W Main The Old Brick House usually open occasionally in the back garage of the Drew Building had this notice posted on the door:

 

What Will Buildings In The Future Look Like?

Image sent by Matt Green Green Consulting LLC

High Tech with all the high-tech gizmos or  a living-green vertical forest?
Two different perspectives with two different timeframes:
One a hundred years from now
One now by Stefano Boeri in Lausanne, SwitzerWonderland
THE FUTURE IS NOW
[it's looking green, renewable, regenerative, energy-efficient + increasing the health, productivity and well-being of residents]
BTW: thanks to two contacts, the first and closest Matt Green who purchased a home here in Mesa in 2010 located in one of downtown's historic districts, studied architecture @ ASU and has worked on different projects in Harlem, the Navajo Reservation in Arizona, and sites in New Mexico. The other is BrianG.Donnelly, an "architectneur' based in Toronto.

The headline image is featured in TreeHugger | Making Sustainability Sexy [go figure] . . . and while you're on the site there's  very good report day 16 November titled
Daniel Wallach of Greensburg explains how to talk to a conservative about the environment.

In another report from the U.S.Department of Energy [ link here >> http://energy.gov/eere/buildings/buildings-future ] efforts are aimed to investigate key design and technology trends and current unknown areas that could revolutionize the built environment across the areas of energy and water use, greenhouse gas emissions, material consumption, building control and communication, resilient design, occupant health and productivity, and cyber and physical security . . . Group members also considered related topics that may directly impact the long-term trajectory of buildings, such as modes of transportation, electric grid integration, and community-scale planning,  . . Through surveys conducted by the Buildings of the Future participants, a next-generation building’s top attribute will be its ability to increase the health, productivity, and wellbeing of occupants.

http://www.achrnews.com/articles/131005-what-will-buildings-look-like-in-100-years#

Here are some other images to feast your eyes, get inspired and get seriously curious about >

THE BIG WE > Here. There + Everywhere | Music Makes The Mark On/Off Main Street

Mesa Channel 11 on-site

As soon as local City-owned local Mesa Channel 11uploads their coverage of the 1st Mesa Music Fest it will get posted here -  crews, staff and equipment were all over the  streets day and night Friday, Saturday and Sunday . . . your MesaZona blogger [slightly overtaken by the earth-shaking + loud-pounding music did manage to snap a timelapse blurry image to the left].
Social media - in the hands of the public - was all over  with many people connecting with free @mesa WiFi .
Having been "around the block" more than a few times in major cities like Washington DC, Philadelphia, Boston and New York City, gotta say it was a big surprise to see so many people working together to promote the New Urban Downtown Mesa - it worked!



The often-ignored MacDonald Street, south of Main, was center stage

Prime Cut & Sew caught attention

 Inside peek at Salt Mine Recording Studios



Boeing Apache A64E Attack Helicopter @ Dubai Airshow 2015

Going  global and worldwide

Can WE Get Real?? Re/Image of Cycling = Not Urban Hipster

Readers will notice the use of THE BIG WE in the headline of this post.
That phrase came from a chance impromptu chat with Natalie Lewis, who was volunteering on a City of Mesa holiday - Veterans Day - at the all-veterans music performance @ Mesa Arts Center supporting the city's initiative to provide housing for homeless vets.[previous post here "Keeping The Promise"]. Also see image from performance + updates about housing homeless vets initiative thanks to Natalie Lewis.
One topic quick-fire led to another as yours truly was trying to wrap his head around what it takes to regenerate the New Urban Downtown Mesa.
Natalie forcefully and assuredly said THE BIG WE . . . More about that later when the conversation with her can get expanded.
For now in this one post to show the dynamics of engaging in The Big We: the city comes out with a press release spoon-fed to the media who stenograph and publish it. Why? ... because it's easy, it fills the pages and mainstream reporters get paid for it - it's their job.
Case in point: compare the two images in this post

Bike share to start in Mesa this spring
East Valley Tribune on Sunday, Nov 8, 2015
Yes this is nice and all that -it's rolling out in many cities all over the world; Phoenix for a year and Mesa next Spring.[Image to the right from EVT article link]
Let's be honest. Who's this commercial Grid Bike Share Program operated by a company called Cycle Hop http://www.gridbikes.com/ for? ... with initially 100 3-speed bikes available next Spring for a daily rental of $8 or by the hour. The company originally planned for 250 in Mesa in 2015.
How does it work for all you cool dudes and dudettes "saving the planet"?
Simply hop on your web-enabled mobile device, desktop computer, or visit a hub to reserve a bike. Ride to your destination and lock it to any hub or public bike rack. [additional fees may apply] It’s that easy! 
During  a month-plus break from driving, your MesaZon blogger finds a different reality every time boarding the bus or light rail - there's always a bike rider getting off his/her bike putting both on public transit.

Everyday bikes  @ Main Library

For everyday people now using public transit - both bus and light rail - bikes are a necessity.The actual environment for biking in downtown Mesa is not what "city leaders" or "city planners" perceive to be an asset for urban gentrification - everyday people, the vast majority here middle and low-income and minority/or not, use bikes for survival and purposeful riding for their own transportation in a car-centered infrastructure, frequently using bus or light rail public transit to fill in the distance gaps from where they are to where they need to go.
As a colleague, Brian G.Donnelly in Toronto that writes a blog called Architect This City notes in an email today, "Public transit can often suffer from what is known as the first mile/last mile problem. This is a problem where riders find it difficult to get to the nearest transit route from their departing point or to their ultimate destination once they exit transit."
So-called city leaders and city planners are once again "leading from behind" and taking credit for it > at least catching up with a practical and cost-effective, self-empowering to maintain, healthy and affordable way to get around that's  a necessity for the vast majority already using bikes in the human infrastructure.
The data's just not there about why and how everyday people use bikes.

Your MesaZona blogger has been riding bus and light rail public transit during the last month seeing and talking with  wide spectrum of bike riders - only two were all tricked-out in high-priced cycle gear and high-tech bikes.
 
City of Mesa Special Projects Manager Niel Curley gets excited about data.
According to what's reported by Shelley Ridenour, "The bikes are also “smart,” he said, and equipped with a GPS-enabled solar-powered panel . . . Curley is especially excited about another GPS feature on the bikes. City officials can track where the bikes are ridden to discover the most popular routes. That information will allow for better decisions about whether to add more bikes, more hubs or to relocate hubs, he said."

If you want to use the jargon in the urban redevelopment toolbox It's the utility of point-to-point travel in inter-modal connections.

 Concert @ MAC on Wed Nov 11