Category: Phoenix

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Blast from the Past

For any local Phoenix readers (do I even still have any local readers) over a certain age who’ve been here a while…

I found these pictures online while trying to dig up some info on another Phoenix landmark of the early 80s, Hotbods.

The Connection was my favorite watering hole back in the mid 80s. When I returned from San Francisco in 2002 I was greeted by a vacant lot and news that the owner had died of AIDS sometime in the 90s. The new owner of the property apparently couldn’t raze the building fast enough, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they’d salted the earth on top of it.

So many memories. So many ghosts.

Here are some of my own pictures from the AIDS Benefit Auction that was held at the place in October 1983:

Donnie, a bartender at The Connection.
My housemate Steve Weirauch (center), whom I met at the Connection a few months earlier, and the guy he was dating at the time of the auction (right).
Donnie, a bartender at The Connection.
Patrons. The guy dead-center in the phoeo in the background was one of the bartenders on the disco side of the house. I lusted in my heart, but unfortunately that was as far as it got.
Jack Long (guy in the grey t-shirt) and I dated for a while. And yes, he lived up to his name.

Brent Walker, one of the bartenders on the disco side of the house. While I was more interested in connecting with the other bartender (whose name completely escapes me at this point), it was Brent who I eventually hooked up with. I ran into Brent—again, behind a bar—at the Midnight Sun in San Francisco several years later. To this day, I can’t hear Joe Yellow’s “Lover to Lover” without thinking of him.
A good view of the infamous Mack truck that was part of the decor of the bar.
Steve and his boyfriend posing in front of the truck. I never partook of any of it, but I understand a lot used to happen in the cab of that truck.
The group St. Tropez performing—eh, lip syncing—at the bar for the benefit auction.
More lip syncing from the group St. Tropez at the bar for the benefit auction.

I may have posted these before, but frankly I’m too lazy to go looking. In any case they’ll probably still be new to some of my readers. (I’m discovering that over the years I’ve repeated myself so many times on this here blog thingie it’s ridiculous.)

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And The City Fucks Up Another Perfectly Good One-Way Street

…to put in bike lanes: bike lanes that no one will ever use.

It just doesn’t make sense. Phoenix is not somewhere temperate where people actually bike to work or downtown. In the summer, afternoon temps flirt with 120F for weeks on end. Even hardcore mountain bikers like my boss, eschew cycling when it gets that hot.

If they wanted to make 3rd and 5th Avenues two way, fine. But don’t put in something that is basically useless and adds nothing to the community. Put in a planted median down the center of the street and plant some shade trees. That would’ve increased the value of downtown much more in my opinion.

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Fuuuuuck!

I sent this photo to a friend in Oregon who quipped, “At least you’re not in Texas!”

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And So It Begins

We’ve been running the A/C since Daylight Savings kicked in everywhere else in the country, confirming that the two go hand-in-hand.

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I Worked Here…

I worked here in one of the anchor stores, Broadway Southwest, in 1978. I documented Metrocenter’s downfall a couple years ago, and just learned the other day that it’s shuttering completely at the end of the month. I have so many good memories of this place from my high school and college years. (And just so you know, all—save for one—are non-sexual in nature, you perverts.) It was the place to go and hang out. When it opened in 1974, it was so futuristic.

It’s sad, but I suppose life moves on.

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The Dog Days of Summer*

I hate August in Phoenix. It’s this time of year I really miss Denver (or the Bay Area.)

It’s miserable. The “dry heat” disappears and humidity descends like a… well, like a wet blanket. Almost every afternoon we’re teased with the promise of rain, and yet nothing happens. (Or if it does, it’s just enough to dirty everyone’s cars.)

I’m really looking forward to winter.

*The “Dog Days” are based in astronomy. The Old Farmer’s Almanac lists the traditional timing of the Dog Days: the 40 days beginning July 3 and ending August 11, coinciding with the heliacal (at sunrise) rising of the Dog Star, Sirius.

The rising of Sirius does not actually affect the weather (some of our hottest and most humid days occur after August 11), but for the ancient Egyptians, Sirius appeared just before the season of the Nile’s flooding, so they used the star as a “watchdog” for that event.

Since its rising also coincided with a time of extreme heat, the connection with hot, sultry weather was made for all time.

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A Rapidly Spreading Cancer

They’re popping up like toadstools after a rainstorm, or more accurately, a rapidly-spreading cancer: multi-story apartment/condo complexes in central Phoenix that are destroying historic (although not protected) landmarks in their wake.*

It is a trend that started several years ago and shows absolutely no sign of abating—at least until the next housing crash mercifully puts it out of our misery.

Phoenix used to limit their multi-family developments to at most three stories in height. This saved the developer money because no elevators were required, and the complexes fit in nicely with the surrounding neighborhoods. But no more! Now 4, 5, or 6 stories are commonplace, and from the looks of it, all of these developments were designed by architects who have never set foot in a desert.

Dark charcoal gray—or black—or deeply colored exterior walls. Yup. Makes perfect sense in an environment where the sun beats down 90% of the time, fading everything (something I immediately noticed upon moving back from Denver) and whose heat will simply be absorbed to re-radiate at night, further increasing the heat bubble hovering over the city in summer and diverting any incoming thunderstorms.

Along those same clueless-designer lines, walls of glass. I’d hate to think of what the cooling bills will be for the units, even if the windows are double-paned. This actually started in the early aughts with a complex I actually lived in (although my particular unit was a more traditional design). Arioso boasted two story units with huge walls of glass

But hey, they all have granite countertops and laminate flooring so it’s all cool. Never mind that the vast majority of these units have no storage whatsoever. Years ago you’d get at least a coat/linen closet and a small outside store room on your patio/balcony. But I guess all that square footage adds up and could easily be allocated to even more units to rent out! And it seems their target demographic doesn’t own stuff anyway; these apartments/condos look to be more collegiate fuck pads than actual homes. And WTF is up with these “studios” with “bedrooms” with no windows or second means of egress? How does this meet code?!

And don’t even get me started on the ridiculous amount of rent they’re charging for these shoeboxes…

*Not actually destroying. They’re keeping the most architecturally iconic parts of the buildings to quiet the public outcry…and turning them into leasing/sales offices.