Mitchell Park West Neighbors

  The $12,000 grant application for this year has now been filed with Neighborhood Services so let's start thinking about what we could bid for the larger $50k grant next year! Here are three ideas from me:

• While we were preparing the current bid for benches in the park, several residents in our area expressed a desire to see street benches installed along sidewalks around the neighborhood to spruce up the whole neighborhood and make it very pedestrian friendly, especially for the not-so-young-anymore. I have already made inquiries with the City about what would be involved and I have useful and helpful feedback from Jim Bond, Assistant City Engineer

 

• The back alleys are an eyesore and the junk that gets deposited in them is a danger to vehicles, cyclists, pedestrians and property. Perhaps we could convert the alleys into parks, administered by the City Parks Department. This would entail:
• Removing the trash containers
• Giving each household a trash container like the recycle ones to be placed at the curb each week
• Removing any surface treatment to expose the dirt (in our alley the City laid a tar / gravel mixture about two years ago)
• Planting native desert plants and wild flowers so irrigation is not required
• Making a footpath / cycle track down the center
• Closing off the ends of the alleys with bollards to prevent the entry of trucks, cars, etc. but allowing people, bikes and baby strollers to enter
• Banning the dumping of any trash under pain of prosecution and fines.
• I know there are a few houses that have garages opening onto the alley and I haven't figured out yet what to do about those
• And all of them have a back gate into the alley, either a single one for people or a double one for vehicles
• But this suggestion would mean all the houses back onto parks, which would be good for resale prices I think. And the wild life would be given somewhere to live and grow, which would also be nice. And the walkers and cyclists would have pleasant, alternative routes to the streets to get between places.

 

• Childsplay is not going to do anything right now with the building at the south end of their campus that would have been replaced by the proposed scene shop. The scene shop will now by near the Arts Center and they don't have funding to do anything with this building. Now one thing that is missing from the park is a set of toilets and changing rooms for the sports enthusiasts (soccer, volleyball, etc.). And Childsplay would like to have some facilities for visiting artists. So how about a joint venture between MPWNA, Childsplay and the City to convert this unused building into public toilets, public changing rooms and to-be-defined artists facilities? Obviously it would take more than $50,000 to do this but we could apply for the grant next year, and Childsplay could kick in some money and we could ask the City (Parks and Recreation Dept?) to kick in some more. In this way we could probably raise sufficient cash to do the job. Right now Childsplay own the building so we would also have to do something to transfer (part of?) it to the park. Anyway, that's in the details to be worked out. We have several architects / development planners in our community so we should be able to come up with some plans for such a development.

Any other ideas?

John Purchase

 

John, these are all good ideas.   There is a real disparity in the appearance of our alleys.  The N/S alley between Wilson and Roosevelt ending at ninth street:  there are at least 3 residences with landscaping that extends into the alley.  Walk it and see. 

The E/W alleys from McKemy to Hardy can be very littered, and the old sink and toilet in one has been there for more than a month.  Also, a dead rat laid in the alley between Howe and 12th for at least 2 weeks (I just didn't have the equipment to pick it up, and it's in an area contiguous to the backyards of several residents).  That alley had trash from a huge party piled up around the overflowing garbage can.  If the alley cans were removed from ALL alleys, where would the odd trash go?   Maybe the newighborhood assn. could get the city to leave large pullaway dumpster trailers at designated alley entrances on one day a month (rotating through the area). 

Living in a home not adjacent to an alley has caused some access problems for us, but nothing we can't deal with. But for homes  currently using alley access for backentrance parking, closing off the alley  seems  unfair.  No new alley access carports, garages, etc. would be a good policy. 

Many of us would like to see art on those back walls, and it could all flow together if the city would alter the trash situation and promote tshaded foot traffic on the alleys.  It is as near to country as we can get in our urban setting.

Hope the other Pat is reading this topic,

 

 

Pat  Konomos

 

Everyone seems to agree that something needs doing in the alley's, but there are as many ideas of how to do this as there are people.  Maybe we should consider it a prime chance to get the neighbors who share an alley involved and working together.   Each alley could be a considered a separate section and that section could be discussed by all who share it which could result in each one being handled completely different from others.  It could be fun.  

Marcia 

last year (or was it the year before) i proposed a 'meet your neighbor for 5 minutes in the alley' day on a saturday. it was on one of the mailers sent out by the city. guess it was ignored along with every other flyer.

the intent was to spend a little time doing clean up in the alley on a specific day, so that it wouldn't seem like it was just one person taking care of everyone else's trash.

the long range development of the alleys will most likely not be as a 'park strip'. for one thing the parks department is stretched very thin already. i'm aware of shared parks that the houses back onto and are responsible for maintaining. it can be costly. there was a very famous place in Baltimore called 'sheridan lawn' (?) and there is a smaller park with pool on 12th street north of osborn behind the houses on the west side of the road. i've been keeping an eye on that park for 25 years, it goes up and down in maintenance, but it could be a gem, one of my favorite places in phx.

there is plenty of precedent for using alleys as smaller alternate streets to 1/2 addresses. this is common in older cities with former carriage houses. the are typically two story.

another long range development for this neighborhood will most likely be lots more stand alone buildings off the alley and two story construction. by current standards these are fairly large lots. the city revised the zoning ordinance this year to allow for garages off the alley with a lot less hassle. i was seeing alot of people having to apply for variances in the notices from the city for the Board of Adjustment and DRC.  to reduce the rear yard setback to 5' or less, instead of the 10 or 15' from the property line. i proposed to the City to revise this setback. now it is 15' from the center line of the alley. residents are already required to maintain their half of the alley per ordinance.

If we didnt have to contend with predatory landlords looking to rent to as many people as possible, it could even be possible to revise the zoning to allow a second dwelling unit. (R-2) i read somewhere that state law in california prohibits any city or agency to outlaw a second dwelling unit on a property. this law was in response to long term homeowners being priced out of their homes by appreciation and taxation, to provide the homeowners more opportunities to make the mortgage.

one of drawbacks of the suburban layout of our neighborhood  is the large front yard. it usually is wasted space. and to maintain it to meet code and appear reasonably nice is a lot of work and money. but it still is the 'street' side. and as such is the primary public realm of the neighborhood. before we put a huge amount of energy into the alleys, other than to keep them clean, at a minimum per code, the street scape needs greater attention. this was a part of the reasoning behind getting about 100 trees for the houses over the last 4 years. Getting more trees, or assisting others to purchase trees (and water them!) is a relatively easy thing to do. A large part of the characterof Maple Ash is the flood irrigated landscape. MPWNA doesnt have irrigation for the most part, but planting trees that shade the sidewalk and another row that shade the house will do alot to make the pedestrian environment better.

In addition, i built a front patio in my front yard, in part to reduce the yard maintenance. but overall it has been a very successful place to meet the neighbors. there are alot of way to design that into practically everynones yard, but i think having a couple per block would probably be a very good start. there are tricks to the design to make it successful. i'd be happy to provide a little design time with anyone interested. 'will design for lunch!'

last for now- the classic text, taught in all planning and architecture schools is "Death and life of great american cities' by Jane Jacobs. it's a nice read, kinda long but is the foundational philosophical book for the movement to understand the social roles of neighborhoods.

-mark