Opinion

April 13, 2013, will be remembered for many reasons -- but mainly because it was the day a half-mile long dream came to life.

Over the course of the past two weeks, the Downtown Devil faced an unpleasant truth about operating an all-online news publication: Some men just want to watch the world burn. I like to think this hacking business is just the sad irony of life online.

I have been a Phoenix booster for three years now. But last week I moved to Portland, and this has left a lot of people scratching their heads and some even upset that I bailed on them. Here’s what happened.

Destruction is not new to Phoenix. This city has been torn down time and time again, but it has always come back. On Friday, a construction crew washed away Joseph “Sentrock” Perez’s mural on the west side of the Phoenix Public Market building.

Each semester, winds of change bring new students to the Downtown campus, and each year downtown Phoenix sees itself shift as new businesses, residents and opportunities take root. For the Downtown Devil, the beginning of the semester — and new calendar year — marks a change in leadership and a wealth of opportunity.

Phoenix is not perfect, and it's not for everyone, but for me it has become far more than simply a place to sleep and study. Phoenix is my home now, for better or worse, and I think you should consider it as well.

The existence of an urban campus at ASU provides the opportunity for a truly unprecedented level of experience-based learning. We are not, however, operating anywhere near optimal levels of interaction, and the tension threatens to disenchant community leaders and students.

Sorry Tempe, but I want ASU’s law school to come downtown. But I’m also hoping against all hope that the building will be given a foundation that can support more height than ASU plans to build, because I guarantee it won’t be built in wood-frame and its currently-proposed design delivers a measly 3.5 Floor Area Ratio.

On Saturday Nov. 3, downtown Phoenix received a breath of life, and it smelled like pie. The Chow Bella/Roosevelt Row Pie Social started out as an event about food and evolved into a social experience that surpassed anything I have been a part of in my year and a half in Phoenix.

The great urbanist Lewis Mumford once famously wrote, “Forget the damned motor car and build cities for lovers and friends!” Far too often in Phoenix, a city that grew up in the age of the car, we ignore Mr. Mumford’s advice. The recent news that Circle K is trying to develop a gigantic new 16-pump superstation at the southeast corner of Seventh and Roosevelt streets is the very sort of thing Lewis Mumford warned against.