Not so long ago, Roosevelt Street in Phoenix was quiet, with empty storefronts and little foot traffic. Then the artists arrived. Now one of the scene’s pioneers is moving her business to central Phoenix.
KJZZ contributor Robrt Pela reflects on what that means for the city.
Full conversation
ROBRT PELA: It’s starting to get old — this discussion of how gentrification is ruining downtown Phoenix. Particularly those once-unkempt sections long ago revived by young people with a dream and probably a little more confidence than maybe people think they should have had.
I’ve been thinking lately about Kimber Lanning. Twenty-five years ago, she was one of those young people with a dream. I’m guessing, particularly since she’s a woman, that lots of people rolled their eyes when she announced that she was opening Modified, an art gallery in downtown Phoenix.
Or, later, when she launched a startup that advocates for local businesses, housed in the same building as her art gallery, in a downtown enclave that later became known as Roosevelt Row.
I mentioned to an old friend that Local First Arizona, that startup Lanning created in 2003, had recently moved. They’ve outgrown their space and need a bigger office from which to support local entrepreneurs and community development.
My friend missed the part about a small business succeeding. He was sorry to hear, he told me, that yet another business was leaving Roosevelt Row. (Except he called it RoRo, a popular nickname for this part of town that I can’t bring myself to utter.)
It was too bad, my friend said, about all the gentrification going on downtown.
I’ve heard it before. For a long time, I agreed. I wanted there always to be a grungy arts district downtown, even though I’d stopped hanging out in those neighborhoods some time ago. I’m pretty sure I don’t feel that way about gentrification anymore.
Gentrification is old news. It happens in most big cities — even in some small towns. You open a T-shirt shop and while you’re trying to make ends meet selling tie-dyed hoodies, you either do well enough to move to a bigger, more high-profile space, or you can’t afford the rent because your landlord has sold to a developer who’s squeezing you out so he can sell the leaky bungalow you’re in.
It’s sad when that happens. But then there are the stories like Kimber Lanning’s. She’s kept Modified open; it’s being run now by the artist collective Eye Lounge. And shouldn’t we want people like Lanning to succeed at running a local business that’s about, well, supporting local businesses?
I’m rethinking my sentimentality about the grungy good old days of Roosevelt Row, and thinking instead about how, here in Phoenix, the gentrification of downtown Phoenix is about some of those young upstarts reaping the benefits of the neighborhood they made more desirable.
And if you can’t join me in being happy for the Kimber Lannings of our community, then come back in 50 years. Roosevelt Row will have fallen out of favor again.
Think about the urban renewal movement of the 1960s, which turned our downtown into a wasteland. Think about how Phoenix always reinvents itself.
If you want that shabby downtown populated by wild youngsters with big dreams, it — and they — will be back. I promise.
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