In February 2009, Phoenix’s light rail system was only a few months old. Civic Space Park was not yet open to the public, and Arizona State University’s newest and smallest campus had just grown to 11,500 students.
Sheriff Joe Arpaio marched hundreds of undocumented inmates down the streets of downtown Phoenix. On Feb. 5, a handful of downtown freshmen huddled in a Taylor Place dorm room and hit “publish,” launching the first-ever Downtown Devil article.
They recognized something was happening downtown, and they were right.
Ten years later, beginning with that very first post, this scrappy student-run publication turns double digits.
RELATED: Check out our full tenth anniversary special coverage
In the past decade, hundreds of faces have passed through, from one-time contributors to multi-year staff members. Many of us stumbled into a meeting and found a home, both in Downtown Devil and in the downtown Phoenix community.
We’ve covered the same streets — Seventh Street to Seventh Avenue, McDowell to the railroad tracks — since our start, providing deep hyperlocal coverage to our favorite and ever-expanding community.
We’ve continued to question and dig deeper, becoming part of the downtown Phoenix community fabric to tell unique, compelling stories across multimedia platforms. Many of us have gone on to call the dynamic community that makes up downtown Phoenix home.
We’ve scraped together daily coverage through countless blurry-eyed nights in coffee shops, apartments and borrowed classrooms.
We’ve given you coverage on topics like homelessness, light rail expansion, new developments, gallery openings and closings, and the ever-evolving downtown skyline. Some of our best pieces over the years, as chosen by the alumni, can be found here.
Downtown Devil has functioned as a teaching hospital to dozens of budding journalists each semester. They come here to try, fail and ultimately thrive, writing their first articles or taking their first photos or videos. This is the place many get to see their first byline.
Downtown Devil has also provided a place for us to tell the community’s unique stories — the stories you can’t find anywhere else.
For 10 years, our readers have also allowed us into their community, to cover their triumphs and their failures. You have trusted us to be the front page of downtown Phoenix, and we are grateful.
We hope to continue this tradition for decades to come, giving you the news that matters and training the next generation of tough, can-do journalists.
Here’s to hoping for 10 more.
Kara Carlson is Downtown Devil’s executive editor.
Contact her at
kara.carlson@asu.edu.
