| rev:text
| - I've been to CityScape three times in the past month and have yet to experience anything remotely worth praising.
The first time I went was with my girlfriend to check out the Lucky Strike bowling alley for the monthly mixer Radiate PHX. I had already heard about the alley's dress code, but I don't wear baggy clothes, sweat pants or sports logos so that wasn't a big deal. The problem we had was finding the entrance!
After parking in the underground garage we took the closest set of stairs up to the plaza/mall/courtyard. We ended up on the North side facing Washington, just next to the new art/bent-paper-clip sculpture. Knowing in advanced that Lucky Strike was on the Southwest corner, we walked down 1st Ave to where the CVS drug store is located. We could clearly see the Lucky Strike signage, but not the entrance.
In what was hilariously reminiscent of a scene from 'This Is Spinal Tap', we spent the next 5 minutes trying every door, hallway, elevator and stairwell trying to figure out how to get into the place. Turns out there is no way to enter the 2nd floor from Jefferson! Whisky Tango Foxtrot?
I'm a big fan of architecture (no, seriously: Last year I went to New York just to go on a walking tour with Taliesin students, I have dreams about Calatrava's work, I consider Will Bruder, Frank Henry & Michael P. Johnson my hometown heroes) so of course I started to really analyze CityScape. After a few minutes I could see that place has no distinction and was not built to human scale: its actually got less soul than Tempe Marketplace, Desert Ridge and West Gate! This place is not designed to serve those who call downtown Phoenix home: its obviously designed to appeal to all of the suburbanites who think fauxdobes and tuscan mcmansions are awesome.
So many people assume that if you criticize CityScape, you are somehow in favor of what was there before. Bullshit. Most sane people agree that Patriot's Square Park (1990-2006) was a flop and eyesore. The most often complaint is that is was a haven for the homeless. So did CityScape somehow make all these homeless people have homes, or better yet, just disappear? No. They simply displaced them into another area of town, just like all gentrification does. So don't give them credit for making the place "better", especially when we lost a public park in the process.
Back to the bowling alley: we eventually made it up the escalator and entered Lucky Strike. We entered what was mostly a Hard Rock Hotel Las Vegas atmosphere that was filled with conventioneers (Six Sigma trainees specifically). The irony of original Sheperd Fairey prints hanging in a place that enforces a dress code did not escape us.
We met up with the rest of the Radiate PHX crowd in a private, sectioned off area. We were offered various appetizers to sample. The chips and salsa were completely of the store bought variety: this is Arizona, don't do that shit. The other appetizers were a joke: typical Sysco or Shamrock foods frozen crap. The beers on tap at our bar? Bud, Bud Light and Stella. Have they never heard of The Roosevelt?
I just now realized how much I typed about my first visit, which was actually the best time I had. I'll spare you the other stories for another day.
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)
![[cxml]](/fct/images/cxml_doc.png)
![[csv]](/fct/images/csv_doc.png)
![[text]](/fct/images/ntriples_doc.png)
![[turtle]](/fct/images/n3turtle_doc.png)
![[ld+json]](/fct/images/jsonld_doc.png)
![[rdf+json]](/fct/images/json_doc.png)
![[rdf+xml]](/fct/images/xml_doc.png)
![[atom+xml]](/fct/images/atom_doc.png)
![[html]](/fct/images/html_doc.png)