To wrap up 2012 and kick off the new year, we've asked a group of local activists, artists, architects, and business owners to put together a Phoenix wish list for 2013. Up today: Beatrice Moore.
Beatrice Moore has lived in Phoenix since 1986 and is a neighborhood activist, artist, small business owner and reluctant entrepreneur in the Lower Grand Avenue Arts and Small Business District.
Moore currently owns and operates Kooky Krafts on Grand Avenue and says she has a long wishlist for Phoenix in 2013. Here are a few of her hopes:
1. Come to the realization that the neighborhoods you pass through are just as important as your ultimate destination, so S L O W traffic down. The goal should NOT be to get people in and out of Downtown as quickly as possible (encourage them to smell the roses along the way). Trying to run over pedestrians crossing the street should not be a local sport.
See also: - 2010 Best of Phoenix's Hero Worship: Beatrice Moore - Beatrice Moore in Jackalope Ranch's 100 Creatives - For Kooky Krafts Shop Proprietor Beatrice Moore, the Hardest Part About Selling Mutant Piñatas Is Saying Goodbye
2. Come to terms with better parking solutions downtown, along Grand, and on some of the other arterials that have small business districts (Roosevelt, Melrose District, 7th Street, 16th Street). Free parking attracts business.
3. Make it easier for business owners to maintain their own streetscape and to be creative with it i.e. plant some fun things (Tucson does it way better). This would help with Parks and Recreation staff shortages as well.
4. More bus stops with shade please! Families should not have to wait in the grueling sun in the summertime in Phoenix without any shade whatsoever. People visiting from other cities must think we're barbarians when it comes to shade structures.
5. Get rid of those hideous, seizure-inducing, self-promotional signs in the Legends Entertainment District. What a sad centerpiece for any place (and no, it does not make it look like Times Square).
