Vision for a New Year

2009: A Time to Create History
December 31, 2008

I believe that 2009 will see an emergence of new progressive modes of thinking, a paradigm shift, as the old ways have converged upon us in one perfect storm at the end of 2008 and caused us to have to rethink so many of the institutionalized methods we have followed in the past,,  Globally, nationally, city-wide, locally and personally.

I would like to re-introduce the term “historic revitalization” to the vocabulary of those of us who have chosen to live, work and play in our precious downtown historic districts.  We, as a city, have worked long and hard and currently have in place a number of vibrant historic districts that acknowledge the value of our collective past heritage as it relates to and is linked to our future.  That preservation battle is over, and I believe that those of us who worked towards that goal and cherish that link to the past should now be ready to begin to look forward to the future in the form of historic revitalization and its place in a modern 21st Century city.  The opening of the light rail and the vibrant downtown are testimony to the current leadership who embrace this forward- looking vision and the managed change it requires. 

Historic neighborhoods consist of much more than structures but offer offices, businesses and not just houses but homes.  They consist of communities of people, neighbors that form alive and dynamic neighborhoods; it is McDowell, Thomas, Central and the 7s. Our arteries are not two-lane roads with sleepy suburban neighborhoods but are now wide and broad.  Our homes are not on the outlying edges of the city but are now located through time at its heart, in the center of a large urban core.  This is a fact that will not change but will move forward with future growth.  It is important that we, the historic district dwellers, recognize that the environment we live in has changed and we need to change, adapt and, most of all, develop along with it.   We need to be innovative, forward in our thinking and adaptive in our management of this change if we truly want to acknowledge this historical heritage. This is the only way that we will be able to pass what we cherish on to the next generation.  We need to welcome those who come to us with the expertise and the resources to affect change in the very limited locations available to make a cohesive historic and build our future existence.  There are not many locations that can serve as a catalyst for change by enhancing and incorporating our districts without disturbing the already in-place protections of the overlays.  We only need to look at our downtown to see the positive results of this kind of managed change when it is not feared and blocked by special personal and individual interests.  It was developers and their vision and capital resources that originally created the wonderful historic districts that we enjoy today.  I believe it is the developers who can and are willing to continue to work towards the creation of “places of community” that in the future will be considered historically significant.  It is the role of government to manage this change and evolution though established and tested processes. 

We will soon have the form-based code in the downtown area that our historic districts surround.  This was created to address the needs of an urban, pedestrian-oriented, mixed-use environment.  These opportunities to develop the very elements that make for a great community incorporate mixed uses that allow for local commerce and for a variety of housing types located along streets that are designed to be pedestrian oriented. We can begin by revising regulations for nonconforming uses for structures in an effort to improve opportunities for adaptive re-use and historic revitalization and revise change of use requirements to make it easier for small ground- floor retail, restaurant and service businesses to use older buildings.

We who have made the choice to live in the historic districts of Phoenix have the unique responsibility of the stewardship of our residential historic heritage.  By choice we do not live in new homes in suburban planned communities but in communities that were designed to function in a different time and place, a city-scape that has long since disappeared. In order to properly accept the responsibilities as custodians of this historic heritage, we must acknowledge that the past is gone, and as custodians, we need to move forward with a plan for the future, that will enable us to pass this heritage onto the next generation.  We need to reinvent and revitalize our neighborhoods.  We who live in the present have the responsibility to create, through managed change, the history of the future.  We cannot stand in the way of the future, for it will come and become history itself.  We need to embrace it with a sense of personal responsibility and work toward the development of a creative and imaginative process that will result in protecting that history one future generations will also want to acknowledge and cherish as we do.  The past does not belong to us; we are merely the custodians of it for the future.  Let 2009 be the year that Phoenix says we will create history as well as acknowledge and respect it.

We need historic neighborhoods that live work and play in a new future urban setting, not one that is dragged along by those longing for the past, into an existence that is no longer a functioning reality, and left vacant, devoid of any vibrancy as a cost... We know how to do this. 2009 is a time to create history.

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