District six worker can make that trek to work on average in roughly 18
minutes and with 9015 minority residents. District six is 1.4% black 6%
Hispanic, 1% Native American. For those of you interested in a more
comprehensive profile of District six. We the following report is a
prelude to tonight's district six public forum. District six is located on
the city's east side bounded by mcdowell road to the South Bethany Home
Road to the north 16 th street on the west and 64 th street on the east.
The district encompasses nearly 26 square miles. According to 1980 census
reports. District six has a population of nearly 94,000. Roughly 12% of
the total population of Phoenix district six residents tend to be middle
aged caucasians averaging 34 years of age five years older than the
average age for Phoenicians as a whole. Furthermore, compared to Phoenix
District, six has the smallest proportion of preschoolers, Children under
five years of age and the second smallest proportion of school age
Children, 5 to 17 years, almost half of the district's population is
either single widowed or divorced, married residents account for slightly
more than half 51% of the district's population. The second lowest
percentage citywide, the district has a relatively low average household
size of only 2.24 persons. However, while household size may be relatively
small, the average family income in district six is relatively large, just
over $21,000 annually. That's $950 greater than the city average. Only
8.3% of district six residents have incomes below the poverty level
compared to a Phoenix average of 11.1%.
In contrast to Phoenix, the workforce of district six tends to be more
white color. 32.5% of the residents are considered white collar workers.
4.5% higher than the city average. Only 10.3% of the district's residents
are considered blue collar 4.5% lower than the city average. And district
six residents tend to be relatively well educated. One out of every four
adults is a college graduate compared to Phoenix where only one of six has
graduated from college. Only 19% of the district's adults did not finish
high school. Comparing favorably with a 26.6% non completion rate for
Phoenix residents as a whole. While District six contains over 45,000
housing units with more than half of these occupied by their owners.
Renters comprise 46% of the residents in the district considerably higher
than the city average of 35% regardless of ownership. However, the housing
stock in the district is older, only 27% of the housing units in District
six have been built since 1970. The city wide average is nearly 40% and
the cost of housing in district six is high. A single family home sells
for approximately $62,000. Almost $6000 higher than the city average rent
in District six is also high with an average monthly rent of $266.
District Six is also a heavily urbanized area. In fact, it's the second
most developed district in Phoenix with just under 10% of its developable
land still vacant to date. District Six has faced and continues to face a
number of decisive issues. The squaw peak expressway will run through
District Six along 18 th street from mcdowell Road north to Paradise
Valley. Hundreds of homes will soon be torn down to facilitate
construction and high rise construction along the Camelback Corridor from
16 th street to 36 th street is becoming increasingly controversial. Both
issues which have generated a good deal of interest and concern among
residents are expected to be discussed in depth during this evening's
District Six Forum.
Everything you ever wanted to know, I'm sure about District six. This
evening's District Six forum is about to get underway. As I mentioned
earlier, the public forum is being held at the Squaw Peak Elementary
School located at 4601 North 34th Street between Indian school and came
back roads. The public of course is invited. However, seating I told will
fill up rather quickly before the forum begins. I'd like to take this
opportunity to tell you that transmission costs for this channel eight
special have been paid for by a grant from Russ Lion Realty Company. We
thank Russ Lyon Realty Company for their assistance in the telecast of
this evening's forum and now rejoining us once again from the site of the
forum at the Squaw Peak Elementary School is Lou Ruggero, Lou Michael.
It's starting to fill up here at Squaw Peak Elementary School. There are
several 100 people in the cafeteria here and it looks like the District
six Forum is going to be well attended. There are already people have come
up to me and said they have some zoning and planning matters that they are
going to bring up quite forcefully, some traffic diversion measures that
are coming up. So these meetings do draw people, people are paying
attention. I believe there were some 20,000 pamphlets or brochures sent
out in the district in the past couple of weeks. So people are responding
Michael, they like this. So lou they actively promote the forums through
direct mail campaigns and other efforts to get people out to these things.
They have a concerted plan of attack along those lines. It's been well
advertised. I think the new council and the mayor want these district
forums to work again. This is the first time around for each district. It
will be interesting to see two or three years from now after there have
been district forums going on for a long time. How these work out right
now, maybe the novelty is part of it, but at any rate, novelty or not,
there is a lot of enthusiasm. You might be able to hear the crowd behind
me a little bit, several 100 people there and they are anxious to get
together with the mayor and councilman Cori and the city staff. You've had
an opportunity to review the bond proposal which the council recently
voted on. How much of that very sizable bond issue pertains to district
six. Well, there are two main issues that are high profile in district 61
is Squaw Peak Parkway, that's $35 million for acquisition rights there.
And the other is the Phoenix Mountain Preserve. I believe that's in the
neighborhood of $23 million that are high profile items here in District
six. And that is scheduled to be voted on in June, I believe. Is it not
early June, early June part of a $572 million bond package that will be
voted on by the citizens, not only in district six, but in all eight city
council districts in Phoenix just out of curiosity lou, how much of a
traveling roadshow is this thing? How many staff members do they bring
along with them? We of course, talked to Saro and Rick is the staff well
represented at tonight's forum. Yes, there are several city staff here
planning transportation, Michael. I'm getting the word here that we're
just about ready to get the District Six Forum under way. So we'll take it
from here. Thank you.
Good evening, ladies and gentlemen.
My name is Ed Cori. I'm City Council District Six. Welcome to our forum
for our first forum ever for council district six.
One of our purposes and goals of our new district system is to bring local
government closer to the citizen and the citizen closer to their elected
representatives. This meeting tonight is one of eight open forums held
throughout the city this spring. As you will see, the program is primarily
your participation through your concerns and questions, elected officials
and city staff are here primarily to listen. We have scheduled only a few
minutes of formal presentations tonight on three subjects which we have
learned from prior forums seem to be your highest priority of interest.
They are planning transportation and crime prevention. The rest is going
to be up to you because you're going to be the program tonight. Let me
tell you for a moment how your district district six is unique. All of the
eight districts in the city of Phoenix as December 1st 1982 have about the
same population 100,000 people. But our district six has some very
interesting, unique characteristics. One out of four in this district is a
college graduate overall in the city. It's one out of six district.
District six is the most intensely developed district with only 9% vacant
land. Interestingly enough, our housing stock in this district is getting
older with three quarters of our homes. Over 15 years old, half of our
homes are owner occupied, which is a little bit lower than the average for
the city of Phoenix. And surprisingly, this may surprise some of you. We
are the least family oriented of any district in the city with one half of
our population, either single, separated, widowed or divorced. Judging by
the 57 new zoning applications last year in district six, we are an active
district for new development. Now, I think some of you, most of you should
have a program in your hands and we'll describe if we can the procedures
for tonight. If anyone wishes to speak, please fill out a card and you
will be called during the open forum. Please come forward to the
microphones that you see in the front of the of the hall. I have asked
three of our staff to discuss tonight, the three issues, transportation
planning and crime prevention with you. And I think the presentation by
the staff will give you a better view on the subject. We will introduce
the head table in just a moment. But before we do, I would like to
introduce our mayor Terry Goddard.
Good evening. Is this working now? I'd like to join my voice to ads in
terms of welcoming you. I don't know, I can't talk when I can't see the
microphone welcoming you this evening. I'm particularly glad to see so
many folks here. This is the continuation of frankly an experiment in our
implementation of the district system. We started out in district four
several, almost two months ago trying to see if people would be interested
in coming to a session which really had no format. Just an opportunity to
meet with elected officials, listen to squealing microphones and to also
discuss some problems with the city staff. The response from the beginning
has been overwhelming. We've had standing room only basically at each of
our opportunities for these forums. And I think that's very exciting and I
guess one margin of success is that we've had sort of different formats
each time American Cable picked up and broadcast last times in district
one tonight. We welcome Channel eight. We with all due apologies for the
lights and the chords and the other things we have to contend with. We
hope that won't interfere with a frank and free discussion between us and
you in terms of problems and possibilities in this city.
The function, I'm not quite through it. The function of the forum has been
able in part literally to bring City Hall to the various districts. And I
think that has been probably its most important aspect. And in our very
first one, some people complained about semi trucks parking illegally at
Osburn and 83rd Avenue. And Chief Ortega stood up and said he personally
would have them ticketed before daylight and he did it. And that's the
kind of instant response that we'd like to see. We can't always promise it
, but it does in fact take place through these forum opportunities. So
thank you very much for being here. We look forward to hearing from you.
This is our, our sixth forum in District six. I think it's very
appropriate. Thank you. Thank you mayor. Before we go,
before we go any further, I think we have some gentlemen in the audience
that we'd like to introduce, who are also members of the Phoenix City
Council. Mr Dwayne Pell Pell, would you stand up,
Mister Barry Starr
and Mr John Nelson? I thought I saw John back there.
Now, I don't know if we have any other state officials or city officials
here, but if they are, I'd be happy to introduce them if they'd raise
their heads at the head table. Tonight. On my far left is Mr Rick Counts
of the Planning Department, Mr Severo Esco, the Urban Services Development
Director, Chief Ruben Ortega of the Phoenix Police Department, and Mr
Marvin Andrews, the city manager,
I also would like to introduce if I could. Are you over there? My
assistant Reba Fisher who has put this program did a lot of the work
putting this program together.
Now, our first, our first presentation tonight is going to be by Severa
Esco, our Urban Services Manager for street transportation. And Mr Escobar
is going to give you just a very brief summary of where we are in our
streets and transportation program. In all the surveys that have been done
over the past few years in Phoenix, it seems like transportation is always
the number one issue that most of us feel is lagging in our city. And I'd
like, I'd like to have severo give you just a brief rundown and of course
, you'll have ample time for questions of severo later. Thank you. I'd
like to talk about the street transportation program that includes the
capital program that gets the most attention. But there are also elements
of maintenance, the traffic problems that traffic engineering deals with
the transit system and traffic safety. First of all, let me point out the
funding picture and that there has been a drastic increase in the amount
of funding some of it. You haven't really seen that much but the state
legislature 2.5 years ago, stand back increased practically tripling the
amount of money that we are going to be getting for transportation
purposes in the city of Phoenix. That will be about a billion dollars over
the next 10 years, including this current year, which sounds like a lot of
money. It is a tripling as I say, but at the same time may not be able to
deal with all of it. But we certainly think it's a drastic improvement.
The system that we're dealing with when we talk about the street system is
typically the major streets. Although obviously there's collector streets
in your neighborhood streets that are included in that the limited access
facilities, in particular for the city of Phoenix say first is the Swape
Parkway that you're all very familiar with, which will connect the central
part in the north, central part of the city with the Papago freeway. In
the central part of the city, the state and Federal highway system is very
important to us even though it's not included in what I generally would
describe as the city system. The Papago completion, the East Papago going
from about 20 in mcdowell to 44 connecting with the ho the Hoco itself and
the outer loop are also a very important element in our program. So I
mentioned maintenance is also a part of that, that we obviously, when we
build them, we also have to maintain them. And a lot of it does cause some
disruption for many of you. But it's very important in taking care of a
lot of the concerns that many of you expressed in particular the chip seal
program, the overlay program and the crack ceiling things that go along
with that. We have a capital improvement program which is typically the
widening and reconstruction of many of our streets, the major streets in
particular to carry more traffic as well as to upgrade them. For example,
that total is about $185 million over the next five years of that 185
million. Only one fact, I'll give you that I thought you might be
interested in is that 13 million of it is in your district. There's an
additional several million dollars in storm sewers and water sewers. All
of these things are going to be affected very much by the bond issue that
you'll be voting on in a couple of months in the area of traffic and
traffic engineering. We have one way streets that we're looking at
downtown principally, you have to be very careful with where we use them
because they do have to be close together. But nevertheless, that is part
of what we're looking at left turn arrows. You've heard a lot about, I
won't say much more than that. The city council has directed us to do more
of that and certainly has taken a strong position on that the village plan
that Rick will be talking about in a few minutes. I only want to mention
that that is also important to us in terms of the transportation program
because of the potential for cutting down the number of trips that are on
the streets. Highway safety is also part of our program and that we're
very concerned about the accidents. The insurance rates in a way, you
might think that the insurance rates, the high insurance rates that you
pay in a way are a way of paying a cost for transportation that does not
show up when you put gas in your tank. But nevertheless, is there And
we're certainly concerned about it. Another element of our transportation
program that is quite often forgotten, but is certainly there is the
transit system. It has more than tripled in the last 10 years, over 300
buses. And we're adding more all the time. And lastly, I just want to talk
a little bit about the future in terms of what we're doing. Two very major
studies. One is a central area study that we're doing jointly with the
Maricopa area governments, which will take a look at the Ho Ho and East
Papago connections, for example, a possible southern loop, the East West
traffic along the Paradise Corridor and other major issues of that type
that we're now seeing some completion of some of the other facilities. And
we want to know what other things we should be looking at in the very near
future. And also along with that, we will be doing a mass transit
alternatives analysis where we look at the bus system, possible
improvements to it, the possibility of some fixed guideway or other mass
transit facilities and those kinds of things.
If there were three items, as I said, that were mostly on your mind, it
would be first transportation and the second one would probably be
planning. Planning covers a wide swath whether it's transportation or
zoning or whatever. And our planning director Rick Counts is going to give
us a brief overview of our planning problems and process in Phoenix. Rick
, thanks,
these forums are great because it gives us an opportunity to highlight the
essential feature of planning in Phoenix, which is citizen participation.
As many of you know, it began with urban for directions back in the mid 70
s and has progressed through the village planning committees, developing
concept plan 2000 in a balance of residential and employment uses in each
of several urban villages, a place for families to be able to find live
work and play opportunities. And as Severo has just indicated, cut down on
the amount of commuting and transportation inconvenience that we have to
put up with and that we might cause others. Village plans are just now
being developed a good opportunity to point out to you that your input
will be solicited by the various village planning committees that might
concern the place where you live or the place where you work, they're
interested in developing a future of community character, different
distinctive portions of the community that indicate that the camel back
area is different from South Mountain or Paradise Valley or Maryvale
and also offers an opportunity to create images throughout our city. So
that Phoenix is not just seen of as a single place, but a series of
communities that each have their own identity. I know that people in this
portion of the city are particularly concerned about impacts and that's
where planning begins. The town hall that was held just a couple of weeks
ago, offered substantial input to the planning process as to what
residents and property owners in this part of the city want to see for the
future of District six. The Gruen associate study focused on the 24th
street and Camelback intersection is designed to prevent the unfettered
growth and to encourage quality of development from those several
developers that have suggested major projects in that vicinity. What we
really need to do is go beyond zoning and get into planning together so
that we're literally all on the same team, the city, staff citizens and
the developers. And in doing that, we'll be working toward maintaining
community standards and a quality of life that is the function of every
good city plan, conserving neighborhoods, making sure that amenities and
aesthetic improvements are part of every planning process, increasing the
convenience for people in their neighborhood and on their way to work or
to church or to school, making sure that property values are maintained.
One aspect that comes up often at these forums is the enforcement program
, zoning subdivision, other development guidance tools. We like to think
of it as development, guidance and property maintenance rather than a
control or enforcement program. And we do have zoning and sign inspection
personnel who are anxious to follow up on some of the conditions that you
may tell us about this evening. Property maintenance neighborhood upkeep
is extremely important to the success of this community. And our
enforcement procedures operate on the basis of citizen complaints and we
follow up on citizen complaints. Some of the recent issues that you may
have read about emanated from other district forums such as this one. For
example, there were concerns about the proliferation of street vendors of
parking, particularly semi trucks in residential neighborhoods, the
increase in home occupations that are bringing traffic loads into
residential streets that weren't intended for that. All of these are ideas
, follow up programs that emanated from evenings such as this. I'd like to
conclude by saying that being able to report to you on a regular basis and
get information back from the citizens has certainly helped us all in
being able to follow a greater consistency in city policy. You are helping
us to implement and determine planning goals. And most important the
planning process is benefiting substantially from the open process that
these district forums allow us. Thank you very much. Thank you, Rick. I
don't know whether we're supposed to use this microphone or the other one.
Again, may I remind you for those of you who wish to speak? Would you
please fill out a card? And you will be called during the open forum? If
for some reason or other, you find that you run out of time tonight and
you still have a question that you would like to ask. You'll find a form
in your packet which will indicate your question, your name and address.
If you leave it with us, we will be happy to respond to you.
Probably no other single issue affects us more dramatically than the issue
of crime. And tonight we have police chief Ruben Ortega with us to give us
just a brief overview of crime problems in the city and crime problems in
the district and what we're doing about them.
Thank you, Ed. Actually, uh my real name is Nick Solerno and I'm here to
ask you to become friends of channel eight.
I appreciate the telecast by channel eight has done a tremendous service
to the public. I think in bringing issues before the community that are
very important.
96,000 people live in the district six and we have 146 police officers
that service this district one K nine unit. We used to have two K nine
units, but I had to get rid of one. They wanted to form A K nine union, so
that wasn't gonna work out. So
two major concerns that we have in the district police wise,
touched on one of them that's traffic and the other one, of course, I
think that a number of you, I know first hand have experienced the problem
because in talking to some of you before the meeting, I know that a number
of you have been the victims of burglaries in your neighborhood. Our
biggest problem, crime wise, property crimes in district six burglaries of
residence being our primary concern. But in spite of the fact that
burglars are still too high in the city and they are still too high in
District six. District six has shown the most dramatic decline in overall
crime. You might wonder why the main reason being about three years ago
through the assistance of a number of you that are in the audience as well
as a great number of residents in District six helped us launch a very
effective crime prevention program called Block Watch. It was so effective
that the first three months when we started in the Arcadia District, for
example, the burglary rate was reduced almost 50% and has continued to
reduce the burglary problem in District six. Ever since then, the crime
rate is still going down in that district. This district has received the
highest decline. As a matter of fact, throughout the city in the last
three years, the crime rate has been reduced. Approximately 30%.
District six had a unique, two unique problems in relationship to property
crimes you were plagued by two types of suspects. I think we've been
pretty effective in eliminating one and the two types of suspects that
have been burglarizing your homes and stealing your property were one
juveniles. They accounted for 50% of all the residential burglaries that
we have had in district six. The other one that most of the other council
districts did not experience as much as you have is district six residents
particularly the area north of Indian school road, east of 16 to the city
limits were played by professional burglars. These were burgers that
targeted your home because of the high economic standard of the district.
The very expensive homes, very lucrative big areas to the big homes that
would make it very easy for them to target your home. That particular type
of suspect has been greatly reduced because of the block watch program.
And I wanted to take this opportunity to sincerely thank the residents of
District six because you launched a program that we're now using citywide
and using it very effectively. I've never had the opportunity to address
such a large crowd and give our personal thanks to you but is working all
over the city is probably the most effective crime prevention program that
we have going
traffic is a major concern with us. In district six. As cro mentioned, it
is a serious problem. I think we've done all we can as far as enforcement
in regulating the traffic laws. In order to reduce the traffic accidents,
you do have some serious intersections that are a big problem to us that
we're giving a lot of attention to. I think what we're going to have to do
though, to impact more the problem we're having with a high number of
traffic accidents in your district is to concentrate on the one e, there's
three s that pertain to the effective control of traffic accidents and to
move traffic smoothly and efficiently. One is enforcement which I think
we're doing as much as we can in the last couple of years. The council has
added a number of motorcycle officers to the department to deal with this
problem. The other one is engineering and I'm sure you'll touch on some of
that and concerns that you may have about intersections and left hand turn
signals and what have you. And the third is education. And I think this is
where we're really going to have to team up to minimize the problem until
such time that we have a road system that will greatly aid us in our
ability to move traffic safely and efficiently. So the big area that we're
going to concentrate this coming year is education. Hopefully get some
information to you as to what you can do to help us in minimizing the
higher risk of driving on our streets. Mad, that will be perhaps our
highest priority in terms of reducing incidents that cause a tremendous
amount of not only property loss but injury. I, I wanna say the rest of
the time because I know based on the other forms that there will be a
tremendous amount of questions. So thank you, Chief, you know, out on West
Washington Street, there's a body out there called the State Legislature
and the State Senate. We try to be friendly with them whenever we can.
They aren't always as friendly to us as we'd like them to be and vice
versa. But we do have a couple of members here. I think at least one that
I know of Senator Peter Kay. District 26 Peter. There you are. Is anyone
else? And Jim MEREDITH also district 26.
Well, we just about run out of experts up here. So now we'll start talking
to you. So we're going to start asking for you to come up. The mayor has a
few cards. Oh, yeah. Well, what we're going to do mayor is we're going to
introduce the experts as they talk to us as they respond. So, would you
like to take the first card? Mayor? I was just calling councilman's
attention to the fact that this impressive phalanx of intelligent looking
individuals on my left all do work for the city of Phoenix and they will
be available to answer specific questions in their areas.
And I believe we've got just about every, every area covered here. The
first card that I have here and we've tried to rank these by the way to
the approximate time order that the cards were filled out. So if there's
any question about how we got this particular sequence, that is the secret
behind it. The first card I have here dated 6 45 PM is Richard W Bulla.
And he has several questions. Would you like to come up to a microphone
and address your I count four here. So it may take you a few minutes to
get through. Thank you very much experts.
Most of my comments deal with the traffic. One of the points which was
brought up was the left turn arrows in looking at the list that we have in
this district. I think more should be 24 hour operation. It doesn't seem
to make much sense to spend all the money to put them in and have them
only operating two or three hours a day. One of the prime, prime problems
in a left turn
Errol situation is we as a driver lack the patience to wait to get through
that intersection. If we know that there's a left turn arrow working,
we'll wait for that opportunity to get through it. Otherwise it's try to
chase through the yellow and that I think causes a little bit more traffic
problem. Uh I was wondering whether some of the secondary north and south
streets could be made into four lane streets for street, I think would be
a possible example, it's a four lane street. Now, whether it's striped
that way or not. And possibly, I understand that most of the off site
improvements have been done on that street. We have curb gutter and
sidewalk on both sides, but possibly an investigation on the sizing of
that street could be done to see if another lane could be added or another
two lanes. My prime comment tonight would be on the bus situation and it's
basically concerned with the buses stop at the major intersections in
order to get back onto their scheduled their time schedule and they're
doing at the major intersections and they are doing it where any cars that
are following behind them are being forced into the intersection. They're
then tying up when the light turns, they're tying up the cross traffic in
that intersection. Now that not only poses a problem for cars, they are
sitting there, they are trying to get out of that intersection, allow the
traffic to move crossways. And of course, you've got traffic in that
adjacent lane which they're pulling out rapidly into and you can get some
fender benders that way if the buses, I understand the need to get back on
their time schedule and that they do pick up time when there's not a lot
of passenger traffic. But if they could do it away from the major
intersections further down the road where there isn't the prime cross
traffic conflict, I think that would ease the situation in that category.
Another area would be we're spending all this money to pave the streets
to make them look nice. And within two months we're ripping them out for
water lines and sewer lines and what not. Yeah.
Why don't we use our head? And when we put the water line in, put a tap to
the property lines, this is ridiculous to have to keep fighting the roads
out there on Indian school right now are as bad as they were five years
ago and they were just repaved about five years ago. Spend a little bit
more money, get the taps to the property lines and then any further
development that occurs, there can go to that tap. And the last item I
have would be the striping of the center lane.
I try to get out of the main flow of traffic when I'm driving. The problem
is is that we have a double lane situation in some areas. And if I cross
that double lane to get into the center lane, I'm violating a law. If we
could look at the striping, take the opportunity when we're putting down
the slurry coat. Look at the situation of rest striping it where we have a
dashed and a solid line where we can as a driver get into the center lane
, we're then freeing up one entire lane of traffic. I feel like a fool
sitting in the number one lane. The fast lane, I'm sorry. You mean the
left turn lane in a five lane street? The center lane would be the one
basically bordered by the yellow lines. Ok. There are some areas where
they have allowed for a turnout of opposing traffic so that they can
allowing them to make a left turn. If I cross, I can only cross into that
center lane when I'm making a left turn, er, a left turn and I can only do
it when it's a dash and a solid line. If I do it where it happens to be a
minor intersection, I would call it. There's usually a solid line, two
solid lines there. I'm violating a law if I go into the center lane by
crossing that double, double line. And I think in rest striping, we can
possibly cut down frankly, a lot of these minor intersections,
I don't think have the need to have their own special stripe to allow
opposing traffic to make a left turn at that intersection. Ok. Thank you
for your comments. We're trying to so that we can get on to as many people
as possible. I appreciate it. Ok, you're done. Great. I'd like to now call
upon a couple of people to address some of the points you brought up. I
won't touch on the major ones. I think you made some very good points on
left turn arrows and on the four lanes for 40th street because I think
those stand alone as comments. I'd like Sharon Dan, however, to talk about
your buses backing people up in the intersection. Sharon. Could you
address that? And then we'll, we'll get to the striping question.
This is Sharon Dan, who is the acting? Um What should we call you? Uh
public transit administrator. There you go. I'm happy to be here tonight.
I would like to explain one of the things that's being done to help
improve the traffic operations as we impact on it. The city is
aggressively going into a construction project that many of you might have
been recognizing on central and in a couple of other locations around town
, these are called bus bays and most of them are being constructed in such
a manner that at least one articulated bus and one other standard bus have
room to park in them. The reason we're building those is just for the
reason that you indicated it's to help improve the traffic flow and to
create a safer situation for our passengers to load. Um It will take quite
a number of years to retrofit, so to speak the city. Um And in this
particular district that has a lot of its major streets already completed
, it probably will take a little longer here too. But what we're doing is
after we build those bus bays, we are scheduling the buses so that their
layover points or that their time points are using those bus bays and I
think you'll find a noticeable improvement if you've looked at Central and
mcdowell, I'm sure you've noticed it there where we built two just
recently. Thank you. Thank you, Sharon. Um, let's see. Should we go? So,
who, who do you want for the striping question?
Jim Sparks? Well, we can kill two birds with one stone as it were. Jim,
why don't you tie up left turn arrows as well?
Jim, assistant traffic engineer, excuse me, Jim sparks. The first question
had to do with left turn arrows and particularly what hours of the day
they run. Phoenix has 138 left turn arrows in the city and we do, we have
in the past been installing them at locations where they can support the
peak hour, peak direction traffic. That's why the hour restriction, they,
they have advantages and disadvantages. The disadvantages are our ability
to synchronize signals and we can get fewer cars per hour through the
signals with arrows. The advantages obviously are more convenience for
left turners and there should be a safety convenience also. And the mayor
and council have addressed that subject early on in this term
and have requested a substantial increase in the number of arrows we put
in in Phoenix for next year. In addition to that district six is a
recipient of the major part of an experiment on left turn arrows that
we're going to do before the end of this fiscal year.
You are well familiar with the intersection of 44th Street and Camelback,
which has arrows in all four directions. And for the bulk of the day,
that's unusual and we're going to do the same thing. A mile to the south
at 44th Street in Indian School and a mile of the south of that at Thomas.
The reason for that is those are two chronic locations where we have
through history, received a lot of requests for left turn arrows and have
held tight saying, yep, they'd be more convenient for left turners. But
the disadvantage of losing signal synchronization is too big.
Our streets are loaded and district six has more travel on major streets
than any other district in the city of Phoenix. And it is tough to find a
gap in left turn traffic. So maybe the convenience for left turn arrows is
more than worth the inconvenience it imposes on the others. The mayor and
council have told us it is and we're going forward with a much increased
program on left turn arrows. The second question had to do with striping
in particular two way left turn channels is what, what's that called? It's
the double yellow lines on one side of the middle lane and double yellow
on the other side. Uh One of them is dotted and that means you can cross
it and get in it. It's a beautiful thing. We love them and I'd like them
on every street in town. The only place I don't like them is when they're
going to interfere with intersection operation of a traffic signal or
where we're going to put a signal and don't want to have to come back and
change the striping. So the locations you see the one way pockets, which
has the arrow in it and the white barrier line for only one direction to
use are those locations that are either signalized or going to be or our
street maintenance department has not gotten around yet to covering them
up because as they cover them up, we're doing just exactly what you want.
Mr Bullock, we're coming back and striping the two way left turn channel.
Thank you, Jim.
Uh Mr E S mcsweeney back here there. He is
right daughter. I have several uh items that concern me. Am I allowed to
speak on all of them or should I restrict myself to one or two? The
microphone's yours, Mac. But keep it as short as you can. Thank you. Well
, one of the smaller ones is this matter that the young man brought up
about uh holes in the street. Now, I believe I can understand.
Excuse me, I believe I can understand why it's necessary to puncture the
street for sewer and water connection, but I can't understand why they
can't be properly repaired. Oh,
and your own water and sewer departments are the worst offenders. Although
some contractors are very bad and in that connection. I have observed
several times where the gas company punctured the street apparently for an
inspection hole. And two or three weeks later, the city comes around at
considerable expense and repairs the hole. Why can't the gas company do it
?
Well, the real thing that upsets me tonight is this matter of the city,
excuse me, having determined apparently already to buy the Fee Union High
School under the guise of calling it a cultural center. Whereas actually
the big shots around here want to build a football stadium there.
Now, I'm opposed to that 100%. If they want a football stadium, let the
football people pay for it.
But further than that, you're gonna spend about $14 million to buy it plus
interest on the bonds, which will run it up around 30 million plus a few
million to renovate it and rebuild it. And all this time you have a
cultural center here in your library system which is short handed and
short hours. Now, why can't we put the library system on the eastern uh,
schedule and, and get some help in there and make that our system? That'd
be my thought.
Yes.
Now, um, one minor matter I saw that the mayor has a staff and the
Mexicans are objecting because he doesn't have a Mexican on the staff. I'd
like to know why he has a staff at all.
Why do we have Mister Andrews and the city staff for.
Why does the mayor have another staff? Uh, the city uh managed to live
through Uncle Mil and Mrs H. But it looks to me like Mayor Goddard's, uh
gonna put an end to that record.
No,
I, I've talked to you about this before Mr Coy on when we were discussing
the budget last year. But the water system pays for itself. The sewer pays
for itself. The trash collection pays for itself, But the bus system takes
around $10 million a year out of our pockets in tax money plus federal
subsidy. You're talking about spending $5 million for a open air, uh, walk
through market downtown, which to me is just plumb ridiculous. You, you
spend around $100 million to enlarge the civic plaza. I read in the
newspaper that one of your experts here says it just wasted money unless
you build another hotel. So you're going to spend $20 million to help some
guy build a hotel. The whole thing is ridiculous.
You wanna let those people build, build their own hotels, build their own
football stadiums. And
I, I think your financial uh policies in general need uh, a little
overview. Now, one of the, I probably is pretty obvious, I'm not much on
this district system and I'm upset here tonight. The chief of police keeps
talking about district six. The uh planning man. Talk about district six,
the street man. District six. All right. Now I'm Sure, you've been over
district seven. District seven this and District four this, you're, you're
creating the very thing that we were concerned about one district to
another and you've provided on the chairs here at the front of the room.
Uh, some charts here showing how many goodies. District Six gets. Well.
All right. Then that leaves, uh, uh, complaining room for District three
to say, well, we didn't get treated that well and, and I think it's a very
bad deal that you're, uh, you're in effect, uh, having districts working
against each other. Thank you for the 10. Ok, Max. Thank you very much
if I could. The mayor said he wanted to talk about Phoenix Union and
that's fine. I think he ought to also talk about his staff. I think
that's only fair. I think I will respond to Mac. He's an old friend, by
the way on utility repairs. Mac, the city and the council had a big
confrontation about a year ago and we were just as upset as the citizens
were and we found out that at first the city said that it really wasn't
the city that was doing the bad cuts for the utilities. It was the Arizona
Public Service Salt River Project Gas Company and whatnot. And it turned
out that it's about a 50 50 proposition. And I think you will find that
the utility cuts in the last few months are a lot better and are being
supervised and monitored a little better, a lot better than they were some
years ago. That doesn't excuse for a bad job. But I think we've got a
handle on it on the bus system. Subsidy. Mac, I think we're in agreement
in a sense that we would like to have a bus system that supported itself.
But I think the facts of the matter are that every city in the country
that has a city transportation system has to find some way of subsidizing
it in order to make it any kind of a system at all. And I will say that on
the basis of the city of Phoenix, compared with any other major city,
anywhere near our size, we spend far less on our bus system. And I think,
I think that the majority of the people in this community that I've talked
to would like to see our bus system improve. I don't know if that's a fact
of this audience or not as far as the district system. Mac. The only
suggestion I would have is that the people voted on it in December of 1982.
It is a fact. The issues that you bring up, I believe are valid ones. We
sometimes do have problems of parochial thinking. But I think overall this
council thinks first of the entire city before they think of their
district. Now, we probably ought to get a little further into utility
repair. And we might ask Ron Jensen in a moment. But first, I think the
mayor would like to address the stadium issue. Mayor,
I need to talk to you after the forum about your friends.
A couple of things here that I think have gotten somewhat clouded during
the debate on the Phoenix Union campus. This as you know, is formerly the
principal high school in Phoenix, which now the Phoenix Union school
district has decided that it has to sell because of various serious fiscal
problems. This came on the market first about two years ago, a number of
private developers talked about developing it and finally came up with
some proposals, all of which involved destroying all of the historic
buildings that are on that site and taking it completely out of public
ownership. We have submitted to the voters in the new bond issue and the
council just made this decision this week, a proposal which stands alone,
it's for you to decide pro or con on to take about $13 million to purchase
that real estate. It's about 26 acres. There is nothing in that proposal
that calls for a dome stadium. There is no money which has been approved
to build a dome stadium by the city of Phoenix. And I think that's real
important because in the debate about this property that tends to be the
overriding consideration. So whether you like it or you don't, and I
suspect I know where you're coming from. Mr mcsweeney. But nonetheless,
that is a question that's still up in the air and there's a study group
which is currently coming back with a recommendation they're studying, I
think six different sites. Phoenix Union is one of them and they are going
to come back with a recommendation as to which one is preferable from a
traffic point of view, from an economic point of view, from a general
community impact point of view so that the jury is out on that. But
assuming that they come back and overwhelmingly endorse Phoenix Union,
that does not end the deal. We're committed as a council not to make any
steps forward in that area until we've gone back to the process of
consulting with people doing the public hearing route. And perhaps, and
I'm sure before doing any kind of public expenditure, we would undoubtedly
go to an advisory vote, but that's a long way down the road. What is
happening right now is that the city has an opportunity with this piece of
property to keep it in public ownership. And I think that's terribly
important. There are some potential galleries there, there are some
potential libraries, there's a wonderful auditorium, one of the best in
this city and a number of other properties which I think could be a
tremendous building block for all of the city of Phoenix. I'm very
enthusiastic about it. I think it's an option that if we miss we'll never
have again for this city. So that's some completely unbiased thoughts on
Phoenix Union. I would like to say another thing on behalf of buses
because very often you talk about the failure of fair box revenues to
cover the cost of buses. And I think when you do that, you tend to forget
that when people take buses to work, they don't drive their cars, they
don't use parking spaces, they don't pollute the air, they don't crowd our
streets. Those are all benefits which we as citizens of this city get from
having the service that buses provide. So there's a tremendous advantage
that we get. And I think it's worthwhile if you do the total tally sheet.
I think buses give a total back to the community, not the other way around.
And finally, my staff, um we have done, I have a staff of three, by the
way, in addition to some people that helped me out from the city manager's
office, this is an important thing and it also relates to some staff
members which now the city councilman have for the first time because what
we heard loud and clear in the last election was that the people of
Phoenix wanted to be listened to on a more regular basis. And that's part
of what these forums are all about. And we are getting approximately 3 to
4 times the volume of calls and letters from constituents than previous
councils got. And to do that, it is quite simply necessary. I go just
about every hour that I can stay awake and they're still not possible to
get to all the calls and all the letters and I need some assistance in
that. I'm sorry if some groups don't have exactly the quota that they
wanted. But with three people, it's hard to balance every single group in
the city of Phoenix. Thank you. Oh,
one issue which we only touched upon that Mr mcsweeney mentioned, which I
think should be gone into a little deeper. Ron Jensen, our public works
director might discuss with us, not only repairs of utility cuts but also
the problem of new streets that suddenly have a torn up lane, which
happens usually a day or two after they finish it.
The problem of utility cuts in the streets is a real problem for us as
well as the residents that have to use the streets. We in the public works
department end up with the job of patching the street and rep patching the
street regardless of who did the original cut. And while you may think
that it's a surface problem, it is basically a sub surface problem. What
happens whether it be the water department or a utility company when they
cut a trench that would be 4 to 6 ft deep, they remove all of the material
and put a pipe back in and then they backfill that trench. And the key is
to back filling it properly to put it back in compact it in layers and
then bring it up to the proper grade and then put a surface material on it.
And quite often you will see right after a job, a kind of a hump over
that, that's a temporary patch, that traffic will then wear down. It will
move down into the patch and then we'll come back in and eventually put in
a permanent patch. However, the big problem is if the trench is not
properly compacted in the first place, the first rain will allow water to
soak in will soak into that material and it will sink. We come back and do
it over again. Now, what we've done a number of years ago is was mentioned
by Council Mick that there was a major program of really educating the
utility companies and the city departments to really do a proper job of
compaction the first time, if you do it right the first time, then we
won't have those problems of continuous maintenance. So they have improved
their act. They're doing a much better job. The engineering department
provides inspection on as many jobs as they can. You know, with a
development area that we have in Phoenix, there are contractors working
all over the city, so some slip by, but we will do the best job we can to
keep those patches as smooth as possible. Ron, the other question is part
of the same issue was why do we pave a new street and then tear it up just
shortly thereafter. Do you want to address that or do you want me to get
Jim to do that? I think Jim Atterbury. Let's call, let's call on Jim
Atterbury. Our city engineer, we've all seen that as a problem. A new
street and all of a sudden a new utility line goes right across all that
new striping and that new paving Jim. Yes, Councilman Cork mayor,
everywhere we've been, we've talked about these cuts and we know they're a
problem and a concern to the citizens. I would like to tell you though,
that there is a strong effort to try to reduce that on every major street
that we've done in the last eight or 10 years at streets like Camelback
Indian School. Thomas, we have written letters to every property owner.
We've taken time to research the property ownership. We've written to
them told them we're going to improve the street. We've asked them to put
in all the utilities they need ahead of the final paving course. So we're
doing that many years ago. We're still doing that obviously in a growing
city, a community like we have, there's going to be turnover of property,
there's going to be redevelopment of property and we're facing some of
that. We try very hard not to let any pavement cut occur within one year,
but sometimes that isn't possible recently on a Thomas Road. Job out east.
They cut it within a number of months. They had a gas leak. We had to fix
the gas leaks, those things happen. But we do try very hard to try to
minimize that. We've got a meeting with the water and sewer director.
There's been some improved equipment for his crews. We're getting some
trucks to haul gravel material. They've gone into a training film, TV,
training film for his crews to try to talk about the compaction that Ron
Jensen talked about and these are the things we're going to try to do to
improve it. And we want you to know that we're taking these kinds of
thoughts back to the Streets Advisory Committee because they've asked us
to, to bring this kind of information and try to improve it. We're working
on it. Thank you, Jim. Uh another card from Bet Drucker. Bet
you want to call the other card so you can be ready. Let's see, you got
another card.
The next, the next speaker will be Kenneth Wilder Wilder. Mr Mayor
councilor clerk. First of all, I should like to express my personal thanks
to see you both here tonight. This is one of your campaign promises,
campaign promises are always made and broken. I personally am very glad to
see this one. Kept
having been nice, Terry. I now have to take issue with one of your so
called experts. Mr Sparks. You spoke about 44th and camel back which is a
great concern to us who live there. And about the left turn signals and I
have gone over your hours of operation going eastbound at night. I can't
figure out why you turn off that left turn signal at six o'clock at night.
That is still peak hours of traffic. If you were there at 6 10 tonight,
you'd have seen 14 cars waiting to turn left. So I would also urge that we
can have hopefully in the future 24 hour left, turn signals at 44th and
camel back. My second comment about traffic is secondary streets. There
are a lot of us trying to use secondary streets to get to and from work to
alleviate the traffic to alleviate the waiting. What happens is going east
on Stanford in the morning when you get to 32nd, we are penalized by
waiting an extra 30 to 45 seconds for that green light to turn so that we
can get into 32nd going south. Conversely coming home at night using
Osborne and coming into 32nd, we are penalized again for about 30 to 45
seconds to turn left going into the north. It seems to me that maybe we're
in a catch 22 situation, but in order to help those of us who want to use
secondary streets to get home quicker and avoid the traffic that something
can be looked at better timing of those lights. Also, while we're on the
streets on the uh capital redevelopment here. It says something about work
being done on Camelback between 40th and 44 speed and the years 1983 and
84 that is the one stretch of camel back that has not been repaved in
quite a number of years. And I would like, and some of us who would like
to know when that work is planned, the last thing I would like to discuss
and really it isn't a discussion. It's a plea that the city council please
keep high rises out of our neighborhood.
There are many of us, many, many of us who have come to Phoenix to find a
better lifestyle. Many of us left high rise cities where we couldn't even
see stars at night. We don't want to look out of our windows and see 12
and 14 story buildings if you have to build buildings along camel back and
I understand that we have to have business growth. I would suggest they be
kept to two stories or less. So those of us who live within two or three
blocks of that major thoroughfare can continue to enjoy the good life in
Phoenix. Thank you. Thank you.
You mentioned the paving of 48 to 44th street and that's an issue that I
have raised to the council several times. Come back. Road at that stretch
is really quite bad and I have happy news that it will be paved.