Community

A Latina singer and a Japanese mother talk about how they maintain their cultural heritage through music. Then reporters discuss how the LGBT community is creating its own traditions downtown.

Food trucks parked throughout Roosevelt Row this past weekend for the second Taste of the Trucks hosted by the Roosevelt Row Community Development Corporation. The event grew from 35 trucks last year to 50 trucks over a two-day period this year.

The Hotel Palomar aims to help its guests better explore Phoenix with the launch of its bicycle-rental program and pocket square bike maps during a debut party Sunday, which will also include free bike tune-ups and a community ride.

To promote healthy and affordable eating, the Phoenix Green Team and other departments brought the nationwide Food Day celebration downtown Thursday.

Bioscience High School seniors took a walk down Seventh Street Wednesday to visit the site where they will start a new community garden. The lot is currently a stretch of dirt behind a rental home owned by Dr. Preethy Kaibara. Kaibara reached out to Bioscience last summer about reactivating the lot because the neighborhood could use an interactive community space, she said. The students will incorporate school and internship projects into their plans for the garden.

The 18th annual Mental Health Awareness Coalition candlelight vigil celebrated recovery and honored loved ones lost to mental illness Wednesday evening. On top of the vigil, the event also hosted live music performances and speakers advocating for improved mental healthcare.

Community initiatives led by the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at ASU have opened up engaging higher education options to senior citizens, and enrollment in courses offered by OLLI is expected to increase.

On Oct. 19-20, people of all ages gathered in Steele Indian School Park for the seventh Arab American Festival. By its third year the festival had gathered an average of 35,000 people and became one of the largest multi-cultural events in the country.

After almost a year, Circle K is continuing its push for development of a news store and gas station on the southeast corner of Seventh and Roosevelt streets and renewing its liquor license and use permit applications. Some community members claim the company has not effectively communicated with them, so they are hesitant to support the construction.

The Fifth Annual Grand Avenue Festival celebrated improvements the street has made, including the addition of on-street parking, bike lanes and planters, while looking forward to the potential it has to grow.