Seventh Street to Seventh Avenue,
McDowell to the railroad tracks.
Those were some of the first words I ever heard at my first Downtown Devil meeting. I was new to downtown Phoenix, despite growing up in the city’s northernmost suburbs. I was new to college. I was new to journalism. The idea, the concept, the feel of these boundaries of downtown Phoenix amazed me.
My new home was a finite location with infinite possibilities. I felt like I could cup downtown in my hands, look down and admire it.
Seventh Street to Seventh Avenue,
McDowell to the railroad tracks.
Four years later, I’ve heard that phrase echoed an innumerable amount of times. Four years later, it still rings true. And four years later, it’s time for me to uncup my hands and let downtown go.
Obviously these boundaries aren’t law — Downtown Devil regularly reports on happenings (and eats) at Welcome Diner and covers events at the Changing Hands Bookstore location at The Newton in uptown. They’re flexible in practice. It’s the core that matters — the idea that we are here to journalistically serve one community, downtown Phoenix.
That ideal of hyperlocal coverage and service is half of Downtown Devil. The other half is the ideal of learning how to be a journalist in the only way one can — doing it.
Downtown Devil is run completely by students. Not all of our readers seem to know this. Sometimes it shows in our coverage that this publication is in the hands of people scarcely out of their teenage years. I’ve been in a number of hotheaded meetings and faced a lot of egos; I have been that hotheaded ego.
But I think far more often our coverage shows our youth in the best ways. I’ve worked with wildly inventive and fun people. A “Can I try this?” attitude is prevalent every day. We are all peers learning together and supporting each other.
I have never seen a better and a safer place to fail, and fail again, than Downtown Devil. I had never been so free to make mistakes, and to learn from them. I wrote my first article, captured my first journalistic photos, edited my first video, recorded my first podcast, mentored my first reporter, all for Downtown Devil.
I owe everything I know, all of my successes past, present and future, to this scrappy student publication. I’ve grown from a contributing reporter to a staff member to a long-term editor and managing board member. And I’ve seen it happen to easily a hundred other students.
Downtown Devil is not easy. It’s not always fun. It has very few, if any, short-term rewards, for one-time contributors and dedicated staff members alike. No one gets paid. We have no permanent office space. We communicate and work through a rubber band-and-gum patchwork of Google Docs and Facebook group chats. Hours are at the same time irregular and constant. There are days as an editor where you feel the opposite of gratitude from your readers and your reporters alike.
But we’re still here. Those of us at Downtown Devil who have stuck it out have done so for essentially two reasons. One, a passion for the community of downtown Phoenix. Two, a passion for the community of Downtown Devil. To work for Downtown Devil is to believe downtown deserves regular coverage, and to become a member of a family that works around-the-clock hours — together.
Seventh Street to Seventh Avenue,
McDowell to the railroad tracks.
Downtown Devil turned 7 this February. I’ve been around for more than half of its very young existence. In those four years, it has been sewn into my college experience, into my life. I graduate next week. This is our last week of coverage, my last week of coverage.
It’s hard to say goodbye.
It is so hard to say goodbye.
Parting with Downtown Devil also means parting with college, friends, downtown Phoenix, the life I’ve known. A part of me wants nothing to change.
But as I become a reader, not a reporter or editor, of Downtown Devil, as I move on, most of me wants everything to change. I want my replacements to surpass me in every way. I want to see the site and its team grow. I want to see our coverage expand and deepen. Maybe, in some far-off future, our hardworking, around-the-clock staff will get paid. Maybe the name will change as Downtown Devil continues to distance itself from ASU. Who knows!? I want to see a place that was once my home rendered unrecognizable one day.
There are a few things I don’t want to change, however. I want students to continue to find that safe place to fail. I want Downtown Devil to continue to serve the downtown Phoenix community in the way no other local publication does, even as what we know as downtown and what we know as its community changes everyday. And I want everyone who walks into their first Downtown Devil meeting to leave with that same sense of curiosity and energy and passion for downtown Phoenix and Downtown Devil cupped in their hands that I did.
From Seventh Street to Seventh Avenue, McDowell to the railroad tracks.
Alex Scoville is Downtown Devil’s Arts and Entertainment Editor. Contact her at ascoville@asu.edu.
