Alley Project: Photo Op Phase I

Our alley is up for review. Please take a close look at these 2D views to formulate your perspective of this space and post your thoughts. We need your critical thinking on this and any number and nature of ideas. Thanks so much for taking a part. Note: this is a one block stretch of alley where we live in downtown Phoenix, and are hoping to revitalize... or perhaps, make vital for the first time.


Looking down alley from south to north


A zoom down the alley looking south to north


Our apartment complex on the right along the alley


The standard condition of pavement along the alley, along with graffittied utility boxes (which, in my opinion, may look kind of cool if in contrast to a tidy environment)


A view from the alley into our apartment complex courtyard. Notice the existing space on either side for parking.


To get an idea of the architecture in this neighborhood: this is our complex. It is an older California style. Plenty of potential.


Stepping back again: looking down the alley from south to north. This is the apartment complex opposite ours. They have completey renovated these, thus, change is already in motion.


The alley looking at the parking area for the apartments being renovated.


A view further down the alley, turning around for a moment to look north to south at the two aforementioned apartments and their shared alley space.


Okay, try not to get virtigo... looking south to north from the trash cans in the picture before this one, across the alley to the back yard of a house being renovated.


These are city owned parcels (with the old, vacant houses from the early 1900's) across the alley from the picture before this one.


A zoom in of the city owned vacant lots.


Again


An alley view of the apartments just north of the vacant lots posted above.


We step south again to look down the other side of the alley (the blue apartments mentioned above are to the right in this photo). Notice how close exterior walls are to the back of lots (ex: building on the right)... not only is this inefficient for light entry through windows near these walls, but it shuts off connections between the buildings and the alley = neglection = the ease of blight to occur.


Another view of the wall.


Looking farther north to the next apartment complex. These are interesting. I will post pictures of the front view of these buildings at some point so you can get a better feel of our neighborhood. It is actually a cute area with all of the revitalization happening and still very affordable. This complex uses solar panels and has a large interior courtyard. But from the back, along the alley, they appear extremely crappy, no?


A connection from 5th Ave to parking in the alley


The back of the aforementioned apartment complex again. The solar panels can be viewed at the right of this photo.


An entry from 5th Ave again into the alley between the aforementioned apartment complex and a single family home.


The aforementioned home and a business to the north.


Yeah, we find these often in the alley. Gross.


Turning around here to look from the north to south, we see the solar panelled apartment complex already discussed and a complex in serious disrepair just opposite it. This complex has one of those walls along the side that sits too close to windows.


The southern end of the complex in disrepair. Though, people live here. Look at the space behind the fence between the two trash cans. Perfect for a pocket of green, eh? A little garden or something?


The complex again. That gate could be better connected to the alley (if the alley was attractive for being connected to)


Looking from the aforementioned apartment complex north


The business again across from the aforementioned complex


A business with the same architecture across from the aforementioned business


An single family house at the north end of our alley


The alley along the block just north of ours


A view down the alley from north to south. The Phoenix courthouse is in the very distance of this photo.


A business at the north end of the alley


The single family, historic home at the north end of the alley

A Low Sky

It keeps raining and I'm in a weird mood.
So, I wrote this really cheesy poem in Adobe Illustrator.

During the eclipsed lightning storm on Wednesday after the spy satellite had been blown up and all undersea communication wires had been cut in the Middle East, a surprising number of cars drove to the top of the hill behind my condo. I've never seen anyone drive up that hill. I fell asleep during the storm with my window open and I didn't see anyone come down. Do you think they were space ships, not cars? Aaron has some speculations.

Anyway, enjoy my serious contemplations of dreaming of things that happen.

Into the Wild

Last Saturday Laine, Jule, Owen and I went hiking near the river outside of Lake Havasu. I knew where I wanted to hike (where all of that marsh grass is near the bridge at the bend in the river) but did not know where the trail was. So, we decided not to take a trail. We had Laine so trails were not necessary. The boys were magnificent hikers and I seemed to be the only one slightly concerned of the intensity of our trek. Owen and I fell quite a few times. Actually, I fell onto Owen once and he just turned around, said "Ow", and then smiled and kept hiking. Owen and Jule had an odd fascination with tearing every thing in their path out of the earth... we eventually stopped and had a discussion about it but I don't think it made anything any different. So, they found cacti skeletons and used them as Crowns of the Desert. Additionally, each steep, rocky incline was an opportunity to practice their Spiderman skills. They were awesome!

We were fortunate enough to come home to a hearty meal prepared by Ian and Rachel and the taco salad, particularly, was certainly enjoyed by everyone. Thanks, Ian! Unfortunately, on the other hand, Rachel had this fanciful idea that we sisters would dress up in Becka's fine clothing: Rachel was some Texan girl at a fair or something, Becka was a hoochy Las Vegas regular, and I guess I was some sort of tourist. ? Anyway, have a laugh. We look a little nasty to tell you the truth. But it was fun!

Not Pregnant but I'll Plan Ahead

I'm thus far not pregnant. Which is just fine at this point in time... just fabulous. I will, however, tell you the only two names that I have ever been attracted to (sorry Becka, I'm not leaning towards Olivia Robin... too vain you know?). Amia came to me in like the 6th grade or something, so that's a girl. But today I realized that Roby isn't so bad. When I'm handed my bagel in the morning they call my name out as Roby (with a long 'o'). Never Robin. I've always thought this strange because Robin is a common name and I haven't in my life met or heard of a Roby. So it's always a bit frustrating... but then today I went to a coffee shop and they spelled my name as Roby on my cup. As I was looking at it I thought, "that's a beautiful name." And it doesn't remind me of Robin. So, perhaps Roby for a boy. Anyway, it could be that I shouldn't post this as a blog and I should just write it in a journal instead. But I'm an Aries so I'll just post this.

Kind of Sort of 'Speak Easy': (DIN)NER-CALL

So, yes, a speak-easy'ish restaurant is still in my cards. We were thinking that it would be more efficient to have people call us to set up a 'dinner party'. Rather than having us plan a night to support a restaurant atmosphere at home, people can call me to plan that night for them. "Call A Dinner Party." I'll still use the downtown apartment but this plan will not require that I buy food hoping that people will show up. People will call, pay me for groceries, and I will make the food and leave them the change before the meal starts. I really won't make any money but it should be a lot of fun... and maybe legal? Most likely not.
Additionally, please say something about alleys. Anything. Write a poem or something. Becka, I like plants and painted walls too. I was thinking, the Labyrinth is the never-ending-story of an alley. It's a city of alleys.

Your Thoughts on Alleys

our stretch of alley



So, I would like to know what you do or don't like about alleys. What makes them interesting, magical, scary, useful, blighted, fun, inviting, etc? The alley at our (Aaron's really) apartment downtown is somewhat dismal. It seems to have so much potential, as any alley would, and so we are coming up with a plan to talk first to the owners of property along the one block stretch of alleyway we use, then get the interested community in on it, generate some input, draw some things up, research good and bad, new and old, look up the regulations on getting this thing through the city, find innovative ways of getting this funded, and having a lot of fun doing something that we both have professional experience in and a personal connection to. We'll be moving into another apartment in the same little complex soon, keeping us in place a bit longer and able to follow this through. So, your thoughts on alleys?

alleys elsewhere