by bryan | Sep 27, 2013 | light rail corridor
[By Beth Duckett | The Republic | azcentral.com | Mon Aug 19, 2013] Scottsdale express bus link to Tempe light rail proposed By late 2014, bus riders in north Scottsdale could hop on a sleek new bus with limited stops to quickly reach a light-rail station in Tempe. The Link transit system along Scottsdale/Rural Road would be the third such bus rapid-transit route in the Valley, speeding up commuter times and providing an alternative to light rail along the heavily traveled corridor. But it comes at a price. A transit official, in a presentation to Scottsdale’s Transportation Commission this week, estimated costs of nearly $20 million for vehicles and capital improvements to make the route a reality. “It’s very sleek vehicles,” said Ben Limmer, corridor and facility development manager for Valley Metro, the local transportation organization in charge of, among other things, bus service. “It operates more quickly than the local bus route (and) usually has enhanced stops, longer, larger vehicles and a special brand to it.” The price tag would be covered by federal funding and a half-cent-per-dollar sales tax authorized by Proposition 400 for transit projects. The estimated yearly cost for operations and maintenance is $900,000. Limmer said the system would give riders real-time information on when the next bus would arrive. A study, due out in December,will identify an operating plan, capital improvements and final cost estimates. The weekdays-only route likely would operate between the University Drive/Rural Road light-rail station and Camelback Road, except during peak periods when buses would extend to north Scottsdale, Limmer said. The northernmost terminus would be north of a park-and-ride lot...
by bryan | Sep 27, 2013 | light rail corridor
[By Amy B Wang | The Republic | azcentral.com | Tue Aug 20, 2013] Next stop: Better light-rail station descriptions What’s in a name? If it’s a Valley light-rail station, not too much. Montebello and 19th Avenue. Indian School and Central. McClintock and Apache. Along the light rail’s 20-mile route, a monotone female voice announces each of the system’s 28 station names and little else. Sure, the announcements get the job done, said Edward Jensen, secretary of the Downtown Voices Coalition and a vocal advocate for Phoenix public transportation. But there’s no sense of place, no conjuring of neighborhood identity, he said. Jensen is proposing that the light rail’s onboard announcements include nearby points of interest to tie each station more closely with the Valley’s landmarks. And officials with Valley Metro, the light-rail system’s operator, said they’re considering it. Jensen’s proposal renews a conversation that has been ongoing since light rail’s inception. Some in Phoenix have always lamented the ho-hum, geographically based names of the Valley’s light-rail stations and wanted them changed to reflect nearby landmarks. According to its website, the Arizona Rail Passenger Association put out a similar list of suggested station name changes in 2010, but it’s unclear if the group is still active. Calls to the number listed for the group were not returned. In recent e-mail exchanges with Valley Metro officials, Jensen said he was not proposing drastic name changes, which would require a lengthy approval process, but to at least have landmarks included in the onboard announcements. “I’m more just thinking, let’s keep the station names as they are,” he said. “We’ve all seemed to learn them...
by bryan | Sep 27, 2013 | light rail expansion, Mesa City
[By Gary Nelson The Republic | azcentral.com Fri Sep 27, 2013] Amid city challenges, Mesa Mayor Scott Smith’s stature grows The Mesa that Scott Smith views from the expanse of windows in his seventh-floor downtown office is not the same one that existed when he moved in five years ago. The town has been through a lot. City Hall itself was battered by an epic budget crisis that blew some departments to smithereens, cost hundreds of public jobs and yet sparked creative surges that led to new ways of delivering government services. Out on the streets, a tsunami of foreclosures drove some neighborhoods to their knees. Unemployment soared. Bitter debates over immigration poisoned the well of public amity. For a time, it appears, Mesa stopped growing altogether and may even have lost population during the worst economic downturn since President Herbert Hoover. Yet for all that, if the mayor’s windows could offer 360-degree views, they would reveal stunning transformations from one end of the sprawling city to the other. In the southeast, a growing passenger airport surrounded by boundless square miles ripe for development, some of which has begun. In the northwest, a new Chicago Cubs complex and city park to open late this year as one of the top tourist draws in the Valley. In the heart of the city, light-rail construction accompanied by three new housing projects and the arrival of several branch campuses of old-line Eastern and Midwestern liberal-arts colleges. In all parts of town, park projects either planned or ongoing as a result of a citizen-led community brainstorming effort, as well as other new...
by bryan | Sep 27, 2013 | light rail corridor
[By Elisa Cordova Cronkite News ServiceMon Sep 23, 2013] Valley’s light-rail call boxes aimed to help youths in crisis Banished from home, Dion Austin, then 17, brushed his teeth at fast-food restaurants and slept in parks for three months before going to Avondale’s police station in hopes of starting a new life. Someone there referred him to Safe Place, a national youth-outreach program that connected him with a crisis center. Austin now lives in a group home and has been attending college and working full-time. “Because of Safe Place, I’m off the streets,” he said. Now those in Austin’s situation can get help from Safe Place by using an emergency call box at any of Valley Metro’s 28 light-rail stations. Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton joined Austin and others Sept. 18 at a news conference announcing the partnership. It extends a network that already includes many convenience stores, banks and libraries. “In our city, in our Valley, there are no throwaway kids,” Stanton said at the Camelback and Central light-rail station. “We need to do everything we can to wrap our arms around our young people.” A national program operated in the Valley by the Tumbleweed Center for Youth Development, Safe Place provides immediate assistance to young people who go to places that are part of the program. Cynthia Schuler, CEO of the Tumbleweed Center, said 129 teens used Safe Place’s services last year, including those who faced family problems, were homeless or had run away from home. Adding Valley Metro to the program is a natural next step, she said. “Now that we have this site, we expect...
by bryan | Feb 9, 2013 | light rail apartments and rentals, light rail corridor, Real Estate Development
Courtesy of Gary Nelson The Republic | azcentral.com Feb 7, 2013 Sycamore station complex in works Mesa is on the verge of bagging its fourth new housing project with close proximity to light rail. Amcal Multi-Housing Inc. of Agoura Hills, Calif., is proposing a four-story, 82-unit apartment complex immediately adjacent to the Sycamore Street light-rail station. Like the three others, which broke ground last year, Sycamore Station Apartments would be financed by federal tax credits that are designed to encourage development of low-income housing. The tax breaks allow developers to charge lower rents and still make a profit. Amcal is applying to the Arizona Department of Housing, which issues the tax credits on a competitive basis and will decide this spring which projects to support. The department has focused in recent years on developments with access to public transit. That criterion resulted last year in a mother lode of projects for Mesa, which had gone for years without seeing much interest in tax-credit housing. The three projects under way will: Create 81 units of low-income senior housing near Center Street and First Avenue. It is the first privately financed major construction in downtown in a quarter of a century. Replace the vacant Escobedo Apartments on the north edge of downtown with a 124-unit development called Escobedo at Vista Verde. Replace most of the La Mesita Family Shelter on West Main Street with 80 units of workforce housing. Councilman Dennis Kavanaugh, in whose district the project would be built, said Sycamore Station Apartments appears to be a prime candidate for state approval. “It has many of the elements that are...
